A Room of One's Own.

When we bought our house, it was advertised as a three bedroom.  The third bedroom has no closet and is too tiny to fit much more than a bed.  Luckily, we don't need three bedrooms and I turned the wee room into my home office.  Over the years (four to be exact) it has evolved into a sort of dressing room / office hybrid and now that I work from home I've made sure that it's full of lots of my favourite things.  I'm a firm believer in being surrounded by stuff that makes you happy and comfortable while you work.  There can be great inspiration in the right surroundings!

Here's where the "magic" happens! My sister (and space management guru) painted the legs of this kitchen table that was left behind by the previous owners of the house.  The curtains are from Target.  We have Target in Canada now, American friends.  If any of you can advise as to how I can go there without spending $200, please, let me know in the comments.

This cozy spot in the corner features an old-as-the-hills Ikea bucket chair all dressed up in some velvet and colour from Target.  The footstool, which is lighter than air, is also from Target.  I love it.  What I like best about this spot is the mixture of textures.  It feels luxurious somehow, even though it's not (technically).

I picked up the sail boat at a little store on Queen East in Toronto called My Cottage (it's closed now) and the organizer is a vintage find from Value Village.  It's made of thick cardboard and houses paper clips, business cards and other stuff I don't need to access on a daily basis.

A gallery wall over my desk gives me something to look at when I'm throwing my head up in frustration.  The sketches of New Orleans were purchased at one of those T-shirt joints on Bourbon Street and framed in Dollar Store frames.  More fake luxury.  

Just below the gallery wall is this white board for more immediate concerns.

When my aforementioned sister was trying to help me be less of a pack rat, she clipped this pic from a New York Times Magazine and turned it into a magnet for me.  No need to keep the whole magazine for one little pic, right?  The picture is the view Nora Ephron had from her desk in her New York apartment.  I like to think that I can look out that same window when I'm writing.

This is the hub for organization and inspiration.  I have found (through much trial and error) that I need to have several lists, calendars and reminders for things that need to be done.  I'm a visual learner.  This big wall calendar has been a life saver.

The mirror is a great focal point in the room and was another very reasonable purchase from Winners.

The Steve Allen photo has been in every office have worked in since the late 1990's.  I always figured that if the Post Office had pictures of The Queen and churches has pictures of Jesus, people that work in any creative field at all should have pics of Steve Allen.  Whatever you're doing, he did it first and better.

The best art in the room is hanging right above the door, it' an original painting of Lenny's from early this year.  It's an Untitled Mixed Acrylic on File Folder.  It really brightens the place up, just like she does to the rest of the house.

Do you have any "must haves" for your home office?  What makes you happier and therefore more productive?  I'd love to know!

Latest Obsession: All things Copper

Image via Handcrafted Virginia 

It starts simply enough.  You find yourself admiring the copper pots at Williams-Sonoma.  Then you're looking at pictures of Julia Child rocking her copper pots like a boss, then you're pinning images of copper pots on Pinterest at 3 AM.

Totally normal behaviour.

LOVE this! Image via Adriaan Louw Photography

What you realize quickly enough is that there are so many other inventive ways to use copper in your home.  Pots are just a gateway drug!

These amazing pendant lamps remind me of the 70's - in the best way possible.

via David Dersken Design

This copper farmhouse sink is folksy and warm.  Bonus? It probably still looks folksy and warm when it's not super-clean!

via Her Split Ends

I'm filled with a sudden urge to wrap presents and do mindless office work, while I gaze at this well appointed modernist tape dispenser.

Akita Tape Dispenser

If you'd like to follow along while I feed my latest obsession, check out my Pinterst Board, Bring me all the copper things!

Current Obsession: 1950's Italian Graphic Design

Specifically, these amazing works by Giovanni Pintori for the Olivetti Lettera typewriter.

I would love to have some of these framed.

Taking the Paint Plunge

We are getting to that stage in the renovations where it makes sense to commit to wall colours. We may even be buying some paint tonight! I had no idea this would happen so fast! I'm finding this both exciting and a little overwhelming. My sister, who is the family interior designer, has offered some great advice and some beautiful paint chips and magazine clippings.

Not sure if these will read accurately on your monitors, but even if they don't, isn't it always fun to look at stuff like this?


I'm loving these warm, soothing, Pottery Barn inspired colours. I think "Lychee" would be beautiful on the living room and dining room walls - that area is sort of open concept and I think that painting in the same neutral would be a wise choice.


The top of this chart "Tracery Entrelacs" is the front runner for both the master bedroom and the guest room. My office is teeny tiny and I think it would be really fun to paint it a dark colour so that the light wood furniture I'll be using will pop. Initially, I was thinking of charcoal grey but now that we are going with a very light blue for the two rooms next to it, I think it might make sense to go with something from the deeper end of this colour family, "Smoked Turquoise" or "Spring Evening".

As I've mentioned before, I'm embracing the decades old dark wood cupboards in the kitchen and going for a mid century modern look. I've always loved blue and brown together and think a saturated turquoise would be the perfect accent colour for the kitchen. I found this card at Home Depot and it's as if somebody at Behr was reading my mind.


"Embellished Blue" and "Ultra Pure White" are exactly what I want for that room. It's a bright colour which can make one a little nervous (what if my kitchen looks like it should be an extra in a Wham video?!) but I think I need to try for this. It's important to me that the kitchen be sunny and cheerful and I think this will be just the ticket.

There are a few more decisions to be made - a couple of rooms we haven't given much thought to - but I can feel my mind leaving paintland and moving into whatdowehangwhereland already. Slow down brain, there's still a month until you move in!

