The house has finally started to feel like a home. We’ve spent the summer cleaning, painting, and decorating, and we’re both really happy with how it’s turned out. The paint colours that were originally a bit of a gamble have turned out to be just fine, and we’re so happy to be in a space that is so big and comfortable, compared to our little apartment. We still have a lot of work left to do – the windows need to be replaced, the backsplash in the kitchen needs to be installed, the toilet and bathroom floor need to be replaced, the basement needs to be finished – but, for the most part, we’re done stage one of the reno/move-in process.
So here’s a taste of what we’ve done so far (please forgive the poor photo quality). On the main floor we have the kitchen and dining room, and on the second floor there are two smaller rooms, the bathroom, and our bedroom (complete with amazing walk-in closet). You can see the before photos here.
The kitchen
The breakfast nook
New panels in the dining room
The bathroom – new counter top and sink
One of my favorite pieces in the upstairs hallway
Our office
The ‘multi-purpose’ room
Our living room
The bedroom
The closet of all closets
One of the ‘projects’ that I was maniacally excited about was creating a piece of artwork for the living room. We have lots of big, huge walls that are empty, and both Matt and I like the look of big ol’ paintings to fill up those walls. Seeing as we’re both unwilling to part with our hard-earned money for legitimate artwork, we decided to do it ourselves. Considering that neither of us are artists, we did the old painters-tape-and-dollarama-paint deal, and came up with something that I think looks pretty goddamn good. I’m proud of it like a mother is proud of her kid’s stupid fingerpainting. Like, irritatingly proud.
Stage one: smoke a joint and get to tapin’
It went remarkably smooth, as we had the same idea of what we wanted to do (geometric box-like design), and we each just put down a piece of tape at a time, without arguing about it! I think the weed probably helped. We were, like, so laid back, man.
Stage two: get yer paint on
After discussing which would be highlight colours and which would be more primary colours, we each chose a bottle of paint and started painting a square. After we did a few of them, we went through and marked the rest of them with a pencil so that no two neighbouring squares were the same colour. We only managed to mess up once. But I’m not going to point it out. Like I said, totally laid back, man (also: do we have any chocolate? I’m hungry. And this music is tripping me out…).
Stage three: second coat and tape removal
I’ll admit, before we took the tape off, I was a bit skeptical. I didn’t like the dark colour (which started as red, then brown, then purple), and I was afraid it looked too busy and weird. But then we took off the tape, and voila! A fucking masterpiece! I was amazed. I think it looks pretty fucking fantastic hanging in our living room. Huge canvases like that one are just so goddamn great. I want to get one for every other room in the house now. Just all canvases, all the time. One right next to the other. Covering every square inch of our house.
My faith in our ability to come up with an idea and actually carry through with it has officially been restored. I can’t remember the last time I thought of something, then went to the store to get the supplies, and then actually did what it is I had thought up. And to think that this idea was spawned and created all while stoned, without the end product looking like a four year old’s finger painting! Sacrebleu!
Filed under: Awesome | Tagged: homelife, Ice Cream Cohen, photos
