Rosedale Reno - Living Room Sneak Peek

 

Living Room - by Carol Reed Interior Design

This past October I posted a sneak peek of the dining room in this same house and a brief overview of the scope of the renovation that took place in 07/08.  You can check out that post and read all about the renovation here (see photo below).

Dining Room - by Carol Reed Interior Design

I'm fortunate to have some incredibly amazing clients who not only welcome me into their private lives at the onset of a project but allow me to feel welcome to return to their homes long after a project is complete, insisting that I can come back to visit for tea or lunch or to take photos anytime I'd like. Even when they're not home, they're gracious enough to allow me unlimited access and make arrangement for me to have a key or security codes. I often feel like I've become an extended part of the family and return visits to their homes are like a homecoming for me as I can't help but feel attached to the spaces after spending so many months and sometimes years working on every little detail.

The clients of this particular house are no exception,  they are one of my favorite families and they've been beyond generous over the past couple of years in making me feel like its 'my home' too and give me free reign to come and go as I please and take photos whenever I'd like - as happy as this makes me,,,,I have to restrain myself from taking advantage and imposing myself on them.  If there's anything I love more than designing homes its photographing them!  Clearly I'm not a professional, its a personal hobby that I need a lot more experience with but I'm enjoying getting to know how to use my camera and seeing 'my spaces' thru my own lense.  I'm grateful to all my clients for the opportunity to return for photos shoots as the photos are the only reference I have for months or often years of work.

Although in total square footage this was a large house the living room was not overly big, in fact it posed many of the same challenges that small urban homes or condos do - the room was long and narrow.  During the reno the entire house was brought back to the brick and rebuilt.  In this room, the existing front window was replaced with a larger bay window but the fireplace and stained glass windows beside it were one of the few original details that remained in tact.  I designed new panel moulding treatment for all the walls, added accent lighting and managed to accommodate a comfortable new seating arrangement along with a baby grand piano, and still had room for traffic flow thru the room.

I'm calling these sneak peeks as we're still working on some finishing touches, sometimes these take longer than the entire reno, but we're working on it gradually.  The fireplace (original to the house) still needs a beautiful screen and fireside tools to make it look complete,,,,,and we've sourced a floor lamp that was much needed, next will be another end table, and ultimately more artwork will be added as their collection grows.  But for now,,,,,,,this is all I'm sharing with you. ; )

All Photos:   Carol Reed

Back to Brian's Condo - Artisanal Accessories

Vintage Studio Pottery

Furnishing Brian's Condo from scratch in one fell swoop was a challenge in itself, but making it look and feel personalized was the bigger challenge.  You can fill a space with all your major items like sofas, coffee tables and media units,,,even area carpets but until you layer in some artwork,,,,books,,,,,and interesting objects a space will always look unfinished and bare.  There's definitely no shortage of great looking and affordable accessories available at all the retail stores (trays, baskets, vases etc.) and I often rely on those sources for filling in the gaps, especially when starting from scratch but I also really think its important to leave some room for pieces that you'll acquire over time.   I deliberately try to avoid filling a room with all new, mass produced type accessories and make an effort to find at least a few hand made or one of a kind items.  For me, I think its more interesting  to display some old objects, some found objects, some inherited objects, vintage or personal collections all mixed in with some books, photos and artwork.  Its so tempting to just head over to one of the big chain retailers and fill the condo with their pretty accessories and be done with it,,,,,,,and I did start there, with a few basic items but I can't resist checking out vintage shops and antique markets for something more original and unique.

I visited an Antique Mall a couple of weeks ago and was on the look out for some interesting and inexpensive pottery or art glass for Brian's place.  Its a hit and miss process, sometimes you luck out and score some great finds but other times you can spend an entire day or weekend scouring shops and markets and come up empty handed.  It can be a great way to find some really affordable and unique things that have character - as long as your willing to spend some time to seek them out.

My approach when I visit an antique fair or vintage shop is to quickly scan - I'm a scanner, not a browser.  I go really quickly up and own the aisles, focusing on one side at a time while scanning for specific things, 95% of what's there I'm not interested in.  If I'm looking for a variety of different items, I'll make two or three passes, each time changing my focus.  In this case,,,I arrived at the antique mall and I spotted a number of amazing pieces at the first booth, the vendor had a great collection of small studio pottery pieces.  At the end of my 'scanning', which took less than 45 min., I left with a couple bags full of some amazing finds and only spent about $85!  Here are some pics of what I bought that day all of which I plan on taking to the bachelor pad this week.

I picked up 4 beautiful pieces of studio pottery....

I love the shapes, the colours and the beautiful quality of the glazes.  All are hand made and ranged in price from $8 to $15 ea.  

I thought these ones made a perfect little grouping...

