The countdown is on!

We will be moving into our new condo in exactly 73 days!

or

about 2.5 months!

or

1 752 hours!

or

105 120 minutes!

or

6 307 200 seconds!

Sorry, I got carried away there.  I just thought this website that helped me with those calculations was really funny.

All that to say, we are getting super excited.  Especially since we came across this MLS Listing for a Bennett unit in the Tiffani I.  (We purchased the Bennett model in the Tiffani II)

The realtor describes our unit as being a "rarely available 760 square foot bright and beautiful Bennett unit with the best views in the building!"

Yes - BEST views in the building!

Even though looking at the floor plan, and using my Urban Barn Make Room tool definitely help get a sense of the space and layout, pictures are always fun, which is why I was so excited to see this lising.

Here's the layout to refresh your memory:

Here's the kitchen/dining area with the front entrance in the far right corner.  I love the walk through kitchen. Since the space is quite small, I think it definitely helps the flow of the unit.  There is an opening behind the half-wall you see against the kitchen island.

Another view of the kitchen from a slightly different angle.  The den is in behind the kitchen to the back left, which they have actually set up as their dining area.  We plan on using the space beside the kitchen (in front of their white shelving units) as our dining area.  I can't wait to find the perfect bar stools to pull up to our island!

Here is the living room with the sunny balcony beyond the patio doors, which I think actually looks shorter than it is.  In reality it is 15'3" feet long. 

Here is the floor plan I am envisioning for the living/dining area (this is a mirrored image since the Tiffani II units are on the opposite side).  I used the exact dimensions of our couch and dining table, and estimated the measurements for the coffee table, chairs and hutch by researching pieces I might actually want to purchase.  

And as another reminder, here is our new furniture that we purchased over boxing week last year.

This is a photo of the den.  The double doors lead to a storage area and the washer/dryer.  Our immediate plans are to fill this space with our current living room furniture to create a typical "den" and guest room, but eventually this will become a nursery.  I think it looks smaller than its actual 8'10" X 7'3" square footage.  

Here is the bedroom.  I'm so happy with its size and the beautiful large windows.  I can't wait to be lying in bed, enjoying that view.

This is the layout I'm hoping to achieve in the bedroom.  I was originally going to place the desk in front of the window, but I didn't realize it went all the way to the ground.  I'm going to sneak it into the corner so that I don't obstruct our views.

And speaking of the view - here is it!  This was taken from the 14th floor (we are on the 8th).  There is a lot of beautiful green space across the Vanier Parkway and along the river.  One of the main reasons we chose The Bennett is the fact that we are facing South/West which will allow for plenty of afternoon and evening sunlight for us to enjoy.

So, there you have it!  A little update on how excited we are and what we have to look forward to in about 6 million seconds.

Don't forget about Craigslist!

As we count the days until we move into our new condo, I day dream (and night dream) constantly about furniture placement, wall colours, wall galleries, how to hid the television cables, if we will have enough storage....etc, etc, etc.  I roam furniture stores and browse online for inspiration, re-work our budget if I see and love something more expensive....you get the point.  I'm obsessed.

Recently, I decided to check out what furniture was being sold on Craigslist.  I've purchased some great pieces off of Craigslist for my previous apartments, and even sold some items when moving.  I think it's a great resource.  

Unfortunately I don't usually seem to find many great deals - UNTIL TODAY!  

And I think I've figured it out.  People who have quality items to sell post strategically (like Friday afternoons - the day before people are planning to go weekend furniture hunting).  I get it now.

I've pulled together a few of my favourite Craigslist finds.  I'm not necessarily in the market for all of these items, but I think they are great deals and someone better take advantage of at least one of my stellar finds!

This charming hutch is selling for $300 (or best offer).  It looks to be in pretty good condition while offering plenty of storage and shelves to display whatever your heart desires.  

If I were to bring this baby home I would absolutely paint it out a nice, crisp white (maybe leave the natural wood detail like they did).  Ooooo, doesn't this one look beautiful?

However, I'm not sure how I would decide on a backing.  I love the light, robin's egg blue in the hutch above, but I think wall paper would also be stunning.  Honey Sweet Home did a beautiful job restoring her used hutch find.  I love how she picked up the gold detailed wallpaper with gold hardware.  It's so luxe.

This Victoria style couch may not appeal to everyone, but I think it's pretty cool.   And for $400 for the couch and matching chair, I'd say it's a decent deal!

Especially when you can funkify it into something like this awesome love seat by reupholstering it with some colourful, geometric fabric.  I can totally see it working in a kid's playroom or an entryway.  

This $175 vintage dresser had nice lines and great storage.   

It reminds me of John and Sherry's from Young House Love.  I'm not sure if you would be able to remove the stain, but if so you could do a great wood base with white top like they did.  

