Summerize Our Home

This past week we had our outdoor lights replaced with those wall lanterns I bought from Rona. Coincidentally, the bronze finish of these lanterns matches the brown undertone of the new paint. Here are some pictures.

I am a big fan of mix-n-match as long as in a coordinated fashion. I chose a half wall lantern for our porch in the same antique bronze finish. The circle pattern on the lantern echos our Sausalito foyer light from Troy Lighting. I feel quirky happy (just like Audrey Tautou from Amélie) when my guests notice details throughout the house like this.

This west-facing guest bedroom was like a boiler heated up by the afternoon sun. As mentioned in my last blog, this past week I had it changed to this soothing Light French Gray color from Behr.

I picked up this throw/blanket in Waverly's Coral Trellis from Home Sense. If a blue coral/foliage pattern like this doesn't scream Shabby Chic, I don't know what else does. Oh by the way, it is my plan to decorate all our bedrooms in different themes: so far this guest bedroom is predominantly in French Provincial/Shabby Chic style. Our master bedroom is modern classic/transitional, and I am yet to figure out the other three.

I highly recommend the Sun Control Film from RCR. As long as you watch the installation video ahead of time, this window film is very easy to put up, and it drastically reduces glaring and temperature. Our guest bedroom now feels at least 3-4 degrees (Celsius) cooler. It also blocks up to 98% UV rays and therefore protects furniture from fading. The only downside is the film is tinted so it slightly darkens the room. You can buy this window film from Home Hardware stores by special order.

The Home Reno Saga Continues...

It has been an extremely unproductive month. A tingling sensation in my throat had turned into a full-blown bronchitis within days. The antibiotics didn't work fast enough, and I was non-responsive to any codeine cough syrups (well, other than the out-of-body experience. Getting high is definitely not my thing!). I was coughing my lungs out day and night -- I don't recall I've ever had anything quite like it. At some point I went almost five nights straight without sleeping: you don't need to watch "Dawn of the Dead" to see what a zombie looks like! As a result of the acute coughs, I had to cancel many client meetings at work -- to a degree my boss started to worry that he wasn't going to have that 2-million dollar revenue he was banking on before our fiscal year end. Fortunately, slowly and gradually, I am back on my feet despite occasional coughs.

On the home front, since dust and other allergens can easily trigger my coughs, I've decided to hire someone to paint our garage and front doors. I've had enough of our ugly moss-green-color garage doors the builder gave us. Here are some pictures.

Inspired by Patricia from Floorwood Solutions Inc., I not only picked up the same Turret Stair (NA32) paint color from Ralph Lauren, but also had the inside of the doors painted the same as the outside. We've also added a header moulding/pediment (again, kudos to Pat) to the door to make it appear taller. We will be replacing all our door casings with header mouldings like this at least throughout the ground floor.

Here is a shot from our porch. I debated for a long time between painting garage doors in a differnt lighter color and the same as the front doors, but decided to go with the latter to give some contrast.
 We picked up three of these outdoor lanterns in oil-rubbed bronze metal from Rona. I thought I was going to have to spend hundreds of dollars on these lights, but the total bill only came to a surprisingly low $150. We will have an electrician/plumber over when we renovate our powder room, so I will have him install these lights. Some pictures to follow.

I've recently re-furnished one of the guest bedrooms in French Provincial style, so I plan to have the room painted in Behr's Light French Gray. I will post some pictures later. Stay tuned.