My new bedding from Aura

I was SO stoked when the folks of Australian company Aura (one of our long-time advertisers and designers of a really amazing line of bed linen, homewares and rugs) emailed recently with the fantastic news that some of their bedding is now available in Canada at Hudson's Bay! WOHOO!!! To my delight the kind ladies of Aura offered to send my a duvet cover set and 2 pillows. YES!!! I have always purchased duvet covers at Ikea...and not that there is anything wrong with that but now I see what I have been missing. It was a reeeeally hard choice to make but in the end I went with the Lattice Lime duvet cover set, and the jumbo stripe and dipped decorative pillows. The duvet cover is soooo comfy, in a cotton/linen blend on the front (gawd I love linen bedding!!!) with a cotton back that is satiny soft (and neon piping for that extra oomph). The pillows are 100% linen with feather inserts so they are just divine. I am over the moon with this new bedding, and despite having done nothing with my bedroom since buying this house, I was excited to get some sort of design happening with the new bedding as inspiration. Pay no attention to the bland wall colour as that will change eventually, but to my surprise the bedding just blends right in. Thanks to Aura my bedroom looks pretty amazing if I may say! P.S. Aura isn't sold at all Hudson's Bay locations but that doesn't matter because you can order online!

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A few new things around the house

My life has been super crazy for the past couple of months and while I am trying to find time to get my kitchen redo completed (may take a while if I end up redoing the floor) a few new things have happened in other spaces. Nothing major but getting anything done around here is a miracle and I need to celebrate it. For starters, I bought a light fixture 2 months ago and it was finally hung up in my living room (that is a dig at the husband who has no excuses). I say hung instead of installed but it literally is just hung on the ceiling. Judging by the mark in the centre of the ceiling when we bought this house, it seems that in another life, there may have been a light fixture. The ceilings and walls in here are plaster, not drywall so I refuse to go tearing holes anywhere for no good reason. I don't really need a working light in the ceiling as I already have 8 lights in the room but the large expanse of ceiling looked a little bare despite me having put up a ceiling medallion when I painted the room. It was a good start but it was missing something. It was missing THIS GORGEOUS LIGHT.

I found it at my favourite vintage lighting shop - Architectural Antiques. I am so freaking happy with this light fixture. It brings some sparkle into the room, and who doesn't like sparkle?! 

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Kitchen project - blue, black, white and brass

Just before the holidays I settled on a paint colour for my kitchen. It was not a difficult decision - I wasn't even going to bother trying a sample on the wall because I was so sure it would be perfect. 

When I had received the fan deck from Farrow & Ball and came across Stiffkey Blue and Hague Blue I knew immediately that my kitchen needed to be blue. I went with Stiffkey because the colour just seemed perfect with black and white (and it is less dark and bold than Hague which seems to be much more on the teal/aqua side). Below is a beautiful bedroom painted in Stiffkey Blue. 

Sean Santiago via Lonny

Here is a before photo of my kitchen. It is all Ikea and very small and very boring. So imagine the walls painted in Stiffkey Blue. *SIGH* I might keep the ceiling white to ensure the space maintains its brightness. The faucet and cabinet handles will be replaced with brass ones. I just noticed in this photo that the dishwasher is just a large panel of stainless steel. Now I am wondering if I should cover it in white somehow. Anyway, even the light fixtures are Ikea (I think) and beyond boring so I will replace those (there is one in the middle of the ceiling too).  

I was thinking this Vega 3 chandelier from Schoolhouse Electric would look fab in the middle of the room. 

Then for over the sink I love a couple of different lights by Gubi - like this Bestlite pendant BL9

or this Greta Grossman Grasshopper pendant

I hope now that I am finally starting to get over the miserable infection(s) I had over the holidays that I can manage to get the painting done this weekend. Fingers crossed! And I hope to gawd the paint is ok - idiot UPS delivery guy left it out on my porch in -20C weather. 

I went poking around the internet while I was sick to get some inspiration of kitchens with brass, and I found several that have blue as a feature colour as well. 

Workstead via Dwell

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Some rearranging and a new rug

When I painted my living room last month I had decided to fill the shelves at the back of the room with plants. I quickly realized what a dumb idea that was given the lack of decent sunlight. So the other day I grabbed all of the knick-knacks (and some others) I had previously displayed on my mantel and swapped them with the plants. I then piled the plants on the bench I had in front of the window. I am much happier with this arrangement and so seem my plants (except one but I don't want to talk about it - it was my favourite). 

Most of these items were picked up on antiquing travels. Air plant holder = na coille Studio. Phrenology bust = Urban Barn. Nun dolls & vintage camera = High Jinx. Ceramic bug = Wunderkammer. 

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My newly painted living room - part 2

So here is part 2 of my living room paint makeover. I think I should begin with a before photo. :)

And by the miracle of paint, Farrow and Ball's downpipe and plummett in this case, VOILA!

And here is the rest of my living room. It is truly amazing how cozy dark walls like this can be. 

Rugs: Ottawa Antique Market and Third World Bazaar Leather chair: Green Light Shop Sofa: Phillip Van Leeuwen Coffee table: Normann Copenhagen Tablo table via Greyhorne

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