This one from Design Sponge is pretty awesome too.  I love how they used it as a television console.  

Or you could go all out and paint it a bright and cheerful colour like Erin did at Domestic Adventure for her nursery.  I love yellow in a nursery and her numbered knobs are the cutest thing I've ever seen.  (I should also mention it was her first Craigslist purchase and was only $10 - can't you believe that!?!?)

I found this great looking couch which looks to be in excellent shape for $600 (OBO).  With a few colourful accent pillows you're golden!

Anyone in the market for any (or all) of the above-mentioned furniture?  If not, maybe it has inspired you to look a little further on Craigslist?  

Which one is your favourite?  I can't decide between the hutch and the vintage dresser.  I want both!  

Happy Friday the 13th everyone - I hope you all have lovely weekends!

The IKEA RAST hack

You might recognize this RAST dresser from IKEA:

source

I know we had some of this furniture in my house when I was growing up.  Functional storage, neutral style at the low cost of $39.99.  

I recently discovered the trend called RAST hack and can't believe I did not know of this until now.  I think it's the coolest thing ever and can't wait to hack my own RAST!!!  

Please forgive me, apparently this is soooo 2011, but if you don't know the drill here it is:

Talented diy-ers creatively put their own spin on the IKEA RAST dresser; the finished products being very stylish furniture.  Much more exciting than the original RAST (sorry IKEA, it's just so boring - but THANK YOU for creating such an affordable blank canvas of a dresser to work with!)

Lindsay from Aubrey + Lindsay's Little House Blog made beautiful night tables.  She provides a great tutorial if you are inspired by her work. 

Nancy Marcus from Marcus Design channelled Dorothy Draper and created a beautiful black and gold night table.  She has also included a really good tutorial.

Another black lacquer finished product - this time with more of an Asian feel - from Design Manifest.  I think it looks great as a side board or tv console.  

Ellen from Nouveau Stitch actually used some of her favourite fabric to re-do her own RAST.  This is very inspiring and I think it looks beautiful.

Bri from Me You and a Wiener (this girl is funny) went to the Greeks for inspiration and came up with this beauty.  

This weathered RAST hack from http://livethemma.ikea.se/inspiration is my favourite.  I love the numbered drawers - they remind me of old shipping crates.  

Have any of you hacked your own RAST?  Feel free to share it by sending me a picture and/or link.  Once we move into our new condo, this summer, I might end up hacking a RAST for the front entrance.  After that whole diy dry erase board, I feel like I can do anything!  Totally kidding - but some of these ideas seem pretty doable, even for me!

Happy Monday folks!

A Valentine's weekend

Furniture shopping may not seem like an adventure (or very romantic for that matter), but the mere fact that we had to walk downtown in freezing temperatures to pick up our car before we set sail was adventure enough.  Friday night, after work, we skated the canal and then went out to dinner at our favourite restaurant Chez Lucien, and ended up walking home, so our Saturday morning started off with a chilly walk into the market.

Before getting going on our list we stopped in at Bridgehead and fueled up/warmed up with some caffeine, soup and a sandwich.  It was delicious - we love the B-Head.

Our first stop was The White Monkey.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures.  You must visit this store - even if you just walk by to take in their lovely window displays.  It is a two story building furnished with really awesome antique and retro furniture.  This is the place to go if you are looking for interesting lamps, cool accessories (they carried a lot of vases, serving dishes, kitchenware, etc.)  The store is small so there isn't too much room for large pieces of furniture, but there were a few living room sets with awesome couches from the 60's on display.  The owner had embraced this year's colour of the year and there were pops of Tangerine Tango everywhere - very fun.

After enjoying the White Monkey (haha...) we ventured over to Found Design.  This was definitely our favourite store.  I would have never walked into this store had I not done some research online first.  This is what we saw when looking for the store front.

As we got closer we realized we were actually in the right place....

We weren't sure what to expect as we walked down the cement stairs and stared at the dingy metal door, but as soon as we walked in and our eyes adjusted to the light we knew we had found a gem.  The warehouse style store was immediately inviting and full of interesting, bright and unique mid century furniture. Also - it didn't smell funny, which sometimes happens when you are in a warehouse full of 60+ year old furniture.  

Here are some of the things we saw...

We loved the green couch/chair set along with the large swivel chairs.  We are on the hunt for the perfect swivel chair for our living room.

Derek actually said "I think this is the coolest place I've ever been".

This chair was super comfy and I loved the wooden frame.

I thought this desk/shelf was awesome.  Compact, good use of space and lots of storage.  The only thing is that I would love to paint it a bright white, and maybe wall paper the back of the shelves which is probably against the law or something.  So, since  it costs $1500 I'll leave it to someone who appreciates its original look.

