William Ashley Warehouse Sale and more Wainscoting plans!

This past weekend was spent checking out sales around Toronto. First we headed to 1212 Decor's liquidation sale, lured by the promises of 50% off furniture and art, and 40% off accessories. We had fun browsing, but left empty handed as 50% off a chair that was $4000 to begin with is certainly no bargain to us!

Photo from 1212decor.com

On Sunday we headed to William Ashley's warehouse sale. This was my first time going but it's an annual event that draws quite the crowd. We we arrived we saw they had portable washrooms and a tented line-up which surprised me (and turned me off). We waited about half an hour to get in, and I was second guessing our decision the entire time. However the controlled entry actually made browsing inside tolerable. It was slammed but people weren't grabby or pushy and there were literally staff members everywhere to help.

We went because we've been looking for a formal flatware set for a while now, and totally scored! We bought this 60 piece (12 place settings) stainless steel for just under $300, down from around $800.

I also found this awesome deer head bowl for $20.

 Some Christmassy tea towels (don't remember how much, maybe $3.99?)

And my birthday present, a 6.75 Le Creuset oval french oven. It was $219, down from $375!!

They also had tons of Christmas decorations, but by the time we got there we were both a little exhausted. Good times though!

We also began installation of (faux) wainscoting in our kitchen/family room this weekend. We love how it looks in our dining room so much that our plan is to slowly add moldings to the rest of the house over the next few years.

It will help to break up and add character to the somewhat stark walls we have in our kitchen.

Here is our little office area/computer station (which doesn't get used because that is not a proper desk and it's uncomfortable to sit at):

And we're also installing the moldings over here, next to our kitchen table. 

One day I'll show pictures of my whole kitchen on here, but I can't do that until I can successfully clear the piles of dirty dishes and stacks of mail off the surfaces for once in my life. 

Lightened up Living Room [reveal]

This was what our living room looked like right after we moved in, without changing the paint colour, and using everything we had brought from our old house.

The paint colour. It was in the beige/brown family. I don't know what colour it was. I lovingly referred to it as 'poop water'. (did you just throw up in your mouth a little? I can be a bit crass.)

I wanted it lightened up.

And here's what it looks like now, with new art, new bar cart/side table and most importantly, a fresh coat of paint!

The colour is Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray. 

I think this photo is the most accurate representation of the true colour:

Side note/dilemma: This side of the room screams for window treatments to warm it up, but given the completely odd shape of our bay window, I can't even imagine how I would do that. Plus, it's the only source of light from the front of the house, and I'm scared to take any sunlight away. (Currently the california shutters do a serviceable job of letting light in and maintaining privacy).

Oh and I also added this bowl - found at Ikea! Amazing!

Little reading area.

And a sneak peak into our freshly wallpapered dining room. The dining room is a bit cave like, with no natural light, and as soon as I figure out how to photograph it without it looking like a still from a horror movie, I will.

It's better now, right? Obviously paint colour can change the whole vibe of a room, and it's definitely more 'us' now.

ReStore Find: Occasional chair (before)

On the heels of my fun bracelet stand find at Goodwill, I was inspired to keep thrift store treasure hunting. Our house is still half empty, and we're not really wanting to make huge expenditures at the moment, so we're leaving it like that. It is just the three of us after all.

There is no harm in collecting some used pieces for cheap though! I found this chair at my local ReStore for $25. That actually might be kind of expensive for this chair, I really have no idea. I also really don't care since I think Habitat is a pretty great charity and if my $25 helps pay for part of a house it's all good. Karma, baby.

I just saw great legs, a pretty back and a fairly straightforward re-upholstery job for a complete beginner like me.

Check out what the previous owners chose for the upholstery - I believe that is florescent zig-zag duct tape folks. NICE. Do not adjust your screen.

Won't you take me to...Funky Town???

I've ordered this fabric from Tonic Living:

I'm also planning to paint the chair white.

I think I'd like this chair to live in our guest room, or perhaps in our master bedroom in my future makeup/vanity table area. We'll see!

Goodwill find: Bracelet stand! [Before and After]

I haven't posted in a while. I really want to photograph and post about our newly painted and wallpapered living/dining rooms (bye bye poop walls!) however I haven't been able to coordinate photographing and sunny conditions. It's been gloomy.

In the meantime, I wanted to share this fun small victory. I was dropping off some old clothing to our local Goodwill the other day, and decided to pop in. I don't know why as I never, ever find anything good. But I spotted this hand towel stand immediately:

It's the perfect jewellery stand/bracelet holder thingy! For $2!

I've seen other bloggers turn hand towel stands into bracelet stands before (can't remember where off the top of my head) so this is by no means innovative. But I do need somewhere put my bracelets! My dresser top is a hot mess! The bird cage I'm currently using to house my necklaces and bracelets is actually the worst thing ever. It has so many jagged edges in the design that everything gets tangled up in.

This little guy has a marble base (sweet!), however it's covered with a giant rust stain (boooo!).

I tried a baking soda poultice...lemon juice and baking soda...the stain wasn't budging.

So out came the spray paint! Rustoleum in Gloss White for the base, and a coat of Design Master Modern Metals in Champagne Silver for the top just to brighten things up.

And voila! A place to rest my bracelets. When they're not having a party on my arm.

Paint and Wallpaper choices

It only took almost a year - but after much humming and hawing we've finally pulled the trigger on a wallpaper for the dining room and a wall colour for the living room, and upstairs/downstairs hallways. The final kick in the pants was when we decided to host Thanksgiving this year. It's a mere three weeks away (Canadian Thanksgiving is October 8th this year), and I couldn't stomach the thought of having my entire family gather together in a room that has flood-water coloured walls.

Seriously - it's the colour of flood water. Muddy, murky poop water. Or something.

Instead, they will be surrounded by the amazingness of this:

It's by Thibaut, called Rothbury Trellis and it's in the metallic on slate gray colour. We ordered it through Primetime Paint and Paper in Toronto. It's called slate gray, but the gray definitely has some blue to it. And the metallic does have a sheen to it, but it's not an overwhelming sheen. It's very pretty! I can't wait to see it up. I'm not looking forward to putting it up however.

And then, using the impending holiday as impetus for painting the living room (which is right next to the dining room and can't very well be left the colour of poop water, can it) and all the hallways, we've decided on Benjamin Moore Stonington gray.

 

Stonington Gray HC-170

 Once the hallways are painted, I can finally start to decorate them. All the walls are completely as bare as the day we moved in (except for a few family photos downstairs). But in particular the upstairs hallway, which is still bare walled and empty nooked (see my previous post on what to do with "the nook").

Sadsies. It's just a dust-tumbleweed empty canyon of a hallway. With gross oily hand prints or something that are extremely apparent in this photo.

Stay tuned for updates! It's amazing what a coat of paint can do and I can't wait!