/Project Ugly Duckling

An Update on Project Ugly Duckling + an Intro to Project Debonaire Young Sir

I don’t know if I can get an “amen” on this one from any of my fellow migraine sufferers, but this weather has been giving me a run for my money lately! At least I think it’s the weather. Apparently we are in for another week of rain here in Ontario, which is not exactly the best news I’ve heard all year. Ugh. These are the weeks I start packing my bags and buying us all one-way tickets to California. You’d come with me, right? At least, those of you who aren’t there already!

{source}

Well in the midst of the gloom and glum of overcast skies and endless wet, good news keeps arriving in inconspicuous cardboard boxes via my friendly neighbourhood FedEx delivery man. Firstly, the wallpaper has arrived for the bathroom!! The rolls are actually bookmatched to one another so that the pattern is wider than your typical wallpaper and feels more like a mural. Decadent! I. Can’t. Wait. To. Get. This. Fornasetti. Gorgeousness. Installed. In. My. Home! Colour me giddy.

Another lovely delivery to arrive by post this week are my sconces for the bathroom. I wanted something simple, slightly retro and even nautical/industrial in feel while still modern and fresh. I’m really happy with the look {and the deal} of what I found. I ordered two of these Possini sconces from Lamps Plus which arrived lickety-split. No fuss. No muss. Very happy.

OK, it is now confession time. Yes, I wanted to go with satin brass on all of the fixtures in this bathroom. Naturalment. But I had already purchased the towel bars and other accessories in chrome a year or more ago when we renovated the other bathroom, thinking I would want all the bathrooms in the house to flow. While on the one hand I’m sad that my need for brass cannot be fulfilled in this space, on the other hand, the chrome faucet I’ve order was a fraction of the cost it would have been in satin brass. And chrome never dates. So I am content.

I’m also excited, because the hallway that connects to this bathroom {the one that is now adorned with that gorgeous chevron floor} also connects to a bedroom {formerly my design office, which I’ve moved} and we have decided to transform it into Noah’s new “suite.” He’s a rather sophisticated little monsieur, so I’ve decided to call this Project Debonaire Young Sir.

I’m basing the inspiration very loosely on one of my favourite bedrooms by one of my favourite fellow designers: Thomas Smythe. Tommy Smythe has officially got debonaire down to an art form.

{Image via House + Home}

Much will be different about our space, of course, as Noah wants cream walls rather than charcoal and mama can’t afford to get her sweet little prince a Louis Phillipe commode just yet…but, the mix of pattern, the gallery wall, the nod to colonialism…well, I hope to include a dash of all that goodness with a little whimsy thrown in for good measure!

Still waiting on the mudder/taper to get in here and finish the walls so we can get the baseboards, crown and trim up. It’s a good shot to the arm to have fun things arriving in boxes right now as it makes me feel like progress is still being made, even if the rooms are kind of at a stand-still right now.

{drums fingers on desk and looks up number of drywaller again}

It’s so hard to wait when the Ugly Duckling is showing signs of her inner swan emerging! But many years in this business have taught me that it will be worth the wait. Sigh.

Wishing you all a very happy, inspired Thursday!

xo
s.

By |July 4th, 2013|1 Comment

An Update for Project Ugly Duckling {including some VERY good news!}

I received a very, very happy phone call last week and it has been all I could do to keep the news of it under my hat until now. As it would happen, the lovely ladies at Kravet Canada follow my blog and read last Tuesday’s post about my love affair with Fornasetti’s Nuvole wallpaper.

This may feel a bit like a genealogy for a moment, but Fornasetti wallpapers are made by Cole and Son, and Cole and Son is distributed by Kravet. It’s one big happy designer family with many different personalities and aesthetics represented in the clan.

Well, last Wednesday I received an unexpected call from Sonia at Kravet {as a side note, this woman has the most perfectly shaped eyebrows you’ve ever seen…seriously…I have confessed my eyebrow envy to her many a time}. To my utter amazement and total delight, Cole and Son has decided to sponsor the wallpaper!!! Eeeeeee!!! I’m pretty much covered in bruises from pinching myself since I got Sonia’s delightful call and cannot WAIT to get this stunning, statement-making paper installed! Oh happy day!!!

The truth is, we are just at the drywall stage, repairing the walls now that the electrical has been done, and I’m waiting for the mudder and taper to fit us into his schedule. {Mudding and taping is the ONE job Graham won’t do – he values his sanity too much. Read: mudding and taping is the messiest, most tedious, WORST job in a reno!} Once the mudding and taping are done, Graham will get the trim up and we’ll paint the trim and crown and ceiling, etc…and THEN the wallpaper can go up! So I have to take my patience pill for now and wait a couple of weeks for the gorgeousness to be revealed to you all. Things are always much slower when you do the work yourself, but gratifying too {and of course, WAY cheaper}.

Next on my to-do list is lighting, so I’ll update you with that next week as we keep plugging away on the beautification of Project Ugly Duckling. She’s still more duckling than swan right now, but I can visualize her transformation and am rather giddy at the anticipation of the reveal!

Happy Thursday!

xo
s.

By |June 27th, 2013|3 Comments

An Update on Project Ugly Duckling + Some Wallpaper Love

It’s time for an update, and I am SO EXCITED! My amazing husband has been working hard to lay this rather complicated floor for me. Let’s just say, this is an installation that even my professional tile installers would moan about, and Graham didn’t so much as winge. I am BEYOND impressed at how successfully he passed this test of patience.

He is currently working on the electrical so the best I can show you right now are these photos taken with the natural light available on a really rainy day, but I think you’ll agree, the new floor is SPECTACULAR! I am beyond in LOVE with it and still can’t believe I found these tiles for $3.50 a square foot. Steal of the century! The statement this floor makes as soon as you open the door to this hallway makes me SO happy. Stylish, sophisticated, subtle in its striation…simply STUNNING! 

With the vanity on order, I’m currently turning my attention to what to do with the walls. Given all the wallpaper that once adorned this space, it seems only fitting to consider an homage of some sort. The first option to grab my attention and make my heart skip a beat is this absolute STUNNER: Nuvole from Fornasetti made by Cole and Son.

I am almost as obsessed with clouds as I am with all things herringbone and chevron, and I simply adore the look of an antique etching accomplished with this gorgeous, hand-drawn paper. How poetic would it be to enter a bathroom and find oneself enveloped in clouds? The only catch? I might have to sell my first born just to paper the bathroom, and given that this bathroom is in fact for HIM…well…seems a titch counterproductive.
{Image via Elle Decor}

Still, Fornasetti has my head even more “stuck in the clouds” than it ever was with this amazing paper. Much to consider…

For the sake of having a less expensive option to weigh on the scales of design, I searched out and found this rather whimsical and charming paper from UK-based illustrator Abigail Edwards.

I love the simplicity and playfulness of Abigail’s hand-drawn illustration, and I am warmed by the idea of feeling adrift on a sea of dreams in this little bathroom – a sweet escape in which the imagination could journey to many a land. Our son is in fact a sailor, so there is something that feels rather apropos about this one.

The third option, of course, would be no wallpaper at all, and my imagination is playing with the options for what I could do to create interest on the walls, complimenting the stunning floors while not competing with their texture and style statement.

What do you think? Do you have a favourite wallpaper between the two? And could we all just take a moment to celebrate – nay APPLAUD with a standing ovation – my superstar husband for the DIY floor installation of the year?  Still so impressed with his mad skills. I am a very lucky girl to have married the son of a builder man – he’s a software sales superstar by day and a DIY champion by night. Colour me grateful!

xo
s.

By |June 18th, 2013|3 Comments