Axel's Nursery Room Tour

Baby Girl won’t be here for another 4 months, but we want to be ready for her, so we’ve already started rearranging Axel’s nursery to accommodate her. It made me realize that even though I shared my design plan for Axel’s nursery, I never shared the completed room tour! These photos are from his first nursery at our old house, but we set his room up in more or less the same way at the new house. The design of the space is very neutral — I wanted the room to be calm and serene, a space that was inviting and enjoyable for me, and not overly babyish. Here’s a tour of the nursery, and I’ll do another tour of the room once it’s been converted to a shared toddler/baby room. Sources shared at the end of the post!

SOURCES:

Crib, wall shelves, bookshelf, dresser (doubling as a changing table), lamp, drapes, picture frames above crib, gold-painted mirror: all IKEA
Moroccan rug: RugsUSA
Hexagon side table: CANVAS by Canadian Tire
Rocking chair: JYSK (While I’m sharing the source of this chair, I actually DON’T recommend it — it didn’t rock smoothly and wasn’t comfortable. But for something very similar and good quality, check out this one from Structube.)
Sound machine, changing pad, diaper caddy, diaper pail: all from Amazon
Laundry hamper, large mirror: Homesense
Candle: Coal and Canary’s Chubby Cheeks & Flannel Sheets scent (smells like new baby!)
Baby animal prints: Crown Prints

* Affiliate disclosure: The Amazon products mentioned in this post are affiliate links, and if you click through to make a purchase I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. I would never recommend a product I don’t believe in. Thank you for supporting the brands that make it possible to maintain this blog!

Beige & Blah to White & Bright Bathroom Refresh

It’s about time I shared a decorating project on here! I’ll be giving our main floor bathroom a much needed refresh. The room is extremely dated and needs a complete renovation, but we won’t be able to start doing any major work in there until at least a year from now. There’s no way I can live with it for that long in its current state though, so it’s going to get an inexpensive cosmetic makeover with paint and a few accessories. I’ll show you the space, but first, here’s a mood board I put together with my vision for it:

Here’s the bathroom in its current state:

The walls are beige, the ceiling is beige, the vanity is beige, the shower is lined with floral-printed beige vinyl sheets (that’s not even real tile!!), the tub is beige, the toilet is beige… I think you can see the issue I have with this room. It’s very dull and there isn’t a window in this bathroom, and since beige is a light-sucking colour, the room needs as much brightening up as I can manage. When I’m done with it there will be no more beige in here!!!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

2 Interior Design Trends To Watch For In 2020

Hello, year 2020! If a new year is a good time for a fresh start, then a new decade is an especially good time for change. For at least the latter half of the last decade, white & bright interiors have reigned supreme in popularity, punctuated by all-white kitchens and room after room decorated in a white, pink and gold colour scheme. The start of the last decade also saw grey take over from beige as the new neutral. Well, if you’re not a fan of any of this, or, like me, you’ve just had enough of it, then I think you’re going to like what I think are the two major interior design trends to watch for this year.

1. EARTH TONES, WOOD, TEXTURES AND COLOURS. Personally speaking, I’m bored of the all-white-everything trend. I’m craving more warmth in my interior spaces, and I don’t think I’m alone in this. I think we’re going to see more earth tones, more natural wood furniture and decor pieces, more texture and layering of spaces. I also think we’re going to see the return of detail and elements that add character. I believe we’ll see more deep earthy colours, particularly greens, and accented by rust colours, caramels, tans, copper and brass.
   

2. COLOURFUL KITCHENS. It’s already a smart design move to paint your lower cabinets in a dark colour, leaving the uppers white, but this isn’t what I mean by adding colour in the kitchen. I mean, I think we’re going to see some really interesting and colourful kitchens this year, where colour touches every part of the room. The popular trend in kitchens has been all-white for quite some time now and it’s time for the pendulum to swing.

The Draper James store in Nashville, Tennessee, is full of southern charm. I’m craving the warmth of southern style and I can see elements of it making their way into homes north of the border.

I also mentioned that grey was the “new neutral” of the last decade, and you see this especially in house-flipping — when you look through real estate listings (in Toronto, at least), any time you see a house that’s been renovated to sell, all the walls are grey, the laminate floors are grey, the kitchen is mostly grey…and then they go and stage it with a ton of grey furniture! It’s really gotten out of hand, this obsession with grey. It can be cold and uninvitingI don’t think we’re going back to beige any time soon, but I do think that a warm white will slowly become the new neutral.

What do you think we’ll be seeing more of in interior design this year? Do you agree with my 2020 trend forecast? What do you want to see more of in design and decorating this year?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Decorating a Midcentury Bungalow with Bohemian Flair

My husband and I purchased a new house together and we moved in a couple of months ago, in November 2019. It’s a midcentury bungalow, built in 1955, and we’re decorating it in a style that’s appropriate to the home. We’re calling our style “Boho Rancho” — it will have a lot of bohemian flair with touches of southwest elements and midcentury modern pieces. Our living room is so far the most complete room of our house, and since the majority of our decor reflects a bohemian decorating style, I wanted to share my 4 simple tips for achieving this look in your own home.

1. NEUTRAL COLOURS. I recommend white walls so that the other elements in the room can pop against it. Wood tones and leather are great for furniture (our caramel-coloured leather sofa from Structube was the jumping off point for the living room design). Green makes a great accent colour, especially in plants, which brings me to number 2…

2. PLANTS. Including lots of greenery in the room will make it feel alive, and the vibrant colours of the plants pair perfectly with the neutral tones in the rest of the room.

3. TEXTURE. Layer the room with lots of different textures. Area rugs, toss cushions and throws are a great start for furnishings and accessories, and these layer nicely with bamboo and rattan elements. A little bit of fringe somewhere is also a good idea.

4. WOOD TONES. I mentioned wood tones when discussing neutral colours, but it deserves its own category. Bohemian style is very earthly and natural and wood tones add warmth to the space. It’s best to match your wood tones but if you have multiple wood tones then the way to make them look cohesive is to have at least 2 or 3 pieces per wood tone.
   
   

BONUS TIP: Achieving southwest style. Since we’re not exclusively decorating our space in a Bohemian style and we’re also throwing in a little southwest style (hence the “Rancho” part of the style description), here are some elements you’ll want to include in your space to achieve this look: cowhide, bone, animal prints (horses especially), and red and orange hues.