HAPPY 2023 + WHAT'S COMING THIS YEAR!

Happy New Year everyone! We’re back to January and that means a new plan for the year. For the first time ever, I’m getting really specific about what you can look for here this year as the world (and our little business) continues to shift post Covid.

This year, we’ll be back to the blog (!!) sharing makeovers from our rental house, finished client projects (yay!), how to’s for kids spaces and our curated roundups too. I love to try new things here and I might add in a few recipes and as always, our travel adventures over on Instagram stories. If there’s anything else that you’d like to see, send me a note or leave a comment at the bottom of the page.

So, along with personal goals, our family goals and our goals for this online space, let’s celebrate the intentions we make at the beginning of a new year (even if different ones get accomplished). Here are 10 of the projects you can expect to see on the blog this year (in no particular order).

1. Client Work: Baby Girl Nursery

I can’t wait to share this project! This is first up (and coming to the blog this month). We took an office in a luxury townhouse and refreshed the space to create a beautiful baby nursery for a new little girl. This nursery project proved to be stressful in terms of getting the key items ready in time for baby’s arrival. My clients were amazingly patient and we were able to tie up the room and get it shot right at the end of 2022.

2. Rental House 3: Basement Stairs

While I never intended to share our rental houses, everyone seems to love these posts! From the kids’ art studio and our family living room in our first rental house to the homework room and our twin girls’ shared bedroom in our last house, these projects are full of heart and often have DIY elements and a lower budget. I haven’t done as well sharing Rental House #3 but this is the year I’m going to make that happen with the basement stairs a necessity (they are gross!).

3. Client Work: Shared Boys Homework Room

We have just received the amazing news that the furniture for this space has arrived!!! I can’t tell you how excited I am about this. This is a little space that was being used for storage and we are turning it into a homework area for two young boys. Here’s a bird’s eye view of the space!

4. Rental House 3: Fireplace Tile Makeover

Ok, I’ve sort of snuck little peeks at this space over on Instagram, but most of you probably haven’t seen it. In a room with so much potential, this yellowish tile has always bothered me and I am adamant to change it.

5. My daughter Kaia’s Tween Room

This is the only true before I have of this room! I can’t wait for you to see the after. Client projects often take over my own home (unsurprisingly) and there are only a few more things to finish on this space that I shared a sneak peek of last year.

6. Client Work: Shared Boys Bedroom

Gah! Bring on all the pattern on this one. A dream client and a super fun room to design, this room has bold pattern and bold blue to match it! As is the theme for all of the client projects over the past few years, the waiting game on a key piece has held up finishing this one. I feel optimistic that this will be ready for a reveal sometime this year.

7. Our Family Happy Place

I haven’t decided exactly what I’m going to share of this space, or how much will be on the blog this year, so it’s a little bit of a surprise, but one that makes our family so very happy. This project is very much about getting back to the simple things in life and finding bits of magic with our kids along the way.

8. Client Work: Girls Bedroom

The in-progress view below is halfway there! The beautiful overhead light has already been installed and we are waiting for the bed, a narrow bookshelf and window treatments to finish off this space. It’s such a pretty room; I can’t wait for you all to see it.

9. Rental House: Linen Closet

The rental house we are currently living in is my dream house but unrenovated. One of the beautiful things about the house is the original features and I feel that I have not done the original linen closet its’ due respect in terms of organization. I have personal organization goals this year and this project will tick that box as well as sharing the little beauty that this closet is in terms of untouched 1930s linen closet.

10. Rental House: Everyday Family Room

While the living room where our fireplace is may be the prettier room, this little nook here (just off the kitchen) and where the sunlight shines in is really where we spend more of our time. While the living room shines beautifully at Christmas time, this space is where we lounge everyday and where reading / chatting / knitting / cubing (my son is obsessed) happens. It’s the casual living space that we all love to lounge in. Given it’s a rental, the floors can’t change but I’m convinced that we can make this space a lot more polished than it currently is.

Other projects that may happen…

• Rental House: Powder Room

  • a small but mighty tiny room that I’m not sure I can really photograph well enough to share. Sharing what I learned for a tiny space might be helpful?

• Office

  • where all the design creation happens!

• Girls Bedrooms

  • there are two that are completed but haven’t been photographed and another one that is starting but just at the beginning.

