ADDING ART TO THE DEN - PART ONE

I'm finally returning to Tech Guy's den, yay!  I seem to like to procrastinate when it comes to this space.  We did tackle the mound of paperwork, but I think because it was such a big job that the wind in my sails for decorating died down for some time.  I'm trying to get back to it and it seems appropriate to try and finish Tech Guy's space for Father's Day.

  So far I have only shared with you the sofa and napkin pillows from this room.  Today you get to see another wall of the den.  This is what it has looked like for about 1 1/2 years.    

The teak credenza was a yard sale find.  I think it put us back around $10 or so.  Not too bad!  The only problem it had was that it was missing the legs.  We ended up buying some metal legs from Ikea and they worked perfectly.  The lounger is also from Ikea.  It is the Karlstad swivel chair.  It looks like they have replaced it with a leather version called the Arvika.  The lonely piece of art is the alpha, bravo, charlie... phonetic code.  It's about time to add some more art.  Don't you think?  Yes? Well, it just so happens that, today, I have the first part of the art and styling for this part of the den to share with you. :)

On the wall, I added a small collection of art.  There is a vintage print of Toronto's City Hall.  Tech Guy and I picked this up at a yard sale last weekend and thought it was appropriate for our Finnish-Canadian home since the city hall was designed by a Finnish architect.  Tech Guy also really wanted to display some of Little Pilot's creations and we decided to put up a couple of frames for his masterpieces.           In the spirit of this being a sort of Father's Day gift for Tech Guy, I even hung the pictures all by my lonesome using my meat mallet since I couldn't find a hammer in Tech Guy's tool pouch.  It's not the first time I have used the meat mallet as a hammer though. :)

I also made an attempt at styling the shelves.  I don't really follow any rules when I style.  What I do try to do is select items that I find interesting or that have some meaning to me.  I then try to edit as much as possible to make sure I end up with something relatively clean and simple.  For these shelves, I continued with the vintage touches and the nod toward our kiddos.  Little Pilot's vintage Tonka truck is on display amongst murano glass, an Ittala Maribowl/Mariskooli and a couple of vintage cameras that I could convince my dad to let me keep on display.  I love the box camera since it belonged to my grandmother.

I still have plans to add a little more to the display above the credenza and am hoping to share that soon.       There's also a post in the works that will show you what's hiding behind the doors of the credenza that includes another DIY project and then there's two more walls to show you, and, and, and.... 

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MINT & GOLD ART

Last week I totally forgot to let you know that I was guest posting at It's Overflowing.  I must have been too excited to share my Moomin High Chair makeover. :)  Anyway here is the project I shared there:

I seem to like using objects in ways that they weren't necessarily intended to be used (like my placemat clutch and napkin pillows).  So when I found a nice square-shaped bowl that was a little beat up I knew I could paint it.  I chose to go with a light shade of mint (my current colour crush) with some gold confetti for a little bling.  I love how leaving the wood edges exposed gives it some character.

To paint my bowl, I taped off the edges using painter's tape (I had to overlap small pieces of tape around the rounded corners).  I then applied two coats of both primer and latex paint in a shade of mint.  Little Pilot was very excited to help me paint.  It wasn't really that cold, but I tend to over-bundle a little. :)

Once the mint base colour was all dry, I was ready to add my gold confetti dots.  I used Martha Stewart craft paint in gold and the eraser end of a pencil.  I simply dabbed my eraser in the gold paint and dotted the bowl in a random pattern.  I tried overlapping some dots and decreasing the amount of dots as I went out from the corner to get a scattered look.

In the end I had some unexpected art in my favourite mint and gold combination.  Basically once I finished painting the bowl I propped it up against the wall = art. :) 

This art can also be used for it's original purpose as a bowl.  I would just recommend sealing your paint job first with a poly or acrylic sealer.  You could also get a completely different look by painting your bowl a different colour or pattern (e.g., chevron, polka dots, a monogram, etc.).  The possibilities are endless.

So that's my latest art project.

P.S.  I have been working on a few outdoor projects that need a little more finishing before I can share them here today, but hopefully I can get them done and posted soon!

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PUTTING THE MODERN BACK IN OUR MID CENTURY RANCH: ENTRY

As the weather has really started to warm up, I find my attention shifting to the outdoors again.  Maybe it's because I spend so much time out there with Little Pilot and Co-pilot.  Today, I want to share with you some of the updates we have done to the front of our house since we moved in and some ideas I have for modernizing our front entry.
Our front door and exterior has been a slowly improving over the last couple of summers.  We've made some progress, but there's still lots to do!  Here's the earliest before photo of our house I could find.  

We had already taken down the shutters and the sunrise mullions off the garage windows, but it still has the old roof, walkway, blue door and broken white screen door (it's open so it's hard to see).

During our first summer here we replaced the roof and stripped our front door of 5 coats of paint:  blue then red then mint (kind of fun to find mint under all the layers!) then yellow then white.  We then stained the door in a dark walnut colour.  This stripping and staining process took several days and Tech Guy kept having to take the door off the hinges and then put it back at night - a pretty big pain!  The neighbours were probably wondering why our front door was a bubbling, multi-coloured mess. :)

Here's a picture of the front door with the walnut stain and a new screen door.  Still has the old walkway though and the very traditional lantern and house numbers.  When it's time to replace the windows I'd love to go with ones with darker frames and ditch the mullions.

