Dining Room - The Plan Part 2

Since I already showed you my curtains and the rug for this room, I'm guessing you have a pretty good idea where the colour direction is going.  Blue and brown and cream.  Very neutral compared to the front hall, but I'm hoping also very sophisticated.

The molding that we've planned for the dining room walls is also a lot more complex than the front hall molding and will require a lot more math, a lot more cutting, a lot more nail-hole-filling and caulking (boo) and obviously a lot more time.  I'm going to use the caulking gun this time so watch out for my how-to on that, once I master it of course.

For the trim we're going to keep the wood for now, maybe forever.  We love the look of it and the glass doors are so beautiful... I can't bear to change them.  In the future if we open up the kitchen/dining rooms that may be a different story.

For the upper part of the wall we're going with Prelude a nice blue-gray from Behr.

For the lower part of the wall and the molding/baseboard we're going with Ocean Pearl (also Behr).

We still have some outstanding things to decide.  We need a privacy idea for the windows, I was hoping for something other than sheers since I want a cleaner look.  All the furniture is wood and pretty traditional so we'll have to find some ways to inject some more contemporary items.  I don't want it to come out looking "old-persony".  No offense intended to actual "old people".
We need to decide if we are keeping the light fixture.  I already bought a replacement, but I'm not sure... what do you think of the current one?

We need something for the wall opposite the "balcony" and I'm thinking a mirror, but maybe something that we diy.  It will need to be pretty wide and not very tall to fit nicely above the chair rail.

Whew!  So that's the plan for the dining room almost complete.  Time to quit yapping about it and get down to business.

Dining Room - The Plan Part 1

Since there are SO many elements in my dining room plan, I decided to divide and conquer here.  In this post I'm going to talk about the existing elements in the room and existing furniture, etc that we will be using.  In the next post we'll talk colours and go over some other exciting goodies.

The dining room looked like this when we bought the house (not our furniture, etc).

The plan is to remove the wallpaper and add molding to the walls (more on that later).  We're going to change the layout and move the buffet to the other side of the room, I think this will really improve the flow.  We have a buffet and china cabinet (wedding gifts) which will be going in here and we also have a hand-me-down table and 4 chairs that will be staying for now.  Here's a preview.  Can you see now why we needed new curtains?

The rug (pictured rolled up above) was a clearance purchase from Ikea and is one of my favourite items in the room and was the second inspiration item that I alluded to before.  It's got a kind of oriental style pattern and is lovely soft wool.  You can also see the inspiration curtains folded on the buffet (above).
I think its going to be beautiful!  What do you think?

Powder Room - The Plan

So although we're in full party planning mode (read: procrastinating on making all the food/cleaning so that we can run around like idiots before the party)... we have picked the colours for the powder room.  After holding up many paint swatches to our lovely green tiles... we've decided to go green-gray with the paint colour.  Etching to be exactly. 

CIL paints

I think this will look lovely with our inspiration art and the name "etching" has given me an idea for an art project... can you guess what it might be?

So for the rest of the bathroom, yes, we will be removing the pink toilet and ugly vanity that I showed you before.

For the toilet we're going low-flow; it's good for the environment and for the wallet.  We managed to snag this beauty (can a toilet be beautiful?) for 30% off from Home Depot and we get a rebate from the city for installing a low-flow model.  In case you're really curious this toilet it a 4.8 L or 1.28 Gallon flush.  We thought about going dual flush, but decided against it since I think its weird to flush a toilet by pressing a button.

Kohler Cimmaron Comfort Height Elongated Toilet from HD

Moving along... the vanity that I wanted was this one (but in dark brown), but even on sale it was over $700 and that was not in the budget. 

Magickwoods Sonata Base w/Porcelain Sink from HD

I love the shallow porcelain sink, which I think is perfect for a powder room.  Nice and wide so lots of kids (in the future) can wash their hands and since you almost never plug the powder room sink to say, wash your face it seemed perfect and very pretty. 

After more searching I found this much more affordable option from Ikea for around $200.  It has doors below the sink for hidden storage, which I actually prefer, AND it was on sale!  At Ikea!  They almost never have sales.  15% off.  Booyah!

Freden/Hollviken Sink Cabinet from Ikea

So there's the plan for the new and improved powder room.  Let me know what you think!

We're hoping to go low-flow with most of our plumbing to save money and water for the environment.  Are you going low-flow at home?  Faucets, toilets, shower heads?  How do you like/hate it?

Front Hall - The Plan

Ok so you know about my plans for the molding in the front hall, which I will go into more detail about soon, but now I want to talk colours.  I think that the front hall should set the tone of the house, it should be "you" so that when people some into your home the impression that they first get is both personal and welcoming.  Also, since the front hall is a room that you really just pass through, I think you can go a bit bolder with colour or pattern since it won't seem as overwhelming in a hallway as it would in a room that you would sit in.

My favourite colour is turquoise.  That's something that you should probably know about me up front, which makes it perfect for the front hall.  I have to actually try (hard) to pick up other paint chips at Home Depot... if I'm not careful the whole house will end up painted in various shades of lovely blue-green.  Not that it would be a bad thing, but it might be too much of a good thing... know what I mean?

In choosing a colour for the front hall I had to consider the existing elements that will not be changing.  The front hall has lots of doors: the front door, a double door closet and a door to the powder room.  Right now, the closet doors are brown faux-wood laminate (yuck!) and the other two doors are painted a soft minty sage green, which was chosen I'm sure to match the forest green ceramic tile.  I suppose green was the former owner's "turquoise"... irony. 

I'm planning to paint all the doors white to match the trim (baseboard and molding).  Side note - there are a million colours of white out there... how does any one choose a trim colour to use throughout their house?  Maybe that's a topic for another post.  Sorry.  Back to the doors... the front door is a solid door that I would love to replace with a half glass door eventually since the hall is quite dark, but that is not in the budget right now, so we're whitening it up to lighten the room.

We're going to do molding, as I mentioned, on the bottom half of the wall and paint it all white to add even more lightness.  Then I started to get concerned that it might be too much white... and that probably we needed to go a bit bolder with the paint colour for the top of the wall.  This is what I am thinking...

Either the darkest or the next lightest one.  I have to be careful that the room doesn't come off too green since we're not changing the tiles.  I don't want to repeat the mistakes of the previous owner and overwhelm the space with too much of a good thing.  What's your favourite colour?  Is it reflected in your house?  Wardrobe?

Family Room - The Plan

Our first room to tackle is the family room; this is the room that we tend to spend the most time in (mostly because it has the big TV).  For this makeover the plan is to remove wallpaper and chair rail, paint, install new carpet, install some shelving and move in the furniture. 

This room is really dark, so we plan to lighten it up with a light paint colour and lighter carpeting... preferably one without gross questionable stains on it.  We have an existing couch, which is GIANT, that we will be planning the furniture layout around.  Its the Morton sectional from EQ3... we have 2 of those center pieces and an extra corner... HUGE.

The paint colour that we've chosen is Behr Sandstone Cove (middle)

It's warm and light, but still has enough colour to stand out against white trim.  I never thought I would even paint a room beige, but I guess there is a first time for everything.  We are trying to match the paint and carpet to these pillows from Ikea (KAJSA RAND pillows), which match the couch.

 

For the carpet we're going with Stainmaster berber in Cream (which is almost the same as the paint colour). 

We ordered this from Empire Canada.  They come right to your home with samples.  I love shopping at home.

I know we'll need some colour in this room since I don't want it to be all beige and gray.  I'm thinking RED would really spice it up.  What colours do you love to add a punch of colour?