How to Make an Old Fashioned Floor Plan with Graph Paper

I know there are a million online floor plan generators out there, but I like my old-fashioned way: my Mom draws a scaled version on graph paper, then I measure my furniture and create scaled cut-outs which I colour with pencil crayon.  When else will I get a chance to bust out my pencil crayons?

I've been working on more detailed plans for the lakehouse, especially layouts.  I want to figure out what furniture will transition and what won't work, so I can sell things before the move.  Also, we're moving to a much smaller city, so now's my chance to source things I might not find there.  I'm getting organized!

The living room layout gave me a bit of difficulty because intuition says the sofa should point toward our fancy-pants lake view, but I want it pointing toward the television so I can watch Rookie Blue.  There's no room above the fireplace for the television because that's where the fireplace vents that circulate the heat are located.  There's no room on either side, either, unless I want a smaller tube TV shoved into the corner (hear that? That's Hubby sobbing at the thought).  And then there's a wall of windows . . .

Eventually I came up with this layout (and it took a surprisingly long time!):

The sofa will be against the windows but pulled out a foot or so.  Our Ikea wall unit will make the trek with us and live opposite the sofa.  We're ditching the teak side tables in lieu of handmade ones that will tuck in closer and higher (bottom left).  We're moving the mint chair, mint table and one of my favorite paintings of Hubby's grandpa's into the living room to create a little lake-facing-nook beside the wall unit.  We thought about a sectional, but with a sofa and accent chairs, we can move the chairs to face the window when we want to relax with a book and stare dreamily at the waves.

The soon-to-be-made-over velvet chair will take centre stage.  Eventually I hope to get a grey leather sofa that is lower, with more mid-century lines, to replace our cream one.  In the meantime, we're planning to make or buy a new ottoman in a more modern shape and fabric. 

Crate & Barrel

Anthropologie

This goes without saying: I'm painting out the wood flanking the fireplace.  I'd like to paint the stone and the whole wall a deep charcoal grey, but Hubby is opposed to painting the stone because it matches the exterior of our house.  For now, the gold will get de-goldified, the ceiling fan and dining room light are first to hit the chopping block, and we'll say good-bye to all of the skinny oak trim!  Any volunteers to paint out the trim on those top windows?

Right now we're still in limbo, unsure when we'll actually start working on the lakehouse because we have not sold the townhouse yet, but I don't mind: it's giving me a chance to get prepared.  I need to keep repeating that so I don't start feeling antsy about the uncertainty.  I hate uncertainty, but sometimes good things come from it. 

For a little distraction, look how adorable the original townhouse plans look!  I saved these from 2009.   The ottoman is the only piece of living room furniture that is the same.  But the dining room table and chairs are identical (just oriented differently). 

July is Done. Did We Have Fun?

July was pretty productive for us!  We wrapped up a few townhouse projects (but still have more) and staged the house for sale.  It was hugely satisfying to finally finish the bar cart . . .

paint the basement door mint and add some handy cork . . . 

and finally see my Hungarian embroidery become the prettiest pillow ever . . . 

We gave the main floor powder room one final spruce.  This photo shows the original "before" and after, but check out the post to see how this space has evolved slowly over the last four years.

With my Dad's help, I also addressed a few cosmetic fixes: hiding a pipe with trim and painting the baseboard heaters.

Our house hasn't needed much staging, but we took on the arduous task of swapping the bedrooms to their rightful position - moving our King sized bed into the proper master and sliding the Queen guest bed into the secondary bedroom we've called home. 

I miss the view from the old room, but the swap has the added benefit of letting me show off our headboard better!  Our old bedroom didn't leave much room at the foot of the bed for me and my camera to fit.

The dining room and kitchen weren't touched for staging, but the living room was decluttered and staged a bit.  A huge round mirror replaces a personal (and potentially distracting) Hungarian poem stenciled onto a mirror we antiqued. 

We now officially own our lakehouse!  And another lakehouse I thought was a contender now has a new owner too.  Here's a peak inside.

I also held a giveaway with Olive Leaf Stencils . . .

. . . and reviewed Annie Sloan's Colour Recipes book.

With the review, you saw a peek at the colours I'm considering for the turquoise kitchen!

We also made sure we had fun, and we spent a week seeing our favorite bands at an Ottawa musical festival.  Zooey Deschanel in person, pinch me!

It was also fun to see Apartment Therapy feature my laundry room curtains out of the blue!! 

August will be just as busy!  I still have a basement makeover to show you, plus a project that improved the look of every room (and only required some paint and patience), some furniture refinishing, and hopefully even a velvet chair makeover.  I'm behind in my Money Talks series - I think chatting about mortgages might be appropriate!  And as soon as the townhouse sells, I will share the nitty gritty about that.  Soon we'll start tackling the lakehouse too . . .

