Underwater Oasis

The kids love their room and I can honestly say I’m jealous. Who wouldn’t love to sleep in a “bunk-bed-sunken-ship” (as per my 7-year-old) with shark sheets and fish swimming around the walls to boot? They also love the bubble light which casts fun shadows and light rays in the night-time as well as the octopus rug.

Amber did an amazing job with decorating this room. I was very worried that it would be 20 shades of pink but I was pleasantly surprised by my girls picking a palette of blues (with help from Amber). The sharks really sold it for them. Not that there is anything wrong with pink but we just have so much pink in the toys and dolls and dresses…it’s nice to have a few different colours around 🙂

We got all of the bedding from Pottery Barn Kids except the name quilts which were specially made when they were born. The decals are from Etsy and the rug was from Wayfair. The light is from Robinson Lighting and is worth the crazy dusting it needs. The reading nook/book cabinet is from Ikea and works so well to contain the hundreds of books the girls read constantly.

Master Bedroom

I’m so happy with the way our master bedroom is turning out. The grey we picked for our accent wall is very pretty. It’s warm and inviting and not too overwhelming. Our furniture is very big and can overtake a room but I love it. We needed the rest of the room to be light and airy to balance it out. Our furniture is from Crate and Barrel and worked really well in our first bigger apartment that had a massive master bedroom but not so well in our last bedroom.

A room with a view

Not for much longer. I feel like I need to savour each and every morning and nighttime view while I am still above the city. Here are a few of my favourites.

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Bunk beds travel 4800km and arrive missing one piece…

The kids bunk beds have arrived!

Berg Furniture to our home

I expected them to get here just in time for the move, but they came about a week early. This is incredible when you think about how far they had to travel. And they had to traverse the US-Canadian border. We got lucky! Most of the time this would be welcome news, but we had nowhere to store this monster furniture while the kids room is waiting to be painted. So here it is in all of its glory. All 10 boxes of it.

Hardwood floors!

This is a most exciting day!

We finally see the floors we have been waiting for. I was both very excited and very scared to see what they would look like.  Would I still like the variation in the wood and the colour? Would the pattern fit what was in my mind? Would it look too new? Too old? Too shiny? Too dull? Would I want more dark colours or more light colours? Will it look good with the rest of the wood furniture? I just went on and on in my head about what I was going to do if I didn’t like it that I couldn’t enjoy the anticipation. I just had to see it.

Luckily, most of the questions did not even surface once I finally got a look at the wood itself.

It is spectacular.  I love it!

The flooring guys have done an amazing job. I’m sure they were cursing me as they laid the multiple pieces of wood to try to keep a random pattern going but all the while making sure it did not look like a pattern. The walnut nosings are perfect. It is just the right amount of dark and light colours. It is also just the right amount of shine. We have gotten very lucky.

While I know this wood is a bit unique and not exactly what all the magazines say is “hot” right now (and which I believe, seeing as we couldn’t find it anywhere), I LOVE IT! It is exactly what we wanted and looks better down than I could have hoped. Now to just make sure it stays as pretty as it looks right now, once we move in:)

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Painting

Remember when I started this blog, I said I didn’t want to live in a home that had all white walls anymore…me too. Open mouth, insert foot.

But in the end, it seems that white walls are still the best for most of the home’s foundation. We love colour so much that with all of our additions to house through fun foci (cue red faucet and blue cupboards and multicoloured floors…) that there really isn’t a lot of room for more colour downstairs on the walls. We don’t want to overwhelm those elements. Especially if we want any kind of art.

We will still have a feature wall in the dining room (colour still undecided) as well as painting the bedrooms upstairs. The girls have chosen

The Kids’ Room – Under the Sea

This room is going to be wonderful. The girls love it already. Amber really hit the nail on the head with them. All they told her was that they wanted an underwater theme and she went wild.  It’s awesome.

Here is the bunk beds the girls picked out from Berg:

Berg Bunk Bed in chestnut

They are totally cool and have so much space for storage and for homework or crafts. The girls love the stairs (they pull out into storage drawers!) and it is safer for the little one to visit her bigger sister 🙂

They come in a bunch of finishes and with different nob colours.  We have decided on natural with purple nobs to help the sea theme.

Then Amber took this as a starting point and came up with this idea. It is fantastic. Here is the idea board she designed.

Scott_GirlsRoom

It’s feminine but not over-the-top girlie. It’s exactly what they wanted to feel like they are sleeping underwater. It all ties together. What else can I say. I’m blown away!

The sheets are from Pottery Barn. They are called Preppy Shark. Isn’t that cute in itself?

 Then when you add in the octopus pillow and the turquoise duvet cover, it just all pops.

The rug is a real show stopper. They will literally be sleeping with the fishes and sea creatures.

The light fixture I showed you before, but even after not seeing it for a month my two-year-old looked at it and said it was her light and how much she loved it.  I have to say, I’m a little jealous!

