The Bedroom Project

Mario and the Kids left on monday for a week to visit his family in Quebec - so I decided to take the time to do our bedroom - it has been the last space in the house that we needed to work on and has been a little bit of a struggle to figure it out.

We are on the top floor - what would be the attic - so there is a peaked roof and lots of light - hardwood floors and beams to work with.

I had inspiration from Christine of Love the design next door to my store - she had papered her main wall in the store as an art wall with pages of old books....so I went on the hunt for old books that might have some meaning...Mario likes history and travel - so thats the books I found.

Now the hard part - figuring out placement of the pages - this process took me 9 hours....9 hours of placing, gluing and staring at the wall until I decided I was happy...sex in the city 2 played in the background, whiskey sour in hand I was happy but not satisfied..

I remembered we had bought some old colour engravings of birds from Ebay - went downstairs and dug them out and placed them on the wall in somewhat of a format - Now I got it....Birds are of meaning to us both and though we have Horses throughout the house - Birds would be good in our space.

Then it was on to the headboard - we had some suiting fabric that I was going to send to the upholsterer to do our headboard - but I decided I would do it myself - went to Home depot got some plywood cut for the headboard - fabricland and got foam and trusty staple gun and 15 minutes later I got a headboard......I wanted a little bit of depth and found some vintage buttons - lined them up - stapled the spot and then velcro'd the buttons on...and headboard complete - hung the stag which is carved wood and bed in place...

Bedding was easy I went for simple bedding and neutral with a hint of orange - there were some great textured pillows with orange edging and then found the cream wool one with the flowers on it...( the reverse side is just an orange bee) - added some finishing touches on the dressers / sidetables ie: Hermes Boxes, my Hermes messenger bag and the neutral lamps and then accessorized the rest of the room......

there is an 1890's judy with hoop skirt attached on marios side, the pale grey cowhide, metal cabinet with our books and the beautiful wool blanket folded on the bench that my friend Susan gave me for my birthday last year.

We have a french style chaise lounge on the right hand side with a small sarrinen side table and a custom Louis Vuitton pillow from my store on it....I LOVE how this room turned out...and best of all when Mario flew home today - he loved it too....

We have a little allcove by the chaise that was painted in the Benjamin Moore Electric Orange ( Hermes orange) with a crystal chandelier to lead in towards the window - the remaining things is to repaint - I think the white was too harsh so we are going to go towards a light grey or cream and to finish the roman blinds .....otherwise it looks awesome - I am pleased with it....and it helped me get through missing my kids and husband....

A challenge - if I were an Hermes orange fire hydrant - would you see me?

We had some friends over last night - enjoyed some nice wine, great food and excellent conversation. The talk lent itself towards my blog and how I see it....Its been great having feedback from people - everywhere that seem to like it - and I don't want to just write about new stuff in my store or things like picking flowers in the garden - so it has been challenging some times to write without thinking that I was not going to keep you intrigued.
I love what I do.......no questions asked I would never trade what I do...there has been many challenges in this business but the good definitely out ways the bad - so in the next few blogs I will stay true to myself and write about what I love and move on from there.

This time around for this posting - I need some advice...we have a bright yellow fire hydrant in front of the house - I haven't called the city yet to find out why it is yellow and not the common red throughout the city but I kind of want to paint it in a high gloss Hermes orange...I guess I don't know if it is allowed first of all - the hydrant is on our property but don't you  think we should be able to customize ( with limits and no extremes) our own hydrants? High gloss orange is really no different then the yellow - right?

So next steps - call the city and hopefully paint it......of course we all need a little more Hermes orange in our life.....

Fashion, Home decor and more - Its all about the Orange

I was thinking the other day about my next posting and wondering how I was influenced to make the choice of orange as the pop colour in my store and also in our house...I know Mario was a big influence in the choice as it is a colour that he loves. I am quite happy with how things have come about.

Years ago all I ever worked with in colours was Robins Egg Blue, white and brown - all the homes that I decorated were always in the colour scheme and my customer base was loyal with it as well. Who would have thought I would pop into orange and have it inspire me in more ways then I can imagine...

The Hermes box really is my inspiration - I have a nice collection of them right now and we search everywhere to find others - including stylists in the USA and abroad....decorating with the box gives a soft glow of orange but also the right amount of pop.

I spent my afternoon on our deck today searching the web for inspiration and realized that it surrounded me - literally and figuratively - last week my blog was about the orange around us - in signs, cars etc....this time it is all about fashion and style....

When you are inspired by a colour i think you take notice of it more....but designers like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior and of course Hermes have stuck with orange as a mainstay in their designs..
Joe Fresh Fall 2011 collection had hits of orange as did many of the other designers.