• Boys Bedrooms

  • there are two that are completed and haven’t been photographed. Crossing fingers that we can share a couple more here too.

KAIA'S ROOM: THE PLAN AND A SNEAK PEEK!

A new tween room is coming! It’s been a long time since we last revealed a room and this one coming up next belongs to one of my favourite people ever; my daughter Kaia! So many of you have been curious how we’d address the girls’ rooms in our newest rental house, now that they’ve grown from their shared room in our last house.

With the move to Rental House #3, both girls have their very own rooms for the first time! The timing couldn’t have been better (they are 11 years old!) and although there are still sleepovers in each others’ rooms, there actually haven’t been as many as I thought there may be and both kids are loving the new space and privacy that comes with a room of your own.

One of the fun things about designing older kids rooms is that the kids themselves love to be involved. Kaia had some very firm ideas on this space and while she got the pendant light from the last room, she picked this fun and playful wallpaper herself as well as asking for a desk, pinboard and one of those hanging swing chairs.

Here’s an in progress sneak peek below. All the fun accessories (hello hanging chair, wall art, pillows, etc.) are still to come.

The Plan:

Like all good plans, some items are subject to change. This design board is similar to what’s presented to a client on presentation day; it’s a great way to showcase the key items for a space all pulled together to give the overall look and feel of the room.

Since the full reveal is still weeks away (the delays have been looong for some items), today we’re sharing the key items that make up this tween room so that you can shop the room for yourself!

GET THE LOOK

RUG (similar)

PENDANT LIGHT

WALLPAPER

WHITE DESK

HANGING CHAIR

LINEN PINBOARD

CURTAINS

ART PRINT

FULL SIZE BED

WALL SCONCE

PILLOW

SIDE TABLE

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PLAYFUL PLAYROOM

CARTER’S TEEN BEDROOM

BLUE & WHITE PLAYROOM

A COST BREAKDOWN OF OUR KIDS' BATHROOM!

You asked…and so here you are!! With so many of you interested in the costs associated with the remodel of our kids’ bathroom, we are sharing the budget breakdown below. I have never shared costs of the spaces we have designed previously, but given this is a bathroom in my own home, I am happy to share the nitty gritty details with you.

You can find the before and the plan for this space here. Of course, costs of labour vary by area and we hired professional tilers and plumbers for this project, which you could DIY if you are handy!

All prices listed are in Canadian dollars.

$60 - Paint (Colour is Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace)

$250 - Re-enameling the bathtub

$120 - Shower Curtain

$30 - Bath Mat

$650 - Vanity (with countertop and sink, no longer available)

$410 - Toilet

$350 - Shower Wall Tile (bought through tiler)

$78 - Floor Tile

$160 - Matte Black Faucet

$165 - Mirror

$28 - Towel Bar

$40 - Toilet Roll Stand Holder (I do not recommend this - it’s wobbly!)

$30 - Hand Towels

$50 - Art Prints

$60 - Photo Frames

$35 - Garbage Bin

$40 - Wooden Bath Bar

$23 - Tray

$20 - Stacking Cups

$12 - Hand Soap

TOTAL: $2611 + tile installation and the plumber to hook up the faucet water and toilet

YOU MAY LIKE THESE BLOG POSTS TOO…

KIDS BATHROOM REVEAL

MODERN GIRLS’ PLAYROOM

KIDS BATH: WHERE WE STARTED

KIDS BATHROOM REVEAL!

From the moment we saw this house, we knew we needed to make a change to the kids bathroom for the house to truly be functional for our family. I’m so excited to say that today is the day I get to share the new bathroom and the first bathroom I’ve ever designed with you all! The kids’ bathroom from our rental house #3 is FINALLY finished!

If you haven’t, go back and see where we started and if you’re on Instagram, head to my highlights to see the process from start to finish (trust me, it’s worth it!).

The intention for this space was to create a bright, airy and CLEAN bathroom and maximize the small space that we were working with. By removing the door and adding a barn door (see below), we were able to use the entire footprint of the bathroom.

You can see that we used a simple white subway tile on shower walls, and decided to have them tiled in a basketweave pattern to add something a little bit unique. Keeping in mind that this is a rental house, the floor tile was chosen mainly because of price point, but I love how the fun pattern turned out so much! You can find it here!

