Ready for Guests

The guest bedroom in the new condo is sooooo close to being complete that I've deemed it ready for guests and a reveal. This room has been in the works for more than a year - gosh it takes a long time for a plan to come together!! The faux bamboo bedside tables were found on Kijiji in December 2011, and they were given a makeover as part of a D.I.Y. challenge in June 2012. In the meantime, I put together a floorplan and design scheme, which was largely inspired by the chartreuse lily lamps I purchased in a Peterborough antique shop.

With the idea to spread costs out over the course of the year before the move, I tackled projects one at a time, slowly building my design arsenal. The vintage lamps needed to be rewired and new shades were custom made by Lia at Mod Pieces. I had my old headboard reupholstered in a grey velvet found at Designer Fabrics and upgraded to diamond tufting for a touch of luxury.

While rug hunting last summer at the Elte Outlet, I happened upon the SDH diamond coverlet, and then sewed my own pillow shams from a fabulous printed linen also found at Designer Fabrics. You may remember when I found the kantha quilt at a West Elm event last spring; I like how it adds just a touch of pink to the room.

The showstopper in this guest room is the Sanderson "Lilia" wallpaper in lime & silver. I painted all of the walls in Para Paints Pearl (SR30 from Sarah Richardson's designer palette) to match the ivory background of the paper, and then had the focal wall behind the bed and side tables professionally papered.

Some small finishing touches and the room is ready for guests to arrive. Drapery is happening soon, and then the room will be at 100%. My Mom has already stayed in the unfinished room a few times, but now I'm super for her to see the finished product next weekend!

Source Guide:
 

Wallpaper: Sanderson "Lilia"

Vintage Lamps: Nostalgic Journey

Lamp Rewiring & Custom Shades: Mod Pieces

Coverlet: S.D.H Linens via Elte Outlet

Kantha Quilt: West Elm

Fabrics: Velvet & Printed Linen via Designer Fabrics

Paint: Para Paints Pearl, SR30

Weekend Organization: PAX Wardrobes

For the past 6 weeks I've been living out of suitcases in my own home. As a Virgo, this has been driving me craaaazy!! The builder's "step in" closet organization system was comprised of a single wire shelf with hanging below - such an ineffective use of vertical space. Since the room is tight on space (10'5" x 11'11"), I needed to get everything into this one closet.

Exhibit A:  Before

When I found out that the Ikea bedroom event (15% back in Ikea gift cards) started last Monday, I printed my shopping list, jumped into the work van, grabbed a friend and headed straight to aisle 17 at Ikea's Vaughan location. Take heed people - do not attempt this alone, these boxes are H-eavy!!

Time to start my weekend project:  Closet Beautification. The first step was to remove the existing shelving which literally had to be torn out of the walls - that meant spending Friday night with a putty knife and a bucket of drywall compound. Saturday morning arrived, the patches were dry and after a touch of sanding it was time to paint. I used Para Paints* Dusk (SR39), another colour from Sarah Richardson's Designer Palette, and it covered really well in just ONE coat - bonus!! Next up, I assembled the wardrobes and managed to squeeze the boxes through the door frame and into position, although not without a lot of sweating, a touch of swearing, a moment of crying and finally a huge sigh of relief.

The rest was a breeze - assemble the drawers and insert them into the wardrobe boxes along with the shelves and bars. The most time consuming part was figuring out how to get all of my purses to fit. What a pleasure to be able to open the closet door and see this. It was a weekend of time well spent :-)

*A big "Thank You" to Para Paints for supplying the paint for this closet project. I was beyond happy that it went on so well in a single coat, it certainly made the job much easier and quicker!!