Then it became more apparent that Orange was a colour that came in every tone , any design and all over from Home to Fashion . I have a client who has turned into a friend - she and her husband painted her bathroom - the Benjamin Moore Electric orange ( aka : hermes orange) but also her stairs leading up to her second floor - she was inspired by my store and followed through...We had another client paint her kitchen the same orange and all shiny white cabinets from Ikea....the colour has become bold and fun and it is so good to see so many people inspired to use it...

I am happy in our choice as an accent colour in our home - we are currently working on a couple of new variations to showcase orange - but as i continue with my store - I am always in search of new ways to find and deliver the goods of orange.

There really is an Orange Cow......

JUST IN - Hermes Orange Cowhides.....limited quantities - these are beautiful

A day in the life of Orange

Today was my day off - Mario, Mari-Sol, Ben and I took a long walk from our house across the Danforth.
Within the first couple of minutes I was thinking that it would be interesting to see how the colour Orange is more common then we think and not just the trend that is current.




Of course we didnt walk all the way down to the Hermes store - but it is a lot more interesting to see how Orange is in some of the most unusual places.... ( dont get me wrong a trip to the Hermes is totally interesting.......)

Walking along the streets of the city - orange is definetly on machinery, construction zones....the obvious pylons, jackets on construction men with neon yellow, signage everywhere.... a lot more common then you think

Any of the Hakim Optical stores have the big orange glasses - this one was one of the older stores and there was definetly lots of orange in their sign.....
Cars drove by - of course there is 2 different taxi companies in the city with orange - Beck Taxi with orange and green and then Diamond with Black and Orange

but then there was a lady who drove past in this.....

bicycle parked on the side

The obvious fruit markets with oranges

Continuing down the street many shades of orange popped up - on the sidewalk markers, the newspaper box

a planter outside of a store

Now ....the best part - walking into the LCBO - right in the very front - one of our favorite champagnes.....and guess what.....it was all about the orange.

and then finally.....after the long walk, a quick lunch and kids ready to go home - we took the subway.......and luckily found the old one with of course.....Orange doors...

I guess it gives something to ponder...Orange had its hayday in the 60's - came back again sometime in the 80's and now is a hot trend.....one of the most expensive companies Hermes has orange as their signature colour and really it is in our daily life hidden or not but blending with everything else that is out there.....

Way to go ORANGE!!!

Is there really such a thing as an orange cow?

We are currently working on doing the master bedroom in our new house - it is of course the last room to be finished for reasons not really know to either Mario or I?  We had a hard time getting the right inspiration i guess and then all of a sudden it is coming together....the reason of this post is not to show the bedroom - but the cool new cowhide bench that came into the store made for us from a company in montreal.

The hide is dyed Orange - this one came out a little bright - so hopefully the next ones will be in an Hermes Orange - the hide is then added to the shiny metal criss cross frame for a lovely custom bench in front of our bed.

If you notice - the Gerbera daisys that are in the white vase on the chest of drawers is the exact colour of the bench.......

So our next step for this room is to do an orange damask tone on tone wallpaper behind the bed  - stay tuned.......hopefully this wallpaper goes up easier then the last one did.....

\

The trend of animals.....Faux or real?



 Lately it seems that everywhere you look it is antlers, hides, turtle shells , zebras etc.....Decorating with animal motifs has always been a trend - fashion has always been hot and they use it not only in clothing but handbags etc.. but more and more people are getting concerned with the impact on the animal world so its become faux......


zebra hide - printed cow hide...not real zebra




Faux zebra rug in orange - Jonathan Adler



this faux hide was available through QVC

 Cowhides - can now be pretty much any colour - any style - our son has a giraffe printed hide in his bedroom - zebra printed hides are seen everywhere and are beautiful on the floor - colours like Hermes Orange - we are working on a bench for the store...Fuscia , Turquoise....can be seen in many design magazines and of course available in faux hide.....

We did the above chair in faux snakeskin - classic style french chair gives this a modern feel...the faux snakeskin is pretty realistic in feel - rub your hand against the weave and it actually feels scaley

Antlers are everywhere lately - Antlers are one of those things that are still in the "Not so bad" category....every year deer shed their antlers - so its not like we are sending people out to get them from the animals...but resin has come a long way.....


antelope antlers on mount - resin

 They look great in decorating....

Always have to add something whimiscal in orange - this is a resin horse mount painted in Hermes Orange - we have rams heads as well.....

tortoise shell bowls - not real

Tortoise shell - resin

 So as you can see - it is easy to find items that are not real - no one needs to smuggle turtle shells across the border anymore - resin ones have made their way in the world and keeping our animals out of harms way.

Polar Bear rug made from Recycled rugs