With the new year just around the corner it is time to start thinking about goals and ambitions for 2013.
What is on your dream list? Do you want to start more DIY projects? Are you hoping to embark upon a home renovation? Perhaps you want to try new exotic recipes at home? Or just travel somewhere new?
This week’s feature pinner has lots of fun ideas to make the new year a blast!
Keep reading to learn more about this week’s featured pinner!
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Last year Style at Home featured managing editor Catherine Therrien’s townhouse makeover in the April 2011 colour issue. Based on the before and after photos you can certainly see why.
Her newly built townhouse came with the standard builder’s beige palette. While some prefer the clean and serene look of a neutral-coloured space, Catherine yearned for colour.
Which of these living rooms do you prefer: the before or the after?
{ The before }
Keep reading to see the after!
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While Marlie’s condo looks fresh and feminine and full of light now, it didn’t exactly read that way before I got my hands on it.
1 Home office
Before the home office nook was drab and lonely with a shelving unit that blended right into the red floor and a serious amount of wasted floor space…
A dramatic wall-treatment from Cole & Son’s Fornasetti collection made what once was an awkward nook into an eye-catching feature. Storage from IKEA is now off to the side to let the wallpaper pattern shine. The stunning second life rug from ELTE doesn’t hurt either…
The best renovations in my mind, are those are done for the joy of updating – you can take your time picking finishes, gather information, talk ideas. The flip side are the renovations that happen due to necessity – like appliances dying, leaks, a wall falling apart. If you read our blog, you may have followed as we’ve renovated our house, thankfully, out of the pure joy of renovation, but we’re now we’re being faced with two rooms that sadly are on the brink of becoming ticking time bombs … and, they happen to be two of the most expensive rooms to renovate. Our kitchen and our master bathroom.
Thankfully we’re not at the stage yet where we need to renovate, but it’s close enough to that time that it’s best to start talking ideas. I thought I would show you my mood board for our master bathroom.
Ever wonder if it’s possible to renovate an entire room in just one night?
Well, a group of volunteers, along with HGTV’s own interior design, Lisa Canning, and contractor, Christian Pavey, proved it’s possible!
This handy team joined with Jergens to makeover the Toronto YWCA Women’s Housing community room overnight. And just to give you an idea of the challenge they were faced with, here’s the “before”:
If you’ve been following along with my latest renovation project, you’ll know that I recently went shopping for hardwood floors for my mom’s new condo. We settled on a beautiful red oak from Lumber Liquidators. You can read the full post here.
Here’s another look at the space – in all its messy glory!
Once the wood was selected, the real work began. (We were already working with a contractor, but Lumber Liquidators does offer installation for $2/square foot.) Because we were working in a condo, we had to adhere to the board’s strict rules regarding the flooring underlay. (If you live in a condo, you’ll have to find out what the accepted standards are regarding the thickness of the underlay you use to minimize noise transfer.) Since you can’t nail flooring down in a condo, make sure you find a floating floor that clicks and locks into place and doesn’t require being nailed down. There are lots of beautiful hardwood options!
I love a good restoration project. Life at Style at Home means you’re always thinking of ways to renovate and DIY your home to make it that much more beautiful and fab. But what about your community?
Think about your neighbourhood. Do you ever pass a community service or historic building that could use a little TLC? Benjamin Moore has. And they’re doing something about it.
Exterior of the Boat and Heritage Centre in Muskoka, ON.
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I don’t know if any of you have ever been in this position but the past few years have been tough ones for me and my family. My father passed away in March 2009 and it’s been a long and difficult journey of recovery and healing. Overcoming the overwhelming grief has not been easy and now, two and a half years later, we’re still struggling to understand and accept.
But life has a way of pulling you along, even when what you want most in the world is just to stand still. My mother has finally reached the point where she is ready to sell our family home and move into a smaller, more manageable space. We finally found a condo that was perfect for her – large and spacious with an incredible ravine view. The size and layout of the space were ideal but the decor – not so much. We decided to take the condo anyway, and renovate it from top to bottom to turn it into a space that she’d love for the years to come.
