Let’s find a countertop

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OK, so this was a tough one… I think it is a close runner-up to picking out appliances. I knew I wanted quartz because I did love the look of marble but knew deep down it wasn’t practical for me after asking myself these questions… Am I going to drop a pot or something heavy on the counter? Yes. Is there a chance that a cut lemon or sauce could be left on the counter for over 5 minutes? Yes. My kitchen doesn’t need to look pristine at all times, I do want to it look like we are actually using it but at the same time I read too many stories on the forums about the etching and staining. We also plan on having at least two kids so I didn’t want to take the risk. Check out this great article comparing the different countertop options.

So… we started looking at Caesarstone and I loved the look of Frosty Carrina.

Frosty Carrina

BUT when I went to get some prices, I found out that we wouldn’t be able to get a slab big enough for our island! You can get the slabs in 56 x 120 and our island width is just over 60….

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Haha ok, it wasn’t that bad. I just felt like I was starting over. I asked what our options were, she let us know Cambria was out because they do not have jumbo slabs and Hanstone had some options but not in the colours I was looking for. She said Silestone had jumbo slabs, so we narrowed it down between Silestone Lyra and Lagoon.  Getting samples and finding pictures online was the most frustrating part. Of course you need to take it home and see how it looks in your house but the fabricator we were going with didn’t have any and Home Depot had a decent sized display but gave me a tiny 2 x 4 sample to take home.

Silestone options Silestone

We chose Lagoon! it works well with our hardwood and the look I was going for. I can’t wait to see it installed!

Finding pictures on the company’s website was hard but I was able to find different pictures looking through blogs, so if you are in this position keeping searching! I’m not sure what we would do without blogs? Lindsay from ‘Aubrey & Lindsay’ posted some great reviews on different quartz choices. I also found this great picture on GardenWeb to sum up the quartz options that look like marble.

samples

Happy Mother’s Day!

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High Park in Toronto

It’s this weekend, so I would like to wish all of the mom’s and soon-to-be mom’s out there a very Happy Mother’s Day!! I know I owe a lot to my mom, she has helped shaped me into the person I am today,  I am very grateful for everything she has done for me… I hope that I can do the same for my child some day. Inspiration, comfort and to be helpful is the only power my mom needs. I know she is always thinking about me and will always be there for me – thank you Mom!! xoxo

Enjoy your day and if you haven’t found a gift yet, here are some gift ideas!

Mother's Day gift ideas

Molton Brown gift set – Holt Renfrew, Michael Kors tennis racket case or neon cosmetics case- Holt Renfrew, The Honest Life by Jessica Alba- Amazon, Monogrammed pocket mirror- Etsy, Candle – Anthropologie, Large Floral print scarf – Lord & Taylor, Alphabet charm necklace – Tiffany, Loungers – Anthropologie, Buy 2 tickets to see The Great Gatsby, Amalie tote – Tory Burch

Sarah Richardson’s fabric line is coming soon!

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kravet logoSarah Richardson for kravet collections

Good news! As you may have heard, Sarah Richardson has teamed up with kravet to design her very own line of fabrics. Sarah’s recent diary post let us know that she was sitting with the marketing team and got to see her fabrics! I needed some dates so I contacted kravet and they informed me that the Sarah Richardson fabric collection will debut this fall!! So exciting!! I will keep you posted if I hear anything more.

Flooring options

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Our main floor will consist of hardwood and tile. The tile is going to be in the front entrance, which is 55 sq ft and the remaining 900 sq ft will be hardwood.

With hardwood, we like the look of wide boards, medium tone, and something that was hand-scraped. Jen from Rambling Renovators recently posted a picture from Diane Keaton’s Pinterest Board and it was exactly what I was thinking of when I thought of our hardwood floor.

Diane Keaton Pinterest

When looking at hardwood, look at your lifestyle before making your purchase. We knew that we would be getting a dog in the next year and kids will be coming into our lives soon, so a high gloss, smooth, flat board would not work with our family. Any future marks can now blend into the hand-scraped boards. Going into the store with all of this in mind made it easy to come home with some options!

Flooring options

One note I would like to make is all of the boards are hardwood except the sample on the bottom left corner, this is engineered wood. I know there are some nice options but this sample had the hand-scraped look and it looked very plastic to me, so if you are looking into flooring options make you get some samples from both sides. There are other considerations to keep in mind as well. I always thought hardwood would be really expensive but it came to 4.79/sq ft, which fit our budget!

