DREAMING ABOUT LIGHTING

Now that the rug situation is almost resolved, I have moved on to obsessing about lighting. I abhor the light fixtures that came with the apartment and fantasize every day about replacing them. Unfortunately, replacing the lamps is way down on the priority list. But a girl can always dream...

Here's a round-up of some lamps I've seen lately that I'd consider for our home.

Source: schoolhouseelectric.com via Alice on Pinterest

Source: westelm.com via Alice on Pinterest

Source: dwr.com via Alice on Pinterest

Below are a couple of similar looking DIY pendants that won't break the bank.

Source: poppytalk.blogspot.com via Alice on Pinterest

Source: houseofearnest.com via Alice on Pinterest

I'm seriously considering the clear globe lamp from West Elm for the bedroom and dining nook. I better start saving my pennies! I first saw the lamp on this Birch and Bird blog post and totally fell in love with it. Normally I'd like to get something that's vintage, but I don't want to take the vintage theme so far that it makes our place look like an antique store. It's good to balance out the vintage stuff with some contemporary pieces. And I think pendant lamps would be a good way to introduce something more modern looking and provide a nice contrast.

CHEESE BOX NIGHTSTANDS

We finally have matching nighstands! This is actually the first time I've had a proper nightstand on my side of the bed. For the last few years I've been either living without one or just had a basket to hold my reading materials. The Dude has had a series of salvaged nightstands we picked up from various places.

So a few weeks ago I bought a pair of vintage round cheese boxes from Stepback for the purpose of using them as nightstands. I really like that they're round, which provides a nice contrast to the big rectangular bed and dresser. We just slapped some castors on them to make them a bit taller, and because I like putting castors on just about any piece of furniture! This was a simple, instant gratification DIY project, and I'm so pleased with the results!

I especially love the seams on the cheese boxes, particularly on the one right above with the numbers stamped along the side of it. Back in the old days these boxes were used to age cheese.

Here's a play-by-play of how we attached the castors onto the cheese box.

Materials and Tools

• 2 cheese boxes
• 6 2 in. brass castors
• 24 bolts (size will depend on your castor)
• 24 nuts (size will depend on your bolt)
• 24 washers (size will depend on your bolt)
• Pencil
• Power drill

Turn the cheese box upside down and position the three castors to where you want them to be.

Use a pencil to mark where you'll drill the holes.

Use the right sized bit to drill the holes.

Fasten the castors to the cheese box with the bolts. Turn the box over carefully and place the washers over the bolts.

Fasten the nuts to each of the bolts and you're done!

They look old and lovely. It pleases me to no end when we're able to acquire a used piece of furniture (or in this case a used item repurposed as furniture) instead of buying something brand new. One of my decorating mantras is to use preloved furnishings as much as possible because it's better for the environment and, to boot, they provide a lot more character than something that was manufactured recently.

RUGS! RUGS! RUGS!

Ever since we moved into our new place at the end of January, I've been obsessing about rugs. As I mentioned before, one of the building by-laws is to have at least 60% of the floors covered. So I've been trolling the internet looking for the perfect rug.

These are some of my favourites among the hundreds I saw...

Source: overstock.com via Alice on Pinterest

Source: overstock.com via Alice on Pinterest

Source: westelm.com via Alice on Pinterest

Source: westelm.com via Alice on Pinterest

For one reason or another, I had to pass over the rugs above even though I really, really loved them.

We are seriously considering FLOR as an option. They specialize in carpet tiles that you can put together yourself to create your own customizable rug. Given that we need specifically sized rugs, this is probably the best option for us.

This is what I'm considering for the dining nook:

Source: flor.com via Alice on Pinterest

For the living room:

Source: flor.com via Alice on Pinterest

For the bedroom, I'm considering a non-FLOR rug. This cute grey chevron rug is from Urban Outfitters. I didn't know they had a large home decor product line until recently.

Source: urbanoutfitters.com via Alice on Pinterest

I ordered some carpet tile samples from FLOR. Once I see them I'll make a final decision. I can't wait until this whole rug saga ends because it's been eating way too much of my time and mental energy.

