Shower Curtain Love

As a follow up to last week's post pleading for help in picking picture frames for my master bedroom, I would like to report that I think I found (bought) a solution on the weekend when I visited West Elm in Toronto for the first time. I really liked this store! 

Thank you to the many people that wrote me emails suggesting various options - they were all helpful and the end result will encompass many parts of your suggestions.

I am not going to reveal the picture frames hung and in place just yet (mainly because they are sitting in a heap on my bedroom floor and only white sheets of paper are hung in their place on the wall right now).

BUT, I wanted to report one other home purchase that I was really happy with.  

Before I went to West Elm, I hit up their website prior to arriving, and had my mind set on this shower curtain of all things:

Source

I have two bathrooms that require a shower curtain in my home and only one stylish curtain - the others are very dated, boring or juvenile. I loved this when I saw it and thought it would be perfect for my main/kids' bathroom. Goodbye juvenile, hello clean, modern and still fun.

This is how it looks:

(I was sure to crop the photo from the bottom
so you couldn't see the kids stools x2 plus potty
chair ... sort of changes the look if you know
what I mean).

I am really happy with the result. It is exactly what I was looking for.

I know I usually don't post much design stuff on this blog, but just for fun, shown below some before pictures of the same bathroom prior to the major reno my husband and I did a few years back. The shape is overall the same, but if you look close there are some really "special" parts that are now gone (hint: shower curtain, door with gold knob, carved out toilet paper holder and the linoleum flooring.

Bathroom at time of purchase

During Reno

This is where I was slightly freaking out and
hoping that one day I would have a bathroom again.

Post Reno 

Post Reno2

Post Reno3

Have a great weekend!  Maybe hit up West Elm if you are looking for a fun hour to yourself!

Meringue Giveaway Winner - Yeah Laurie-Ann!

Happy to announce that the winner of the $50 Meringue Inc. gift certificate is:

Laurie-Ann!

Congrats and let us know what you use it towards.

Thank you to everyone who participated, and remember you are all entitled to 15% off if you would like to purchase some products from Meringue. Just be sure to type in "cc15" at check out to use the discount.

To everyone else - lots more giveaways this week, so email a post (and cc me on it), leave a comment, post on facebook (and let me know about it), become a follower, subscribe to email or drop me a line.

The Perfect Gift for a New Baby

If you're anything like me, when someone close to me has a baby or celebrates a really special event I like to get them something equally as special or thoughtful.

Meringue Inc. has these amazing canvases and prints that can be customized for new arrivals or any special child you may be shopping for. 

I fell in love with the Scott Douglas canvas when I saw it and was actually thinking about getting one for each of my sons.  You can tweak the wording too in case it's not quite what you want to say.  The colours are such a nice change from good ol' primary blue, yellow and red. I thought if you design them right, they're something kind of funky that they could keep in their rooms for quite a long while.

If you like these, remember, all C&CS readers get a 15% discount just by using coupon code cc15 at checkout.  And let's not forget about Meringue's $50 gift certificate for one lucky reader ...

To qualify for the $50 gift certificate, you must:
-be a follower or email subscriber of this blog AND
-visit Meringue Inc. and then come back to C&CS and leave a comment here letting us know what your favourite print is


 *Contest closes Sunday at noon. Good Luck and Happy Month of June!

Cute Artwork for Kids' + A GIVEAWAY!

If you are looking to for some beautiful artwork for your kids' rooms or for a gift for a relative or friend, you have to check out Meringue Inc.

I ran into this company at a Children's Trunk Show I attended and was really attracted to the beautiful and colourful prints and canvasses that were available. Especially for boys. So often with boys everything is so "typical boy" - primary colours, overly cartoon and the look usually compromises the goal of any sort of artistic or coordinated feel in their rooms.  Check these out:

If they like construction vehicles,
at least these ones are attractive :)

Meet Helen, owner and founder of Meringue Inc.  After the birth of her second child, Helen left chapters.indigo.ca to take on her most challenging role yet: Stay-at-Home Mum.  Upon an overwhelming need for a creative outlet she carved out a studio for herself in the basement of her small Upper Beaches home.  A cozy little corner next to the furnace.  Then she made a trip to Ikea, bought a sexy new iMac, painted the den sangria red and deemed it her office.    No-one multi-tasks better than a Stay-at-Home Mum.

At the ooey-gooey, sweet and fluffy core of Meringue Inc. rests the belief that art for children doesn’t need to be all about yellow duckies.  It can be cool, visually challenging and as complex and sophisticated as children are today.  We have faith that filling the world with beautiful, inspiring things can only make it a better, more friendly place to be.

Helen has generously agreed to provide C&CS readers with a 15 % off discount (use Coupon Code cc15 at checkout) as well as giveaway a $50 gift certificate to one lucky reader.

To qualify for the giveaway, you must:
-be a follower or email subscriber of this blog AND
-visit Meringue Inc. and then come back to C&CS and leave a comment here letting us know what your favourite print is

 *Contest closes Sunday at noon. Good Luck and Happy Month of June!

New Lights, Old Lights, Future Lights?

This weekend my husband and I FINALLY checked something off a long over due item off our to-do list for our house.

