If anyone is like me, once you remove all of your Christmas decor your house can look kind of bare. As nice as it is to have a fresh clean slate for the new year, the emptiness can leave your space feeling a bit drab and uninviting.

And, since it’s not quite time to decorate for Valentine’s Day, how do you show your house some love? Get it, love, Valentine’s Day… oy.

I like to decorate minimally with natural elements and fresh greens (shades and plants/flowers). Here is an example of what I did with our entrance one all the Christmas hub-bub was packed up for the year.

This table is set up right off our entry as you head down the hall towards our kitchen/family room. It is one of the first areas you see as you come in so I like to have it styled in some way to welcome people.

Plus, let’s be honest, I just like doing it. Seriously, it has me like…

via GIPHY

Dancing aside (can you call that dancing?) here is a closer look at what I have going on.

The beer growlers are a nod back to the city where we used to live. Craft breweries are becoming increasingly popular out here (and everywhere I think) so when we moved to a different city good friends of ours gifted ChefKev with these for his birthday. Man loves his beer and this place is SO good. I love having them out on display. Plus, I covet (read: secretly pet and rub my face on) the rustic feel and the colours. I smudged out some of the details so that not everyone in the whole wide interweb knows where we live.

Beside these, I have three little potted plants which are actually left over from my Christmas table. I went for a rustic, wintery natural theme and found these little guys at a local grocery store. They had small red and white scarves tied around the neck of each mason jar and small wooden Christmas shapes (tree, reindeer etc) tied to the necks as well. I simply removed those Christmas elements to use them here.

Just past that is a tea light candle holder in the shape of a log.

I love the mercury glass vibe that it is loggin‘ rockin’.

Moving along we have a decorative lantern and art print.

I swap out art for each season in this frame. I display it by simply propping the frame up in this corner and securing the top with a 3M Command picture hanging strip (obsessed, I use these EVERYWHERE) to prevent it from sliding down (just for extra security).

I usually just hit up Pinterest and search “free printables”. That is where I found this one. I can’t seem to  locate it again though to sight a source. Argh.

I’ve had this lantern for years. Currently there is a bark candle in it that has long since been used up. However, I love the sparkly bark exterior so just place a battery operated tea light in it to give the illusion of a flickering flame. It creates a similar glow so it works!

Hanging beside it all is my porthole mirror. I found it last year at Homesense.

I’m obsessed with the finish. All rustic and patina-like. Meow.

And last but not least, the bottom shelf holds a wicker basket which is a catch-all for keys, sunglasses, gum etc. Beside that is a small growler know as a Boston… but I prefer to call it a Lady Growler since it’s lady sized. Keepin’ it classy.

Do any of you change your decor to something neutral between holidays? Anyone else do a happy dance when decorating. Oh the looks from Chace and Chef Kev… and the side-eye from Belle (our dog)… but they love me anyway.

Over the Christmas break I did a few much needed updates to Chace’s playroom. The room served its purpose but was lacking a bit lot in the functionality and storage departments.

As you enter the playroom, you are greeted by this little guy.

You can also see Chace’s ode to his love of all things Minion on the door as well.

But, back to this guy. He’s a clay pirate that Chace made at his fourth birthday party. We held his party at a kids art studio – the girls made fairies and the boys made pirates. I still love this little creation.

Years ago, I framed him. I didn’t use the glass though since he’s three dimensional.

Okay, so now we are in the playroom. Back in the Fall I shared some photos snapped as we were settling in. At that point, the room looked like this…

Although not drastic I’ve made some fun changes and now the same view looks like this.

Most notably I’ve added a lamp. The room is SO dark and upgrading the overhead light is on our hit wish list. I also added some bookshelves to create a defined little reading area.

Eventually we will upgrade the peeling faux leather chair but for now, our 6-year-old client isn’t too picky. Plus, it’s fun finding little bits of pleather all over the house. Not annoying at all.

I love the lamp (this one from Ikea). I think the over-scaled design of it is perfect for a playroom. It screams “hey, I’m a desk lamp that ate my Wheaties and look at me now”. Or something to that effect. Either way, I find the overexagerated scale of it has a comical, animated feel. Plus, it has a foot on/off switch which is super easy for Chace to operate.