Since this bathroom is on the smaller side, using every last inch for functionality was essential. While I wasn’t sure how to approach the windows above the vanity (do we put a mirror over top?), I decided that it would be most practical if the kids could walk up to the mirror to look into it and there is enough space next to the vanity to do that. Bathroom art is hard! I chose these art prints for a bit of playfulness and also because they blend so naturally into the colour scheme.

In searching for bathroom ideas, a few things seemed pretty difficult to find. For good reason, not too many people share their toilets in photos, but I wanted to show this here as we really needed to use a workaround. It’s also fairly unusual to have windows directly above the vanity, and while I love the light that comes in here, we still may add frosting for added privacy.

Here you can see the before and after of the same shot! If nothing else, this shot shows how much more open the bathroom entryway is now and how by adding a barn door, the entry into the shower is open and accessible - a true essential for safely bathing kids!

I know this post took a while to come! It’s amazing how quickly some parts go (the tile, as we had this professionally installed) and how slow other parts went (finding all of the accessories). I hope you have enjoyed a glimpse into our newest home; I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

In case you missed the introduction to our bathroom and want to see more of the before photos, you can find the post about where we started and the plan of the bathroom here.

Here are all of the sources for you too. Thank you so much for cheering me on with this bathroom project and always being so invested in our rental house makeovers.

Wall colour: Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace (eggshell)

Trim colour: Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace (semi-gloss)

Shower Curtain

Shower wall tile

Floor tile

Vanity

Mirror

Art Frames

Bobby Pin Art Print

Comb Art Print

Shower caddy

Towel rack

Hand towels

Bath mat was H&M (no longer available)

Garbage bin

Toilet roll holder

KIDS BATHROOM: WHERE WE ARE STARTING AND THE PLAN

Have you been following our bathroom renovation on Instagram? The kids bathroom in our rental house started out as a completely non-functional space for our family with three kids but we have a plan and I’m sharing it with you below.

First, let’s start with some gorgeous bathroom inspiration that I used for this project!

Source: Eye for Pretty

Now, let’s take a step back and see where we started. This is the bathroom when we rented the house.

It really started out as such a non-functional space and likely the only reason that our family was lucky enough to rent this house; I said that as part of the rental, I would update the bathrooms! There was a decent amount of space here, but I truly have no idea how the previous owners functioned with it.

Let me break down the issues:

• the door opens into the bathtub

• the toilet and bathtub are brown!

• the vanity is far too large for the space

• the glass doors on the bathtub close off the space

• the entry door opens into a person standing at the vanity, or getting out of the tub!

• the tile is dirty and would be great to replace

Over the past week, I’ve been sharing the step-by-step process on Instagram stories, so let me update you in here in case you’ve missed out.

The entry door has been removed, the glass doors to the shower have been removed, the vanity and mirrors have been removed (photo on left) and the tile has been stripped out!

It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come already! I feel like you can actually see the space properly now and I can’t wait to start getting some of the new pieces in place.

So, what’s the plan? Well, one thing I won’t do in a rental is remove a bathtub (unless doing it with the owner) for fear of water damage. In this case, the tub is actually in pretty good shape and we will be having it refinished (a VERY cost effective way to refresh a tub). New tile will replace the old (our biggest cost) and yes, we will be replacing the brown toilet with a white one!

After perusing bathrooms online, I decided to really keep the colours simple and this was truly determined to find a very low cost tile for the floor and walls. Since using a professional to tile the bathroom would be our highest cost, I wanted to keep the cost of the actual tile to a minimum, as this is a rental after all.

You can imagine that white was a clear choice, and yes, the tub and walls will be white but I wanted to add something playful since this is the kids’ main bathroom and so we went for a bold patterned tile in black and white! I chose to add warmth through the vanity and you can see how the simple colours of black, white and wood go together in the board below.

1.// Boho shower curtain; 2.// Warm wood vanity; 3.// Black rim mirror; 4.// House tissue box; 5.// Black towel rail; 6.// Wood bath bar; 7.// Patterned floor tile; 8.// White subway tile; 9.// Light wood frames; 10.// Comb art print; 11.// Hairpin art print.