We did replace the walkway last year and removed the spruce and yew bushes that were oddly placed by the front door.  Here's a peak at the new walkway stairs (or just an excuse to put a picture of Little Pilot in this post).

So now that you're up to date with all of our exterior improvements thus far, here's what's going on now:  

The landscaping is on hold at the moment as we will be replacing the weeping tile and waterproofing in  the next month or so, but I really should be planning that too.  The front door will not be affected by our weeping tile work so I am trying to spruce it up a bit and make it a little more modern like the rest of our decor.  I'm thinking of something pretty minimal such as these inspiration photos that I've pinned.

Love this clean entry with a little pop of colour.

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This one is also fun and I love the mailbox and numbers on it.

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Here's another option for numbers on a wood wall.

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To organize my ideas a little better I made a mood board that reflects the items we already have and some that I'm thinking of getting:

1.  This is approximately the colour of our front door and it is pretty traditional, but I'm hoping it will still look okay to mix it up with some more modern elements

2.  This is the grip set we have right now.  It was from Lowe's and has worked pretty well so far.

3.  Tech Guy really loves this style of light (from here).

4.  I have wanted this mailbox for about 2 years now.  It's made in Finland, but they only sell the black and stainless option here in Canada.  I really would like a colourful one.  I may have to order it from the States-side.

5.  This knocker matches our grip set.  I haven't decided if I will add one to our door or not, but I like that this one is pretty clean and simple.

6.  I'd love to have a colourful door mat and have been loving this DIY wood mat for awhile now.

7.  New planters would be nice.  These ones are from Ikea.  I'm thinking of putting a larger and smaller one together.

8.  This arrangement is similar to what I like to do with my flowers.  Something tall (Canna Lilly), bright small flowers (Lantana) and something that drapes down (love Creeping Jenny with the bright green leaves).

9.  Modern house numbers.  These are an affordable option.  *image from here

Lots of brushed nickel/stainless steel!  I'm hoping to add interest with a bit of colour.  Now I just have track down a mailbox!

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THE MOOMINS EAT - WHY WON'T YOU?

Co-pilot started solids shortly after 6 months (sort of) and when I pulled out Little Pilot's old high chair I knew it needed a makeover.  This mahogany stained Svan high chair stuck out like a sore thumb in our new light and bright dining room.

The high chair was a yard sale find that I got even before I had any kids.  I work with children in my day job and this chair was perfect for allowing little ones to sit at an adult-sized table with excellent support.  The Svan high chair is similar to the Stokke in that  it is one of those that converts all the way into an adult-sized chair (the foot rest becomes the seat).  I had thought about just buying the Stokke in a white colour and selling this one, but I really liked the option of having a tray (the Stokke doesn't have one).  So a makeover this little high chair got.

I have been getting a lot of Moomin/Muumi things for Co-pilot for some reason.  He has a Moomin sleep sack and even a Moomin mobile.  So, quite naturally, I added some Moomins to his high chair.  (P.S. can you spot Little Pilot in the photo below?)

The tray got a Moomintroll/Muumipeikko and Little My/Pikku Myy.

The footrest/seat got the Moomin Family:  Moomintroll/Muumipeikko, Snorkmaiden/Niiskuneiti, Moominmamma/Muumimamma and Moominpappa/Muumipappa.

To paint my high chair I sanded, primed (zinsser), applied three coats of Benjamin Moore Simply White,  1 coat acrylic sealer, 2 coats poly in gloss and 2 coats poly in satin.  I made my Moomin Drawings using a sharpie.  I printed off some images of Moomins and used carbon paper to transfer them onto the tray and foot rest pieces.  I then went over the carbon transfer with a black sharpie.  Super Easy!  I think painting the chair white was the most tedious since there were so many little pieces.

The acrylic sealer was a really important step as you can see below in my test spots: 

On the left I put poly straight over the sharpie heart and on the right I sprayed it first with an acrylic sealer (available at the craft store).  I am so thankful that I did the test first or otherwise my Moomin drawings would have ran all over the place!  Phew!  Disaster averted. :)  

Here are a couple of photos of the high chair in action.  Co-pilot is nearly 7 1/2 months and is still refusing solids.  At best, you can sneak a couple tiny bites into his mouth, but lately the thumb in the mouth has become his food avoidance strategy.  Look at those eyes - the only time when he's not happy.   It breaks my heart a little that he dislikes it so much. :(  At least he loves breast milk!  Hopefully we'll start succeeding with the solids soon.

Here's a picture of it inside. :)

Here's my favourite photo from our front yard high chair shoot.  Doesn't everyone take pictures of their high chair with the street in the background? :)  Little Pilot loves to play hide and seek in the front yard with all the big trees to hide behind.  Here he decided to hide behind the high chair.  I think Co-pilot found him. :)

That's Co-pilot's high chair!  Have you been painting anything lately or tried to get your baby gear to match your space better?  

