Holiday 2019

This year I was thrilled to be involved in two local holiday events! I created a tree for Festival of Trees, which was auctioned off with money raised supporting Mental Health NS. I also participated in Homes for the Holidays in Halifax with money raised going to YWCA for local women and girls programs. Both of these events happened in November, definitely earlier than normal for me to start thinking of holiday decor and decorating! I love getting ready for the holidays and often do a lot of natural decor at my own place. I have a love of the SCENT of a natural tree in my house. I buy candles and room sprays to try and replicate the scent but really nothing beats the smell of natural trees in the house. I am a big fan of keeping my own holiday decor relatively simple. I like large displays of branches, boughs and bowls of pine cones - all things you can find outdoors and easily put together. To add some drama go with larger vessels filled with tall branches. I also like the felt ornaments I have collected over the years for a touch of home made quality - felt birds, wool tree, pom pom garland, etc in cream add some pretty contrast to the greenery! Here is a shot from a few years back showing my little wool tree with some of the natural wood and wool ornaments adorning it.

Little wool tree I have and love it’s natural vibe for the holidays!

And an exterior shot of the natural greenery I like to use

Adding architectural features like open shelves

Open shelves can add so much detail and interest to a space, not to mention they provide excellent storage and functionality, and they also can be used to create architectural detail. In a former home, I had these shelves built in a den and it added a great deal of book storage, but it also created an architectural focal point in the room. Before these were built it was an empty space, and I love looking for nooks and crannies in a house to build in interesting features like this.

And in the kitchen I added open shelves that went floor to ceiling. Again, lots of great storage, but it provided an excellent space to display some of my favourite items too.

And in this kitchen I added open shelves in two areas - one space a column of floor to ceiling shelves - great for extra display of dishes or cookbooks. When you have a space to add shelves, you have a chance to really customize the area to fit the open space, and decide on width, depth and thickness of shelves.

And in the same kitchen some floating shelves above the sink add visual interest with lots of pretty items.

A small bathroom gets a much needed renovation: Before & After

A rental property of mine that I purchased several years ago was in rough shape! I’ve purchased a lot of fixer uppers over the years, but this one was in pretty dire condition. I found the bathrooms in this property particularly unpleasant! They were dirty, stained and let’s say they had probably not been cleaned in years.

In the lower two-bedroom unit, there was a small bathroom, but I could see it had potential – high ceilings and a large window. But in addition to the gross factor, the room was badly laid out and really didn’t function. The bathroom door didn’t open because it hit the large claw foot tub and almost hit the toilet. Because of the door swing (inward), you would have to get in the room and close the door to even access the tub and toilet. The sink was small, broken and didn’t have any storage, there were odd exposed pipes running through the space. The fixtures were all formerly white and were dirty and stained. There was a 12x12 ceramic tile on the floor that was grimy and had dirty grout.

Here are some of the before pictures:

BEFORE: Small white sink - no storage!

The shower on the tub was suspended from the ceiling, the vent had seen better days and the door wouldn’t open!

BEFORE: the door hits the tub

BEFORE: The shower was duct taped on to the faucet

I knew the entire bathroom needed to be gutted and I felt I could come up with a much better lay out. After reviewing the floor plan and dimensions, I knew a tub really couldn’t work in the space. Instead I opted for a nice shower with a glass door and a sink/vanity that did offer some storage below. In most cases I would not remove a tub from a bathroom, but in this tight space there was no other option. I redid the floors in a new black hex tile, put in all new plumbing fixtures, moved exposed pipes to the interior walls, installed new water resistant drywall, added new electrical including a small baseboard heater, new vanity, faucets, towel bars, lighting, fan, subway tiles, mirror over vanity with storage, custom window treatments, etc.

The space was transformed into a small but functional white bathroom. The glass shower door really helped to keep the space feeling open and didn’t give you a closed in shower feeling. The white subway tile on the shower walls helped to brighten and lighten the room too.

Overall I was very happy with the results!

A few more of the After photos.