Commercial 3D Visul Tower

friday observations

Happy Friday. Here are some shots from over the week.

1. I picked up a Hape Alphabet Puzzle from Mastermind Toys for Oscar.
2. I think it's time I admitted I have a pillow obsession
3. Anyone know where I could find a similar scarf as in this shot? Love the style. *Note, I love the length especially. I find it hard to find LONG scarfs.
4. I joined a gym. I went at 6 am each morning for one week and quickly realized I am NOT a morning person. I now workout in the evening....and I'm much happier. ;)
5. Went to a wedding and it was gorgeous. I noticed that people (like myself) didn't bring cameras - everyone whipped out their iPhones to take photos. A lot has changed since I got married.
6. Peel + Stick Moustaches are a hit over here.

Other things I've boomarked because I enjoyed:

1. I loved how Joanna's husband diffuses an argument.
2. Love the packaging of these soaps
3. Behind the scene video shoot of the 2012 Princess Margaret Showhome. Gorgeous.

xo Linds

La couleur par touche

Merci d'être si nombreux à participer au jeu concours! Pour ceux qui n'ont pas encore joué, vous avez encore jusqu'à mardi pour le faire en cliquant ici.

L'appartement ci-dessous est situé au Danemark et appartient à Kristina Dam, graphiste et artiste, et sa famille. J'aime bien ce style épuré avec des touches de couleurs.

Thanks for the great respons on the giveaway! If you haven't entered yet, you can still do so until Tuesday by clicking here.

The flat below is situated in Denmark and belongs to graphic designer and artist Kristina Dam and her family. I like this pared down style with splashes of colour.

Source Bolig Magasinet / photo Pernille Kaalund

new kitchen accessory...

Some girlfriends were visiting Monday and one of them presented me with a little kraft box from The Ontario Craft Council. I opened it up to find my very own Heydey Design ceramic jar that I have been coveting since the Spring One of a Kind Show and just blogged about. I flipped out. It's beautiful and has a place of honor in the new kitchen. Yay! Ps., Thanks Kareen. xo

Modern Form House Front Elevation

Instagram

J'avais dit que je n'y allais pas. Que je n'avais pas le temps. J'ai mon shop et mon blog, je suis sur Facebook et Pinterest. Je suis déjà connectée en permanence. On ne peut pas être partout hein?!
Et pourtant... et je ne sais pas comment c'est arrivé, mais j'y suis maintenant. Probablement en tant que la dernière personne sur terre à rejoindre Instagram.

Alors si vous voulez jeter un coup d'oeil chez moi et dans ma vie, vous pouvez me suivre ici, anna_g.

I said that I wouldn't go there. That I didn't have the time. I have my shop and my blog, I'm on Facebook and Pinterest. I'm already permanently connected. You can't be everywhere right?!
And yet... and I don't know how that happened, but I'm there now. Probably as the last person on earth to join Instagram.

So if you want to have a sneak peek into my home and my life, you can follow me here, anna_g.

dishes // bone china

A few weeks ago Kay was asking via twitter where to find good white dishes and it made me think of our dishes that I adore. When Aubrey and I were married 8 years ago we received formal china for entertaining. But we totally cheaped out on our everyday plates. Total regret.  Our everyday plates were heavy and chipped easily (they may have been ceramic?) Although they were inexpensive per piece, it still adds up to be an investment when you buy a number of place settings. So should you be looking for everyday plates, I wanted to tell you about what we did.
As our everyday plates dwindled (due to chipping/cracking/breaking) I decided that we should maybe invest in good "everyday" plates. My Mom has beautiful dinnerware and she's the one that told me about bone china. Bone china is lighter and more resilient to chipping than our ceramic plates.

Although we picked up our set of bone china a few years back at the William Ashley Warehouse Sale just as recently as last week I was at HomeSense and found plates that were bone china. How can you tell? Pick up a piece and turn it around. You can see that it says what it is. As above, it says in small type "Bone China".

Anyhow, that conversation on twitter really sparked this post as I really adore our dinnerware. So if you're looking for new awesome dishes, maybe source out bone china for your house.

Update: We have the Dutchess brand of plates & bowls via William Ashley and a set of 8 of the Wedgwood "Night and Day" small bowls in addition (as shown above) The night and day bowls are perfect for berries or ice cream. :)

thanks for the help....

