Four things I wanted to tell you

Lotta Anderson featured in Blueprint

First of all Bradley's reaction to my living room "reveal" was very good, I think he said "holy smokes!" and loved it. The place is feeling much homier these days with just a bit of sorting, cleaning and lots and lots of painting.

The second thing that I wanted to tell you is that I picked up the September/October Blueprint and found an article about Lotta Anderson (of Lotta Jansdotter). I'm a big fan, as I'm sure many of you are as well so I thought you might like to know. I scooped up a copy and am so inspired by the stylish and artistic decor in her home and her work space in particular. The pendant lamp in her living room is exactly what I had in mind for our living room:

Lotta's living room featured in Blueprint

Now I just have to find it. If anyone knows somewhere in Toronto that stocks them please let me know!

Thirdly, I was surprised yesterday to find some clothes at Gap Body made with Liberty fabric! They also had some headbands and hair elastics with flowers also from Liberty fabric. I bought a nightie made with the gorgeous (poorly photographed) pattern above.

And finally our bathroom is not ready for a "reveal" but is dramatically improved so I'll give you some glimpses. First of all, here are some snaps of the "before". There was a bulky melamine cabinet over the toilet, bright yellow walls and matching shower curtain, with peeling paint revealing a Pepto-Bismol pink layer of paint underneath. There was a caramel colour shelf along one wall, and we put up a plain mirror temporarily. There is also an old washing machine and very old clawfoot tub. I love the clawfoot tub but it will need a bit of work - more on that in a later post.First of all we replace the box flourescent fixture with a simple round flushmount. Then we painted the walls cil's "wedding white" which I think is the perfect white, not too creamy/yellow and not too cool/stark. Very similar (I can't tell the difference from the chip) to Benjamin Moore's "swiss coffee". We removed the extra shelving on the walls throughout and lots of odd hooks that were stuck on the walls to hold clothes drying lines, etc. The shower curtain and red rug are from IKEA. We also installed a nice new chrome towel bar and toilet roll holder.
After a surprising amount of effort we finally found a medicine cabinet we liked, this one is from Home Sense. I'd like to add a glass handle to it later, but it has a nickle one now that is perfectly fine. And finally, the nice plain wall over the toilet (that's right I'm showing you a picture of our toilet). We may add artwork here later but for now it's nice to have an uncluttered wall. The cabinet that was there seemed to kind of be looming if you know what I mean. For storage there's a linen closet in the hallway - a new luxury for us! So I can pretend I'm a minimalist...Still to do: window curtains, new plumbing for the tub (it leaks and has old wonky brass piping), including a new tub faucet (the old one is chrome laminate and a bit peely) a new showerhead, and a new pedestal sink/faucet to replace a melamine vanity. Also we'd like to do new flooring and install a new washer/dryer (there isn't really another place in the house to put them.) Finally if possible I love the look of beadboard wainscotting and light sconces - but we'll have to see how we do with the budget!