Window Shopping Wednesday: Stereo Table for Jonathan

Window shopping is extra enjoyable when I get to look for products I know others are interested in buying. It allows me to shop vicariously through them and saves me money! My brother-in-law Jonathan recently asked me to keep my eye out for a table that he could put his stereo on in the living room. When we first started our blog, we talked about their style as being somewhat contemporary but rustic.

This makes it fun for me, because when I'm out shopping I see things that wouldn't fit into my house because of our style, but that are still wonderful and would maybe fit in more of a setting like theirs. I'll often send them pictures or tell them about something I saw that would fit well in their condo.

For this Window Shopping Wednesday, I thought we'd do some shopping for the stereo table Jonathan is looking for. 

I am digging this Zinc Console Table from Urban Barn, because they already have some dark woods happening in their living room so I don't want to add to that too much. This is definitely up the alley of Contemporary Rustic, however, I don't think it's their taste entirely. It would also be good to find something with some shelves or drawers to hold CDs that they'll use in the stereo. I am unsure about something really closed in though, because the way that the room is set up, it would be in a corner that is right next to their wood fireplace which has their TV above it, so I don't want it to look too crowded and heavy in that corner. Something like this just might work, maybe even with floating shelves above to house the CD collection. 
Keep looking!

This cabinet from Ikea could work, with some baskets inside to store CDs, it could look neat, and conquer the issue of creating a really heavy corner with too much wood going on. I'm still not sure this is their taste, but I think I am identifying some of the issues they will need to think about when choosing a setup for the stereo. Something not too closed in, but still having storage.

Restoration Hardware has some amazing finds, and I had trouble narrowing it down. I think this is simple enough to work, because a table with a stereo on it isn't necessarily something you want your focal point to be (and there are some crazy pieces of furniture there that would be super cool if it was going to be a main conversation piece in the space). It's a lighter wood, and the slats still make it a little bit less solid and heavy. It would also hide the CDs, which to be honest aren't the prettiest things to look at. 

That was a lot harder than I expected actually. I browsed a lot of websites just to come up with 3 different concepts. Another suggestion, and probably what I would want to do - especially when wanting a more rustic look - is going to a local thrift store and finding a dresser or table that you can paint or refinish yourself. It's a one of a kind piece and you get the pride of a job well done. Right now Philip and I have been scoping the local thrift stores every Saturday looking for two different pieces. We'll keep you posted when we find them!

Is there a certain thing you've been shopping for but don't have the time? I'd love to feature it in my Window Shopping Wednesday post. Send me an email at cassondra.wiebe@gmail.com, I'll go shopping for you and give you a few ideas on what you could purchase for the space. 

Short Project Attention Span

Since moving on to our Spring To-Do List I've had major project ADD, and can't stop dreaming about some of the other unfinished spaces we have in our future. The bathroom is the last thing we've budgeted for at least for now, so we'll see after that what we should be saving up for next. Lately, I've been especially drooling over an Ikea living room. 

I'm a bit hesitant about buying an Ikea sectional, because some of them don't look like the best quality and I know that their stuff is cheap for a reason. However, Young House Love has the Karlstad sectional and they've had it for a few years and still like it so that seems promising. I'm going to use this post to create a bit of an inspiration board for our future living room.

I love a sectional that's at least close to equal lengths on both sides, it seems the most useful. 

Here's the Karlstad in John & Sherry's living room.

As far as media storage goes, I love our EQ3 furniture, but I wouldn't mind something on the wall that uses more of the space and makes me feel more free to accessorize, so it's not all about the TV.I'm leaning towards something like this. 

I find rugs so difficult to choose, but this new one from Urban Barn is graphic but still neutral.

This coffee table is crazy cool, from EQ3.

I love curtains! Both of these options from West Elm are fantastic.

So those are some of the things I've been dreaming up while blogging on our living room couch lately. I know we probably won't be able to make some of the more major changes - like a new sofa - anytime soon, but if we can start dreaming up what direction we want our house to take we'll know what we should choose accessory wise or what to save up for. Anyone else planning a project that isn't happening?

Window Shopping Wednesday Turned Real Shopping

I had mentioned in Monday's post that my mom and I went shopping last week, here are some iPhone photos that I snapped while browsing at Home Sense. For those who don't know, Home Sense is like Winners but with home stuff. My favourite finds there are furniture and some of the art is pretty great. Tricky though because there usually aren't too many of each thing so you have to snap it up right when you see it. I didn't buy anything there, but did a lot of admiring! I tried to keep my eye out for anything especially interesting. 

