My Mod Artsy Shop List

THINGS I NEED FOR MY FABULOUS HOME
old rustic (aka rusty) stepladder
butcher block
wall shelving
sanitized tin garbage can (for table)
retro vinyl cds (some wall art)
bean bag chair
big, unique-looking clock
tons of paint
bench (to be painted white)
wall hooks (they come in handy!)
big, old chest (for magazines\books)
a shelf and a lot of mugs (going to make a mug shelf...I heart mugs!)
white painted twigs (before the snow starts!)

Step stool to convert to a wine rack

2 ladder step stool (for a wine rack)
Ceramic bowl(s)

Ceramic statement bowl to be used as decor on a shelf

 

used bike tire (plan to mount it on the wall)

Paint is thy Passion

I love painting. Painting art, painting walls, it's a joy to transform a simple background whether it's a piece of paper or a whole living room.

My palette

GRAY

Gray for me is cool, sophisticated, calm and clean. Gray is modern, fresh and neutral. Gray is a color I would like to as an accent wall in the living room and in the bathroom definitely. There will be gray in our home.  


Black and peach

Black and peach is for the kitchen. Black lacquered cabinets instead of stale, white ones adds dimension to an otherwise boring kitchen. The peach is the wall colour or an accent on the trim. I'm trying to create a sophisticated space for my talented culinary abilities. :) Such as above.

Green and Cream 

Green\cream bedroom inspiration

A bright eclectic green with creamy white\French white accents (painting, curtains, bedspreads, rug, dressers, etc) are reserved for our bedroom. Green is a lively color. It is associated with all things live like spring, plants, etc. It is associated with health, wealth, renewal, restfulness, and denotes balance, harmony and stability.

It is a color that is vibrant, optimistic and energizing. I want an energizing room to wake up in. I want to wake up in a good, cheery mood and green and cream will do that. The right shade of green needs to be picked though, nothing too bright or too grassy or pukey or washed out. But green and cream will appear in our bedrooms, whether my sweetie-poo agrees or not. I will put up a fight for this one ;) 

Check it out

Kitchen

living room

I have put a deposit down on this spacious flat in a 3-storey walk up. Not only are the windows nice and big but parking is included. I'm already ready to get the paint colours from Benjamin Moore. How exciting is this? The price is right and the space is workable. Imagine how much fun I will be having in this kitchen! The neighbourhood is alright it's not "trendy" but it's an up-and-comer. I see a lot of good things here and it's right on the lakeshore which means a lot of great jogs with the dog!
There is nothing as exciting as apartment hunting when it is in your favour. I struck lucky with this deal as I don't have to pay first-and-last which is becoming quite regulatory here in Toronto. I'm quite happy with this and see myself here for a year or two! Paint colours coming in next blog post! :D
PS. Yes, I will be painting the bottom kitchen cabinets.

No Shame In Basement Flat

The past two apartments my fiancee and I shared together were two basement suites. One had mold and the other had rats, but that aside they were okay. Some basement suites are "raised" and others have ample window space. Living in a basement apartment wasn't something I bragged about but now I do not see any shame in it. They are cheaper than above-ground apartments for the same square footage. With the extra money, I can go shopping, save or treat  my adopted dog.
I was perusing through some websites and found very chic basement apartments decorated in Chicago and Hong Kong. These places had amazing decor and lay outs and they did so much in a basement apartment. Your usually judgments on basement suites were thrown right out the window. Could a basement apartment really look that good? Yes, with the right usage of space and creative design. I think you could be imaginative and create a very cool area in a basement apartment. These images prove that.

I would, however, like to advise to use a lot of light as natural light is scarce in a basement.

Vanity and Mirrors

I'm obsessed with mirrors the way most people are obsessed with TVs. They want a nice big TV in the living room or bedroom because it looks good. They could easily watch a TV show on an old, frumpy TV but no, they want a sleek, nice big flat screen bugger. Well I like mirrors. I love looking at myself and I love how elegant they look. I could see a place in my home for every mirror I meat (closet doors, check) and would never understand how a bathroom cannot have a nice, generously sized mirror. I want 5 mirrors in the house as accents and decor and I want to find a big, lovely antique mirror. Something with a unique design or an unusual shape.
I want a mirror behind our bed against the wall, behind the sofa against the wall, in the foyer, in the bathroom (or two mirrors if the bathroom comes with one) and the fifth one in the hallway with an accent chair.