The Dude is not looking forward to putting together the carpet tiles but he'll just have to suck it up. At least, it's not piecing together IKEA furniture! He was so traumatized by the last ordeal that he has declared that we will never ever shop at IKEA ever again.

DECORATING WITH VINTAGE WOODEN CRATES

Decorating our new apartment has been very slow going. I've been preoccupied with finding rugs because it's required by our building (and the deadline was yesterday!). But I managed to decorate a little corner of my office space with some vintage goodies.

I recently visited my most favourite vintage home decor shop Stepback and picked up a few gems - among them a pair of vintage wooden crates to repurpose as storage/display furniture. I love their whitewashed finish. So one of them now is sitting on top of the file cabinet holding my vintage toolbox collection.

Actually this whole little corner is a vintage haven. The horse bookend and the fan atop the crate and the flower frogs and wooden letterpress types resting at the bottom are all vintage finds. Some I scored while thrifting, others I bought from vintage sellers. It's funny how they all got accidentally concentrated here, but now that I think about it it's the only space where I can display some of my vintage stuff. The rest of it is still packed in a box because I don't have wall shelves to display them on like at our old place.

Wooden crates offer so much versatility when it comes to home decor. The other wooden crate I have is temporarily serving as a side table. I've seen some other creative uses for them: as bookcases, a shadowbox, a nightstand, a catch-all box, etc. I especially like the ones to which castors have been attached.

from f*ck your noguchi table

The shoe storage/landing strip above is made out of milk crates. I love, love, love it. If only our entryway were that spacious!

from Birch and Bird

This hodgepodge of wooden crates put together to make a modular bookcase is genius! Love the flea-market style look.

I hope to share soon here what I'm going to do with the other things I got from Stepback. Hint: it also involves repurposing an object for furniture/storage use.

WINTER FUN: SNOWSHOEING!

On Saturday we went up to the North Shore mountains with a small group of friends to go snowshoeing. It was incredibly fun and the scenery was stunningly beautiful! The Dude and I were both asking ourselves why we don't do this more often. It's been almost two years since our last snowshoeing expedition.

We arrived at Mt. Seymour mid-morning before it got too crowded. The first trail we went on was pristine - we were the first ones there. So we reveled in hopping around on fresh powdery snow. I really enjoyed the trails at Mt. Seymour. They weren't too hard and the surroundings were drop dead gorgeous. It was unreal. At times I felt like I was on a movie set because it just looked other-wordly.

I'm not a fan of Vancouver winters, and as someone who struggles with Seasonal Affective Disorder this is not a pleasant place to be at this time of year. But I realized that the best way to beat the winter blues is to go out there and enjoy the season by getting into snowsports. So I'm going to try making snowshoeing a regular activity to help pass the winter in a more fun way. I can't help but be amazed that in a mere 45 minutes you can be in the beautiful wilderness enjoying all that it offers.

Do you like or dislike winter? What do you do to enjoy the season?

HOME DECOR INSPIRATION: NEUTRAL OR COLOURFUL?

These days I'm agonizing over which direction to take in regards to decorating our new place. I love neutral interiors but I also I adore the colourful boho/flea-market look. I'll probably end up doing something in the middle and making a hot mess of it.

Anthropologie is currently promoting a "Inspired by: Buenos Aires" style guide in their House & Home section, which definitely fits the colourful boho theme. It reminded me how much I love the way Argentineans decorate their homes. What's to love? Old world charm, cozy textiles, and pops of colours. Whenever I visit Buenos Aires, I'm always in awe of how it seems like it's frozen in time. Nearly everything (except various pockets of the city) looks outdated and worn down but in a way that's good, and even comforting. It's like I can return to my childhood with everything preserved and intact as it was back then. It all looks reassuringly familiar.

Here are a couple of Buenos Aires home interiors I find inspiring:

from Design*Sponge

from Design*Sponge

What makes the above two spaces work so well are that the rooms have good bones and they're huge! I mean, look at those airy, tall ceilings! In contrast, I live in a little box, so not sure if I can pull off these looks very well.