Then there will be the reading nook. This will give lots of storage for the many, many books they have as well as a few toys. Plus they can read together there or do make-believe. So many options.

The wall colour is yet to be decided, but it will be a shade of turquoise to simulate the sea. The wall paintings are actually decals that can be ordered in a tonne of colours and configurations. That will be fun to design as well. (Courtesy of Etsy).

For the girl’s crafts, I am thinking of getting this Ikea rolly cart. It has the right colour scheme and structure and can fit in small spaces but is functional. Hopefully they will like their room and play area so much that they won’t drag their toys into the other parts of the house too often 🙂

Well that’s the design for now.  I still need to think about stuffy storage. Likely a big bin, but most of them may head out to the playroom. That might be a last-minute decision once we are in the space. Not long now!

Let’s Check in…

I was feeling a bit nostalgic today with all the big changes I saw at the condo this week. I went back to my original post and looked at my “must have” list. Wow, things have changed. Let’s take a look.

Our Must Haves:

1. Open concept kitchen with an island √
2. Replace the hardwood floors throughout √
3. Expand to two full bathrooms √
4. Have a great play area for the kids
5. Update the design to suit us  √

We are slowly but surely ticking things off our list. We haven’t decided completely about the kids play area yet, but we are looking into a few storage options. Stay tuned for a post about their bedroom and playroom. The girls are very excited about it.

But what else has spiralled out of adding a bathroom and tearing out the kitchen?

Our new additions:

1. Open the stairwell to let in light
2. Change the glass to a floating glass system throughout the stairwell
3. Change the glass on the loft balcony to match the stairwell
4. Add new lighting throughout the house/add recessed lighting ceilings
5. Add heated floors
6. Add a workstation for homework and crafts and adult work at home days
7. Add organizational systems to the closets downstairs
8. Open up/widen the doorway between the kitchen and living room
9. Add AV and electrical to make it a “smart home” since the walls are already open
10. Paint everything!

I always heard that a reno is more like a living organism than a static project but now that I reflect on it, it is really clear.

And we have wood

The flooring was delivered this week as well.  Things are really starting to move at warp speed. I haven’t been able to see the actual wood yet as it is all in two large piles acclimating to our specific moisture level, temperatures etc (that’s really all I know). It appears that we don’t want actual warping of the wood, just warp speed:)

I heard that the construction boys really got a workout that day as the wood had to be hand carried up the emergency stairs. Who needs the gym when you have real weight to carry around! I don’t know how they did that, or how people on the 28th floor get their lumber, but I’m thankful that ours is now in our house and awaiting placement. We have waited so long and looked so hard for this flooring, that all of this hassle is so going to be worth it.

Only a few more steps before we actually get to see the floor in action.

1. The flooring specialists will start levelling and prepping the concrete sub-floor.
2. The sub-floor/underlay is completed
3. Pick the specific colour/pieces and nosing for the stairs and edging (difficult when we have such a random mix of colours I guess)
4. Lay the floor

Billy thinks all of this will be able to be completed with the heated flooring in the kitchen “L” or “triangle” area and the bathroom over the next week. That is as long as the cabinets get in first. So many steps but all worth while!

Lighting Update

This weekend we finalized our lighting fixtures for the bedrooms and the stairwell. I’m so excited! One step closer to seeing how things are actually going to look in the new house.

Amber and I went to Robinson Lighting to get some ideas of what was out there. I’m glad that we went in knowing what style of lighting we want to have in our house. It can truly be overwhelming. So many chandeliers, so much sparkle and baubles and glitz. We are keeping with the midcentury feel, so staying away for almost all of the above, but we got a little hooked for glitz in the girls’ room 🙂

For the stairwell, I wanted something with great geometric style but still practical to light the stairs safely. At the store, there were two beautiful wooden carved chandelier pendant lights, but they really didn’t give off enough light. In the end we went with a grouping of three pendant lights that were very different but complementary in shape to give the retro feel but still had great light. Amber is also introducing me to a cool new lightbulb that is bright but has silver on the bottom, so when people are walking up the stairs, they don’t immediately miss the fixture and just see the light bulb. Very cool ideas that woman has!

Here is the stairwell light fixture grouping:

Eurofase Lighting

We wanted something a little more simple for our bedroom. We will have reading lamps on the walls, but wanted something for the overhead light to find our way to the back wall without stubbing our toes in the dark. Since I couldn’t get the wood chandelier for the stairwell, I thought this walnut circular drum light would work with our walnut bedroom set really well. Here is the light I picked for our bedroom:

Kuzco Lighting

This one I never would have picked myself, but it is perfect for the underwater theme the girls want for their shared room. It looks like bubbles rising to the surface and reflects lights on all the walls. The girls are tickled pink for their underwater adventure.

Kuzco Lighting