I love the imperfection in the glaze on this one, creating a pattern and I was instantly drawn to the pale grey blue colour.

All of the pieces were signed on the bottom.

This is my favorite, the matte finish on the glaze is gorgeous but the detail on the top is spectacular.

This little one was soo tiny but I couldn't resist it,,,the subtle ribbed texture was really beautiful and there's something about a bulb shaped vase that I love,,,but the metalic glaze on this is what sold me on it.  These little pieces are great for placing on top of a stack of books or on a shelf beside a photo....or grouped with other vases as I showed above.

This one had a beautiful shape and as much as I love my neutral beiges and greys, I'm always drawn to the colour green.

This one had an Austrian studio label on the bottom and small initial markings on the rim (yikes,,,this pic is really out of focus!)

Then I found these vintage ribbed glass and teak canisters made by Dansk.  I thought they'd be perfect at Brian's which has some vintage teak furniture.  For only $24, these were a steal and so versatile.  They could be used in the kitchen, bathroom or office and the best part is ,,I've never seen them anywhere else before!

The following week I picked up these two throw blankets for him, the cream coloured cable knit is 100% cotton and hand made, the grey one is a mohair wool blend and I love the fringe detail.  Again, some great texture and artisinal quality.  I thought these were a steal too at $89 and $59 each from Union Lighting & Home Furnishings.

The small finishing touches are finally coming to completion at the condo so I'll have my final after pics of the entire condo soon.

Happy Hunting!

All Photos:  Carol Reed

Dream Home - Some After Pics

Friday night about 1am, it was all I could do not to collapse into this beautifully made bed and sink into a deep sleep!!  Friday was the scheduled completion day for the 70's sidesplit I was furnishing for a single mom and her young daughter.  After a month of planning and 3 months of purchasing, everything was finally put in place and ready for mom and daughter to move-in their personal things this weekend.   With brand new flooring and new wall paint already installed before I came on board this project,,,,my job was to plan the furniture layout and purchase all new furniture, window coverings and lighting to work with the house as it was.  My client was starting from scratch and everything needed to be purchased, right down to the small accessories.  The house is a 3 bedroom sidesplit with an eat-in kitchen and family room.   Her taste....... is very traditional leaning towards elegant and feminine,,,the budget was very very modest considering an entire house needed to be furnished top to bottom,,,and the lead time was extremely ambitious to say the least.

With such a short time line most items had to be ready-made, in-stock options but I did have a few select pieces custom made. So after what was nothing short of a purchasing marathon these past 3 months, Friday was the last day for deliveries and installations and I spent the past week making sure all the final last minute purchases were made and the wallart was hung etc. Although it was early Saturday morning when I had finally packed up all my things and locked the door behind me for the last time,,,,,,,there will still be some more accessories to be sourced (not critical but on the 'would be nice to have' list) and 2 or 3 back-ordered small items awaiting delivery. But despite that, the house is move-in ready and my client and her daughter were excited beyond words when they arrived Friday evening. For me it was exhilarating to finally be done and heartwarming to see their emotional response at seeing their new home and realizing how positively it will impact their lives from here forward on a day to day basis - the happiness they'll enjoy in the house and how many memories they'll make there.

I had a chance to take some preliminary 'after' photos on Friday, however, because the sun had gone down and I didn't have my tri-pod with me, the photos are on the dark side, so sorry about the poor quality but...I'll be returning one day in the next month or so, during daylight hours to take my time and get a full set of photos for each room.  (I like to photograph my projects myself using natural light, and more importantly - without props or staging, using only the things the homeowner actually owns!) Hopefully by then, the rest of the accessories and and final furniture pieces will all be in place.   I'll post those photos as soon as I have them along with the details of each room.  In the meantime, these will have to do!

The Dining Room. With grocery store flowers (that's all I had to work with!)

Mirrored Sideboard in LR/DR

Living Room,,,small artwork over side chairs one either side of sideboard still to come.  More grocery store flowers that weren't in bloom yet!

Living Room

Kitchen Table overlooking family room.

Front Hall,,,a wall of sepia photos on opposite wall still awaiting a pair of benches, and top of this chest of drawers still needs a tray.

Little girl's room with custom headboard, ikea drawers customized with paint and new crystal knobs.  Framed prints still to come.

My favorite room of all, the Guest Bedroom.

Master Bedroom....I'm thinking of raising the headboard a tad higher now that the last minute bedside lamp is in place (I could wright a novel called the Tale of Two Lamps, its easier to build an entire house than it is to find a pair of matching lamps in stock in this city!)

Master Bedroom,,,still some ironing/steaming to do after these shots were taken!  Bench for end of bed will be delivered next week along with second bedside lamp, fingers crossed.  And i'm still on the hunt for some accent pillows...

Family Room

Lots more after pics to come!

All Photos:  Carol Reed