Stores just love me

Had to start off with this pic...Layla likes a good box :-)

Once again there has been a long pause in my entries in this blog. I continue to battle some health issues and it has taken a great toll on my energy and motivation. But I feel like there is some hope on the horizon and that maybe in another month I will start to get enough energy to work on something major.

In the meantime, I have been making local stores happy in that I have been buying things left and right to get this place organized and beautiful. There are tons of ideas whirling around my head and I dare to say that by the end of the year, I should have this place looking pretty, darn awesome.

The first thing I did was replace the living room rug. The one that I had before was multi-coloured and rather dark. With my plans to have a darker floor, eventually, I didn't think this rug really fit anymore so I ended up buying a off-white rug from Canadian Tire For $130.

I had debated over it a bit as I feared it was a little "IKEA-ish"..meaning, mass-produced looking(which I hate). But now that its in the living room it looks great, and will look even greater when the floors are darkened. I'll provide a pic at another time. As I write this there is stuff all over my coffee table...I'll take a pic when the..uh..maid shows up. Yeah, maid.....ok...when I clean it up.

Another issue to tackle was what to put above the couch. Art? Mirror? So I decided to do something that combined both ideas. I had 4 framed mirrors from IKEA that I used in the living room of my townhouse, but 4 would look a little odd. So I picked up 4 more of them and did a simple 4 over 4 design.

*credit to Layla for her modeling services....oh crap, my coffee table is messy again

One thing odd that I realised that the 4 brown framed mirrors that I bought were a different shade than the mirrors I bought previously. The ones I had were brown and the ones I bought were black-brown. Its a very subtle difference and I doubt you can see it in the picture. But just in case it became noticeable, I alternated each colour back and forth. Simple idea that I am sure has been done tons of times but it brings light to the back of the condo and some visual interest so it works for me.

I have a small linen closet in my bedroom in addition to the main closet. I have linens but I thought this closet could be better utilized - as a boot and purse closet! :-) Yep, I'm a bit of a shoe-o-holic and a purse-o-holic. Nothing Emelda Marcos inspired but a good solid collection that needs organization and easy access. I thought first of clear plastic bins but they're just so...utilitarian. Boring. Good for storage, yes, but not particularly attractive. I already had a couple of brown baskets that would look good but I needed to find enough to provide storage for 3 shelves. I needed 6 more baskets and it's not always cheap to find ones of a decent size. But I was in luck. Wandering through Canadian Tire I spotted these:

Seagrass basket

Perfect! But I needed 6. Regular price was $14.99 each. Ugh. With taxes, that would be over $100. Yikes. For baskets?? But, HELLO!, guess what was on sale for $3.99!! I love when Canadian Tire puts stuff on sale. So instead of $100, I spent $27. Not bad, not bad at all. So with the already installed rack shelving that was provided by the previous owner, I got this:

 Now there is still some work to do. I need to add a belt rack to the door. There is just a hook there right now but I need something a little larger. I also would like to add one of those battery operated light bulbs in there since there is no light. There is a light in there but it's corded and the only outlet is one that's outside the closet. Makes no sense - you'd have to constantly have the closet open. That won't work.

What remained a big issue from the start is the foyer. There really isn't much of one.

Yawwwnnnn....with a view of the "throne"

You walk in and are immediately bombarded with two large closet doors in front of you, the bathroom to the left, and a small area before you enter into the livingroom. It's been an eye-sore, in my opinion, since I moved in. I put two of my dining chairs against the wall to provide some place to sit down to put on shoes, but it was turning into a mess. I had debated over a lot of benches but I kept going back to the bench I saw at Home Depot:
I had hesitated because it's a mass-production type of bench but it fit everything that I needed - storage, size and at a decent price. So I bought it, along with a couple of storage bins for underneath. Still debating on the 3rd bin as they have many colours and prints and I wanted to have an alternate instead of having all the bins the same. I'll pick the last one up soon.

I added a small round table and a funky glass dish for keys out of my own stuff. I would also like to recover the seat cushion to give it a little pop.

Coincidentally I finally ended my search for the perfect mirror. I had been debating this mirror from Canadian Tire:

But I couldn't fathom spending $50 on it. Just didn't seem worth it. I kept watching for a sale but a sale never came up. This past Sunday I happened to be in a Home Sense and I spotted it!

Gorgeous! Total retro vibe and a great size for the area I wanted to hang it. It was $50 as well, but being metal and having all that mirror - it was worth it. Sometimes you have to just buy something because you love it and throw out what you "thought" you might pay.

So here's the foyer:

As you can see by the background, I have been painting. The blue is called Clear Sky by my favourite paint company CIL. I don't think the pic really does the colour justice though. It's a much richer blue than what is in the pics - like a "Tiffany" blue, if you are familiar. I still have my main wall to do and a little wall area by my solarium. There's one more wall in my living/dining room that I am debating on the wall application - maybe wallpaper or some wall treatment...not sure. I also need to paint all the trim, and of course there's the floor. I am also not totally finished with the foyer area, as I still have to figure out what to do on the large closet doors. In the first pic you will see a reflection of some wallpaper that I have taped up. I like it. It's reflective and I like the colours but I am still debating. And I still need a nicer over-head light. So I'm half done.

So that's all I got for now. Nothing ground-breaking but I feel like the place is starting to take shape. It's deep into winter here in the big T.O. and it's hard not to want to just cocoon and couch your way through the next couple of months but I will push forward in my pursuit in at least having the dining/living room and foyer done by the spring. I will fight against the lazy!

 Love, laugh and make it gorgeous!