When we first moved into our home four! years ago, we were diligent at replacing all of the lights inside right away as well as adding two nice lights on either side of our garage.  However, this lovely light remained in our front entrance way:

On Saturday, my husband replaced it with this:

Ahhhhhhh! Much better wouldn't you say?

Felt so nice to get that off the list and it makes our front entrance way look so much nicer.

A couple of other lights we were looking at that we liked:

Light for Master?

Restoration Hardware
Vintage Light String

Light For Our Front Hallway?

For our Master Bedroom Side lamps?

Glimpses of Spring

I love spring and I love flowers.  And I'm pretty confident that June Cleaver - this month's honourary Mom - had a bit of a green thumb and would have loved flowers too.

There's something so friendly and happy about them.

Unlike some people who find gardening a pain, I find it very therapeutic (on the days when I actually have some time to do it uninterrupted that is).

I so enjoy cutting flowers from my garden and bringing them inside for bouquets and displays and giving them as gifts to other people.  Flowers just seem to brighten up everyone's day.
I have been very fortunate that the first two homes that I have owned have been older ones with tons of established flowers, shrubs and trees that needed only to be maintained, fed and occasionally pruned.  It's almost cheating as I didn't pick them or strategically plant them ... or pay for them.

Here's a glimpse of some of the flower friends popping up around my yard right now:

Purple Lilacs

White Lilacs

Rhubarb after a picking for dinner

The last of the tulips

Allium

Ferns ... love ferns!

Forget-me-nots



Not sure



The start of my hanging baskets ... To be continued

Bleeding Hearts

Hosta

More Hangers catching some rays 



Not sure



Peonies on their way

Not sure

Paper Whites (I think)

Window container ... complete with hard water marks :)

Chives

I love lilacs, but my absolute favourites are hydrangeas. What's your favourite flower?  What do you think June Cleaver's favourite flower would have been?

Finding Stuff in Other People's Basements

Went to visit my brother and sister-in-law's house this weekend for the first time and during a tour of the house and the basement, I happened upon two of these:

I just love them (the pictures don't do them justice).  They have an older feel to them, but are not beat up and over the top antiquey like most you find discarded in basements. A bit too much for a hallway (unless you have more of a Victorian/ornate  feel to your home), but perfect for a master bathroom (think over top of a big tub) or in our sunroom or office :)

The best part is (apart from them not being a line item on my credit card) I don't have to do anything to them. There is this fine beaded detail around all of the metal which gives them even more depth and makes them exquisite up close.  They are clean with no chipping or scratches and a nice antiqued beige, which fits perfectly in my home. 

SCORE!

P.S. Big month coming up on Cashmere & Carrotsticks. If you haven't already, sign up for email or become a follower so you can qualify for all the goodies coming your way in the weeks to come.

I Need Help Picking a Grey Paint

So my husband and I are in the midst of picking and painting a new paint colour in our master bedroom. 

Currently it is "french vanilla" by Benjamin Moore and has been since we quickly slopped it on when we moved in four years ago. Nice and neutral but very warm and almost yellow. It has served its purpose and now we're ready for a change. We thought we may try something different with a grey shade since it is very "in" right now and relaxing and romantic for a master bedroom.

Testing testing!

Swatches and more swatches

Well, let me tell you, choosing the right grey is a tough task!  I have gotten swatches, tester paint pots, and even purchased two gallons of a colour that we have decided was not right (insert guilt!). 

If at first  you don't succeed, try again!

Currently our room is half french vanilla and half "snappy dresser" by Para and the search continues. 


You didn't believe me?

 Our challenge is that for some reason the lighting in our bedroom yanks all of the colour's undertones in a bad away. EVERYTHING is showing either blue or purple, nothing truly grey.

The colours currently sampled on our walls are:

• BM Stonington Grey - shows purple
• BM Gray Owl - shows blue
• BM Asphalt - not sure, maybe too dark
• BM Pewter - shows some blue but we're getting closer
• BM Stormy Monday - PURPLE!
• BM Stone Harbour - purple
• Para Snappy Dresser - too light

So I'm asking for some help here. Does anyone have any suggestions.  A lot of natural light floods into the room during the day.

(I want my room back so that I can start my closet cleanse!).

BM= Benjamin Moore

Design Question Follow Up

Earlier this week, I posted this article, asking for your opinion on what I could hang on the walls behind my master bedroom bed.  From everyone's comments, it seemed that it was hard to fully answer my query unless more information about the rest of the room was provided.

The master bedroom is limited because of two major windows, an entrance into our master bath, two very large dressers that need significant space on walls and a hallway (where our closets are located).

Here are a couple of more pictures, as requested:

Very large window on one wall

Asymmetrical window on another wall

One of two very large dressers

Entrance to master en suite



Hallway into master, closets on left

 As mentioned earlier this week, this year we would like to give this room some lift and changes, including: painting grey, updating light fixtures to incorporate more glass and silver, maybe painting out some of the wood, changing knobs of dressers, changing window treatments, adding a throw, etc.

So here are my questions for you:

-What sort of thing(s) could I hang behind the bed?
-What could I put on top of the dressers?  They are really high so not functional for makeup, jewellery, etc. but I would still like to dress them up a bit
- Window treatment ideas?

Thanks!