Some Thoughts on Decor

Kitchen Confidential

So we get the keys to the house at some point today and I'll be able to get in there, take some pictures and see just what everything looks like. I really remember very little, my visits were quick and over a month ago. It's a little bizarre. One thing I've been focussing on is the kitchen. I think it's a bit of a diamond in the rough. Here's an awkward photo of it from the Real Estate pages:


Naturally, we'll get rid of the table, the holly hobby lampshades and the wallpaper. The plan is to add a double sink and a butcher block counter at some point, too. Now conventional wisdom would dictate that I replace or at least paint out the dark stained cupboards, but I'm planning of keeping them and building the kitchen around their mid-century charm. I WILL be replacing the hardware, with something along these lines:


I'm picturing the walls in a sort of teal or aqua to play off the brown of the cupboards and I'm looking forward to accessorizing with my favourite vintage kitchenware like this beautiful casserole dish I picked up on Etsy last year on Christmas Eve.


What did I say to The Robeau when I showed it to him? "I'd like to build a kitchen around this piece some day." Now I can.

Dining with Decals?

Here's what the dining room looked like when we were at the open house (they were using it as a living / sitting room:


There's lots to be done, like tearing up the pink shag carpet, losing the weird bedknob looking spindles in the pass through and replacing the fancy lady draperies. We have a dining set and sideboard that are very mid-century modern (don't you love teak?) and I was thinking it might be fun to create a little shabby chic contrast on the wall. There are lots of great opulent looking wallpapers happening right now which could be fun. Ultimately, what I'm thinking about is finding a way to add some luster to the modernity of the mid-century shapes we'll be housing in there. Something I'm considering which seems almost too easy and economical to be true is decals:



I'm not sure though, the space might be too small for a statement like that to work. I don't know. Like I said, I hardly remember anything and it's all academic until I get in there, armed with paint chips, The Robeau's good design and common sense and the Decor Dream Team (Paula, Annette and Jen). Hopefully we'll be hearing from The Decor Dream Team in more detail on these virtual pages over the next several weeks as we whip this house into shape. In the meantime, any thoughts or suggestions you have are more than welcome in comments. I never get tired of swapping these kinds of ideas.

Keeping Myself Busy.

If all goes according to plan, by the end of this week, we will have the keys to our new house. This "30-day close" thing is pretty intense. The Robeau has spent many of those days juggling money around, interviewing contractors and meeting with electricians. I haven't really been involved since the night we put the bid on the place and I signed my name on the papers. For one thing, his schedule is way more flexible than mine and for another, what the hell am I going to say to an electrician? "You make the lights go? And the house won't go boom? YOU'RE HIRED!" So yeah, I've packed a few boxes but not too many since we are keeping the apartment until the end of September and we still need to be able to function for the next 6 weeks. This leaves me with exactly two things to do. Obsessively flip through home decor magazines and daydream about the new couch I'm going to buy just as soon as I'm sure that it won't be covered in paint or drywall.

As mentioned in the previous ranty post, I'm a woman of ample size and my legs are so long it's just a little bit ridiculous. You know that old film noir line about "only the floor kept her legs going on forever". That's me. My legs actually do go on forever. I've got lengthy gams, stretched pins, stems that do indeed need to be seen to be believed. And for 'lo the last five years I've been planting them on a cute little Ikea 2-seater Cube Couch. It's modern and sleek and it looks nice in our current living room. In fact it's the only couch I could picture working in there. That said, my legs just don't fit. I have to bend like a Cirque du Soleil performer in order to get my legs up on it. If I want to take a nap on the couch I pretty much have to fold myself in half. I'm ready for something more. I want a relationship with my couch that is cozy. Ladies and Germs, meet what will someday soon be my new couch:

Sure, he's not much to look at, at first, but when you realize how deep the seats are and how the cushions are stuffed but not overstuffed and that the slip cover is made of corduroy you're going to fall in love with him a little bit too.

Deck the Halls

Putting up the Christmas decorations gives me such pleasure it's very difficult for me not to jump head first into a box of tinsel the moment the door bell stops ringing on Halloween. The past couple of years I've managed to hold off until the beginning of December at which point I light my tree the same night as the folks at Rockefeller Centre do. Why? I'm not sure...but it seems like as a good a reason as any.

If I've done it right, the decorations make me want to both entertain, and snuggle up in my bathrobe with a good book.

The view from the bedroom door. I love waking up to this...



Tree, close up: one of these days I'm getting a pre-lit tree...those cords really bug me.



The star on top of the tree, along with the inspiration on the wall.



Buddy the elf, and clear ornaments with lots of coloured glass. I enjoy the contrast of the coloured glass and the black and white photograph. That's me and Noix on her wedding day.



Antique from Great Aunt Mima lives in front of Jep's comic art.



"Media Corner", next to the piano:



Cards in entry way to kitchen.



The Robeau's Mother had a tradition of giving all of her kids an ornament every year that they then got to take away with them when they grew up. Here are the three wise men and two beautiful beaded handmade ornaments from that collection.



All the colour and glitz seems to land in the kitchen window. The burlap is an attempt to anchor all the shine with something a little more earthy.



This collection of ornaments from my childhood and the Robeau's, along with more recent additions sit in the window in some of the many martini glasses I don't have cupboard space for.



Pottery Barn coasters - loose, looking like they don't care.



Wine glass with blue christmas balls, to match depression era tea cups:



Coloured lights offset by Bahamian painting.



Runner and ornaments from Pier One. These are all about colour and texture. I really like blue and pink ornaments rather than the traditional red and green.



TV Fireplace - A MUST