I got a amazing feedback on where to find blue & white pottery much like the ones I found antiquing in cottage country. Shadi snapped a photo of a page from HGTV magazine (shown above) and it showed these Chinese Ginger Jars are from a shop CWonder.com. (Thank you for taking that photo!) Robbin via the comments told me that Bowing having a collection (and they are on sale!) and LouLou via the comments sent me a link to the Bombay Company's collection. Of course, there is Chinatown which is actually where I did find one similar a year ago, but the pattern wasn't totally to my taste. But I should go back down for fun to search out more treasures. Anyhow, just wanted to say thanks for the help but also - pass along these links should you want to find some too! xo Linds

Strek Collective

Coup de coeur du jour: Strek Collective, une coopérative créative fondée par quatre jeunes designers norvégiens avec la volonté "d'explorer l'inconnu et améliorer le connu". Superbe!
Strek Collective va aussi exposer à Paris Design Week du 10-16 septembre :)

Today's crush: Strek, a creative collective founded by four young Norwegian designers with a dedicated approach to "exploring the unknown and improving the known". Beautiful!
Strek Collective will also be exhibiting at Paris Design Week on Sept 10-16 :)

 Photo Strek Collective

grouting surprises

Grouting the kitchen backsplash is complete. :)  We had a little surprise when the grouting was done - Although the container from Home Depot said "Bright White" as you can see in the image below, it definitely isn't bright white.

It's kind of gray .... no?

Thankfully it was a happy surprise. For the longest time our kitchen was being used without grout and the spacing between the tiles made it look like we had done gray grouting. The look was growing on me and I was nervous to go completely white with the grout. But we did - partially because I like to play it safe. When Aubrey was done the grouting I said to him cautiously - "It looks kind of gray doesn't it?" He agreed, but then we kind of moved on because we both liked the look. It also plays well with the Caesarstone Misty Carrara countertop.

So conclusion to the pre-mixed grout? Awesome as there is little cleanup and you can use what you need, and put the rest away. Downside - the colour was a wee-bit off from the label. ;-)

Dubai ,Sharja , Oman Commercial office 3D

By Nord AW2012

Jolie inspiration de la part de By Nord pour cet automne-hiver.

Beautiful inspiration from By Nord for this autumn-winter.

 Photo By Nord

Vous trouverez aussi une sélection By Nord dans ma boutique.

You can also find a selection from By Nord in my shop.

Making Ikea cabinets look custom

I have always loved the look of crown moulding around kitchen cabinetry, especially when you're using "Big Box Store" cabinets. I think it's one of the key elements in making something out of a flat packed box look custom. (See Carol Reed's blog for inspiration on ways to make Ikea kitchens look custom) Early in the design process we accounted for having crown moulding above the cabinets.

First thing - we went with the tallest Ikea cabinets possible. After accounting for the space between the counter and bottom of the cabinets (18") we were left with enough for a 2" crown moulding. Prior to installing the crown moulding, I painted it in Benjamin Moore's Paper Mache. Because we're working with a lot of whites, it was important to match the Ikea doors.

If you're going to do the same - make a note of the fact that Benjamin Moore's Paper Mache is a perfect match for Ikea's Adel Doors. Ikea Adel doors are not white - they are a creamy tone. I fretted about this originally, but I'll tell you now that the cabinets are gorgeous and I love the tone. I think if they were any whiter they would look too white. You can see in the photos above the crown moulding against the ceiling colour (bright white). The cabinets are definitely cream. By painting the crown moulding the same colour as the doors it makes the entire upper cabinetry look built in. Best decision.

Almost there! We really have only one thing left to do.....

Ps., Thanks to Leigh-Ann for helping me figure out the paint colour for the doors! If you don't have a friend that is a part of the Benjamin Moore Design Team then do what I also did and bring an Ikea door with you to your paint store and start pulling out paint swatches to try to match. (I did this to double check that we were going with the right tone)

The All-White Color Palette -- Is It Alright for Staging?

Color is a powerful tool. You can use it to draw people in, relax them, excite them, or -- heaven forbid -- send them packing.

What color scheme will you use to stage your home?

I've blogged about choosing a paint color and I've blogged about different colors like periwinkle and cyan, and about specific color schemes like black and white, and blue and white.

But we haven't chatted about the all-white palette.

Does the idea of decorating your home in whites sound crazy impractical or totally boring?

Let's look at whether the color white could be the smart choice or the dumb choice for your home.

White's not really a color. It's actually the absence of pigment. Nevertheless, most white paints and white fabrics have some color cast. There are warm whites like cream, ivory, and sandy whites. And there are the cool whites that are very slightly tinted with mauves and blues. The color experts recommend staying in one family -- either the whites with cool undertones, or the whites with warm undertones.

My favorite color consultant Maria Killam goes even further and distinguishes between beige undertones and yellow undertones and pink undertones. If you read her blog, you know that when you get it right, the room looks perfect!

Coastal Living Photo: David Hillegas. Styling: Heather Chadduck.

