Cottage Life: Living Room and Dining Room

It's been just over a month since we took possession of our cottage and moved in. We took a big-bang approach by moving in all our furniture we had been warehousing at our primary residence. The move was followed by a whirlwind of setups, installations, and cleanups. Now that the boring part was almost behind us, I was finally able to start bringing some of my design boards to life. A lot of you following me on Instagram asked for a house tour, so here you go. 

Remember this was the design board for our living room. 

This was the living area during our PDI. 

And this was the living area as of last weekend. I will list the source at the end of the post. Who knew a Georgian era portrait from Anewall will look so good next to a rustic modern highland bull print? 

I don't think I will ever grow tired of this view. Not sure which I love more, the curvy Cherner stools or the Florence Knoll style sofa in my favourite sandstone-coloured fabric? Keeping it uncomplicated and relaxing for the eyes is the style I am going for, very Scandinavian you may say. I was determined to cut down the number of accessories, and make sure everything has a purpose or use at our cottage, besides looking pretty. 

This would be the perfect spot for me to read A Game of Thrones again. 

These lovely Georg Jensen Lilia tealight holders were gifts from my bestie from Copenhagen. She brought a whole bunch of Scandinavian decor accessories with her for me when we rendezvoused in Iceland last month. Btw, just realized I was yet to write a travelogue about our Iceland trip...where did the time go? 

Now onto the dining room. This was the design board.  

And this was our cottage dining room now. Note I ended up using the Bokhara rug here because it was too big for our living room. This super soft and stylish rug was by Unique Loom which I ordered from Amazon, 6x9' in size. 

And then there's this Serge Mouille style 3-arm light. I've been in love with it for a long time, and vowed to use it one day. It finally felt right to have it installed at our cottage. 

One of the first things we did after moving in was to replace those builder basic shiny brass door hardware. Everything else at the cottage has very clean and boxy lines, so I decided to go with the Schlage Camelot Collection in matte black, which lends a softer and vintage touch. I couldn't be happier with how easy it was to install them. Quality and finish was top-notch.  

The crisp and cooler fall weather has been kind to us. We left our windows open and let the fresh air in, while we were working on the interior projects. As we wound down the day, we would take a walk down to the lake to enjoy this ethereal beauty of the sunset. It's been so much work trying to decorate a place far away from home. I felt burnt out at times. I had to keep reminding myself how lucky I have been to be able to resort to a place like this. This year will be mostly work, but next year we will have the entire summer season to enjoy our cottage to the fullest. I might even pick up a paddleboard for all I know - stand-up paddleboarding is something I've always wanted to do. 

I will be back to write about cottage bedrooms and kitchen. Enjoy the Thanksgiving long weekend my friends! 

Source:

Living room:

• Cherner bar stools: Rove Concepts.
• Black and brass cone floor lamp: Wayfair Canada. 
• Highland bull print: Bouclair Home. 
• Georgian portrait Mary Countess print: Anewall.
• Grey lounge chair: HomeSense. Article Forma is an identical one. 
• Cotton throw on lounge chair: Etsy CottonMood. 
• Grey wool throw on sofa: Linea Emmeti via HomeSense. 

Dining Room:

• Eames molded chairs and live-edge table: Structube.
• Serge Mouille 3-arm ceiling light: Morba. 
• Door hardware throughout: Schlage Camelot Collection in matte black. 
• Grey Bokhara rug: Unique Loom via Amazon. 

Cottage Progress: (Almost) Moving Day

Last weekend we were up at the cottage to do our pre-delivery inspection, finally! I am a firm believer in Murphy's Law: the completion of cottage was delayed by nearly two months, just in time to coincide with the busiest time at work, a big family reunion, and a trip to Iceland to boot! I forgot how stressful it could get in preparation for the move. But I guess I need to count my blessings - just wish they wouldn't all be happening at the same time. 

Allora, there's light at the end of the tunnel. Once all the craziness is over, we will have this gorgeous view to come home to. Picture below: our cottage porch. White spindles, railings and screen net will be installed shortly.

This cute loft would the first thing to draw your attention when you set foot inside. 

And this is the dining room. I am seriously thinking of not having any blinds installed. 

