My credenza makeover

Yesterday I shared my dining room makeover, so today I thought I would show you what happened to my credenza. Some may love, some may hate, but it's working for now so I am going to enjoy it until I can maybe afford something fancy. 

Soon after we moved in I noticed Benjamin Curran was selling a bunch of pieces of this walnut veneer (??) vintage furniture in Montreal so off we went with my mom's massive SUV and trailer and picked up this credenza, a headboard, 2 side tables and an armoire. All for an awesome price (or free because some of it he just wanted to get rid of). I loved the somewhat brutalist pattern in the doors and still do, and it fits PERFECTLY in this alcove (7' long). It has SO much storage with pull out drawers behind the doors on the left and right sides and drawers down the centre. 

Pre-makeover of the room it was pretty cute. But then we went and refinished the floors grey. Then I had that hemlock dining table made (blonde and grey wood). After that the orange tones of this credenza were just AWFUL. We looked into buying Ikea kitchen cabinets to fit in the alcove and getting a marble top made but the cabinets alone with shelving/drawers inside would have been over a thousand dollars. YEAH. NO. And I could not find anything this long that wasn't a gazillion dollars. 

After much thought, I committed the worst crime of all and painted the credenza. It was a bitch of a job but in the end, saved me a ton of money until I can afford something totally fabulous. 

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Happy Friday!

TGIF! It's been a hellish week at my day/desk job and I am so grateful the weekend is here! To end off the work week, I thought I would share this really cool idea for a side table - consisting of concrete blocks and a clamp light. It does not get much simpler than that! Industrial vibe, cheap and easy...and comes with built-in shelves! ;) Via The New Design Project

down in Løkka

This is one of the most inspiring posts I have shared in a while, IMHO. A huge thanks to Silje for tipping us of to this in an email recently: This is the Tumblr of a friend of a friend. They're a newly married couple in their 20s, and got an apt. in the old part of Oslo, Norway, this summer. They're both incredibly talented and hard-working, and they have just renovated their tiny apartment ALL by themselves. Their style is typically Norwegian, using "honest" materials (as well cal it), thrifted stuff, secondhand furniture and a mixing it to a delightfully minimalist style. Well worth a wee looksy, especially the before and after pictures of the livingroom/kitchen! The blog is named "down in Løkka", Løkka being a nickname for Grünerløkka, a hipster/old part of Oslo. I am completely in awe of all of the work they have done on their tiny pad. And it is beautiful, and perfectly minimal. I am so impressed. 

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Cool wall art projects

As I mentioned earlier, here are some cool wall art projects Courtney Wotherspoon came up with for a Toronto restaurant called l'ouvrier (more photos here). 

Random at my home on a Sunday

I have a ton of cleaning and blog research to do today so because I don't have much time I thought I'd show you some small projects around my house and other things that have been going on here lately. 

First up, some shelving I acquired that needed a bit of work. A couple of weeks ago we went to hang out at my sister's cottage and my husband got to work repairing the shed that houses the ride-on lawn mower (the top half of the back wall had collapsed over the winter due to the weight of the snow). In the process we took everything out of the shed that had been left there by the previous owners. We found a bunch of metal bins/shelving in the shed and outside the shed holding rusting cans of leftover paint. My sister took 3 of the good ones and I offered to take the rusting ones that were outside. They were in pretty bad shape but I figured I could sand them and/or spray paint them. I tried sanding the rust off for a couple of hours but it turned out to be a daunting task so I opted to sand them quickly and spray paint them. I had bought neon yellow and pink spray paint a couple months back and decided to use the pink since I hadn't done anything with it yet. I kind of like it! I thought for now they'd work great as shoe storage in my dressing room. 

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