The book ledges are the same ones that I used in Chace’s old closet nook (see it here). They are actually picture ledges and are these ones from Ikea.  Picture ledges are such an easy solution for showcasing books. Plus, Chace always gravitates to the books that I front face on them so I know he appreciates it too!

Next to this area I have Chace’s easel and toy bins from his old bedroom.

The bins used to be a catch-all for all things random but now they are dedicated to art supplies and creating. The easel came with cloth baskets that fit along the top rung but they were constantly tipping, were hard to access and blocked the blue ones on the bottom. So, they had to go.

Chace wandered in and wanted to help me label the bins. Kid after my label maker loving heart I tell ya.

Turning around and looking back towards the door, the playroom looks like this.

Opening those closet doors in the Fall would have you staring at this (avert your eyes)!

But now it looks like this…

Thanks to some Ikea bins and a lot of sorting, all toys are now organized and labelled. I also took this opportunity to purge a lot of the toys that Chace is no longer using/has grown out of. And the top shelf (which he can’t reach of course so it’s useless to him) holds adult games.

Overall the room feels much better now. Recalling our wish list from this post you can see that there is still much to do, but at least there are a few things crossed off. And it will all come in time.

• shelf supports ( am crossing this off as after living with the shelves piled with things for months, supports don’t appear to be needed – read, no sagging and/or pulling)
• organize closet
• lamp
• window treatment
• paint?
• decor/art
• new chair
• toy storage and systems (I may still add to this but not high on our priority list right now)
• art display area
• new door hardware

Anyone else do some organizing over the break? January always makes me want to whip our house into order :).

Hello friends! Happy New Year! I hope you all had a lovely holiday and are refreshed and ready to tackle 2016. I know I am.

When I last left you in the office it was looking like this…

Inspiring no?

No.

At the same time I also shared a vision board and floor plan (direction) for our little “bonus room” to be turned office/games/extra guest room. You can find more details here if you’d like to read more about that.

The vision…

The plan…

First on our agenda was completing our custom made double desk along the back wall. I was inspired by desks like the ones below and thought something like them could really work for us.

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There are a few areas of our new house that remain unpacked for logistical reasons and our office/craft/bonus room is one of them. As such, it’s taken priority.

On the top floor we have a large room which was labelled as the “bonus room” on our walk through. It is in addition to the three bedrooms but instead of carpeting it has laminate flooring. It has a much different feel than a bedroom and was previously set up as an awkward TV room. Here is how it looked on our first house showing.

As you can see, it is a large room and is flooded with natural light. We thought it would be the perfect spot for our office and a craft/bonus room. It’s a large enough space to hold two ‘zones’.

The desk from our old house didn’t work in this space so I sold it on Craigslist. I sold the old printer station too.

And you may recall these photos from last week when I shared that the room was this current hot mess.

Ah, the sweet smell of transition.

As annoying as this was is to a neat freak like me, it was actually relatively organized (the boxes were in ‘zones’). But most importantly, we had a plan.

Here is a rough (not to accurate scale but so you get the idea) floor plan for this room.

As you can see, we are going to build a double desk which will run along the back wall. Rounding out the “office” portion of the room we will have a credenza to hold our printer and office supplies. As well, we will have a craft island which will most likely be on wheels so that it can be moved as needed.

The recessed area to your immediate left as you walk into the room is the perfect spot to install a murphy bed. With Chef Kev’s relatives overseas and in other provinces, it is really important to us to have a few extra beds. We want to make sure we can comfortably sleep anyone who is passing through for a visit! Since the craft island will be on wheels, we can move it when the bed is down and in use.

This leaves us with a great open space as well. We see getting a games table and/or using it for some extra crafting or project space.

Here is a mood board showing you the feel of what we are hoping to achieve.

We’ve been at our new house for almost two months now! Where does the time go? We are pretty much unpacked and have a game plan for most areas of the house. This post is picture heavy so I’ll let the photos do most of the talking, but I wanted to offer you a glimpse of what it looks like ‘today’, along with our ‘to do’ list for each area. I thought it would be handy so that when I start to roll out the projects for you (I have some FUN things planned – coming soon) they have context.