Just Some Stuff I Finally Did

I'm sure many of you understand the never ending to-do list that quite literally never ends simply because you never seem to get to the 'do' part. I've just passed four years of living in the "new" condo and there are several things that I've only just managed to cross off the list. Mind you, design is a process, and things have to happen in a certain order, and sometimes those things just take time.

Case in point: Shortly after I moved into my condo I created a gallery wall at the end of the front hall next to the built in study nook (see the finished product in this post). When I painted the wall a dark navy blue two years later, I took most of the artwork down and hung just four gold framed paintings. My intention was to recreate the gallery wall in the master bedroom. The plan was to hang the photos above a marble top commode (which I had yet to purchase) and also to incorporate a small bedroom television. It was nine months before I would find the right Louis XVI chest of drawers (see this post) and another 15 months before I wall mounted the tv and hung the photographs to recreate the gallery wall.

Et voila!

Of course I'm still not 100% done. I'd like to replace the Toronto photos in the center triptych with three new photos, but there's no rush, I'll get around to it eventually. If you're really paying attention, you'll notice that I went the extra mile and added a paintable cord cover to camouflage the ugly television wires.

Since I was on a roll, I also took the time to add a custom touch to the Pax drawers I had installed in the master bedroom closet four years ago (here is the original post). This past fall, while looking for cabinet hardware for a client, I fell hard for these Martha Stewart brass bin pulls. I ordered them up and they've been sitting in an envelope for months just waiting to be installed. I was nervous to do the installation on my own because the job required  precision - the pulls all needed to be perfectly aligned and level. Turns out it wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be, it took less than an hour, and the pulls added the custom look I was hoping for.

 

It's always nice to get things done around the house. The to-do list dwindles and there's a real sense of satisfaction that comes with a job well done. Onward & upward.

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!!