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Project Ugly Duckling | Update: The Wallpaper Is Up! The Wallpaper Is Up!

I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I am that we are rounding the home stretch. As you know, with Graham’s unexpected summer of constant travel for work {he was gone more than he was home!}, progress came to a near stand-still for awhile. But this week, 3 very exciting {and very good-looking!} pieces of this pretty puzzle came together.

ONE: the ceiling, crown, casings and baseboards were painted in a GORGEOUS Farrow + Ball semigloss paint. This incredibly handsome colour is called Down Pipe, a truly classic charcoal.

You may be thinking “A dark colour on the ceiling of a small space?” Yes. And as you will see, it actually makes the ceiling feel like it might just go on forever. It’s also the perfectly dramatic contrast I was looking for to frame out the etched wallpaper, and let me tell you, Farrow + Ball‘s premium paint goes on like a dream. I cannot thank the team at Farrow + Ball enough for sponsoring the paint for this project!

The beauty of painting your trim before the wallpaper is installed is that you only have to be careful cutting-in at the floor.

TWO: THE STUNNING FORNASETTI NUVOLE WALLPAPER WAS INSTALLED!

As a designer who bridges the worlds of luxury, custom design for my clients and DIY design-on-a-budget in my own little home, I know my place. This is one project that I was not about to take on – or have Graham take on – independently. When dealing with a hand-blocked, random drop, book-matched wallpaper that requires specialty paste and a great deal of expertise to install, you call in the big guns. Enter Leo from Queen City Decorating, who has over 30 years of experience and has been installing wallpaper for some of the major Toronto interior design firms since the last time wallpaper was popular.

I loved watching Leo’s process unfold as he matched up the incredible pattern of Fornasetti’s Nuvole etched mural of clouds. He labelled the rolls meticulously, and at least half of his time was spent in planning and preparation. A lesson for all of us!

For this paper, Leo applied the paste to the walls first with a roller. Not all papers are created equal, though, so this technique doesn’t apply in every situation. I cannot say enough about knowing when to call in the professionals, friends, and this is definitely one of those times.

Because this paper is book-matched and has a random drop, the feeling in this bathroom is now one of being surrounded by an endless, custom-etched mural of clouds. Do you not LOVE it??!! I’m seriously giddy, and I cannot thank the team at Cole & Son enough for their generous sponsorship on this project. You’ve truly made this girl’s “head in the clouds” dreams come true!

THREE: The custom-made linen roman blind that has been sitting patiently waiting to find its home was also installed. The gorgeous linen we used is from Kravet, and while you can see only glimpses of it in the above two photos, I promise to take some better shots for you once the vanity is installed so you can see the whole thing come together!

Oh yes, I nearly forgot! The custom vanity I designed is going in sometime in the next two days and the toilet has already been re-installed, so I do believe we will have a functioning bathroom by the weekend, folks! Lord have mercy, I’m so excited! I have definitely reached my quota of the use of exclamation marks here, but can you blame a girl?

There is definitely something inexplicably delicious about seeing a project come together, especially one you’ve been waiting for with longing, anticipation and a heaping dose of delayed gratification. While I hope Graham never has to travel that much ever again – because I miss him, not just because of project delays! – hitting the pause button may have made the final stages of this transformation even more satisfying. Hmmm. Feels like a life lesson, doesn’t it?

I know I’ve promised you a couple of recipes and I will follow up with one of two tomorrow! Tonight, I’m off to learn from the president of Hearst Publications about the world of design + lifestyle magazines {think ELLE Decor, House Beautiful, Harper’s Bazaar, Veranda} thanks to the kind invitation of my dear friend Lisa Ferguson. Feels like a bit of a “pinch me” week, really, as I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Brian Gluckstein last night! I’ll be posting an interview with him soon, so stay tuned!

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|September 26th, 2013|3 Comments

Update 6 | Project Ugly Duckling

We are slowly moving closer to the finish line and I am sooooo excited! Graham finally got some time {between his endless flights all over North America} to work on the trim this weekend. There are a few pieces that still have to be nailed into place {like the baseboard below} but things are definitely coming along.

Up next? Wood filler, priming and painting. In the meantime, I couldn’t resist showing you the progress. I’m particularly excited about the hallway. I know. Who gets excited about a hallway? But that gorgeous tile that my gorgeous hubby installed is going to look all the more swishy once the paneling is done. Next to my love for herringbone, my love for paneling is pretty hard to top. It’s such a quick way to add sophistication and a sense of substance to your home. And if you can do it yourself it isn’t nearly as pricey as it looks in the end.

The door at the end of the hallway is an exit door and so it’s taller than the bedroom and bathroom doorways. We decided to line up the panels with the tops of the interior doors as that is consistent with the rest of the house. I’m still deciding if I’ll do a frieze moulding at the top between the crown and the panels for extra dose of dimension and gorgeousness. I just don’t want to draw attention to the differing door heights in this particular space.

I just have to take a moment for a flashback. Remember the wallpaper that used to adorn these walls?