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If you’ve been following along with the tales of my renovations, you know that I’ve been tackling my one-bedroom condo one room at a time. After completing my bathroom renovation, I think it was just a matter of time before my eyes wandered on over to the kitchen. Though I’d recently made some changes in the kitchen, it wasn’t perfect and that backsplash still caused me anxiety. Let me walk you through it:
OK, this is what the backsplash looked like when I first moved into my condo eight years ago:
The lobster, the tomato … is that beer in a Champagne flute? I just couldn’t handle it but you know how it goes … you get settled into your home and before you know it, eight years have passed and you’re still rooming with a lobster.
Once I’d renovated the bathroom and updated my living room, it was really time to do something about the backsplash. Because funds were limited, my amazing and talented designer Lisa Canning encouraged me to paint the existing backsplash. It was a quick and easy job and really did make a difference; at least I wouldn’t have to look at those lobsters any more. Problem: I took a shortcut (never a good idea!) and painted around my existing stove. I know, I know – I should have moved it but it was too heavy for me so I did the best job I could. But when I got around to replacing my appliances, the new stove was lower than the old, thus exposing the shortcut.
So I suppose it was inevitable that I’d have to rip the whole thing out and start from scratch, which I finally got around to a few weeks ago! And, as many of you probably know, once you start one job, it tends to snowball. My contractor convinced me to replace the countertop at the same time. “Once you put the backsplash in, you can’t replace the countertop without damaging the tiles,” he said. Before I knew it, the countertop was off and out and the real fun was about to begin!
Off I went to Home Depot to choose my backsplash tile. The choice was a no-brainer. I LOVED this tile and knew it would look great with my white cabinets:
This Marble Mosaic tile (Home Depot, $19.99/sheet) is beautiful and looks wonderful contrasted against the dark countertop I selected. The Home Depot sales associate was so helpful, not only helping me to choose my tile, but making sure I knew exactly what kind of mortar and grout I’d need, and pointing out which sealant should be used following installation. He gave me step-by-step instructions, which I listened to carefully, then imparted to my contractor.
Finally! My kitchen looks polished and complete – no lobsters and no amateur paint job peeking out from behind the stove. After all these years, it still takes me by surprise when I walk into the kitchen and see it looking so … finished. There’s nothing more to be done in there now and it feels (and looks!) great. It was really worth the wait.
What around-the-house task do you keep putting off?
It took just two weeks to transform my bathroom from a tired old space into one that’s fresh, clean and so much more modern. Not bad, eh? While most people will tell you that a renovation of any kind can be an enormous headache, complete with missed deadlines and unforeseen problems, mine, I’m lucky to say, moved along smoothly and quickly. The installation team from Home Depot was amazing and the quality of their work is visible even to the most untrained eye. I’m so thrilled with the results and am excited to start using my new bathroom. Here are some more photos:
If you’ve been following along with my story of this bathroom renovation, then you know that the marble for the shower ledge was the only real hold-up I encountered. But once the custom cut marble arrived and was installed, it was the perfect finishing touch. We installed the ledge because the standard size of new tubs is shorter than my original tub. But it’s a nice feature and provides storage for accessories, shampoo bottles, etc. The 3-inch by 6-inch subway tile from Home Depot is one of the most inexpensive tile options you can find and I love the clean, modern look.
These apothecary accessories (stoneware with silver-plated trim) from Canadian Tire are the perfect match for my bathroom. At $12.99 apiece, they’re also the perfect price!
Accessories like this mirror (HomeSense, $23) and painting (Home Outfitters, $39.99 were inexpensive finds. I opted for a glass vessel sink from Home Depot ($69). The paint colour (Elusive Blue, Olympic Paints) adds a soft, restful and feminine touch to the space.
I chose a simple white shower curtain with grosgrain ribbon detailing from the Gluckstein Home collection (Home Outfitters, $39.99) and the small medicine cabinet (Home Depot, $89) provides hidden and much-needed storage in my small bathroom.
Instead of boring old shower curtain rings, I chose brushed stainless steel rings (Home Outfitters, $22.99) that look like oversized buttons. It’s a small detail that adds some visual interest to the shower curtain. I also opted for a curved shower curtain rod that makes my tub feel three times larger than it is. It’s nice not to have my shower curtain pawing at me when I’m taking a shower and I highly recommend trying one in your bathroom!
Click here to check out the before pictures. What do you think of the transformation?
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