P.S. this isn't my first high chair makeover - you can read about our Phil & Ted's Me Too here.

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I GOT MAIL

I got some mail today.  It was the latest issue of Cottages & Bungalows magazine and guess who's mini mudroom was featured?! 

Yep, my back door closet got featured in a magazine!  Tech Guy keeps making fun of me that it's our closet that gets to be in a magazine, but it's exciting nonetheless.  I'm not sure if the magazine is on the newsstands yet - it's the July/August issue.  I'll have to check our local bookstore soon.  I entered the space in a contest and the prize was the magazine feature (you can check out the contest and other winners here).   I also got another package a little less exciting from the good old GAP.  I ordered these pink jeans and Little Pilot got this airplane shirt which he wanted to wear right away.  He even let me take a few pictures of him wearing it. :)  I'm a little bit regretting not buying the same one for Co-pilot too.  You can see a glimpse of the pink jeans in the photo above - love them!  

So, all in all, today was a pretty exciting day!

DINING ROOM BEFORE & AFTER

I'm finally getting around to writing this post.  I know I had promised this some time ago and you can see from the Easter decorations in the picture above that I already took the photos before Easter.  Yikes!  Time is just flying by and I seem to always be playing catch-up!  I guess that's life with two little ones. :)  

You've already seen this room in a couple of posts (invisible speakers & floating sideboard), but I haven't shared the before and afters which, I think, are always fun to see.  I am also going to try and include a list of all the sources for the room since I seem to get a lot of comments/questions about where I got certain pieces.  So without further ado, here is what the dining room looked like when we first viewed the house (the furniture/things in the room belonged to the tenants).

So much better and fun to see!  No?  But wait, I have one more photo to show you.  It lets you see the only renovation we did to this space.  The previous layout had just a small single door opening to the dining room.  We decided to open it up.  I chose to leave some of the wall in place vs. taking out the whole wall because I wanted it to mimic the opening between the living room and dining room to create cohesion and a sense that the opening had always been there.  The remaining small amount of wall perfectly covers the kitchen cupboards and the bulkhead is the same size as the one between the dining room and living room.  Here is the view of our dining room from the kitchen before and after.  Sorry that the angles aren't quite the same (I had no idea that I would be blogging back then).  For the before photo, you can imagine a set of those stripy wood cupboards on the other side of the single door opening.

Opening up that wall was a relatively small reno, but it made a huge difference.  Don't mind the fridge that isn't properly built-in and opens the wrong way in our kitchen.  It's the one that came with our house and we're waiting to upgrade it to a larger, counter depth one.  I still haven't decided which one I want after nearly 2 years!  I'm probably the queen of indecision.  Do you want to know a secret?  I really liked the vintage feel of the original 1960s cupboards when we first bought the house, but they were really beat-up and  so built-in that there was no way to reuse them.

Now that you've seen the before and afters, here are some more of the details with all the sources:

Light Fixture:  George Nelson Bubble Lamp

Curtains:  Sewn by me out of Marimekko Lumimarja fabric in Sateen weight

Murano glass vases:  On loan from my sister (originally belonged to my grandmother's cousin)

Vase:  Alvar Aalto - by Iittala

Bowl:  Ultima Thule - by Iittala

2 year-old:  Little Pilot from Nalle's House :)

Table:  Eero Saarinen Tulip Table by Knoll - with light oak top - via Kijiji- originally purchased from Hollace Cluny

Fabric Chairs:  Eero Saarinen Executive Chairs by Knoll - via Kijiji - originally purchased from Hollace Cluny.  Fabric is dristi sky (a light blue grey)

White Chairs:  Knockoff Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chairs purchased at Chair Source

Sideboard:  DIY project from Ikea kitchen cabinets you can see all the details here

Painting:  "Wings Over Manhatten" available here

Invisible Speakers: (in the wall above the sideboard):  Nakymatone Echt

So that's it for my dining room.  Thanks for taking the before and after tour.  Maybe I will work on getting a tour of our kitchen redo next.  

P.S. You can see more of our dining room here, here and here.

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7 MONTHS

Co-pilot is 7 months already and he has changed so much this month.  He cut his first tooth, started sitting for longer periods, rolled over both ways (gets across the room by rolling now), started babbling (da-da, ma-ma, na-na, ga-ga, ya-ya) and tried his first foods.  Co-pilot doesn't like eating yet (breastmilk must be so much tastier than baby purees and rice cereal!).  He has also started to enjoy jumping in the excer-saucer.  He continues to have the sweetest personality and rarely cries/fusses and sleeps well.  He has, however, learned to communicate what he wants which most of the time ends up being me.  I don't mind at all, but sometimes Mommy does need to shower. :)  

This month I forgo a backdrop except for the monthly onesie photo for which I used one of the boys' curtain panels (you can see the room here).  We are happy to live in a neighbourhood with lots of mature trees and our neighbour's yard is pretty much a forest!  Here are Co-pilot's 7 month photos for you to enjoy:

To see more of Co-pilot's monthly photos click here.