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Velvet Volition: Teal + Aqua Velvet Chairs

Hubs and I went to our favorite upholsterer on Monday (the same folks who did the mint chair - Kessels, for Ottawa readers) and short-listed some fabrics for the mid-century chair we found curbside.

We debated fixing it up but we finally decided to go for it, for four simple reasons:

1. It has such a sweet and funny memory attached to it.
2. I figured out it will work with our new living room floor plan (details Friday)!
3. It was free!  We're already ahead of the game cost-wise.
4. Hubs and I both love the lines of the piece.

I decided I wanted a turquoise tweed, like the turquoise Papa I mooned over.

Midcenturia

I brought in a snippet of the turquoise and mint fabric from our other mid-century chair as a guide for the shade of aqua I was after.

Together with the gals at Kessels, we rounded up a healthy selection of tweeds, but also a few velvets.  I never would have considered velvet because I thought it was too traditional and hard to care for.

BHG - Velvet too traditional??

Turns out some velvet can be 100,000+ Wyzenbeek double rubs and lots of upholstery fabric is only 15,000-20,000 (basically, the higher the number, the more durable the fabric).  As soon as we got home with the samples I axed quite a few for being far too blue, too blah, too bold, to printy.

In the end, one tweed remained but because it was shot with navy, it was a smidge too blue.

The velvets won our hearts!  Surprise, surprise.  I just love the sheen, the way the fabric catches the light, and the gloriously saturated hues of my two favorites.  We're still going to sleep on it some more, but it looks like I might be adding a little velvet to my plans.  Unfortunately, my favorite pick is impossible to photograph.  Can you believe the two photos below are of the same fabric?!? And neither is accurate!

In real life, it's similar to this one but a tiny smidge more blue:

BHG

To be sure I'll like the look (it's easy to love a swatch, after all, but a whole chair is another story), I rounded up some inspiration.  Why have I never considered velvet before?

Nate Berkus (via Love on Sunday)

Nate Berkus

via Dust Jacket

Emily Henderson

via Song of Style - also very similar, but a smidge bluer than mine.

The Design Files

Bjork Studio

What was the runner up you ask?  In the store I fell in love with a pale turquoise, almost robin's egg blue that reminded me of this chair . . .

Apartment Therapy

. . . but once home, it really dominated the space and made our artwork look dull!  It's also a lot bluer than the turquoise art and accessories we have, and so it clashes a bit.  It also has such a crazy sheen that it almost looks bridal.  It photographs really nicely though.  I kind of want it more as I type this . . .

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Could Have Been: Another Lake Superior House

We close on the lakehouse tomorrow.  It will officially be ours!!  It's weird that it's 1500km away because I'm itching to paint and decorate!  Soon, I hope, soon.  In the meantime, another lakehouse we secretly ogled has since sold.  Curious?

We ultimately decided against this one because:

1. It has a much larger living space than we need, and it's massively high ceilings would cost a small fortune to heat.
2. While I love the main floor layout, the second floor is very small and awkward: there is a bathroom separating the two tiny bedrooms, so it would have been a huge task to combine the bedrooms to one that would suit our needs (the master is on the main floor, by the front door).
3. It is more deserted than our lakehouse, which is private but has handy neighbors.
4. There is weird red clay out that way that coats vehicles with red dust.  It would drive a tidy freak like me insane.
5. Overall, it needed a lot of work, aesthetically (unfortunately, those floors are laminate!) but also with maintenance, etc.

Despite these drawbacks, I really liked this home and had dreamed up some ideas!  Hubby was not at all taken with it, even though it was much less expensive than ours.  Our realtor was also really opposed.  But look at what a cutie it is!

The view is . . . I'm speechless.

The guesthouse/sauna

Garage

I can't express enough how much I loved this living room/dining room layout.  More than our place, actually, because it's just so huge!  So much potential for furniture layouts - I envisioned separate television-watching and lake-watching areas (like our lakehouse rental).  Ours, as you'll soon see, is a little limited.  The kitchen had potential too: I pictured a beautiful island in a bright hue, contrasted with crisp white cabinetry.  The height of the ceilings would have accommodated some really statement-making light fixtures!

The spaceship shower was inevitable.

It seems space portal showers and teeny guesthouse/saunas are de rigueur with lakehouses in Northwestern Ontario.  I'm happy to see this great property has sold.  I hope the new owners love it as much as we love our place.  Do you think it would be weird if I knocked on their door with some mood boards and floor plan ideas?

P.S.  Haven't I seen that garage on an episode of Criminal Minds??

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