Now on to neutral spaces I find inspirational...

from The Brick House

from The Marion House Book

from Manhattan Nest

So I used to think that neutral meant cold, sterile spaces. But the examples above are far from that. They've got lots of warming elements like wooden furniture and structural details, natural textiles, and leather. The first example of neutral decor above is actually the waiting room of a hair salon, but I can seriously live in there! It's probably my favourite out of all the photos I've posted here.

I love both types of decor styles. I know for the bedroom I definitely want to go for a neutral, serene colour palette but for the living room I'm not sure yet. I'll probably want more colour and the way I'll do it is mainly via rugs and accessories since most of our furniture is either black, brown, or white. We have to cover at least 60% of the area in rugs because it's a building bylaw to protect the floors. So I might as well choose a bright rug that will liven up the space. This means I get to shop for rugs!

SHOP UPDATE: NEW LOWERCASE LETTERS!

I'm excited to introduce new lowercase letters in the LAX TO YVR shop!

For now lowercase letters are only available in letter b, letter c, letter g, and letter i. New ones will be coming soon! So far, letter g is my favourite lowercase letter - it simply looks elegant. The lowercase i definitely looks better than its uppercase counterpart, don't you think?

To celebrate I'm offering free shipping on everything in the shop until the end of February! Use coupon code FEB12 at checkout.

NEW APARTMENT TOUR

First, I have to say that we love, love, LOVE our new neighbourhood. We couldn't have asked for a better location. It's so central, and everything is a 15 minute walk away. Getting home from downtown last night was such a breeze: just one short bus ride away and lots of bus options.

Second, the pictures I'm sharing are the "Before" pictures. You can still see un-packed moving boxes in some of them. The place is all going to change over the course of the next year. The walls especially have to be re-painted.

The new place is slightly bigger than our previous apartment and has a way better floor plan. Unfortunately, it lacks a balcony, but we're getting used to it. The thing I love best is the kitchen - so much bigger, so much more storage! You can actually have two people in there.

Our current building is much older than our last place, so I'm trying to be mindful of this when I think about decorating. I want to acknowledge the unit's character in the choices I make. So who knows, the decor may end up looking a bit more conservative than I would like. Ideally, an all midcentury modern look would be best but no matter how much I love MCM I have to admit that it would be boring. Ultimately, I want the place to look and feel cozy. So expect to see more textiles!

BLACK AND WHITE BATHROOM INSPIRATION

We have moved in to our new place! All the boxes have been unpacked, and now I'm trying to figure out how to decorate our new digs.

The only room I'm certain about on how to decorate is the bathroom. Currently, it's an all-white bathroom, but I sense that it's supposed to be black and white. It's a nice change from the all-pink bathroom we had in our previous place!

Here are some black and white bathrooms I've collected from the great world wide web that I find inspirational.

from Houzz

from Design*Sponge

from The Marion House Book

from Houzz

Black and white is such a classy colour scheme. I don't think it'll ever go out of style. So far I've only managed to add a black and white bath rug and a black toilet brush to our bathroom. Things that still need to be done:

• Paint the walls above the white tiles black 
• Find black knobs for the sink cabinet 
• Find a black basket

I'm looking forward to the fact that the bathroom is going to be a quick and easy transformation. Instant gratification projects are the best!

VALENTINE'S DAY ROUND-UP

Although I don't take Valentine's Day too seriously, I have to admit that it's a holiday that involves a lot of cute and pretty things. And it's a day to indulge in chocolate! The Dude and I have a tradition of going out to eat fish and chips on Valentine's. This year we'll probably go to our favourite place on Granville Island, where this tradition started.

Here's a collection of Valentine's Day themed items from some of my favourite indie online stores. I've bought items from each of these sellers before so I have no qualms about endorsing them.

from soapopotamus

from Heartfish Press

from Have It Sweet

from Paisley Baby

from Perla Anne

from Indulgent Designs

These are all great items to give to someone you care about or to give to yourself!

On a final note, this will be my last blog post before we move to our new place! We'll be spending the entire weekend packing like mad elves. So I won't be updating my blog for a couple weeks while we get settled. Both of my shops, LAX TO YVR and Sugarpush Vintage, will be closed briefly. They will re-open in early February, once I get my internet connection set up.