This isn't necessarily my style, it's a bit rustic. I loved it though ,
all the drawers were numbered (randomly) and it looked so unique!

This cabinet was very beautiful, it had a hint of sparkle and I might have taken it home
but I think it was a few hundred dollars. 

At some point I may push our dresser side tables together to make a real dresser and then get some lighter side tables like this. I love that it's on wheels and the glass makes it look a lot less bulky. Since our bedroom isn't the biggest I think this would look great on either side of our bed!

I could spend an hour in the pillow aisles at Home Sense. 

I liked how this rug mixed stripes with a more ornate pattern but kept the color simple. 

After Home Sense, we headed over to Costco where I picked up some pantry organizing containers (I'll show them in a post soon once my pantry is all tidied up). From there, to Ikea of course! At Ikea I bought a plastic bag organizer, scarf organizer, under bed storage, and some bag clips. So exciting to buy some organizing products so that we can make the best use of our new space and start making it feel like home. Sometimes it seems like everything is in temporary places, we can hardly keep track. 

What have been your favourite finds lately? Any stores you would like us to feature in the coming weeks? Also if you read anything interesting online this week, send me the link or post it in the comments! We're going to be starting a new series soon which will feature some of the favourite online posts of the week from other sites. 

Enabling my Obsession

Well...as some of you may have realized, I have a scarf problem. Just to help to understand I had one overflowing office paper box full of scarves. Some of which I wore, a lot of which I didn't. For Christmas, my mom bought me a new basket for them (2 of them in fact, one of which was holding plastic bags from the grocery store to be used as garbage bags). This was working, except the basket was pretty big and hard to get down from the shelf, and I found myself mostly wearing the scarves on the top of the bin while the ones on the bottom were left to live a life free of sunshine, being smothered by the scarves lucky enough to grace the top of the basket.

This past week I went shopping with my mom to Ikea, Home Sense, and Costco and came home with some great organizational products that I'll share over the next while, and I'll share some photos from the shopping trip on Window Shopping Wednesday (although this was more of actual shopping and spending money Wednesday), for now, I'll share my recently obtained scarf solution.

I finally purchased the Komplement Mult-use hanger, which can hold 28 scarves! I'm clearly enabling a problem, why would I need 28 scarves?? But anyway....let's ignore that for now and focus on the fact that I can see all of my scarves clearly, wear any one that I want without having to dig, and I love that it lies with its very slim profile on the side of our front closet.

Love seeing all my scarves on display.

So that's one area of my home improved in a $10 fix. There are certainly other options out there, like shower rings on a hanger, or other specialty designed scarf hangers...but this worked for me.

As opposed to other Ikea products, this required zero assembly. Just took off the plastic and unrolled, ready for scarves! However, it is a "multi-use" hanger, any suggestions as to what else could be hung? Ties, belts, etc.?

Has anyone else done a quick organizational improvement that was low cost and low work? Leave a message in the comments letting me know what you would use the multi-use hanger for.

Ikea again...

You may have noticed I wasn't here yesterday, and that's because I'm coming down with the sickness that has been attacking everyone I know. Haven't been out of bed yet today (it's 12:17 pm right now) and am currently hanging out in a pink tank top, underwear, and wool socks. Feeling good is all about looking good people. Anyway, I didn't want to leave you in a lurch, if you've been having trouble getting through your days without our house updates, as I'm sure most people in the world have been. It's a struggle, but if you just keep your mind on other things I'm sure you can cope. Otherwise feel free to email me and I'll give you a daily dose of me talking about our life. Excuse me if this post is ridiculous, I've been feeling kind of out of it.

If you follow me on instagram, you saw this update last night of my Glee on Netflix sickness cure, leggings help too. 

Anyway, back to business. 

We went to Ikea again - surprise! This time is was to get our bathroom furniture/accessories. Just to clear things up, we do not only shop at Ikea...it's just new to Winnipeg and happens to be crazy reasonable so we're jumping on that bandwagon right now. If you have the money, I'd recommend buying your vanity probably at a real kitchen/bath store (cough Norcraft cough), as it's better quality...but Ikea is just too cheap to pass up. 

You'll remember from our post last week, we had our bathroom design all planned with the Ikea cabinetry in place.

Our Ikea bathroom design, courtesy of Adobe Illustrator, and Philip Wiebe. 

