Elise's Room

Now on to my roomies Vintage Travel inspired living quarters. She started the decoration by painting, and then mounting the reclaimed barn-wood headboard- type piece her dad custom built after she handpicked each panel from a store in North York specifically dedicated to salvaged barn-wood called The Barn Wood Store. She doesn’t have an elaborate bedframe so securing the wood directly to the wall allows for more flexibility, stability and options for the future. She then attached curtain rods to the ceiling and hung romantic, white sheer drapes, which give the beautiful effect of a vacation-like spa four-poster. Just like me, She was at a loss for closet space so her storage solution included the large armoire and tall dresser carried over from her parents’ house. She would definitely need all the room she could get, having to share a closet with our 3^rd roomie.  I also forgot to mention this shared closet led into each of their rooms as a sort of secret passage, which in house full of girls … isn’t as enchanting as Narnia. Elise then proceeded to find a few items that would tie in her theme, which included a beautiful rich kimono red colored vintage Asian trunk to contrast the light wall color and accessorize while still be functional as a bedside table.  Above that she hung an antique, old-world style embellished bronze/gold-ish mirror. She stylized it by adding a small coal black classic suitcase along with unique lanterns. I should also mention she is obsessed with candles … I mean don’t get me wrong, I have a hard time walking by Bath and Body Works candles without buying 4 but she definitely out does me. Where was I...Oh yes! Another addition was twinkly lights behind her bed frame for ambience and to illuminate some of the natural variation between and distressing of the barn wood and a beige pillow embroidered with a compass and map that sits amongst white organic bamboo rayon sheets. She added a faux sheepskin rug to incorporate texture and add warmth to our original farmhouse floors for those cold early mornings. Lastly, to finish her Nomad Chic dream room, Elise dragged me on the first (out of many as I would quickly discover) trip to Michael’s for supplies which included turquoise beads, twine, and a large needle-point ring, which in a Crafternoon would be strung together and paired with a large Amethyst heart and smudging feather to create a one-of-a-kind  Dreamcatcher that now rests as her centerpiece above her bed.

Here's her current transformation and next week ill discuss the living area.

My Room

On we go to the next chapter of our lovely story! After painting walls and exhausting all favors from furniture loving relatives and bringing in all the necessary living items into our new home we move onto the fun part… decorating! For my room I chose to go with a sophisticated, modern vibe with a bit of Hollywood glamour.  After much deliberation and mind changing, my roommate chose a “Romantic Nomad” theme (as she likes to put it) that would take inspiration from eclectic reclaimed items and mix them somehow with internationally inspired accents. The main living area was a mind-boggle because of its original layout but we decided we were up for the challenge of finding a way to mix two seemingly opposing styles and create a space we could both love spending time in; all using hand-me-down furniture.  Thus, the old 1940’s farmhouse began its transformation into a cozy area that mixed modern furniture with an elemental bohemian appeal.  We were lucky that our place had some great features, like a fireplace who’s mantle has since been dressed in various themes every season/ holiday (I know… sounds like a lot to keep up with, but somehow she makes it happen). The heart of the home, the kitchen was a place we knew could stand the test of time and stick with the original farmhouse theme, with some girly accents of course!

 To start the transformation of my room, I convinced about 5 young gentlemen to build my beautiful new armoire, which came in a million pieces. Typical Ikea purchase, a bunch of pieces and a vague instruction guide nobody wants to read through without ripping their hair out. I knew right away there’s no way I had the ability or patience to tackle this build on my own, So I bribed these 5 strapping young men (my other roommate conveniently had them over to help her paint her room) with beer to get the job done. I realized quickly that I probably should have given them the beer AFTER they completed the task, as my lovely armoire began its life in my room backwards. Yes, absolutely backwards, and I could feel myself starting to need a drink myself out of sheer frustration. It was then disassembled and rebuilt properly after putting the fear of god in them, which then started the ball rolling. Next, I proceeded to take off the door to a Hobbit-like closet that barely fit a fraction of my clothes. This freed up much more space for me to fit my queen size leather bedframe and headboard. I glamourized my now door-less closet by finding a nice inexpensive rod and hanging a sand colored ready-made curtain. This tied in the color choice on the walls and my new furniture, which was a deep shade of espresso brown. Then I mounted two floating shelves in the same color to put all my lavish perfumes on display and to rest beneath the wall mounted TV I would eventually purchase.  I had also found a gorgeous glass candleholder with quartz-like gems dripping like a chandelier. Shortly after, I found a TV.  I’m quite the electronic aficionado, so I had to have the latest and greatest new gadget - a Samsung Smart TV!  My last additions to my room to give it a little more personality were my iconic canvas photography of Audrey Hepburn and a custom painting of Marilyn Monroe done by Elise as a Christmas present.



Here's a current picture of the transformation and next week we will discuss Elise's room.

The Begining

To begin the series of posts, I'll briefly explain where my inspiration to begin a decor-based blog originated. Upon my second attempt at living on my own almost two years ago, I chose to move in with a long-time friend. We moved into a small bungalow built in the 1940's and embarked on not only a journey of navigating living together, but also taking on the challenge of making a seventy year old farmhouse look and feel like home for us social, style focused young women (all on a student budget I might add). So, here begins our tale of home improvements, crafternoons, do-it-yourself bulls-eyes' and some "lets-just-put-this-out-on-garbage-day-and-never-speak-of-it-again" disasters.  I might also mention my partner in crime and roommate is also currently pursuing her education in Interior Design, and is the main reason for my recently developed interest in all things decor. 

So more about the house! In we moved all (I say that very generously- we're students remember) of our worldly belongings to a very awkwardly laid-out house with a rather dated and one-dimensional style vibe. Once the first initial nights passed and the idea of sitting on the floor and eating take-out pizza got rather frightful, we decided to get the ball rolling and put some personality into our new home.  We started with paint. Everything was brown. I'm not kidding... like EVERYTHING, other than surprise surprise my little bedroom which happened to be a lovely shade of Pepto bismol Pink. It had to go, and I figured it would be an easy fix. How tough could it be?  Never having painted a room in my life, I learned very quickly how back breaking this work was. I have a taste for modern more contemporary interiors, so I chose a nice neutral beige to start the transformation of my room from pink-princess room, to sophisticated, calm inducing lady cave. My eclectic and artsy roommate selected seafoam green to start her rooms journey from dining room to girly, vintage traveler haven, a pastel blue for the kitchen and 1st living room, with a light lavender for the future tv room. Then began furniture selection and everyone’s favorite part of moving … lugging it all in. Lucky for us my roommate has a rather generous aunt, who changes her furniture on a frequent basis and was willing to part with a couple items that complimented the color choices well. For my particular space I had brought over the essentials: bed, TV and decided to treat myself to a nice armoire. Unfortunate as it was there wasn’t too much closet space, a deal breaker for some females. However I embraced my small space and accepted the challenge to make it comfy, cozy and glamorous as possible. So for the first couple entries I'll show you where we started, and how this little project has and will continue to evolve so you can see it as it unfolds!

The pictures above are the bare bones of what  the previous decoration existed before move in.  Next post will show the transformation of these rooms.