Well we’ve come a long way, baby, haven’t we? There also used to be a random closet that opened into this hallway right next to the bedroom door. We have flipped it into the bedroom for much better use of the space and I’m looking forward to showing you the solution there. It will be smart and sophisticated and not at all 1960’s.

While I’m at it, I will share one more of my favourite trim secrets. For anyone renovating an older house, you will no doubt want to update your baseboards from the original 3 inch “plain and skimpies” to something more substantial {like the 7 1/4″ baseboards we’ve chosen here}.

Along with that, though, you’ll have to address your casings. In our case {sorry, bad pun} our casings were exactly the same as the baseboards – flat and simple with zero profile or interest. But rather than ripping them out, I chose a really great backband to add to them instead. Not only does this save big bucks, loads of time and a lot of waste from being sent to the dump, but it takes a very Plain Jane casing from this:

To this:

{backband added to the left}

This is currently happening in the bathroom and hallway around all the windows and doors as we speak and I love it! Can’t wait to fill, prime and paint these babies!

That’s it for now. The vanity is actually sitting in the garage waiting for us to catch up and get everything painted and the wallpaper installed so that the vanity can finally nestle into it’s newfound home. The pieces are all here! Now it’s just about carving out the time to put them together. Fingers crossed Graham doesn’t have too many more work trips over the next couple of weeks!

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|September 3rd, 2013|0 Comments

Update 2 | Project Debonaire Young Sir

OK, so you may remember me mentioning that Noah has a fondness for a somewhat Scandinavian aesthetic. This likely conjures images of mid-century modern teak furniture and lots of white. Well, the white would be right – he’s already sophisticated enough to love white walls {that’s my boy!} – but the rest of Noah’s Scandinavian reference is different from what you might think. Think Scandinavian lifestyle – animal skin rugs, rugged outdoor activities and the like. That is the Scandinavian influence he loves! Fun, right?

As you may remember, just before Christmas I had an unbelievable, pinch me if this is real opportunity to take a whirlwind two day trip to Copenhagen with a lovely and very generous friend. With Noah in mind, I picked up a beautiful reindeer skin rug similar to the one pictured below while I was there. {The rugs were the by-product of animals that were naturally raised for organic meat}.

{Image source}

Despite the rug shedding terribly recently {apparently this is normal and will cease shortly}, this will be the anchor for his otherwise bare hardwood floors. I just love the natural colour palette, and he loves the soft landing when climbing out of bed in the morning! I’d call that a win-win.

The next hit of “Noah’s Scandinavia” is super fun and will be the focal point above his headboard. I love that it creates the feeling of a hunter’s cottage without any actual animals being harmed in the making of this particular feature. You may have seen him in magazines. I just love his whimsy and modern simplicity. Friends, meet Bucky.

Noah had a blast assembling his new cardboard forest friend, and we can’t wait to see Bucky proudly standing guard with his stoic, gentle silence over Noah’s sweet and sophisticated little nest.

Next on our list? Finishing Project Ugly Duckling. These two rooms are connected and we’d really like to get the bathroom done first. Drywall sanding {the messiest part} should hopefully happen in the next week as the drywaller fits us in between other bigger jobs, and then we can get to installing baseboards and crown, etc and then painting in prep for that glorious Fornasetti wallpaper!

The truth is that the sanding would already be done if we hadn’t tagged along on one of Graham’s work trips to Boston this week. After he had already been in California for two weeks for work, we decided we needed to eat dinner together more than one night in a row…so…Airmiles for flights and an already paid-for hotel room led to an easy decision to just go with him! Even though he was still working like a madman most of the time, it was really nice to consistently eat dinner together each night. Noah and I enjoyed exploring a bit of Boston {including some very patient tagging along on his part to the Boston Design Center}, we took a very inspiring tour of Harvard {Noah is now seriously fired up about the dream of studying architecture there – yahoo! for inspiration!} and most of all we were just grateful to all be together.

Now that we are back I am actually busily working on a fast-paced decorating project for my favourite client’s new lake house/cottage. It’s a beautiful post-and-beam structure that simply needs some furnishing as the previous owner’s choices were…well…a little too rustic cottage-y for this client’s tastes. Let’s just say there was a lot of hunter green and tapestry going on. Not so fabulous. We are trying to get it done quickly so that they can start enjoying it as soon as possible with their large family. Here’s a sneak peak at the place…

The view of the lake is total serenity now. Just gorgeous! I’ll try to share some of the details on Project Lake House with you next week. Much of the furniture has already been ordered, so we’re going full steam ahead! Think calm and modern shades of grey mixed with neutrals and naturals, some texture and some gorgeous custom wood pieces. Knowing that custom furniture orders take time, there’s still lots to get done in order to have this family sitting around their new dining table in their new cottage for Thanksgiving this year! It’s so gratifying to work towards creating a beautiful environment for this family to connect with each other and make new memories! Makes the job much more meaningful.

That’s it from me for now…I hope you are having a thoroughly inspiring Thursday!

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|July 25th, 2013|0 Comments