We went to Ikea with my parents, and here's a rundown of what we bought:

1. The Godmorgon Vanity with Odvensik Countertop - the version with 2 square sinks, grey gloss
2. A Godmorgon Mirror
3. Lillangen Medicine Cabinet, horizontally hung with aluminum framed glass door
4. Grundtal glass shelf
5. Ensen faucets x 2
6. Lillangen high cabinet with aluminum framed glass door (in the picture above you see the fullen cabinet, when we got to the store it looked too cheap and didn't go with everything, so we decided to go with the lillangen to match the medicine cabinet).
7. Godmorgon acrylic drawer organizers...I couldn't resist. They're too amazing! Can't wait to get it all installed and show how organized the drawers are when I organize these babies. 

I want to say that's all we bought...but I feel like I could be forgetting something. 

8. I was...the Grundtal toilet roll holder.

9. & the Savern towel hanger.

While we were there, a lady also broke something glass everywhere...and walked away. For shame people, for shame. At least pay for what you broke, or find a sales associate and explain yourself. My mom immediately heard broken glass and assumed it'd be me - no, I was carrying a glass shelf around and it stayed in tact - Success!

If you feel like looking up each thing to see how much we spent - I think it came to around $1300 and something. I might have forgotten more things...but you'll see when it's all installed anyway! 

We also bought a bathtub and shower walls at Dynasty Bath, and we're working on ordering a beautiful new Kohler shower head and bath fixtures. Spoiler alert for Tuesday's "What are you looking forward to most in 2013?" - mine might have to be showering in a normal sized shower, and Philip's might be "my wife having room to shave properly in the shower again." 

Have a great weekend! Anyone else sick? Going to suck it up and help your husband gut the bathroom and shovel the blizzard out of the back lane? 

Bathroom Planning

We're getting ready to renovate that brown tiled gold shimmer bathroom of ours, and we thought we'd share some of the things we've planned. 

One thing that we've appreciated about this home renovation is that we've taken our time and in doing so have been able to think of the best ways to use the space as we go. Often I'll be working on something in the laundry room, kitchen, etc. and think of an idea for when we renovate. Sometimes the ideas are a little crazy, and others work their way into our final plans after I convince Philip that every idea my mom has is awesome. 

The first thing that we did was measure. Measure everything, the walls, the doors/windows, where the plumbing is located. Philip put this all into his computer so that we could virtually plan out the layout for our bathroom design.

We ended up deciding to go with Ikea cabinets, after Philip made this drawing in Adobe Illustrator and we could see how efficiently planned our bathroom could be with their stock cabinets that are a lot cheaper than some of the more custom options. 

Our virtual bathroom, we should probably have a "don't use toilet" sign like they have in show homes. 

That took care of planning our cabinetry. We'll also have some cabinetry behind this view, where the linen closet was previously, but we're going to wait until after we gut the bathroom to decide what will fit best there. We toyed with a few different designs, but in the end this felt like the best use of space and most cost effective. The freestanding unit is also something that can come with us when we move which is a good idea, as well as the freestanding unit we'll put in the linen closet area. 

Another thing we've begun to plan is electrical work. We'll be fully gutting our bathroom, which allows us the chance to add some new electrical features. A few ideas we're throwing around are an outlet in the cupboard to the left of the vanity, since the vanity doesn't have much counter space it would be a nice place to plug in toothbrushes and such and have them out of the way. We're also hoping to install an extra light fixture above our new shower to add some extra light into the room. 

That yellow is a placeholder, we still haven't decided on a paint color, or flooring. Philip wants yellow walls, but I'm not quite there yet. I do like yellow, but I'm just not sure if I like it with the high gloss gray vanity. 

Any other ideas for us? We're definitely still in the planning stages but are quickly coming up on the actual doing of things so any tips are helpful! Anyone else renovating a bathroom?

Christmas 2012: In Review

We had a great holiday, and now we're back Monday-Friday at Grandpa Joe's House. Before we get back into the swing of things with home renovation projects, we thought we'd give you a rundown of our Christmas break. 

Most ominous performance: Philip spent a large portion of his vacation working on the drama for our church which he directed and also performed in as the never-once-seen Director (it was a play-within-a-play) whose voice creepily booms throughout the sanctuary. He's now frantically working on the upcoming Valentine's dinner theater (mark your calendars!) and we'll see if we get to see him this time.

Jokes that live forever in our mammaries: The theme that quickly emerged as the gifts on Christmas eve were unwrapped was anatomy as I received some huge jugs (green in color) and some cute little hooters (white ceramic owls) for Christmas.

