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.

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).

So, there you have it! If you need me you can find me unpacking, orgnanizing or skipping down our new street. There’s a new girl in town…

Stay in touch and follow along…

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Our kitchen chairs needed a serious upgrade. The fabric was SO dingy, dirty and stained. Ugh. I have no idea why I don’t have a close up photo of them as I am positive I took one, but you can sort of see what I mean here.

Chace eats his breakfast at this table every morning and the spills and stains that come from a toddler to child have taken their toll on these little chairs. Time for a refresh!

The main thing I wanted here was a fabric that looked like an indoor fabric, but was really an outdoor one. I wanted something that could stand up to the dirt and spills that are inevitable with a five-year-old.

The winner? This amazing outdoor fabric called “Secret Gate – Pewter” from Tonic Living. It’s an awesome gray/cream lattice pattern – now the title makes sense right? I only needed one yard so at $15.95/yd this was an inexpensive upgrade. My favourite kind!

Now, the chairs look like this…

I had never reupholstered anything before but my friend Natalie had, so she came up to help me. It’s not an overly hard process but with the stapling and pulling the fabric taught that is involved, it’s great to have a second set of hands. Natalie’s help was invaluable! She’s got a really good eye too for keeping things straight and uniform.

First, we unscrewed the seats from the chairs. The screws were easily accessible on the bottom.

Then, we draped the fabric to see what layout we liked the best.

After we had decided on one, we used a few T-pins to hold the fabric in place. These will come out later.

Flipping the cushions over, we started with the corners, making sure they were pulled good and tight.

We used a staple gun to secure the fabric to the chair cushion base.

Then we continued around the cushion, pulling the fabric taught and securing it in place with staples.

When we were done, it looked pretty much like this. Not the prettiest ‘finish’ but since no one looks under a chair, I think it’s okay. I may try to finish it off a bit cleaner but to be honest, it’s been this way for a few months now and isn’t bothering me too much.

We removed the T-pins, and then draped the next cushion to match.

T-pinning that in place, we repeated the whole process.

We screwed the finished cushions back on to the chair frames and..

DONE!

I love how the chairs now look updated. The fabric is modern, fresh and fun. And stain resistant!

You would never know it’s an outdoor fabric by looking at it would you?

And it looks great when looking down on it through the glass table top too.

Overall I’m so pleased with how they turned out.

It’s amazing how a simple and inexpensive upgrade can yield such a high-end look. Talk about ‘bang for your buck’!

Have you ever tackled any reupholstering before? How did you finish the bottom of the chair if so? Any experience bringing an outdoor fabric inside?

    

Oh Autumn. How I love you so. You with your cozy lattes, crisp leaves and amazing colours. Let me celebrate by making you a wreath. And then keeping it for myself and hanging it on my door.

I made a wreath.

me no likey.

no thanks.

blech.

Sigh. I didn’t like any of them. Nothing was working for me. I didn’t have enough of the large flowers to make a nice full wreath and all the imbalanced designs just weren’t doing it for me.

So I decided to back to Michaels and bought another pot of the larger ones. They were still on 50% off but I was able to use an additional 25% off coupon that week. Nice!

To attach them to the wreath frame I simply glue gunned each one on. Here is a little animated gif of it all coming together…

After I secured both the large and small flowers on, I was done!

Here are a few close ups. I love the colours. Autumn has the best colour palette!

And that’s it! Easy and festive.

My love affair with Autumn continues.

Have you made any wreaths lately? What is your favourite season? Are you obsessed with Autumn’s colour palette like I am?

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!