A Few Projects Completed!

Life is good!

There are lots of reasons I feel this way ~ to name just a few: I have a handsome hubby who loves me (he says he’ll keep me until at least tomorrow!), a son I’m enormously proud of, a wonderful little house (if you don’t look in the basement!) and a passion for home remodelling/decor that I’m working to build a business around. Great stuff hey?

Another happiness inducing element in my life? Projects!

For today’s contribution to Metamorphosis Mondays I’m going to share just a few projects that we’ve been working on this week. Nothing special, but fun transformations none the less. Well… to me at least :-)  Metamorphosis Mondays is a weekly blog party that Kelly and I like to participate in – thanks to Susan from Between Naps on the Porch for hosting this popular event!

Just for the fun of it, I thought I’d start with some pics of my transformation :-)

I’m 45 years old and darn-it all… I’m suffering from the curse of grey hairs! Those of you with dark hair also fighting this particular curse now how challenging it is to keep the greys at bay. So I’ve decided to stop fighting the battle… I’m going to work my way to a blonde. Yesterday I had my first session with the hair stylist… hopefully by the end of the summer I’ll be blonde!

 

Left: A photo taken of me last fall showing what colour my hair was Saturday morning.

Right: What I look like with blonde hair (proof [I think] that it’s NOT a bad idea!) ;-)  Photo taken about 4 years ago.

Below: Photos of me taken Saturday afternoon… a nice caramel colour, but not blonde enough yet! I’m happy, but I’ll be happier when it’s blonder and those horrible greys won’t be as noticeable!!

 

I’ve also lost 40 pounds since that first photo (top left) was taken which I’m really happy about! I’d share some before and current photos of that particular transformation but the “before” is down-right embarrassing! So… you’ll have to be satisfied with the appearance of cheek-bones in the above photo!! ;-)

But you didn’t come to DesignTies to look at photos of me!

Regular readers of DesignTies will remember my post “Project Overload? Never!”, shared with Susan’s Metamorphosis Mondays guests a few weeks back. In that post I mentioned that Brian was going to replace basement windows (among other things!). Well… this past week he replaced two of them and I’m so happy with the results! You see… not only were the previous windows original to our 70 year old house (i.e., single paned and hardly energy efficient!), they were also typical small basement windows and didn’t bring in much natural light. With a little coaxing Brian agreed to install larger windows which, when I’m standing in the basement rooms, makes a huge difference! I’ll share one of the window transformations with you…

The photo to the left was taken shortly after we moved in 1.5 years ago – we’ve since replaced the upper left window (our bedroom) with the bathroom window (centre) and the totally new kitchen window (read “Project Overload? Never!” to learn more about THIS project) currently on order. The lower basement window is where my office/3rd bedroom will be and now – thanks to Brian’s handiwork and my skills of persuasion - the window is almost twice the size! (photo left) I know… it’s hard to compare without a little distance… you’ll have to trust me! Brian has since trimmed the window out, but I like this photo because when we paint the house next month we’ll be painting all the trim in black… so the image above really gives me a great sense of how it will look! By the way, that’s my kitty Scotty walking past. He was very curious about the window!

Let me show you what I’m even more excited about… and this excitement links back to those happiness inducing projects I mentioned…

I now have two little old, covered in yucky layers of paint, vintage windows!

“So what?” you say?

Take a look at these:

Do you understand now?! You were following my train of thought all along, weren’t you?! :-)

I’m not 100% sure what I’ll do with my two windows, but I’m leaning toward making one into a mirror and the other into a bulletin board for my office. I’ll definitely show you when they’re done… but that could be a little while because I have other projects on the go!!

Speaking of other projects, let me show you what my brother Brad and I did on Sunday…

We hung some wallpaper in my client Kate’s condo!!

I’m going to direct you to another post that I published a little while back - “A Little More Condomania (i.e., Part IV)” – where I sought the assistance of our readers in helping Kate chose her wallpaper. Well… it’s funny… in the end she chose something different from the papers I shared! In the same theme, though…

Here’s a before photo:

The walls and ceiling (with the exception of the wall you see above) were painted in Benjamin Moore’s Abalone, a light grey with a purple undertone. We love it!

Here’s the same wall with the new wallpaper hung, nice and straight with a perfect pattern match… if I do say so myself! Caution: the paper is still wet in spots so it might look a little funny AND the room is far from finished!!

 

Process photos are always fun…

 

 

The paper, booked and ready to hang.

 

 

 

 

Our workstation, set up on Kate’s bed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brad… caught in action!

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a close up of the paper, hung on the wall, and a photo of a throw pillow that inspired it all!

Photos just don’t do the paper justice… but once we have the room fully dress, with drapery and beautiful bedding, the room will look FAB! I can’t wait to share it with you!!

Okay… that’s enough about projects for today!!

Before I sign off, though, I’d like to remind you about our GIVEAWAY! The rules are simple – all you have to do is post a comment on this or any DesignTies post published between last Friday and this Thursday. You’ll get one entry for each post you comment on. So if you want to increase your chances of winning, go read and comment on these other posts (after you comment on this post, of course!!)

• DesignTies welcomes “The King of Colour”, Jamie Drake
• Sunday snapshots

The more comments you leave, the more entries you get to win the fantastic prize — Jamie Drake’s book New American Glamour. Signed and personalized by Jamie himself!! It’s great for inspiration and your coffee table :-)

My blog partner Kelly interviewed the unbelievably talented interior designer Jamie Drake and wrote the best post ever capturing and sharing with each of us just a little of Jamie’s spirit… as well as some colourful and fabulously designed rooms!. Be sure to check it out by clicking here!!

Thanks so much for dropping by DesignTies… now make your way back to Between Naps on the Porch so that you can visit some of Susan’s Metamorphosis Mondays guests!!

Victoria from Edin Interiors