Home Sweet Home {Brennah's Room}

My favourite of all the new spaces in our house... My little Brennah's room... And she loves every part of it... Which makes it all worth while, doesn't it?

The little lady herself, enjoying her new bed... She gets giddy with excitement when we tell her that it's time to go to go to sleep... Filled with pillows and her favourite things, who wouldn't love to lay down in this bed?

I always knew that a pretty chandelier would be perfect for any little girl's room... And I was thrilled when we came across this one which is pale blush pink for a great price! Unfortunately, Jay frequently hits his head on it... The price of beauty I guess!

Lovely custom made Butterfly Mobile from "Almost Sunday"

The dresser was handmade by my dad and a surprise wedding gift... We changed out the pulls to lovely little crystal knobs...

Adorable custom hoops from "Jane Says"

The stunning custom banner, made from vintage fabrics is from the shop of "Jump Up and Down"

Hope you enjoyed looking at picutres of the renovations... Thanks for all the great comments and compliments... Over the next few weeks, with the baby only a few weeks away, I will be featuring all things baby and children... Can't help it... I guess I've got baby on the brain! Stay tuned and have a fantastic weekend!

Home Sweet Home {Kitchen}

The new view into the Kitchen... There was no door there before the renos... Now I have direct access from my kitchen to the Dining Room, making setting the table and keeping an eye on Bren when she's eating, much, much easier!

We actually found this stunning mahogany hutch on Kijiji (for a great price to boot)... Not only do I think it's lovely, it gives me much needed additional storage in the Kitchen and the scale is perfect for our tiny little space...

The hutch houses additional dishes, my saucers that I use for photographing my jewellery, and of course, my cookbooks...

I was determined to keep the counter top as uncluttered as possible... And after a long search for the perfect canisters, I found these clean, simple glass pieces...

The Kitchen used to be green... But with filling in the old doorway and adding another, we knew it would be very difficult to match the paint... So we took the opportunity to re-paint in a slate blue... The rest of the work in the Kitchen (counter tops, new sink, back splash, painting the cupboards) was completed back in the Spring of 2006... The new flooring is bought and will be going in Thanksgiving weekend (hopefully) with the help once again of my dad!

Yes... Those are Christmas lights... I keep them up all year long in the house... I love the festive look in all four seasons!

Home Sweet Home {Living Room}

Our new Living Room

I was thrilled to finally have some place to display a few favourite photos...

Home Sweet Home {Dining Room}

Our new Dining Room, where the Living Room used to be... Much easier to access the new kitchen doorway... And much better clearance around our rather large table which was a wedding present from Jay's parents...

My favourite piece of furniture... A hand carved shelf from India...

The view of the Dining Room from the Entry Way... When we first began to ponder this new layout, I couldn't picture walking into the Dining Room when first entering the house... But I've been amazed how nicely this new layout flows...

The lovely bay window... I loved it the first time we looked at the house... The curtains were custom made by 'Beautiful Handmade'

The hutch, also a wedding present from Jay's parents which houses my teacup collection (a University graduation gift from my Grandma Dallimore)... Each cup has a history, a story, which I adore... The hutch is also home to my growing collection of antique and vintage dishes as well as a lovely vintage silver tea set, a bridesmaid's gift my sister in law (top right)...

The end wall we painted in Behr's Semi-sweet... It's dramatic, but not overwhelming and I think it adds lots of warmth to the room... Hanging on either side of the hutch are pictures of our Paris trip on the left and our Newfoundland trip on the right...

The bay window is such a warm and sunny spot... The perfect place to enjoy a warm drink on a cool fall day...

Home Sweet Home {Entry Way}

Back in August, we began to tear up our main floor... The main motivation for the renos was the fact that we're having another baby... Doesn't sound like a good time to renovate, right? However... We had a few issues... With a new little one coming, we decided to move Brennah our of the nursery and into was used to be our guest room... My parents live about four hours away and visit often... And when they're here, I would never have the heart to ask them to sleep on the floor... Needed: A sofa bed... Sounds simple... However, due to the tightness of the stairs leading down to our basement, there was not way we would ever be able to get a sofa bed down there... And to me, privacy is very important... That began the plan to turn our previous dining room into a living room complete with a sofa bed and french doors to accommodate overnight guests...
Thus began a rather painless renovation... Jay and my dad did all the work... The walls came down and were moved around one weekend, Jay puttered away at the dry walling over about three weeks after working all day (Do I ever love him...) and my dad returned on Labour Day weekend to help us finish everything up... After hours of work and many more hours of painting, we finally finished and I've spent the last few weeks putting on all the finishing touches... I'm thrilled and thankful for the new layout... And more than pleased with much easier access to our kitchen from the dining room... And of course, I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to give some new life to our decor, which has been in place since we moved in five years ago...

Today... The Entry Way... It used to be dark red, with a door leading into the kitchen upon entering the house (which I was never totally thrilled with as you could see my dirty dishes in the sink from the front door)... Now it's a pale shade of light green... Much more open and airy and not directly exposed to the kitchen!

Our Sweet Little Home Sweet Home, May 2008 (Our front garden has since exploded into a collection of loveliness since then... No thanks to me of course!)

Previous view of the Front Door as the renovations began... Excuse the mess!

New view just inside the Front Door

Previous view from the Front Door

Current view from the Front Door... The antique dresser belonged to Jay's Great Grandfather... It's lovely, a little piece of family history and perfect for storage...

Previous view from the Entry Way

New view from the Entry Way

Home Inspirations {Rockett St George}

I've fallen head over heels for another UK online shop, "Rockett St George"... Check out some of there stunning offerings... And they do ship internationally, for a fee of course!

Home Inspirations {Living}

Our new living room will become a cozy little sitting room that will be perched behind frosted french doors that will provide privacy for guests that will someday use our new queen sofa bed (for which we are still waiting)... I am hoping to work some family photos into the room and leave it generally uncluttered and serene... We shall see!

Love the feel of all these living rooms from "Better Homes & Gardens"




I'm still hunting for the perfect pillows and was inspired to perhaps create my own from this "Country Living" project idea for Stenciled Pillows... The stencil is on its way in the mail!


I've drawn a lot of inspiration from Holly of "Haus Maus"... Her completed living room in Hanover, Germany looks a lot like ours will in the end with the big picture window and furniture placement... I'm hoping to add a shelf (although I'm still searching for something long enough) above the couch to showcase favourite photos...


Our doors, although not antique, look a lot like these great old doors... There is already a lot of wood in our living room & dining room, so we've decide to either white wash or paint our doors... But I love the horizontal panes for something a little different... We also purchased great vintage cyrstal door knobs online that were salvaged from an old house in San Francisco!


We're hoping to someday add a cabinet to our collection similar to the one pictured here to store the bedding for the sofa bed (Image from "Country Living")

Home Inspirations {An Angel at My Table}

I adore the UK shop of "An Angel at My Table"... Although they don't seem to ship outside the UK, there are many lovely pieces to droll over and ideas that have inspired me... Enjoy!


Definitely hoping to work a few 'Ardent Sparrows' into the new spaces!



We are making some changes to the kitchen that will (hopefully) allow me to incorporate more storage... A cabinet like this is exactly what I'll be looking for, should the renos go well... Storage on the bottom for my small appliances and space on top to display my cookbooks and some pretty things... Isin't it lovely?


I'm looking a sparkly mirror like this one for B's new room...


Adore this bed... It's nearly identical to the one we purchased in cream for B's new room!