October 2013 - Love On Sunday -

October 2013 - Love On Sunday - Home About My Portfolio Inspiration Boards hello@example.com Thrifted Thursday with Julie of Elliven Studio October 10, 2013 • decor , furniture , thrifted thursday , vintage love • by Amy 4 Comments Happy Thrifted Thursday! I’m so happy to have Julie of Elliven Studio here today. As soon as I laid my eyes on her home tour I knew I had to feature her favourite thrifted find. Her home is the perfect combination of old and new and you all know how much I love a good mashup. So here it is: Favourite Thrifted Item: To be honest, it was a toss up between our dining room set (six chairs, table, hutch & sideboard) and a gorgeous white console that has amazing carving and a layer of gold leafing that is peeking through where the white paint is chipping off (I know, so amazing, right?!). But because the dining room was such a wonderful find and the price was out of this world, I’m going with it. Where You Bought The Piece: I found the set on kijiji. It was being sold by a vendor at an Antique Market in Kingston. What drew you to the piece: We have a good size dining room, so we really wanted to fill the space and take advantage of the fact that we could easily fit a large table. A table the size we were looking for would have been pretty expensive new and I wasn’t having any luck finding a vintage table that was larger than 70″-80″. This one is 98″ with all three leaves in, so the minute I saw that, I had to go and see it in person. I loved that the listing was for an entire set too, not easy to come by. Then there was the price, would you believe we got all of the pieces for $650?! Describe any work you did to give it a new life: We were pretty lucky in that we didn’t have to do anything to fix any of the pieces up immediately. One thing that is on my to do list is sourcing new hardware. I am not a fan of the existing hardware and I’m now down to only one functioning pull on the upper drawer of the sideboard (which extends the entire width of the piece). We will eventually have to re-stain the entire set, but that can definitely wait a few years. How Do You Use It: Right now, the hutch is used to display my favourite white ceramics and our silverware, the sideboard currently showcases some crystal that we inherited from hubs Grandmother and I also use it to store our holiday decor and some other odds and ends. I’m trying to find a set of lamps to place on the sideboard as well. We usually eat in the dining room for holidays or when we have guests over for dinner. We have moved the chairs that came with the set into the kitchen, I love the way that they look with our harvest table, so now I’m on the hunt for the perfect chairs. What a classic and timeless piece. Love how she decided to mix it up with some white parson chairs. Thanks so much for sharing with us Julie! If you haven’t already seen this beautiful lady’s home, you can fall in love with her home tour just like I did here . Want to see more fab finds? You can see the entire Thrifted Thursday Series here . A Style Progression October 8, 2013 • decor , interior design , my home • by Amy 17 Comments If you’re looking at this photo thinking, ‘does she really have her xmas tree up?!’ the answer is NO. I love Christmas, but definitely not in October. This photo was taken last December, when I posted about my living room progress . Which has always been VERY SLOW. I get that it’s a progression but I’m talking snails pace.. I enjoy helping other people decorate and I tend to neglect my own home. Reasons being: my indecisiveness and budget. I’m always going back and forth on style and we don’t like spending beyond our means so we like to save for certain items or sell something we no longer want or need in order to buy something new. But I’m always up for a good challenge and guys, I’m on a mission. To be honest, I’ve been holding back a little because of the chance we may move in the near future so I didn’t want to invest any time or money in painting or re-decorating. But after a good convo with the hubs-to-be, we made the decision that we’re not going anywhere any time soon. And we’ve made one simple plan which we are going to stick to: We’re only going to surround ourselves with what we truly need and love and we’re going to work harder at making this 800 sq. foot box more of a home that reflects us. We recently finished a couple of projects in our home and then realized it’s just not us. For example, if I take a look at the board (above) which I posted last October , some of the elements don’t feel like us anymore. It’s crazy how your style can evolve so much in just one year. I guess a slow decorating process really helps you learn about yourself and what you truly love. Below are some images that really appeal to both David and I. I’ve always loved mid-century modern and vintage furniture (and David has also learned to appreciate it) so I feel like incorporating more of these elements in our home makes sense. I also have a lot of thrifted pieces that I’ve collected over the years which I truly love and will always be incorporated into our interior. Just like my wardrobe, I tend to veer towards an understated ensemble, never over-the-top or too formal. I’m more of a jeans and white tee kind of gal so I feel like my home needs to reflect that. I would say both of us are pretty laid back and we dislike rooms that look too perfect. When I showed him the images above he really loved them (bonus! hehe): So I ask you, do you feel like your home really reflects you? Do you find that your style has progressed over the last couple of years? I’d love to know! Last four images via: Stadshem A Little Goes A Long Way. October 6, 2013 • decor , graphic design , personal • by Amy 4 Comments I don’t usually post on weekends but I received the sweetest little surprise on Friday. A beautiful handwritten note from Gwen of The Makerista! As mentioned here and here , I really love paper goods and I honestly don’t remember the last time I received a hand written card in the mail. So when I pulled the envelope from my mailbox, I couldn’t help but get a little giddy when I saw my name so beautifully written on the front. Gwen has no idea I’m posting this. But I

P.S. A few readers have asked which furniture & lighting we actually reach for — it's Amazon.ca Associates (Home & Furniture); take a look here if you want the current details.