Ideas

We're into week 2 of our Spring One Room Challenge. If you missed last week's post we revealed that we're finally tackling our son's room and shared a few before pics of the space. It's been a busy week getting the room emptied & replacing the flooring, but before we get into the progress we've made we thought we'd take you through our design plan for his superhero bedroom & some insight into where we're drawing our inspiration from.

After our very long hiatus from all things DIY, it's not surprising that lately Kes and I have been feeling the itch to create. So now that this beautiful summer is creeping to a close and shorter days are bringing with them cooler temperatures, we've decided it's finally time for us to trade in our shorts for a few pairs of comfy paint stained track pants. The first space we're tackling is our main floor, so we decided to start with a little family room inspiration. If you are feeling inspired to change up your house, but are unsure how to get new furniture into you home, then you should check out something like this shiply furniture page to give you a better idea of what you could do.

It's April!!! And after months of snow, ice and Polar Vortex temperatures, Mother Nature is finally giving us a bit of a reprive (knock on wood) from what felt like the longest. winter. ever! Oh - and let me take a minute to say thank you for the overwhelmingly positive emails, text messages & blog comments I received after my last post.  It's funny how a public online meltdown always manages to provide the most reader engagement.  So thanks guys for allowing me to vent.  :) Now on to more pressing matters

It's amazing how quickly karma can come back around. A couple of weeks ago we introduced the concept of Random Acts of Paint as a way of paying it forward. I'm a firm believer that if we all made an effort once in a while to do something nice for someone else there'd be a little more light in the world. As it happens, not more than a week later, Kes & I found ourselves on the receiving end of a random act of kindness that quite literally brought 'light' into our lives

I love the idea that when something good happens you to, you should pay it forward. I feel like if more people tried to live by this one simple philosophy, our world would be a better place.  Sometimes just a simple act of human kindness can go a long way. I came across the Suspended Coffees facebook page recently, and this movement really reminded me that there is still some good in a world that at times seems to be filled with negativity & ignorance.  I absolutely ADORE this idea & wish it was more widely adopted here in Canada (I'm

Today we're continuing the conversation on countertop surfaces we're considering for the kitchen. In part 1 we drooled all over quartz, part 2 focused on the pros & cons of Corian, and this final instalment is all about polished concrete. Kes and I are BIG fans of polished concrete. I think mostly because it reminds us of those modern converted lofts that we love so much. There's just something cool, sleek & sexy about it

If you've been following along, yesterday we kicked off our discussion of the various countertop surfaces we're considering for our kitchen. In part 1 we shared our ultimate love for quartz. Today we'll be taking a closer look at Corian. Again for the newbies, Corian itself is not a type of material. It's actually just the most popular brand of solid surface countertops made by DuPont. It's manufactured by blending acrylic polymers and stone-derived materials into a mix which is then poured into molds. This method allows for integrated sinks, which no other material offers. Some of the other pros include: A wide

Once we got through the initial research, we took a more in-depth look at the photos we had compiled. What we figured out is that overall we love modern contemporary architecture and we want our house to reflect that in its design both inside and out. That said, we'd still like to maintain a bit of neighbourhood charm because let's be honest, we're not trying to create an art installation in the middle of the suburbs! We tried to categorize the photos into 'wants' and 'likes.' From there we could focus in on the elements of each photo we actually wanted

Today we're kicking off Design Week - or probably what will become the first of several recurring 'design weeks' as a project like ours just has so many different phases of the design process. This week we'll be focusing on the architectural design. When we decided to chase the dream, our goal was to create a home that embodied the feel of the open-concept, urban contemporary loft, while satisfying our need for the larger living space generally only found at affordable prices outside of the city. To get started, we took to the web to figure out our likes and dislikes in