Twenty Eight Teen !!!

Another year old, another year wiser !!! This weekend I celebrated my 28th birthday with friends and family and had a GREAT time. My three year old niece referred to it as my Twenty Eighteenth birthday and I'll totally take it :)

Thank you so much for the awesome cake, multiple meals, gorgeous wild flowers from my nieces, and huge bouquet from my man, and all the time spent together!! Looks like it might turn out to be a pretty sweet year :)

Last Kitchen Day

Today marks my official last day as a Kitchen and Bath designer! It has been a wild four year ride filled with lots of awesome designs and super cool clients. I have grown to absolutely adore kitchen design and find my 'design eye' lighting up everytime I get to visit a new home and see it's kitchen. To me it's like the jewelery box of the house, especially when it's designed well :)

I think the kitchen is the most important room in a house. It's usually the most expensive room to renovate, and requires the most thought and space planning, but, it also gives the BEST reward when completed.

Getting the opportunity to work in the business of Kitchens for the past four years has been an awesome experience. I've always been afraid of the kitchen, as a nervous cook, and my hatred for doing dishes, it's always been one room I've avoided. However, after working on other people's kitchens for years, I've actually found the kitchen to be a homey space, a meeting room, a hub of activity, and actually a great place to bond with your significant other.

By being emersed in space planning, traffic flow, layout, work zones, endless appliance possibilities, the most gorgeous granites and quartz counter tops ever, stunning hardware and hinges, pull out cabinets and drawers and everything else that goes into designing a dream kitchen.... I've come out wanting to be a better cook and a better designer.

I can't wait to see the next direction that Kitchens take, I've been lucky to work in the period where white kitchens are in, contrasting islands have trended in and out, and the simpler the style the better. I feel like I've conquered the kitchen world and look forward to the next step in my design career!!

All Photos Via: Style At Home

Work of Art

Saturday is my Birthday. What better Bday gift to recieve then a new show airing on Bravo Canada, produced by the one and only Sarah Jessica Parker!

I saw a preview for it yesterday, it's called Work Of Art, the next great artist and has a Project Runway kinda feel to it- but with art!!!

I'm kinda excited for it, as who knows what kinda weird stuff you'll see when Artists compete!! Yay!

The Hills are Alive...

...with the gorgeous artwork of Janet Hill!!! I am completely hooked on her work after I spotted her studio shop on Etsy. It's filled with girly, chic prints and I'm pretty sure I want them ALL. She captures on canvas everything that a girls wants:

Shoes......

Dresses:

And Furnitre....

All Photos Via: Janet Hill

You, Making My Dreams Come True

This is what my commute to work felt like this morning. I DARE you not to smile during this video :D

AND it's FRIDAY!! WOO!

Video Via: YouTube

Country Chic

My days as a Kitchen Designer are coming to an end, so I'm going to soak in as much lovely designs as I can!!

I Love this Country Chic Kitchen:  Hardwood floors, pendant ligts, rustic hinges, wood counter, subway tile backsplash, banquet seating... I could swoon some more but will let you just enjoy the photos!

Is it weird that I love the bird display wall? It's cute!

Mossy Green Walls? Love.

Love the Green

Awesome Woodwork

Coolest Kitchen Ceiling Ever

Love the Stove Backsplash

Photos Via: Crown Point

1, 2, 3, 4, tell me that you love me more...

or 2 3 & 9 if you want to get specific!!

After my post about seeking out great house numbers, I searched tirelessly and FOUND house numbers on the weekend that I ADORE!!! And what's even better then finding great house numbers? Finding them for cheap!

Thanks to the expert shoppers at Lowes, I was able to get modern, "floating" house numbers for $7.57 each!

Via: Hillman Distinctions for Lowes

Not only are the new numbers perfect for the house, they put the old numbers to shame!!

These are the 'Before' Numbers: 

 

Mounted to the Brick

Close up of Numbers

 Pretty stunning eh? I especially liked that the numbers weren't lined up straight, a classic previous homeowner DIY gone wrong.



And the 'After' Numbers:

 

It just looks so much fresher!!

You'll notice that I didn't actually mount the numbers yet, I wanted to tape them up first to make sure that I absolutely loved them before committing to any holes! Every day I pull into the driveway though I smile, so I'm pretty sure they're a winner!! Let the mounting begin!!  (next step is to paint over the ugly yellow siding, yikes)

Painting Project

During my week long holiday at the end of the month I VOW to get my nasty shed painted. The question, however, is what colours are going to save the poor thing??

