I haven't been blogging for a while and I wish I could say that I was sunning in Turks and Caicos or exploring the street markets in Paris but alas I've been working really hard and hosting family for the holidays.

During this time, I've been working on transforming my bedroom to a peaceful retreat. I'm still only 33% finished but I'm so proud to have to completed the painting portion and moved back in, I really smile everything I enter the room.

Here is the mood board that I created earlier this month for my bedroom.

Here's my bedroom before:
After we removed all the furniture the color really stood out and definitely not in a soothing way.


My design assistants:


The first step was painting which should have taken two days, it took three weeks since I got comfortable sleeping in the guest room and it required primer and two coats of paint. Thank God I had my painting tool so I skipped the taping part.

I used slate and silver sage paint from Restoration Hardware. My design assistants helped me paint, my son Storm lasted ten hours and my daughter Dream lasted two hours. Did I mention that the ceilings which were 12 feet tall?

Sarah Richardson is a well known Canadian designer who creates the most wonderful rooms that are always elegant with clean lines. This is my second post regarding her designs, the first one was on her HGTV show called Sarah's House.



Below are some photos from her website http://www.sarahrichardsondesign.com/, they're great for design ideas. She also has design tips that are very valuable. Happy Surfing.

While granite is definitely the countertop of choice right now, stainless steel is also used in many homes. Stainless steel countertops are easy to take care and when added to a contemporary house lends an upscale and industrial feel to the kitchen. The only problem that is stainless steel is very very expensive.

Ikea has created a laminate product that looks a lot like stainless steel for 10% of the price of stainless steel. You will not be disappointed with this product, just call Ikea before to make sure they have in stock as they fly off the shelf.


The product is called Numerar: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00142127
96" x 25" - $96.00


The same size of stainless steel would probably cost around $1,340.

Z Gallerie is one my favorite haunts, they carry young, fresh furniture with a classic twist. I took a little visit the other day to see the store all decked out in its holiday finery. Here's a couple of snapshots that I took below, if you're close to a Z Gallerie store go take a visit, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Plus they're having a great sale so you won't feel too guilty when you buy something.

Apothecary jars are found in many homes and mostly used in bathroom decoration and sometimes tablescape decoration. If you have any lying around the house you can use them this Christmas. Just remove the cotton balls and add Christmas ornaments. Groups of three in varying heights together will give you instant classy centerpiece. You can also give them as gifts.

I currently live in Laminate World. My kitchen countertops are laminate and all the cabinets in the house are Thermfoil. I've wrestled with replacing the countertops with a granite slab but it bothers me to add $4K worth of the stone on pressed wood cabinets worth around $800.

I also researched painting the cabinets and it seems that Thermfoil/Laminate cabinets is not paintable except to completely peel the laminate off the mdf door and then paint the mdf door. I really didn't like that option either since I'm an beginner DIYer, I didn't want damage the doors, so I gave up the painting idea and decided to live with my discolored white cabinets.

It seemed that Rust-Oleum heard my prayers and created a product especially for laminate... Yippee!!!!!! I'm so excited. I can't wait to use to product on my countertops and my cabinets.






Check out the link.



http://rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=208