Farm inspired antique mirror. I need to hunt it down, or one like it.

Surprising, modern use of red in an antique mirror.

Mirrors add charm and people are drawn to them naturally because they're drawn to themselves. A mirror is a reflection and I want my home to reflect on me, and when I look in the mirror I will see a reflection of myself but the mirror also reflects me. Deep stuff, vain....but deep, stuff.

WHITE WHITE WHITE

White bench for the den. I would change the upholstery and add a pillow.

White is the way to go. Did you see all those tan\beige tiles and walling in the previous post, my dream apartment? We will call it the Sheridan. The Sheridan is made of hard tiles in these colors and I don't want it to clash. I was thinking of white shelving, white area rug, creamy pastel couches and a white back-splash on the bar. Rectangle mirrors that reflect white is also a way to add more white and lighten up the tan ceramic tile. I love the originality of the den and want to keep the vintage essence of it with scone lighting and a white bench. The white bench is something I would instill in our apartment regardless of if we get that particular apartment or not. It is a "throw your jackets on" kind of bench that you may overlook in a rush but you're grateful its there nonetheless. w

The Place.

Huge kitchen to work with--love the cupboards.

The bathroom of my dreams!

Open concept bar and living room

The den and a bit of the bathroom. Check out those tiles.

This lower level design is the apartment I am trying to rent. I love the spacious open concept design and the big bathroom. It is unique because most Toronto apartments do not look like this. I had the "feeling" when I seen the advertisement for this, plus it is in a very trendy, central downtown location with store-lined streets, cafes and free parking! You can NOT find free parking downtown usually the price is $50-$150 for a spot, so this is definitely a rare gem. I will have to pull all the strings to get this place as it is a bit out of our budget but I definitely want it. Decorating this space will be a joy and it will be a pleasure to have friends come over here. I'm going to cross my fingers with this one--it surely won't be on the market long. Oh yeah, and there's a den. So. Cool.

Combining and Creating

Europe has a lot of cathedrals...why not inject some art deco with stained glass lighting?

My fiancee comes from a sunshiney, beautiful European Meditteranean city. The sea is marble blue, the cobblestone streets are narrow and filled with crumbling, characteristic white buildings and sprawling cafes. My fiancee is a deep believer in easy European living. She works hard but plays hard as well, placing family, friends and leisure above the slavery-inducing tactics of Canadian and American materialistic work. Work, work, work. No, a nice cup of Turkish coffee and a cigarette on a Sunday morning is life for her. Nothing else matters--not the bills, not the clothes on mannequins in gaudy stores and not the hurried people passing by in her window.

For me, a West Indian girl, I'm partial to a lot of bright colours and spicy food. I like my life spicy and interesting, not dull and lifeless. I want my house to be a tropical jungle with flavor and vibrancy. I want everything and everyone to be alive. I want light. I'm fine with anything brightly coloured. My favourite colour to wear is yellow. My fiancee's is black. I told her I wanted a lime-green lazy chair and she nearly choked back on her fifty-cent hot dog at IKEA. Was I insane? Would her laid-back espresso fine, laid-back living and my brightly, chipper lifestyle be able to become one? My lively flair and her sophistication? Jazz music and Michaelangelo? Why not.

"Wild Jazz by Debra Hurd". My penchant for jazz and blues music is strong.

There is something so European about a butcher's block. It makes me think of Pavarotti. Perhaps it was because he enjoyed food so much. Food is integral to the family life of the European and central to the Mediterranean lifestyle. You know, it's like : hey, there's a wedding (let's eat). Hey there's a funeral (let's eat). Hey it's noontime (let's eat). Hey, it's a nice day out (let's eat). I'm angry (let's eat). With no exception, my fiancee is an aggressive carnivore and the injection of a butcher's block in the kitchen is not only functional and adds an authentic European element, but it adds to her own personality. What better way to let people know your life revolves around food than a big slab of wood to butcher your food in your urban kitchen? Quite contrasting compared to her HDTV.

Butcher's blog is also a great place to store pots and pans and your wine.

From Blah to Wow

Charming and tiny kitchen--if this can work, anything can.