The photo on the right shows a room decorated with warm whites. The whites in the carpet and the table have brown undertones. The gray/white of the pillows is a warm grey.

Styles that Call For White Decor

Certain architectural styles and certain locales traditionally depend on white furnishings and paint for their uniqueness.

How chic would urban chic be without stark white walls?

How charming would coastal cottages be without whitewashed floors and white fluffy pillows?

How classic would country homes be without those white picket fences? And what shabby chic room is complete without its chippy white furniture?

If your home falls into any of these categories, you'll want to make white an important part of your decorating. Still sound boring? A professionally decorated room is never all white-white. You'll see different hues of white and different textures to keep things lively.

There's no shortage of textures in this mostly white room by Roughan Interior Design.
A faux fur throw contrasts with the sleek white seating, glass shelves, and silver drum shades.  

What's Great About White

WHITE'S HANDY. The decorators who love white love it because it's a blank slate, a marvelous foundation for what's to come -- all the fascinating furnishings they can pile on, knowing that white is The Great Unifer. You can use white this way when you are staging your home. If your furniture is a collection of thrift store bargains and hand me downs, painting them white is one simple way to make them match.

WHITE'S TIMELY. White is never dated. White will never go out of style. White will work with all other colors. Simplifies things, doesn't it?

WHITE'S BRIGHT. All white paints (and many pastels) have a high light reflectance value (LRV), which means simply that they reflect more light than darker paints, and that translates into rooms that look larger and brighter. When you put your home on the market, you can paint your rooms that are too dark or too small with a bright white paint and they will appear lighter and larger.

However, if your home has interesting architectural features, use a gray-white paint to finish your walls and trim because gray-white paints (like Sherwin Williams Lattice or Moderne White, and Benjamin Moore's Paper White) cast shadows to emphasize the details built into a room. Grays eat up light instead of bouncing it back. Bounced light makes details disappear.

WHITE'S CLEAN. White works well for home sellers also because it reads as a clean color. White is reassuring to people touring your home. White builds trust the way a doctor or pharmacist's jacket does. Bakeries and ice cream parlours, seafood stores and butcher shops typically have white walls. It's the hygiene thing.

WHITE'S BENIGN. White's also a good home staging color because buyers can't be offended by it. They probably won't say, "Too bad they painted the walls white.We'll have to paint them over before we can move in." More than likely they will say, "Our furniture will work with the wall color.We won't have to paint right away."

Buyers expect an almost sanitized look in bathrooms, so staging a bath with white
towels and toiletries is a natural. Go for a variety of textures and off-whites. 

White decorating accessories are easy to find, both in stores and in nature. 
If you don't have an assortment of white props, paint can change that. Kristen Hutchins Design.

What's the Bad News?

IS IT DIFFICULT TO MAINTAIN? The most common argument I hear against using white for decorating is... well, kids, husbands and dogs. Although I have lived with white walls, white carpeting, white tile flooring, white bed covers, and white painted furniture, I have never lived with white slipcovers. But my friend Kristi has, and she swears that washable white slipcovers are easier to maintain than anyone imagines.

If you think white shows the dirt, compare it to dark colors. Have you ever worn your little black dress to a dinner party where the hostess owned white, long haired dogs? Or tried to maintain a spotless look on dark wood floors?

Unlike dark or brightly colored furniture, white painted furniture seems to eat dust. It's very forgiving. Trust me on this.

IS IT TOO STERILE? The other argument I hear about white decor is that white rooms look antiseptic. That's a possibility, but there are easy solutions to the problem. Soft textures, rustic touches, furnishings with patina, distressed furniture finishes, green plants, or spots of color -- any of these additions will minimize or eliminate the sterility of an all-white room.  

This kitchen 's white has a cool cast. The stainless appliances, the metal countertop
and the black shelves are a perfect fit for cool whites. Photo: Aidan Gray Home.

As you can probably detect, I'm partial to whites in staged homes. I don't suggest installing pure 

white wall-to-wall carpeting in order to market your home better, but I can see the value of injecting 

more white into a decorating plan, and possibly staging one bedroom as a white-on-white, show-

stopper retreat. Yummy! 

There are times when an all-white color scheme just isn't right. An historic home like a Craftsman or a Victorian begs for colors appropriate to the style. A cookie cutter condo or new starter home might look more interesting with some distinctive color on the walls. You'll be the judge. But don't be afraid of white!

Staging a home around a white palette is very effective. And it's easy. You can find more easy tips

and tutorials in my $5 eBook, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and For Top Dollar.

You can download it now and start staging today. 

Top Photo: Slettvoll via DecorPad.