We ended up choosing the Oak Whiskey!

the winner

With our tile, it was a bit trickier. Sarah’s House 4 inspired me to look at 12×24 porcelain tiles with a natural appearance.

Sarah's House 4 Entryway

It was definitely tough to find what I was looking for but I came up with 4 options

options

We decided on the Eramosa but I was still hesitating because I felt like I needed something a bit lighter and with more gray tones. I went back and found another option and it was the winner!!

Tile options 2

When you see this tile up against the Eramosa tile you can really see how beige it is. I am much happier with the lightness of it and how it has more warm gray tones in it.

Exterior update

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Here are some exterior shots of our house during the reno! Our new front door isn’t in yet but I will update you once it is in.

Please note that I do not have a ‘before’ shot of the back of our house?! I hope it turns up while I sort through my photos but it’s not looking good…

Back of the house before Back of the house after

front window before front window 2 front window after

Also these were our colour choices for the front door

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I was really close to choosing commercial brown but ended up going with windswept smoke which wasn’t as dark as the 3 top colours and it had the grey/brown that I was looking for. It worked really well with our the colour we chose for the exterior windows.

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Kitchen cabinet doors

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Here were our choices of cabinet doors from our kitchen designer Interior Works. There were some other options but these were the ones we considered…

Kitchen door options

We decided to go with the 2 step recessed shaker door because it combined two styles that I liked. I wanted something classic with clean lines which is usually the shaker style but I also wanted something a bit different so we had this great option. I did like the top left as this is the style Sarah Richardson chose in her last kitchen on Sarah’s House 4!

Sarah's House 4 Kitchen cabinets

South of France

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Now onto part 3 of our trip to Europe! I told you about London and Paris well the last part of our trip was spent in the South of France. We stayed for 4 nights in Nice at the Palais de la Mediterranee. At first I missed the boutique feel that I loved in London and Paris but it was a nice change to be back in a massive suite and plus we had a gorgeous view of the Mediterranean. The first 2 days were spent exploring Nice, there’s not too much to it but it’s a nice town. We enjoyed the restaurants (couldn’t get enough of the french wine and amazing food), promenade, Castle Hill and exploring the old town. On the 3rd day we took the train (walking distance from our hotel) to Monaco. That was very cool to see all of the luxurious yachts parked in the harbour even though most of them weren’t being used because it was too cold and just to walk around and take in the city. On the 4th day we went to Cannes, I was a little disappointed because I was expecting this glamorous town but not so much… I guess it would be different if we went in the summer. I still loved seeing the building which hosts the Cannes Film Festival (I LOVE film festivals) and there was an antique market where I picked up some cool things for our future family room! It was a nice relaxing end to an amazing and unforgettable trip to Europe.

Nice

I had to include a picture of a french pharmacy. If you ever go to France you must go in and do some shopping, they have some of the best beauty products. Gwyneth Paltrow has a list on goop , I used this list as well and Vogue just featured these 10 must haves.

Picking a new front door

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I have some fun decisions to make in the next couple of weeks! The first is deciding what style of front door we want! While searching for one I have realized there are many styles I DON’T like. I won’t post any as I don’t want to offend any one but there are some interesting doors out there! Here is what I had of my list of wants in a front door:

  • Only 1 door as I find that’s really all you need
  • Two side panels to add more light
  • No decorative glass in the panels
  • Straight clean lines on the door
  • I didn’t have a preference what material, design was the most important

If you are looking for some help picking out the type of door check out this article on Houzz

Here were my options (would customize glass and colours after)

# 1

#2

# 3

# 4

Now with the 4th option we wouldn’t have space for the insert at the top but this was my closest option to the front door Sarah Richardson picked for Sarah’s House 4 which I loved! Ahhh Sarah… why does every room she designs have to look so perfect?

Sarah's House 4

In the end I went with #2, the solid steel door. I loved the simplicity of the design and I like how it is a bit more modern with the lines on the door as I plan on mixing styles throughout my home. I didn’t want something that looked like a builder’s option, you won’t see this door on many homes in my area.

# 4 was a close 2nd however the company we were getting our doors and windows from said they couldn’t offer a glass design that was frosted or like a satin finish. I started to doubt my decision on the satin finish as I drove around in affluent neighbourhoods only seeing clear glass (Yes, this is how I research my options). We ended up asking our friends who have clear glass panels and they said they felt like they didn’t have enough privacy with the clear glass, so that made my decision easier!

Up next…. Kitchen cabinet doors!