Storage and painting fix everything

Kitchens in urban Toronto apartments are uninspiring at best. Tiny, narrow and drab you wonder how you can whip up a spicy penne sausage dish in such a hideous, tiny and ugly kitchen. I fear the bathroom and kitchen will be the hardest to work with. I cannot picture a beautiful kitchen when dealing with ugly, outdated appliances, counters and floor space. But there is always hope!

The average Toronto kitchen

What I would do with this drab kitchen is put down a colorful mat with chocolates and yellows, maybe some red in there. I would paint the boring walls a deep gray and add some post-Impressionist art on the wall adjacent to the sink and paint those forlorn cabinets ivory or something. I would add red curtains to the tiny window and add a wall pantry shelf adjacent to the sink with spices, olive oils, aged balsamic vinegars and some wine. Voila!

Small but functional, well decorated kitchen

Where Do I Start?

Seeing overwhelmingly talented architects show off their homes makes it increasingly difficult to measure up, but I often wonder where these people start. When I start looking for sunglasses, I go for the most unique, ugliest pair and I truly fall head-over-heels in them despite everyone else's disgust. To me, they aren't ugly and that is the take I'm going to adopt to my designing. I am going to go with the ugliest, weirdest crap and spin it into something beautiful.

This suede leather PU sectional sofa and ottoman is only $399 from this factory place with free delivery in Toronto. The reason I like this couch is because of it's earthy tones. I feel a lot of Mother Africa here, something I can build on with tribal accents and woody\natural materials. I like nature and this sofa personifies nature. I call it the Mother Africa couch and it's my #1 choice.
This is the modern piece that my fiancee can enjoy. She won't have to worry about sitting on something old and uncomfortable. But then there's this....

Not sure what I'd do with it yet, whether its a bedroom chair or a comfy chair for an extra guest in the living-room but I like it....alot. I think it's too much gold in our living-room though. Sigh.

WHO WHY WHAT WHERE HOW

WHO
I am a 21 year old journalism student who loves dogs, old movies, good experiences, liquor and a beautiful home. I love to cook, entertain, be lazy, be fun, celebrate and cause a mess. In my free time and professionally I write and do photography using Nikon equipment but also regular digital and film cameras. I collect cameras and can spend hours reading and collecting books in my library (well a mountain stack of books, at any point).
My queer fiancee who is a social butterfly, loves to entertain as well and is ardent about anything modern and technological. The newest and biggest flat-screen televisions? She's there. Stainless steel microwaves? You bet she's happy. I would be fine without a tv in the house but to even suggest such a thing is like committing murder for this one. We will be co-habitating in a one bedroom apartment flat in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada and will have to agree on our varying tastes of how to decorate our abode. 
WHY
This blog is just a journal of some sorts of my jumbled ideas and aspirations for this flat. The colors I want to paint it, decor ideas, DIY projects, upholstering of furniture, second shop finds, inspiration from the World Wide Web and information about what I'm trying to accomplish which is a beautiful, unique home that is interesting, cozy and eclectic but contemporary enough not to embarrass my sweetheart and her pals. 
WHAT
This blog will be a compilation of why I chose the furniture\decor\styles I chose and what it means to me, photo images and videos that inspire me, references to interior design books, information about our apartment (square footage, etc) and  once we begin actually decorating silly photos of me and my sweetheart putting together this dream. 
WHERE
I plan to get everything for our home from IKEA, Bowring, Crate&Barrel, second hand and vintage shops around town, Craigslist, Home Sense, Pottery Barn, Benjamin Moore and wherever I can find what I need. I might go to a factory or farm and pick up a piece of wood and fashion a table (seriously) or go to a park and find a bunch of identical twigs to create some kind of artsy decor. I'm a creatif. I want everything I find to be unique and original and inspirational to others while also being functional and aesthetic. If I can do that, I'm a genius. 
HOW

This is an important question as I'm on a student's budget. With savvy negotiation, frugal second-hand junk store finds and a lot of luck and planning (like calling months ahead to find out when the IKEA Midnight Madness sale is that has 50% off the entire store)....I think I will be able to do it. I don't want a drab, boring couch-and-TV apartment. I want something to sparkle and something to enjoy since we'll be here for a while! You know what it's like paying off your hefty student loans......!!!