We always pop into the powder room to ‘refresh’, but what if that powder room needed a little refresher too? Well, that was the case with our main floor loo.
bathrooms, bedrooms, dining room, entryway, Family Room, Garden, guest room, Home & Garden, kitchen, Living Room, office, playroom, rec room
Settling in
bathrooms, bedrooms, dining room, entryway, Family Room, Garden, guest room, Home & Garden, kitchen, Living Room, office, playroom, rec room
So this happened
We bought a house. Specifically, this one.
Backing up a bit, we really enjoyed our townhome but it was time for a change. More space, more privacy and NO strata. We wanted to move before Chace got older as we didn’t want to change his little world mid-grade three (he just finished Kindergarten). So, we made the leap and listed our townhome.
The good news is that it sold in a day – with three offers which created a bidding war. The bad news, we didn’t have anywhere to move to! The market in our area dictated this plan of attack as places for sale were going into multiplle offers and if you had “subject to sale of our place” in your offer, you might as well not even bother.
Long story short after a few panic attacks from me and some serious market stalking, we purchased the above home which met most things on our wish list. We did have to compromise on a few things but we ended up with a few bonus things that more than made up for it.
We take possession this Saturday! I couldn’t wait to share with you all though so here are the photos from the listing (as we saw it). I also put together a little floor plan of each level. They won’t be completely accurate as I was going off memory and the specs on the listing sheet, but you will get the idea I’m sure!
Main level:
entry
living room
dining/living room
dining room
kitchen – what will Chef Kev dream up here?
kitchen/family room
family room
(future) playroom!
powder room
laundry
Here is the main floor layout to give you an idea of where these spaces are in relation to one another…
top level:
looking down towards the front entry
master bedroom
master bathroom
the other two bedrooms (Chace’s and a spare – TBD which is which!). We’re going to let Chace choose on moving day.
“Bonus room” – future craft room/office area
top floor bathroom
top floor floorplan…
basement/lower level
Down here is where we encountered one of the ‘compromises’ as mentioned above. Part of the basement is a suite which we were not looking for. However, we decided since we have more than enough space at the moment, we will leave it ‘as is’ for now and renovate in the future to make it our dream recreation room space – complete with wet bar and a bedroom/bathroom on that level. The income from the suite will allow us to do some of the updates a little sooner than we otherwise would have been able to.
First up, the current recreation room (on our side)…
And here is the suite which consists of a living space, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom (I don’t have a photo of the kitchen though).
Here is the baseement floor plan to help you visualize how it all works together…
Last but not least, our backyard. This was another area where we had to compromise. We had dreams of a large backyard but reality told us that the house we wanted, with a big yard, was not in our budget. The fact that this particular house had been nicely updated, was in a great neighbourhood, backed onto a greenbelt and (total bonus) was only a few houses away from the elementary school that Chace will attend made us decide this was the one.
Oh, and did I mentinon that the school is adjacent to a huge park which has an awesome playground and walking trails. We figured our ‘yard’ was steps away so we were covered.
We have big plans for this small space. For the whole house actually. But, we will save and tackle each project as our budget permits and I will happily post about the journey here if you’d like to follow along 🙂
the backyard…
You may recall my recent main floor powder room refresher where I took her from chocolate to vanilla…
But what you didn’t see was what was lurking behind those cabinet doors. I sincerely hope no guest has ever creeped a peek in there…
for obvious reasons.
Oh. Man.
Now, in my defence I’m not a slob. I’m actually a bit of a neat freak. The biggest problem here was the lack of any kind of system. It was just a big space with inadequate containers to hold everything we store in here – mainly my nail stuff, medical supplies, batteries and soaps etc.
But have no fear. It’s all under control and now looks like this.
Yes. My retinas can now stop burning.
I’ll break it all down for you so you can relive it with me (excited?). After I cleared everything out I gave the cabinet a good clean and accessed what I needed. Most of the storage bins are from the Samla line at Ikea with the exception of the one I used for my nail supplies which is from the Antonia line.
Basically I just went through each mess one by one and contained them. First up was our medical supplies. How would you like to dig through this for a bandaid?
I used the deep Samla box and added a top tray to help separate everything.
Goody. Now we can all go out and scrape our knees.
Seeing as we have a five year old, we go through our share of batteries. So we keep a box of ‘new batteries’ under here as well as a box for them to go into when they are ready for recycling.
The old system left a lot to be desired (bonus points if you can guess what kind of yogurt I like).
But the new system is much better. Here is the box for the new ones. The new “to be recycled” one is empty as I’m going to take the yogurt ones to the depot. Everyone loves a good recycled yogurt battery.
My manicure supplies were this breathtaking display of form and function…
But now they too are yogurt free and MUCH better organized (this is my favourite one!)
As for the other miscellaneous stuff we had in the cabinet (soap, wipes, candles etc)…
they all have a new home as well.
But JUST bins just won’t do. Oh no. I had to label these suckers!
I made simple labels and printed them on adhesive laser printer paper. To notch the corners I used a standard single hole punch.
Once everything was put away we had a nice orderly cabinet.
It feels good to get this one checked off my list as it’s been bugging me for quite awhile!
And now if my guests do creep a peek in my cabinet they won’t be horrified by what they find. Unless of course they are offended by nail polish and batteries.
What about you? Done any long overdue organizing lately? Have any go-to solutions or favourite tricks? An organized space makes me ridiculously happy – tell me I”m not alone!
After recently refreshing our family room and kitchen area, our chocolate brown bathroom – located just off the family room- looked ridiculously dark and out of place.
When we moved in (back in 2006) the bathroom was painted in a chocolate shade – which I actually didn’t mind – but it had ‘had it’s time’. I wanted a cleaner and brighter space!
It’s a hard room to photograph as it’s just a powder room so very small, plus it doesn’t have a window so natural light = zero. However, here is how it looked before:
A few weeks ago I set about changing her from a chocolate cone, to a vanilla one. If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen this photo I posted as I began…
Two coats later, I had a vanilla cone.
The colour is called “Painter’s White” by CIL which I had colour matched in Behr paint. The name is really deceiving as it’s not a ‘white’ at all. In fact, it falls right in the middle of the paint chip and is rooted in the brown family.
Like ‘white’ though, the colour does make the room feel bigger, fresher and more modern.
I know my new vanilla cone is kind of well, ‘vanilla’ (excuse the bad pun) but after having the chocolate so long this new colour is rather tasty.
While doing this mini-makeover I also decided to embrace the gold trend and spray the picture frames, towel rack and toilet paper holder. Again, if you follow along on Instagram you may have seen this…
I used this gold from Rustoleum and was really happy with it. It wasn’t a shiny metallic finish (like the brassy 80’s gold) but a much more modern champagne shade with a satin finish.
These frames used to be silver but I think they are much more luxe in gold! The art they hold are some old ‘mill swatches’ from my industry (graphic design) – learn more about how I use mill swatches for free art here. The frames are old Ikea ones from years ago. And the mats are ones I had custom cut to make the art look a little fancier (also years ago).
I know you don’t need to see the toilet paper holder but here is how the towel rack turned out… 🙂
Overall I think it brings this little powder room up-to-date and definitely ties into the flow of the main floor better.
As they say, nothing can change the look of a space easier than some simple paint!
What about you – painted anything lately? What are your thoughts on gold coming back into décor and fashion? Love it or hate it? Running towards it with open arms… or running as fast away from it as you can?
Hello
I'm Elaine. A graphic designer, mommy, wife and blogger. I have trouble sitting still and am always looking for a project. Follow along as I post about life – in a pretty and creative way of course.