Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Favorite Things: Wonderful Wildflowers

I decided to showcase some of my favorite wildflowers this week. I picked these while on my way back to the city from my cottage this past weekend. Since these flowers are so delicate, I love to display them in antique medicine bottles that I have, believe it or not, these photos are close to actual size!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Great Garbage!





I found these pallets in the garbage one day while I was walking around one of my favorite areas of Montreal. Luckily I had driven that day so I was able to throw them in the back of my car. I love the look of weathered wood and I couldn't wait to build something out of them!

Disassembling these pallets proved challenging since they were full of rusty nails but once I got them apart I was able to get started.  I cut down one of the longer pieces of wood to 36". By adding some antiqued black hooks it now makes a stylish coat rack!
 
I still have wood leftover so stay tuned for more projects!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Warm Welcome

I bought this chair at a thrift store and thought it would be perfect as an entry chair, a great place to sit and put on your shoes. Even though the chair was stained, it was made of a different qualities of wood, I wanted to give it an even coat of paint.

I chose to go with a simple color scheme of dark gray with soft beige upholstery. Before I replaced the fabric, I added more cushioning. People often have a welcome sign in their entry way, I wanted this chair to serve this purpose as well. I printed out and transferred the word "Welcome" onto the chair back by rubbing chalk on the back of the printout and then painting on the letters. Now this chair is much less dingy and more inviting.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Bland to Beautiful Bathroom

I was looking forward to completing this project so that I could write a before & after blog post about it.

This bathroom was stuck in the 80s and needed to be brought into the 21st century.

My client wanted to have a peaceful and zen bathroom with natural elements. She knew she didn't want to have a store-bought look but instead something unique. Either way she wanted to finally have a bathroom she could enjoy.

While shopping at Decor Maria I found something perfect for her bathroom that we could use as a vanity. It was originally intended as a low coffee table but I thought it would be perfect mounted on the wall with a glass sink on it.

Aside from a dated style, this bathroom was also lacking storage. I decided to use the space above the toilet and build a cabinet to match the rosewood vanity. I built it out of pine and stained it to match by using different colored stains.

The shower tiles were changed for something with a striped bamboo feeling and the side walls have a pebble tile insert . For the floor tiles we found something that had a clay earthy feeling.

Before the bathroom had a standard vanity, sink, medicine cabinet and lighting.

The lighting used to be above the mirror but this time I wanted to bring it to eye level to be more flattering on the face.

We re-purposed this mirror from another room in the home, it was pretty plain but had a great shape. I collaged the frame and now it works well with the other wood elements we have chosen.


Now this bathroom has a unique and custom look that will be enjoyed for years to come.