Liz's holiday bedroom makeover

A Flickr contact and fellow Ottawan Liz has been VERY busy over the last couple days. She has completely redone her bedroom and I had to post about it here because she did a fantastic job. I am also completely jealous because all I have done to my pale yellow (barf) bedroom is rip out the closet, leaving a gaping hole in the floor and chunks of drywall missing, and it is really starting to get on my last freaking nerve. Anyway, here is what Liz had to say about her bedroom makeover:

"I can't tell you how much I love our new bedroom decor. Thomas and I have been planning this room since we moved in over a year ago and now that it's done, I can't even imagine how we put up with the bland walls for so long! It took us 2.5 days of painting and building IKEA furniture. We still want to replace the outlet covers but that will have to wait until one of our dads can help us because that involves electrical work. The closet doors in the photos need to also be replaced but we need to save up more dough for that because it's going to be pricey! Also we will eventually do new base moulding and some crown moulding in white. The pictures in the white frames are going to be changed, we just haven't found the right ones yet. We just couldn't pass up the deal we got on the frames so we decided we'd just ditch the ugly pictures inside :)"

I love everything she has done to her bedroom - the colours, the symmetry, the use of white furniture that stands out so beautifully against the walls, the painted headboard....YUMMY! Liz has gotten the decorating part of my brain going (more than usual) and I am so going to get my ass in gear and start planning my bedroom.

BEFORE

AFTER

Here are some details of her sources: "The paint we used was Aura by Benjamin Moore. The headboard is painted on the wall using a matte and a semi-gloss finish in the same colour (Bittersweet Chocolate). The accent wall blue is Caribbean Blue Water and the rest of the room is Sea Star. White furniture is from IKEA except for the white ottoman which is from Bouclair Home. Accent pieces are mostly from Homesense and Winners."

Colourful reader's home

Aris emailed us and I had to share. "My name is Aris and I come from Greece. Decorating interiors is one of my favourite hobbies. I bought an apartment last year, in the center of Athens city (Greece), very close to Acropolis, and I started decorating it on my own. My budget is very low, so I use a lot of paint! The concept behind this decoration is to create a holiday style apartment right in the city center." The colours chosen work so well together and bring the apartment to life. Just goes to show how much of an effect paint can have. See the full apartment set on Flickr here. Well done Aris!

Minimalism in Amsterdam

I awoke this morning to find an email from James in my inbox (thank you for wanting to share this with our readers James!): "I have recently finished decorating a small apartment in Amsterdam. As a foreigner to Holland (originally from the UK, but studied and worked in Australia and Germany) I developed an interest in dutch mid-century design and furniture. Alot of the Dutch furniture is not so well known outside NL, and I am sure could be of interest to your readers." So much about James' photos impressed me - the architecture, the spaciousness, the soaring windows, the lack of stuff, the great mid-century pieces he's collected by Martin Visser, Rob Parry, Verner Panton, Friso Kramer, Wim Rietveld, Eames...

I'll start with James' old apartment in Amsterdam that he had rented.

James had to move out of that apartment which prompted him to buy a place. Here is the new apartment that he owns, and part of the renovation included painting the floors white. See? When you think you've made up your mind about a paint colour and them you see photos like this...

Andrea and the lake house

Andrea wrote us the other day looking for some advice, and instead of us emailing her back I figured this might be a fun one for our readers to help with as well.

"My partner is buying a lake house. There is a lot of room for improvement and I'm very excited about making my ideas come through. But there will be very little cash after the closing, so we might be doing some of it ourselves.

The house is very dark because of ceilings and walls are covered with dark stained pecky cypress. So I thought about either sanding it back to the natural color or white wash them. I know to white wash I'll have to take the finish off, which might be very tiring. I think sanding is going to be very painful, even with an electric sanding machine. I heard of corn cob blasting, but I don't know if that can be used for interiors. We plan to rip out the carpets, redo the floors, take off the wall paper, etc.

But what makes me sad is the kitchen. Although the sellers put good money on it having top appliances, new cabinets and countertop, the colors feel horrible to me. We cannot have new counter tops at the moment and I'm just unsure on how I'm going to neutralize the horrible corian bluish green countertops. I thought at first, about staining the cabinets in red and placing a backsplash with little mosaic glass tiles in white and light aqua blue. Then I thought it would be better do reverse for white cabinets and red mosaic glass tiles.

What I'm going for is a overall natural look with lots of wood, but on the lighter side. I hate darkness give by dark browns and red browns. It makes me feel sick. I was hoping you would have some suggestions about these issues. These pics were taken by me. The house is in Ringwood, NJ."

Andrea, the house is AMAZING!!! It has a ton of potential. I am very excited to hear you are getting rid of the carpets (YUCK). I have a couple of suggestions for you, and hopefully our readers will have a few as well for you to mull over.

I LOVE painting wood white when the colour/effect isn't so hot as it is. This lake house would look like a DREAM, IMHO, if all the walls were painted white and whatever wood flooring you chose was painted white as well (white-washing would be great too but would be ALOOOOOOT of work). It would add so much more of a modern feel to the existing rustic look. I'd leave all the beams and railing as is. I think the stone fireplace would look great against white. As for the kitchen, I would paint out the cabinets white. To me red works on glossy flat-faced cabinets for an ultra-modern feel. I don't think red would suit the existing style of the doors. If there is any way you could remove the trim along the tops of the cabinets, because they are huge and break up the space alot, or replace them with something smaller. Also, the trim over the windows could go too. If you must keep the existing countertop (perhaps you could look into a laminate or butcherblock though, might be affordable), then I would select a tile that has that colour in it - like a mosaic of blues/greens, so the countertop makes a bit of sense and blends in. The appliances are incredible - you are so lucky to get to save money there.

That's enough rambling for me. Andrea, I hope you and your partner have fun with it and if anyone has some suggestions, comments are always welcome.

Bus roll envy

One of my favourite things is a vintage bus roll. Love them! Have several. I used to find them in flea markets in the old days but now it's eBay. It looks like I have competition. Jennifer from Atlanta emailed. "I fell in love with the destination rolls and got one on eBay from London!!! I put stretcher bars together for my frame and stapled fabric to the sides. Then I used upholstery nails to tack the sign to the frame. I thought you'd like to see the finished product!!!" The upholstery nails are brilliant. If you've tried to stretch one of these babies you'll know there is not much spare fabric on the sides. I am so jealous of your roll Jennifer. Great destinations and fabulous job! (And from what I can see of your house, it's fabulous too!)