Well with the help of my bestie, Sarah Richardson, I think I've come up with a pretty good game plan. Have you checked out her new paint line from Para yet?? Oh My Goodness, if not, you will love it... her samples are huge so you actually SEE the colour you are choosing, and she even gives little tidbits of advice- straight from the queen herself!! What more could a die-hard SR fan ask for?!!  (besides a one-on-one interview and the chance to work alongside her... but other then that, the paint will suffice)

Here's what I'm thinking....

The Far Right will be trim, the middle (which is actually much more grey then the photo suggests) will be the shed colour, and if I am brave enough, the first colour will be the door?!

I'm crazy excited to try it out and hopefully the fresh new paint will make my bomb shelter of a shed look a little less frightening!!!

Photos Via: Me

Fiesta!!

 OMG I so badly want this car!! It's Hot Pink and Fabulous!!!!!!

I wish I had a nice cobblestone road to drive it on too... I fufilled one dream this week, why not another? ;) 

Photos Via: Ford

Belated Moody Monday

Dear Monday,

Today's Moody Monday comes a day late, only because my Monday was packed full of excitement and I had to give it credit (even a day late) 

After years of busting my butt and trying to make a name for myself in the design world,

I finally landed my dream job!! I am beside myself with excitement and am looking forward to starting a new career in the Commercial Design World...and sharing all that I learn along the way!!

First though, I need to take a mini vacation, spend some time at the beach, and celebrate this turning point so I'm taking the end of the month off to enjoy :)

Shedding

I have a new project.

Our powder room and laundry room projects are nearly complete (finishing touches happen this weekend and should be up for your viewing pleasure soon!) so we're on the next one!!

....And it's a peice of work!!! When we moved into our home we were over the moon about everything... well except for the giant eye sore in the backyard. Seriously, there should be a warning before you walk into our backyard that protective eyeware needs to be worn. The beauty of MLS is that you get to view photos of your potential home, but clearly they leave out the scary bits. In our case its the Shed!!

Here is the image we saw online when we first came across our humble abode:

Not too bad right? It's large in and charge, but isn't harming anyone, and it's great storage!!

But then.... reality hit. We showed up at the house and here's what it actually looks like:

?! ?! ?! ?! ?! ?! PINK AND BABY BLUE!!!! Yikes X's 100000!!

Sadly this eye sore has been near the bottom of the "fix'r up'r" list as it's outside, and during the winter is never used. It wasn't until I came across this awesome before and after at High Street Market that i decided our giant shed needed an overhaul. Heck Kelly's little shed isn't even half as bad as mine and look how cute hers turned out!!

Step one was the strip the horrifying pink off the siding and get rid of all the chips. So we've gone from ugly to... can you believe it... uglier!!

It always gets worse before it gets better right? That's what we designers always tell clients anyway... but my heart is sorta in my throat at this stage!! Next step is to get rid of the aweful eavetroughs...

Stay tuned for our progress!!!

Exterior Design is Hard

Like most, I spent the majority of my twenties as an apartment dweller- now that I am a homeowner, the task of having to landscape and design my own backyard and house exterior has proven to be super HARD!!

I studied curb appeal in school, and when we were looking for homes with our real estate agent we really saught out great facades... but quite honestly, I never really thought about curb appeal. So here I am, late twenties, with a great looking house, that has NO curb appeal. For the life of me I have no idea how to fix it!

My design approach for interiors is to always start with one item (usually fabric) and work off of that, but since exteriors don't get to use fun fabrics I've had to look elsewhere... So what is that starting point for me you ask? ... for me it's all about the House Numbers!

When you think about it, your house number is the first thing people look for when coming to your place- it's your address, your identification, your number! So why not make it stand out and set the tone for the whole exterior?

House numbers are also an exciting place to start with exterior design as it lets you get creative with the graphic design end of things, which makes for ENDLESS fun searching fonts!!

Let the number search begin!!!

Via: Atlas Hardware

So far the numbers above and  below are the frontrunners for design- since we have a 70's style home I need to find numbers that will compliment that style, the mission look really has me hooked :)

Via Urban Mode

Via Restoration Hardware

These are a few of my favourite numbers from around the web:

Now I just need to figure out where to find these!!!