Our Cottage on Houzz Tour

I was beyond excited when Becky Harris, writer for Houzz, contacted me to do a Houzz Tour feature of our cottage. I couldn't tell you how amazing it made me feel to have our whole journey documented by such a prestigious site, from picking a wooded lot and having our cottage built from ground up, to designing and decorating it from top to bottom! 

I don't know if I ever shared this part about me before, but I love to work with and be surrounded by people with positive attitude. I can't and won't stand disgruntled people who always have something to whine about. Becky was this positive ray of sunshine you wanted to be close to at all times. It was a true pleasure working with someone like her who is so smart and positive and "gets it" whenever my brain drew a blank. You can read the full article here: https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/112194923/list/houzz-tour-a-trip-to-scandinavia-inspires-a-canadian-cottage. 

We've been pretty busy enjoying our summer so we haven't done much decor-wise at the cottage. The only thing we did last week was to add a gate to our loft. As we continued to have friends and their little ones visit us at our cottage, a loft gate became a necessity. Our contractor Super Ian made this gate for us from scratch using Acacia and Maple wood. 

I painted it two-toned to match the rest of the railings, added hinges and a gate latch in matte black.

Our loft is officially ready for kiddie business! Here's a sneak peek at the space - I will be back to do a full reveal of our loft shortly. 

P.S. how many HM Home pieces can you spot from this #shelfie? :)

Powder Room Makeover

2017 was off to a pretty good start. Barely over a month in, I was able to check off a few things on my to-do list this year. 

Picture below: my powder room makeover design board

I had Katie install the Galerie English Florals wallpaper (in Charcoal Grey) for me in our powder room. Katie is a wallpaper expert who also did installs for shows such as Property Brothers. I was seriously jealous when she showed me pictures taken from when she worked alongside Jonathan and Drew. Her attention to detail was amazing, and the outcome was immaculate. This was my first wallpaper installation in our house, and I must say I am hooked! 

So here you have it, the vintage oval-shaped Venetian mirror and the soft grey floral wallpaper found their happily ever after in my powder room. The wallpaper choice was inspired by Anthropologie's ever-popular Smoky Roses. Although the wallpaper also depicts hummingbirds and butterflies, it still feels elegant enough and doesn't ooze country vibe. 

This vintage etched Venetian mirror was a last-minute lucky score from a local classified. It wasn't cheap, but it didn't cost me thousands of dollars which is what a mirror like this would typically go for. 

The last piece of the puzzle to this Parisian style powder room is to replace the ceiling chandelier. 

With something like this, the Crystorama Broche ceiling light. I like the antiqued gold finish which adds just the right amount of glam to the room. 

You may have noticed a "Best of Houzz 2017" badge was placed in my home page. I am so thrilled to have won in the Design category again this year. 

I will leave you with this shot of our stunning (but freezing) sky from this past weekend. I am the type of person who always finds a silver lining. Anthony and I always joked that he is like Mr. Bates, and I am like Anna: he sees problems; while I see possibilities. I guess we are meant to be together, sans all the drama of course :))

Dream House Progress, A Feature and An Award

Last weekend we went to the site where our dream house is to check on the progress. Framing was done and the exterior finish is next. 

The interior floor plan would look like this, although I am still making a lot of changes. 

Looking at the houses down the street, I just realized how close they are to each other. While we maximize the living space, we are also losing the privacy, a typical compromise of urban habitat I guess. I am having second thoughts about keeping the house. We bought the house with my parents in mind because I was hoping they would live with us. Now that my Dad passed away, a house this size is really overkill for the three of us. I thought I wanted a bigger house, but it's so big that it doesn't feel like a home. 

And when we came home to the sun-filled foyer of our current house like this, the idea of moving got even harder. More on our plan for the dream house later. 

A while ago, Consumer Reports reached out asking for my permission to use my main bathroom photo in the latest "Your New Home" issue. I am thrilled because it's a pretty big deal to be featured in a magazine like Consumer Reports. I heard they are so unbiased that they would even buy cars on their own and test drive them to form their own opinions. None of that "the car is sponsored by ABC but opinions are all their own" disclosure. 

I am the lucky one to win the Best of Houzz 2016 award again, in Design category! Did you see my award badges on the right panel? 

If you've been following me on Instagram, you'd know I am really into grocery store flowers these days. They are an inexpensive way to add a touch of nature and colours during the dreary winter months. 

Best of Houzz 2014 Award

Today my friend is a good day. As I was neck-deep with work through lunch, something refreshing popped up - an email from Houzz informing me I won the 2014 Best of Houzz in the Design category! If you remember last year I also won in 7 categories. So exciting, and thank you Houzz! 

As I was going through other winning projects, I noticed my main bathroom project was added to 37,519 ideabooks on Houzz, pretty awesome right? 

If you are interested in taking a walk down the memory lane, you can read more about my main bathroom transformation here, here, and here. 

Best of Houzz Toronto 2013 Awards

I am deeply honoured and humbled to be part of the Best of Houzz 2013 Awards - Toronto in so many categories, among all the talented professional interior designers. Thank you Houzz!

I took these snapshots from the Houzz site but you can click on the links to each category to view all other designers' gorgeous work. If you are interested in getting your work noticed, you can read the press release and selection criteria here.

Category: Bath

Category: Bedroom

Category: Entry

Category: Hall

Category: Laundry

Category: Living

Category: Staircase

Featured on Houzz III

I've always loved botantical and architectural prints. Living in a newly-built house and being an "old soul", I especially see the need for having such artworks to add vintage interests to the overall decor.

I am glad to see one of the writers for Houzz Lisa Frederick also agree. For the third time, Houzz has featured my design pictures in the article titled "Botanical Prints Turn Over a New Leaf"...so cool! Here is a snapshot of the mention, and you can read the rest of the article here:



Hope you all have a great Civic Holiday long weekend! It's one party after another get-together for us again.