Evolution of the Living Room

In case you forgot what it looked like the day we took possession, here's a little refresher. I'm pretty sure that stupid railing was torn down mere moments after I took this photo.

After many hours of cleaning, steaming, priming and painting, the walls are no longer yellow. (Camouflage by Benjamin Moore)

We put back up the floating shelves and gave them a good cleaning

Then we filled it with a bunch of stuff (Yes, that is a Red Bull fridge you see there, and no you can't have it)

Then we got some new/new to us stuff!!!

This sweet red chair from Midmod Vintage

We ordered a new custom sectional! Nothing beats custom sometimes. R picked out the fabric and made an excellent choice. It's a bit like an old mans jacket. But it looks awesome and is wearing really well. Our kitty hasn't wrecked it at all (yet!)

Look at how awesome this couch is. Room for both of us to stretch out a bit. I still love our old couch and it's living in the basement for now. We put a sheepskin on the red chair, and it's so cozy. R found this cool kidney shaped coffee table and matching end table on Kijiji. Nice score. I love the glass top, and that there is places to put all my junk.

 We need to work on the window treatments, the vertical blinds work, but just don't do it for me. I tire of the clatter every time there is a breeze!

Shelves with more, but nicely organized things. Some twinkly lights in the glass cabinet for some fun :)

R's booze collection, with a fine selection of local spirits from our very own Lucky Bastard Distillers

New Old lamp for the corner above the couch, this is from Past and Present antiques (This place has got some amazing stuff, if you've got the time to dig through the layers, you can find some really neat treasures)

New Credenza (also from Past and Present), Custom built by R Speakers, and a new TV! I took a little convincing to agree that this Credenza would be the right one for our space, but I'm glad he brought me around.

I hope that it still works with the new floors, or I may look at sanding and staining it a little darker. Not till after the floors though!

A vintage media stand for all R's gear and his latest and greatest speaker creation. Carbon fiber and oh so sleek!

Just imagine the pink carpet replaced with... well just about anything would be better than this freaking gross carpet. 

I can't wait for the day we can have new floors! We will pick out a new area rug after the floors are in. There are a million different ones that I love it's so hard to choose

We have the best and brightest door in the whole neighborhood. We have the door open all the time to let the air in and it's almost like it's own piece of art. It really brightens up the room. How can it not, really. Notice that no brass light fixture above the door? R painted that one, and the two sconces on either side of the TV with a metallic black spray paint. And we washed the globes until they were no longer yellow. They look better than new!

  My seeestor's grad pictures, some trinkets from family and the most bad ass zombified picture of us! An awesome house warming gift from this guy 

I love this little IKEA cart, I plan to fill it with plants, hopefully I can keep them alive. More Kris Moffat's with a hint of IKEA on the walls.

There will be some more progression on this wall coming soon. We have a new print to be framed and hopefully I can do some re-arranging soon

I love how much things have changed over the last couple of years and can't wait to see how things keep progressing!

Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow...

I've been dreaming of a yellow front door since we moved in.

Today is the day that dream finally comes true! I went to the paint store after work yesterday and picked up all the samples of yellow. Hummmd and haaaad and we settled on Benjamin Moore's Sun Kissed Yellow. 

R took all the junk off, and bondo'd the holes and dents and sanded it up.

I primed and started with the tinted foundation 

I was really liking primer color until it dried and was dull. 

Ta da! Here is the real color. It is so bright and so cheerful. It is not the greatest paint job in the whole world. But the door was in kinda rough shape to begin with.

 R putting the hardware back on!!!!! See, the bright happy yellow even makes him smile! :D

Yep. I want a new screen door.

Love it. It is just so sunny!

How sad is it that I am super pumped for the Google Street View Car to come back around and capture this work of art!?!?

If you didn't know, Google Street View will often show you historical pictures of things, so basically Google keeps a handy little log of the progress we've made!

Patio Goals

I just want to stick this little piece of inspiration here.

(source) 

Here's our house again... see kinda similar 

This just about sums up what I would like our patio to be when we are all done. Of course we don't have those FANTASTIC windows and the perfect yellow door in the back, but the layout will be very similar. They even have the old door table. Our table will have folding legs to be hung up on the side of the house when not in use. And where the fire pit is built in with patio stones, ours will be large patio stones in with grass, or better yet, living carpet, like below, and will extend down the side of the house where we will put in a gate. I'd like to put clear sheeting on the roof of the pergola for enjoying the rain and staying dry, and install curtains on two sides and the top.

Our zero gravity chairs will go over here, with the portable fire pit

and under the pergola, will be a built in bench-y/sofa thing that will be comfy enough for long hours of outside lounging and doubles as dining table seating! About where that yellow door is located would be where my cinder block bar will go

It will be similar to this:

(Source)

But it will be a old 5 pane window in behind, done like this

One pane is smashed so I will put some chicken wire in place of the glass to hang stuff on!

 

(source) 

Check this out!!!!

I whipped up a plan using Planner5d.com

Pantry Pintristification!

**Ugh. Yes, I see that Pinterest is not spelled correctly, however I don't want to break the link to the Kitchn's post so I'm just going to leave it be. Don't judge me ;) 

It was functional. Mostly. And yellow. So very yellow!

Before (but after I  January Cure'd things a little!)

 Primed with Kilz, I didn't want any tobacco seeping though!

 R designed and got these custom U-shaped shelves cut. Primed and first coats of white going on! 

 White!

 How much better is this? Do you not LOVE the "metal" edge? You know what it is? Paint?

Nope, it was too hard to try and tape a nice line to paint... 

It's Washi tape. R thinks its silly, but I think it looks totally awesome!

Chevron frog tape going up. 1000 times quicker than trying to do it with regular tape I think. 

 I should have taken more time and done my math better, but oh well. I wanted funky color and I have it!
  
 First ones I painted with a brush and it didn't go that well. Quick trip to Canadian tire for a roller and I was on a roll again ;)

  GREEN!

 Touch ups, because I'm a mess and got green all over the place. Also had to re-apply some of the washi tape as I pulled it too tight and it came away from the corners. 

 LOOKIT!!!! It's so pretty! And organized. I never want to buy or use anything ever again so it looks like this forever (I've already had to move a few things around since, but it's still totally organized)

 Stupid Vector doesn't fit on shelves. Whatever.

 That 4-6 inches of extra shelf down the sides of the walls is just awesome. The two top shelves stayed the same depth as they were before (there is one original shelf up at the top that you can barely see) and the two bottom ones were made a little deeper to hold the larger dollarama storage bins. R gave me a hard time for demanding they be that size, and then not using those containers...

I'm a girl, I will change my mind 1000 times an hour. Deal with it ;)

 JARS! Oh the jars. I wanted to do a "water-slide" label on the sides of the jars, but the ones I got were decorative and don't have nice smooth sides for application. This probably works better, because you can see what is in behind, no problem!

Handy to leave the label maker in the pantry!

Source List:

Benajmin Moore - Pure White
CIL - Calypso Green (Buy the expensive paint for this type of job, I had to do 4 coats of green to get it to look good. BM Aura paint would have taken two probably tops!)
Bins - Dollarama
Lazy Susan - Dollarama
Jars and Lids - Ordered online from Home Hardware!
Wire shelves - Wal-Mart
Frog Shape Tape in Chevron (this stuff works awesome!!!!!!! Frog tape for the WIN!)