This was a really neat swivel chair from the 60's.  The owner had it re-upholstered and re-foamed, so it was nice and fresh and comfortable.  It cost $350.  There was a matching chair for $200 which had not yet been re-done.  The owner said it would cost around $200 for fabric and labour depending on the fabric you choose -  so for around $400 you could have a great chair in the exact fabric of your choice!

Everything at Found Design had a story.  I'm sure we could have spent all afternoon speaking with the owner.  He was gracious and welcoming and we could tell that he loved what he did.  His pieces weren't cheap, but he explained that everything that he brought into his store was designer made and had history.  He also made sure to have things refurbished the right way and not just the "dip and strip" as he called it.  We really liked him and his awesome store.  

Next we headed to Hintonburg and stopped by Blueprint which was a lovely store full of beautiful furniture and a huge selection of pillows.  I will say things were pretty expensive, but maybe they have sales every now and again.

I'm looking for a desk for under the window in our bedroom and I liked the look of this guy.

There was a nicely decorated sunken living room in the store.  I love that coffee table.

Across the street was Alteriors, which is a really nice store.  Many of their items are made in Canada and they have regular sales.  For example, everything in the store is tax-free for the month of February.  

We loved this table and chairs set.  The chairs are very similar to the ones we purchased.  They had a lot of purple accents in the store, which reminded me of spring, even though it was minus 20 outside.

I had to take a picture of this lamp in the front window.  Check out the gun base!  

We reeeeaaaalllyyyyy liked this swivel chair.  It was super comfortable and came in so many different fabrics and leathers.  The fact that it was tax-free got us humming and hahhhing for couple minutes but we made it out of the store without opening our wallets.  

We finished off our afternoon in Hull.  First stop was Funky Furniture.  The owner is actually the nephew of the owner of Found Design.  See what you get to know when you start talking to store owners!  It was small space with some pretty funky furniture...yes, it lives up to its name.

Here is a picture of their window display.  I thought the overhanging orange lamp was pretty neat.  I wasn't too sure about the plastic framed chair and side table though.  

These paintings of the Original 6 goalies were awesome!  I wanted to buy the set for my little brother, or at least keep them stored until we are ready to decorate a child's room.  So fun, eh?

My second favourite and last stop of the day was Mikaza.  It was a huge space and full of everything I love.  The first thing I noticed was how much selection there was in the seating department.  If you are looking for stools or dining chairs, come here.  They also carry Umbra accessories, so it's a fun place to go when you just want to buy a small accent to perk up your space or to give as a gift.  

This red leather beauty caught my eye immediately.  Not cheap though - $400 a pop...so I kept walking.

There was a good selection of swivel chairs, all of which were available in many different fabrics.  We liked both of these the best:

There were a few pieces made from restored wood, including this beautiful console table.  I though it would also be a good fit for under the window in our bedroom.  I liked the sculpted lets and how they had a feminine feel.  I would swap out the chair for something in a pretty fabric, or maybe a "ghost chair".  And don't worry - I wouldn't pain this guy :)

Derek really liked this storage unit for under the television.  It was nice and there was plenty of storage.

I think some open shelving for behind our dining table would look really nice.  This shelf plays off the white from our kitchen cabinets and the polished chrome from our dining table and chairs.  

As we were leaving I spotted this beauty.  I would really love a bar cart and this one was the nicest I've seen.  It was HUGE!  I love the mix of materials.  Can't you picture it stocked with liquor, a martini shaker and great glassware?  Too bad the price tag was almost $1500.

I really enjoyed our Valentine's Day outing, especially since it was followed by a 5 star meal cooked by Derek!  It was fun to meet the different store owners and chat with them about their business.  I loved seeing all the beautiful furniture and sharing our ideas about how they would fit in our new home.  It was hard leaving some of the stores without buying anything - not even a picture frame or vase!  But I am really happy about the "research" we did and can't wait to visit the stores again once we are moved in and know exactly what we are looking for and what will fit.  And by the way - how is that for a cheap date?!

For those of you wondering about Green Light District - their store actually no longer exists in Ottawa.  It looks like a really nice place though, so maybe next time I'm in Toronto I will check it out.

On the way home we saw some people paragliding over the Ottawa River.  If you can't tell what those 2 dots are in the sky - they are crazy people!

I hope everyone has a really lovely Valentine's Day today.  We are just exchanging cards tonight and then I'm off to ball hockey.  I think a lot of people celebrated the big V-day over the weekend like we did.  Makes sense.

And on the subject of looooooovvveeee...I want to send a shout out to my 2 best friends who recently got engaged to the loves of their lives!!!!  

Congratulations guys!!!

Lisa and Ted, in Jamaica

Ashley and Matt, in Quebec City

I can't wait to celebrate your weddings and couldn't have picked more handsome and loving guys for you to spend the rest of your lives with.  

Awwww....  I'm allowing myself to gush just because it's Valentine's Day....and because I love love!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!!!

xoxoxo