Updated One Room Challenge Reveal

Over the Christmas break I managed to snag a few more pics of my updated One Room Challenge. November is a pretty dark month, and that made it tricky to get some bright pics. Plus I had some spare time to hang pictures and do a little more tweaking to the styling.

Click here for all of the before pics and my original final reveal post. 

Merry Christmas and happy New Year! 
Ashley

Urban Barn's Summer 2017 Collection

Ontario’s spring weather is leaving much to be desired. We’ve had a pretty consistent drizzle of rain throughout the past week, and the only break in sight is Sunday’s morning forecast of flurries. Needless to say, the days are pretty grey and summer weather feels far away.

I recently popped into my local Urban Barn to peruse the summer collection, and despite the weather, I left feeling pretty amped about summer BBQ’s, boat trips, afternoon swims and lounging around. And even if our weekend weather isn’t consistently hitting those high temperatures, there are a few things we can do to make the indoors feel cheerful and relaxing, (with the help of a few essentials from UB’s summer collection!):

1. PILLOW REFRESH: Urban Barn’s selection of pillows has something to suit pretty much everyone’s tastes. From tropical florals, to beautiful blues, colourful geometric prints and everything in between. You can easily liven up a gloomy sofa with a few new pillows sporting a summery palette.

2. NEW ART: A new piece of artwork will easily breathe new life into a room. Urban Barn has lots to choose from, but for summer my eye is on those over-sized ocean landscapes, but also partial to those Just Docked row boats.

3. NAUTICAL NECESSITIES: It’s no secret that anything nautical will instantly make a space feel beachy. Urban Barn has TONS of options that are quirky and fun, without feeling cheesy (as nautical can easily become). Choose one or two to add to your summer space for a touch of whimsy.

4. POPS OF COLOUR: Summer is the best time of year to add colour to your space. Blues, corals and yellows are all over the summery vignettes at UB, and although we usually look to pillows to add these pops, it’s just as easy to add a new pair of brightly coloured drapes, a new table or floor lamp or a foot stool as colourful accents.

And for the record, I've managed to narrow down my shopping list to these guys featured below :)

Breaker Wall Art  |  Sammy Shark Wall Decor  |  Sammy Shark Wall Decor Large  |  Santella Toss 20x20 Turquoise Throw Pillow  |  Shane Toss 20x20 Sea Throw Pillow  |  Go Jump in the Lake  |  Ariel Mermaid Bottle Opener  |  Party Napkins Set of 8  |  Varsity Canadian Flag Toss 12x22 Throw Pillow  |  Compass Outdoor Wall Decor  |  Miami Outdoor Rug - Tile Steel
** A special thank you to Urban Barn for sponsoring this post

One Room Challenge - Guest Room - Week 1 to 6

Pardon the fuzzy pics and complete lack of follow-through with that previous post where I explained [what I thought was going to be] my second ORC project. The initial plan was to do something new with my parents' bedroom, but we had some trouble pinning down exactly what we wanted. And rather than rush through the project (since mid-challenge we were still stuck on concept) we decided to give the guest room a quick face lift.

The guest room is on the main floor of my parents' home, next to the main washroom visitors and guests use. The door to this room is usually open and in clear view when going upstairs or standing in the kitchen. So, it was important that it look welcoming, cute and slightly nautical/cottage-y to match the vibe of the (soon-to-be-completed) rest of the house.

Scroll to the bottom to check out the before pics and some of the finishing details. Including the teeny tiny budget we managed to work with!

As always, a huge thank you goes out to Linda for organizing the One Room Challenge. Twice a year she brings together over 200 guest participants (like myself) and 20 featured bloggers to redecorate a room in six short weeks. You can view the guest participants by click here and view the featured bloggers here.

 Before + Progress Pics

Above: In the end, my inspiration pillow turned out to be not quite right. But it did influence me to buy some gorgeous drapes. 

Below: We tested out some Benjamin Moore paint swatches and settled on the lovely Wickham Gray. 

I'm happy to report that we spent around $350 finishing this room. We shopped around the house and in storage to furnish the space, only buying a new set of drapes and hardware at homeSense for around $50. The remaining budget went to trim, paint and supplies! Not bad.

Custom Creations from Loom Decor

I am more than aware of the fact that I have a serious pillow addiction. Lately I’ve been able to reign in the crazy and say ‘no’ to several beautiful pillows that have crossed my path, but when Laurel and Wolf asked if I was interested in learning more about Loom Décor and creating a free custom pillow, I jumped off my wagon and said YES.

Vaguely familiar with the brand (I can’t not click on an online ad with pretty pillows), I was given a tour of the site and services with one of their Pro Stylists, Erica. She walked me through the ins and outs of the shop, highlighting all of the services they offered, and the countless opportunities to create something customized—not to mention that each piece is handmade at their workshop in Nashville, Tennessee.

I’m pretty curious about their window treatment offerings and definitely want to give this service a whirl, especially since one of the site’s features includes a chat box with an online stylist ready to provide assistance (because you definitely don’t want to make a mistake when ordering custom window treatments…) But what I am most obsessed with are the bed skirts! For anyone who has recently shopped for these, you’ll know the struggle to find something that feels modern (read: NO ruffles) and in ANY colour other than white or cream. Sense my frustration? Honestly though, how cute is this?

Being the generous daughter that I am, I had my mom and dad’s room in mind when creating my custom pillow. We went with the Simple Lumbar style with feather insert, and pulled from their lengthy selection of blue fabrics. Immediately I was drawn to the breezy ombre palette and largescale print of Birds of a Feather in Pool (coincidently, that was my mom’s first choice too) and mom chose Mazing Grace in Aqua for the back of the pillow. When the pillow arrived, we were pleasantly surprised at how accurate the colours were – not always the case when ordering online. We had one small issue, where the zipper was placed on the wrong side of the pillow, but it took a few days for us to realize the mistake, and Loom was quick to replace for us.

Browsing their site, you definitely get caught up in all of the gorgeous fabrics and styles they have to offer, and I’ve rounded up a few fabulous prints that caught my eye…

Simple Throw Pillows: classic velvet - nectar / udaya - berry / classic linen - ivory w/ classic linen - terra cotta edge /  chantilly stripe - midnight / zoo-la-la - ruby / optrix - ash / xu garden - indigo / spot on - azure / babar - twilight / shore - classic / stream up - mist / band stand - oyster / classic linen - safari w/ classic linen - ivory edge /  classic linen - iron, casual linen - dune, crisp linen - dawn 

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. 

Caitlin Wilson Textiles

Coral Tall Chevron Pillow - $55-70