before & after: DIY white lamp

A few weeks ago I made, yet another, wonderful discovery in my building’s garbage hub: a brassy old table lamp. Stuck to its stained and dated lampshade was a note that read, Still works! :)  

I considered this a good find. Loved the look of the lamp, and was not 100% turned off by the brassy base (the lampshade was a definite no, and was left in the trash). After being left in its original state for a few weeks, I decided that a spritz of white spray paint would give it a more modern and chic look. 

Sporting a new $12 lampshade from Wal-Mart, my garbage lamp is complete! When I get tired of white, I can easily switch out the lampshade for something more dramatic, a la the lovely Rose Landscape Lampshade from Anthropologie (spending a few extra $$ on a shade is easier to justify when you scored the base for free) OR easily repaint the base in a new colour. Another option, would be to try sanding off some of the white, for a brassy-weathered-look (no idea if that would actually work…but worth a try one day) 

And, a friendly reminder to please vote for my bedroom in Apartment Therapy's Room for Color contest. Winner receives a $1000 gift card to Fab.com and some much-needed paint from Sherwin-Williams. Thank you! 

Apartment Therapy’s 2014 Room For Color / Colour Contest

I was definitely more than a little excited when I saw my bedroom had made it into Apartment Therapy’s annual Room for Color contest. And I have to admit to being more than a little obsessive about tracking every vote myself and my competitors fellow home décor enthusiasts have received. Living in Canada qualified me for the International Division, which makes it all sound very exotic! There are currently five rooms competing and I managed to hold second place for a few days, but was recently knocked down by Johanna’s “Belgain Summer” room. Contest closes October 3rd so there’s still time to move back up to second (and then work on first place!). If you haven’t yet, I would very much appreciate a vote! A quick and painless sign-up is required, but worth it :) Another exciting result of the Room for Colour contest was a retweet of my entry from my new favourite Twitter account, Potter Barn Teen, aka PBTeen. Despite being well out of my teenage years, they do tweet some great content and I was / am honoured to have been recognized by them! My bedroom is probably my favourite space in the apartment, and one of the most enjoyable places to spend reading a book or perusing the internet (despite having a very weak signal in there…) My previous apartment was on the ground floor and two feet from a fence that blocked most of the sunlight from both windows, so I was pretty thrilled to wake up to sunlight streaming in through the window my first morning after moving in. 
When decorating the room, my goal was to create a calm and relaxing space. The west-facing wall is a deep teal / blue colour called Plumage, Martha Stewart Paints collection (available at Home Depot), it was the perfect colour to ground the space and create that ‘relaxed’ feeling. To carry on with the ‘relaxed’ theme, I wanted the bedding and pillows to be simple and opted to keep it entirely in blacks and whites—to save money, I simply switched out my current floral throw pillows with the black and white checked ones in the living room. I had written about the nightstand in a previous post, the yellow was a bit of an impulsive choice, but being a fan of colour, I wanted something that would be a great contrast, and add some interest to the space. The downside to this second-hand nightstand was that it doesn’t have any drawers or hiding space for clutter. That meant keeping things neat and tidy with a stack of my favourite colour-coordinated books along with a few that were next up on my reading list. The pink dresser was another second-hand piece I had written a post about, it was also painted on a bit of a whim and was initially intended as a storage piece for inside of my closet. However, once it was painted, I loved it too much to stuff into a closet and instead added another pop of colour to the space with a coordinating arrangement of some prints (the Mayan Calendar I had purchased a few years ago while vacationing in Mexico and the Pink Grizzly Bear was a gift from my sister) an antique mirror my parents had bought at an auction 15 years ago (recently painted white) and my gold initial from Chapters Indigo. 

my new neighbourhood: kijiji finds

Today my dad and I posted a few things on Kijiji, which led to me browsing some local goods. Found a few items worth a second look and thought I'd share, just in case your living room is in need of a Tiger Coffee Table...  

Tiger Glass Top Coffee Table $200
Disclaimer from owner: The pictures do not do the table justice. Described as a one-of-a-kind item from a shop down the street, that advertises "Antiques, Cool Stuff and Weird Junk"…will definitely be visiting. 

Retro McDonalds Filet O Fish Collectible Kids' Ride $250

Pretty sure I rode this as a kid. Owners are in Port Severn, and if I’m not mistaken, there was a McDonald’s Play Place somewhere around there before McDonald’s Play Places were even a thing. 

Vintage Telephone Table This is actually kind of adorable, owners claim it is in mint condition, and at $25 it seems like a steal. Unfortunately phones are not included, but saw similar ones at Pottery Barn. 

Toilet complete assembly – FREE 

Solid, working. Need 2 bolts for the tank. 

Pick up from the curb.

,,,Enough said. 

Stadium Chairs for the Mancave $100

Kind of a cool idea, apparently the seats are leather. 

Honourable Mentions (not pictured)

Garbage Bag of Women’s Clothing $40

Mix of summer and winter teen/women’s clothing, sizes x-small to medium. With over 50 items in the bag, this could be an okay deal. 

All Kinds of Bottoms! $80

Requires travel to Orillia. Seller seems to have a lot of jeans, shorts and skirts in all sizes, or you can take them all for $80...is that a deal?

50 Shades of Grey and 50 Shades Darker $15

2 for $15…terrible deal, Amazon is cheaper and they will ship to your door. 

** Formatting this post was a nightmare.  

Before and After: Revamped Rickety Kitchen Chair

As most of my blog posts begin, this kitchen chair was rescued from the garbage can of a neighbouring apartment building. It was salvaged within the first week of adopting Maggie, and lugging that oversized chair up three flights of stairs with her timidly in tow was definitely the most difficult part of this DIY. 

Having extra seating readily available is always tricky in a small space but despite rarely entertaining a crowd and having ample closet space, I was still in the market for a few accent chairs that could do double duty as both a practical piece of furniture and a lovely place to stuff more decorative pillows. 

After a light sanding, a thick slather of black paint (leftover from a previous project), and what felt like an eternity of keeping my white dog away from the paint, the new chair was up and running and ready for extra guests—however, it was a rickety chair and the handful of times it was used, it was used very carefully…hence why it was found in the garbage.