This was my design plan for the dining room. 

This Serge Mouille 3-arm light fits my vision for this room perfectly. Picture below is just a mockup. 

Left to the front door is our kitchen. It's not strange at all that I already have a grand plan for the backsplash.  

Picture below: the view from our master bedroom. There's another window opposite to this one with the same view. 

View from our porch. I'd better get back to packing to get ready for the move. Wish me luck! 

Laundry Room Makeover and #YesItsPineSol

I've always wanted a subway tiled wall all the way to the ceiling, and I found just the perfect room in our house to do so. We have a sunken laundry room/mudroom. The ceiling must be 15 feet high. There is no better way to introduce some drama than to have a full wall of subway tiles with dark grout. This is the first thing I see when I enter the house. We will see a few missing tiles behind the hanging rod in the picture below - I changed my mind mid-project to extend the tiled area to the wall on the right, so I ran out of tiles and had to wait until January when they were back in stock. 

To refresh your memory, this was my laundry pre-makeover. 

The vintage brass hook rack was from the London Portobello antique market. I love love how it looks next to the tiled wall. I am still yet to pick a wall colour. Still debating between dark or white; or maybe white walls with a black door. I chose Mapei unsanded grout in Pewter for contrast with the white subway tiles. 

For the life of me I just couldn't seem to get a decent picture out of my laundry room. There's very little natural light during the winter months. 

Speaking of winter, how did you like the balmy 17 degree Celsius on Thursday? I was out all day and it made me crave for Spring. I was again invited by Pine-Sol to review their new Spring Blossom scent, which is comprised of a delightful combination of Jasmine, Magnolia and Orange Blossom. The Magnolia scent was very present which I love. This comes so timely for the spring cleaning. You can read about my other Pine-Sol review here. It's a great versatile product that makes cleaning chores so much more pleasant.  

I will leave you with this new Roll & Hill Agnes style pendant light recently installed in my kitchen. Since I don't have the time or energy for a kitchen overhaul (and I do need an overhaul because I am changing up everything), I thought I would splurge on an island light like this for now. The pendant light is available through Black Rooster Decor here. 

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 :))

Life, Lately

Is it just me or this January seems so long that it never wants to end? New year was off to a super busy start after the holidays, but it's all good.

Lately I've expanded my art horizons - in addition to my typical go-to oil/acrylic medium, I've grown to appreciate photography and visual arts more. Here are a few of my favourite picks from Minted and Society6. 

"Time Stood Still" from Minted was the first one to arrive. Artist Maja Cunningham captured a perfect moment with ephemeral colours and lights. 

I was stunned by how unique and gorgeous these Iittala Festivo candle holders were when I spotted them at Illums Bolighus in Copenhagen. 

And again in the Iittala flagship store on Pohjoisesplanadi in Helsinki, picture below. I remembered telling myself that I needed to start collecting them. 

Picture below: Iittala store in Helsinki, Finland.

And collecting I did. I am now onto four pieces, and thankfully, you can still find some 1960s-1980s vintage signed ones in the aftermarket. 

This picture below was taken using my new Canon EOS M10 camera, a lightweight bridge camera between DSLR and Point-and-shoot. It's going to take some getting used to for someone like me who's been using DSLR all my life. The camera takes pretty decent pictures I must say. It's slightly noisier than DSLR under the same lighting, but it's lightweight and agile so I am going to use it more for interior photos. By the way, I don't think I can live without this Diptyque Eucalyptus candle this winter. I am obsessed with this single-note scent. 

In a few days this wallpaper will be installed in my powder room. 

Still debating what type of mirror would go with this charcoal grey and white floral wallpaper, but I am thinking something like this, a Venetian piece?

This was also on my 2017 project list, to replace the island light in the kitchen. Since I don't have the time or energy to do a complete kitchen overhaul, I decided to splurge on this Roll & Hill's 10-light Agnes chandelier. I could hardly wait for it to go up. 

Don't gasp if I tell you I never watched Downton Abbey before. We just started watching it, and half episode in I was immediately hooked. Isn't Downton a heaven for OCD people like me? 

I will be back to write about the powder room and kitchen light.