Yes, you can have nice things and kids too!

Posted on November 29, 2017 Posted in Furniture, Home DesignTagged Couch, Design, Furniture, Home Decor, Home Design, Home Renovation, House Staging, Kid Friendly, Personal, Real Estate, SofaLeave a comment

Part One, The Sofa.

I have worked long and hard at selecting furniture that is beautiful but will absolutely stand up to my two boys (and three LARGE dogs). I’ve put together personal favourites that I have found to be really durable yet functional and still stylistic. Momma can absolutely have nice things and messy boys at the same time.

Leather
My top recommendation is to go with a thick and distressed leather. We had a Restoration Hardware Lancaster sofa for years and it held up to anything. Scratches happened (and are easily buffed out with leather conditioner available from RH), spills, many moves … you name it. We only eventually had to sell it as it was too large for our current house. We did buy this sofa second hand which saved as a ton of money and it was already well worked in for us.

Urban Barn sells a more reasonably priced sofa that has a similar thick distressed option that we did have at one point (again bought used) called the Preston. I don’t have a lot of great photos as I was mostly in the daze of parenting very young kids at that time we owned it.

Any leathers that are higher end (think soft and buttery) are a nightmare to maintain and best left for those single folks without kids or pets who have dinner parties and spend Sunday mornings sleeping in sipping coffee until noon. We are not those people.

We are these people.
Fabric
Alternatively you can go the fabric route but you want to pick durable fabric (high rub count), and patterns that will conceal spills and stains because it’s not IF it’s WHEN bad things happen. I will often take a sample of the fabric home and spill juice, crunch goldfish crackers and coffee into it to see how well the fabric stands up. It’s not pretty but it really helps determine if this fabric is going to hold up to my real life. I’d rather find out on the front end that crunched in goldfish crackers turns the sofa orange than after I have spent a bunch of money. We have had a lot of success with fabric sofas from GUS Modern as their fabric seems quite commercial grade it in it’s ability to stand-up to children and exhausted parents with unsteady coffee mugs.

We have recently purchased a Montauk sofa for our smaller open concept living room. It’s is gorgeous and we customized the pillows so there were more solid larger pillows and not a lot of throw pillows as they tend to become projectiles in my house. The fabric on this one went through my strict Goldfish Cracker test and passed; however, it is linen. We have only had it a few months now so the jury is out on how well it will hold up to our full life.

I have a sneaking suspicion living as close to the sea as we do, a leather sofa will be in our future with wet dogs constantly sneaking on the couch for their post-swim snoozing.

He’s too adorable to be mad at for long.

Next up: Dining Room table and chair options that will stand up to mass forking and other disasters at the hands of toddlers!

Marble: Do’s (mostly) And A Few Don’ts

Posted on November 10, 2017 Posted in Home RenovationTagged Home Decor, Home Design, Home Renovation, Kitchens, Marble, PersonalLeave a comment

We recently renovated our kitchen and put in A LOT of marble. 6 slabs of gorgeous Calacatta Gold to be exact. I had this grand vision due of course to house and home magazines and Pinterest. I researched blog after blog talking about the different types of marble, how they wear and what to expect. Armed with this and photos of the look I was going for, I found a local supplier.

My vision was something like this. And we ended up here.

Primarily because of price and availability.

Prepare to be gobsmacked when quoted on how much marble will cost, at least the type you are seeing in magazines. My husband and I had a wager as to how much a full height marble backsplash would cost, I lost in a huge way (he’s still gloating about it) and we had to make some concessions on other projects we had planned in order to accommodate the extra costs involved. It was worth it in my opinion; full wall height marble is a showstopper.

We laboured long and hard over the type of marble to use as Calacatta marble is much more expensive than other varieties. If you want that cleaner white look with that crisp grey veining – it’s the way to go. We went with the gold variety to add some warmth to our kitchen since our cabinetry is also white. I absolutely love the splashes of golden imperfectness in the stone.

We have been enjoying our new counters for about six-months and I do have some tips on care and maintenance for anyone considering putting something similar in their kitchen.

Don’t obsess about the etching. They will etch, it’s unavoidable. That first one though … really hurts. You are allowed to cry a little over spilt orange juice in this instance. Eventually you’ll get to the point where the etching just add to the ‘character’ of the stone and over time you won’t think about it – but obsessing over everything placed on the counter will drive you to drink.
Use a cleaner made for marble … or just plain (not acidic) soap and water. I like the Method stone cleaner but I know there are tons on the market.
Honed vs. Polished. We went with honed, although it did cost an extra $800. I like look and feel of honed marble and the etching shows much less than with polished marble.

Next time (and if you’ve read my ‘Confessions of a Serial Mover‘ post we know there will be a next time, I think I would consider doing the full wall/backsplash and going with a more economical marble for the counters (more basic perhaps) just to reduce the overall cost.

Want to talk marble? I’m all ears. Let’s connect!

Confessions of a Serial Mover.

Posted on November 10, 2017November 10, 2017 Posted in MovingTagged Design, Home Decor, Home Design, Moving, Personal, Real Estate3 Comments

I have moved 11 times in 10 years.

To be fair not all to houses I have purchased and sold. Some were rentals to try a new neighbourhood. Some for work, a few for my son’s school needs and maybe a few flights of fancy. All this packing and unpacking, selling and buying have taught me a few things about real estate I’ll be writing about here. Perhaps some of my stories can save you a few headaches and maybe even a few dollars.

Now back to the 11 moves.

I did once Google “people who move all the time” and did come up with a few personal anecdotes from others that echoed some of my motivations. One particular blog talked about the newness of a new city, a new job, new home – that feeling of starting over. The plight of home renting and having little control over your landlords decisions regarding where you living came up quite a bit. Some said they just liked the work of renovation and styling different types of homes.

For me it’s always more been about the project. The task of finding a house that needs a bit of love (not too much love because thats a whole other blog post), something that allows me to impart my love of design, decor and furniture on a new space and leave it better off than I found it. Once that work is complete, my eye tends to wander back over to those MLS listings in search of that new project and challenge.

Yes, all that moving can get expensive and it’s sometimes exhausting.

I’ve worked hard with most (I’d say 80%) of my house sales to bring in profit that gets moved into the next acquisition allowing a bigger budget for purchase or renovation. It doesn’t always work that way but by enlarge if you work the market you can end up on the plus side of the equation. This constant rotation of packing boxes has become much less practical now that my kids are in grade school of course, but I would be lying to say I’m not already looking for the next house that needs some of my kind of style.