Welcome Home...

It's so nice to receive a friendly greeting at the front door upon arriving home. For me, it's seeing these fresh green walls painted in Para's Aspen Valley. The front hall project started when I added trim to the doors and painted them out last January, and just one short year later I have a completely finished entrance hall. If my memory serves me correctly, I painted half of the hall early last summer, the other half in late October and finally the back of the door to the corridor just last weekend. I know how to take procrastination to the next level - particularly when it comes to painting, since it's not my favourite thing to do.

The photo on the above left is taken from the corridor, and gives an idea of how the green transitions into the navy blue at the end of the entrance hall (you can read more about that transformation here). It certainly is a contrast of colours (which I'm obviously not afraid of), but the trim moulding on the doors and walls keeps the spaces feeling consistent. By the way, do you loooove that table lamp? It's the Alexa Hampton Helios lamp designed for Visual Comfort and it's my new favourite thing!!

The colour may be the attention grabber in this entrance, but the trim moulding is what truly adds character to the space. A modern city condo doesn't always have to be smooth surfaces and hard edges, and the DIY trim moulding sets the tone for my home starting at the front door. I created this section of trim to fit the two gold leaf quatrefoil mirrors which had previously resided in my bedroom.

One last tip: I painted out all of the trim, including baseboards, to maximize ceiling height. The condo ceilings are nine feet, but here in the front entrance the ceiling is only eight feet due to a bulkhead running from the dryer vent (located behind door number one) and washroom vent (located behind door number two) through to the exterior. Painting the trim allows the eye to travel in one motion from floor to ceiling without stopping, fooling the eye into perceiving the space as being taller than it really is. I used this trick throughout the entire condo, painting out trim and baseboards in every room.

So what do you think of the colour? I love that it's bold! Truth be told I'm happy to see the final walls painted and I think I'm done with brushes, rollers and paint trays for the foreseeable future. Insert happy dance here!!

What's Up This Weekend

I know I said this last week, but c'mon, how can it possibly be Friday again so soon? It was a busy week with the antique auction, IDS breakfast preview, Indigo summer preview and IDS gala - all time well spent! (Somewhere in there I also went to work.) This weekend will be more of the same; Empire holds their auction Sunday through Tuesday, and I'm heading back to IDS on Saturday to hear speakers Jonathan Adler, Alexa Hampton & Thom Filicia.

Weekend To-Do:

1) Empire Auction preview (starts at 10 am Saturday).

2) IDS Globe Style Saturday (Jonathan Adler @12, Alexa Hampton @2, Thom Filicia @4).

3) Paint final coat of Aspen Valley green on both doors in front hall.

4) Go through three years of House Beautiful magazines and tear out inspirational pages, recycle the leftovers. (Last weekend's leftover task.)

5) Catch E! "Live from the Red Carpet: The 2015 SAG Awards" (Sunday 6-8pm)


I'm should be able to do all of this with time to spare. What are y'all up to this weekend?

Front Hall Progess & Aspen Valley

Yesss! It was another successful weekend - I came painfully close to completing all of Friday's "to-do" list items. I knew it was an ambitious list, but in the end I just plain old ran out of time. The weekend could have used another 5 hours, or maybe I could have skipped that Sunday evening nap ;)

1) Cut to length all trim for both interior doors in front hall. Done
 
2) Paint all lengths of trim & both interior doors in front hall in Aspen Valley green. Done
 
3) Nail trim onto doors, fill nail holes & sand when dry. Done
 
4) Caulk around all trim. Done
 
5) One more coat of paint on all trim to touch up nails holes and cover caulk. Incomplete
 
6) Go through the last three years of Style at Home & House Beautiful magazines and tear out inspirational pages, recycle the leftovers. 1/2 Done, 1/2 Incomplete

As you can see by the list "check off", a good amount of progress was made on the doors in the front hall. This time I tried a new method, painting the door fronts and trim separately before attaching the trim. It seems a bit more labour intensive to paint all around the trim once it's up (meaning more brush, less roller). Regardless of my efforts to shortcut, the doors still need one more coat. Hopefully I can get around to that soon so that I can put the doorknobs back on (one of these doors leads to the guest bath). In other good news, I really, really like the look of Para's Aspen Valley green.

Hopefully I'll get through the pile of House Beautiful magazines tonight (list item #6) because the rest of this week is going to be busy. I've got a fun event happening Wednesday evening (watch for Wednesday's post), Thursday morning will be an early start for the Interior Design Show breakfast and Thursday evening I'm going to check out Indigo's Spring & Summer preview. Speaking of IDS, it's happening this weekend, January 24th & 25th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Will I see you there?

Monday Check Off & A Solid Front Hall Plan

On Friday I posted a "to-do" list for what I needed to get done over the weekend. I love that I did this, because it meant that I didn't end up languishing on the couch thinking "I can do all of those things next weekend". I tackled that list and although it may have been a tad too ambitious, most jobs were checked off.

Let's revisit the list:

1) Pick up paint test pots of 2-3 various shades of blush pink for front hall. Done
 
2) Source brass curtain rod for my mom's ongoing den makeover. Done 

3) Sand & prime trim moulding for two interior doors in front hall. Done
  
4) Prime both interior doors in front hall. Done
 
5) Cut to length all trim for both doors. Incomplete. Distracted by Golden Globes red carpet.

Testing paints in the front hall was interesting. Within seconds of brushing it on, I knew that the blush pink wasn't going to work. The colour was so soft that it didn't show up at all, so immediately I returned to my original plan of Farrow & Ball's Brockhampton Star wallpaper. I tested Para's Aspen Valley in a few spots and I gotta say, I was mucho happy with the look:

The Aspen Valley is a hint lighter than the wallpaper, which is for the

best since the front entry hall doesn't get much natural light:

Here's the plan to combine the paint and wallpaper. Wallpaper is expensive, but with this idea, I'll only need to purchase one roll, keeping the project budget friendly. The plan is to trim out the front entry wall (already done!) and hallway doors (working on it!), paint everything out in Aspen Valley, then install wallpaper within the moldings. Easy peasy, right?

My goal is to get this done and dry before this year's Oscar party which happens the weekend of February 22nd. I think I can, I think I can!!