Montreal Apartment Update

I think it is safe to say that my October challenge of one post per day is over... a little early. Blogging takes a lot of time and I just don't have it on a daily basis. So back to my intermittent- flights of fancy- blogging...

Now that I am spending more time in our apartment in Montreal, I have made some more changes (shocking!).

1. We brought up our old 3-seater sofa for the living room. By keeping the previous furniture and adding the new sofa we now have more than enough room for lots of people to sit or for the 2 of us to be comfortable.



2. We brought up our old dining set. I recovered the chair cushions and touched up any scratches that the set may have gotten during its year in the garage or during the move. Now we have a proper dining area.


3. We bought a large carpet runner to cover the pathetic tiles in the kitchen. I have no intention of replacing the broken tiles or re-grouting so the only option left- cover them up. The runner is the IKEA Egeby rug and at almost 3'x8' it covers more than enough of the kitchen floor.

This Weeks Halloween Project

This weekend I am going to make this sign using scraps from the garage. Well, something similar to the above picture but more appropriate for Stuart and I's line of work.

Painted Countertops

Painting kitchen countertops is an inexpensive and easy way to makeover dated and/or damaged laminate countertops. The trick is to use melamine paint.

This is the kitchen in our Montreal apartment. We painted the laminate countertop and the tile backsplash in a slate grey melamine paint about 2 years ago and they have held up great... not a single scratch.


Some other examples of painted countertops.

Halloween Party Update

New for this year...

...starting with my splurge... Martha Stewart Halloween Bottle Labels



Small plastic spiders

Skeleton head dip bowl

Faux pumpkins (of varying sizes)

More Martha Stewart Halloween Ideas...

I am in full on Halloween party planning mode. Here are some more of my inspiration photos.

For the bat and ghost templates...

For the rat template...

New Season of Sarah's House!!

Sarah's House season 4 starts tomorrow night at 8pm on HGTV. For those of you who don't get HGTV, check it out on HGTV.ca anytime Wednesday. Apparently, this season she has bought and is decorating a cookie cutter house in a new subdivision. Should be interesting...

Jenn's Hand-Me-Down Dresser

Jenn has a dresser in her master bedroom that our dad gave her. It used to function as his work bench. She has been struggling with how to make it fit into her bedroom decor for some time now, I think mainly due to the fact that it sits awkwardly high off the ground. I came across the picture below when I was searching the internet and immediately thought of her. It looks very similar to the hand-me-down dresser but looks fantastic (even though this is in a bathroom and she wants it to work in her bedroom). The baskets under it seem to fill the void and trick the eye into thinking it is one solid piece.

Guest Bedroom- Before & After

Before- The guest bedroom had purple walls and bunk beds wedged into the 7 x 9' space. My favorite part (which is not obvious in the picture) is that their are plastic vertical blinds covering the electrical box in the corner...classy!


After- We built a proper surround for the electrical box and basically replaced or painted every surface (walls, trim, doors, carpet, etc.) in the room. It's still small but a practical space for guests.

Upcoming Project

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I routinely take things that my neighbours have put out to the road. Below is my most recent find. I plan to sand down the top and legs and re-stain it in a dark walnut finish. Then I plan to spray paint the rusted metal to make it look like cast iron. Lots of potential...

My IKEA Hacks

I recently did a post on an IKEA hack idea that I had and thought I would post about the IKEA hacks I have already done. At this point in time I only have 2 IKEA hacks in my home but I am proud of both.

The first is a bedside table which we turned into our bathroom cabinet.


The second is a kitchen base cabinet which we turned into a kitty litter cabinet in our mud room.

Real High/Low Pricing

I am the kind of person that likes to plan ahead, so I am already thinking (technically have been for a while) about Christmas gifts. I was doing some searching online today and could not believe some of the price differences I came across. Below are the ones I thought were noteworthy:

Wine aerator- High $51.49 at Pottery Barn/Low $24.97 at Home Hardware

Counter-top composter- High $49.95 at Crate and Barrel/Low $19.95 at Loblaws

Salad tongs- High $9.95 at Crate and Barrel/Low $1.00/each at Dollarama

Wine decanter (glass)- High $37.37 at Pottery Barn/Low $11.99 at Kitchen Stuff Plus

Cooking Utensils- High $12.95/each at Crate and Barrel/Low $1.25/each at Dollar Giant

Bamboo trivet- High $11.95 at Crate and Barrel/Low $1.00/each at Dollarama

Cheese set- High $69.00 at Williams-Sonoma/Low $24.98 at Stokes

This one is my personal favorite??

Water hyacinth place mat- High $108.26/set of 6 at Pottery Barn/Low $5.00 at IKEA

Themed Decorating

Chalet Style- Antique skis as decoration...

Forest Style- Wood stumps as decoration...

Beach Style- Shells as decoration...

Lake Style- Oars as decoration...