Our First Christmas Tree/Decorations: Although this was our second married Christmas, our house allowed us to bust out some more decorations than the condo did, so we improved from some ornaments hanging in our condo window to a real tree and even some additional decking of halls.

I love our versatile Ikea tree decor, and how it goes with my homemade pine cones along with a little  Russian ceramic rabbit from Philip's Oma and a classy polar bear ornament from my mom.

Thrifty Shopping: We set a budget of $30 for each other's gifts (in past years we've definitely spent well over $100 so this was tight), and were pleasantly surprised to see how creative we could get. Philip bought me a top to go with some leggings I got from my mom, a Wii game that simulates...wait for it...The Bachelor! (My avatar is already engaged to Jason Meznik, but I can still win those other Bachelors' hearts.) He also made me something that we'll share sometime soon! As for what I got him, I also made something, got him a shirt, some dominoes for playing Mexican Train (we're getting old, people!), an ornament for our tree, and a Christmas pancake pan. I think we did pretty well!

No words can describe how stupidly addicting this game is.

Most Epic Adventure While Sitting on a Couch: One activity that really lived up to the relaxation we hoped for over our break was watching all three Lord of the Rings movies with Philip's brother and his wife. I'm not sure if I'm a total fan of the franchise yet... but it was worth watching. Definitely long though.

One of three movies watched over the break.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go Back to IKEA: We hoped to get further on our bathroom reno than our break ultimately allowed, but we did make a trip to IKEA and ponied up for some bathroom cabinetry and fixtures that we'll talk more about soon!

I think that gives a pretty decent glimpse into how we spent the last week. There was a lot of couch potato behaviour, some crafting, a few shopping trips, and lots of family bonding. Now we're back on track and ready to share with you some of the renovations we've been working on. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and even though most people had to go back to work today, it can be nice to get back into routine and get productive again. 

What did you do over Christmas? Anyone else turn beautifully innocent gifts into something else with a gutter-visiting mind? Watch twelve hours of movies?

Also, just to be different, I just shared a question on the Grandpa Joe's House Facebook page in lieu of the typical blog poll. We'll try out that way of doing things for a week and decide what we like better. Head on over and vote in this week's resolution related poll.

A Productive Weekend: Part Three

You've heard about our closet, you've heard about our Christmas tree, that would have been enough for  a weekend, but we weren't done. 

Part Three: The Curtains

When I wrote out all the parts for this, I put curtains in...but thinking back, I'm pretty sure we didn't finish them last weekend. This is why I need to write posts right when things happen (to put things in perspective the weekend I'm referring to was the 7th-9th). We did start them that weekend though, so I guess it's not too much cheating.
On Friday night when Philip was working on the closet, and Philip's mom and I were setting up the Christmas tree, Philip's dad tried to start on the curtains.

We had great teamwork going on. 

Unfortunately, we did not have the right hardware going on. 

We realized that we hadn't bought the right Ikea brackets, so there wasn't anything we could do at that point.

The curtain story continues on Monday, when I picked up Philip (who now works a block in view of the new Ikea) and we made a pit-stop at Ikea for the correct brackets.

Here is the list of products we used (all from Ikea):

Aina Curtains

Lill Sheers

I am in love with these finials - you can rearrange them to make different patterns...and if we get tired of them I could see painting them different colours for a baby room or something. 

That doesn't include the curtain rods and such which are a bit more boring.

We were able to mount the curtains - after a couple of extra stops at Ikea for the new brackets, then a third bracket after realizing two wouldn't be enough, and a second curtain rod so that we could do a double rod system.

Brackets are up - not the most interesting photo, but it was a progress picture at least. 

They look great! One of the best things is the fact that we have two sets of curtains, it looks so much grander and more expensive, but the second set of curtains including rods and brackets and everything only cost us an additional $13. That is money well invested my friends.

Curtains are successfully up!

I love how the curtains match the lamps (even though I'm not a fan of the word "matching"), and the sheers really add something I think. Can't wait to see the room coming together completely.

All that's left to tell you about is putting the bed together, and the magnificent light fixture. Soon there will be a big bedroom reveal!

Anyone else doing bedroom renovations? Made any exciting Ikea purchases? Beat our record of 4 times to Ikea in the last month?

Ikea Sneak Peek!

We were very fortunate to be given some friends & family passes this past weekend to the newest Ikea which is opening in Winnipeg this Wednesday and thought we'd reveal a little bit about our trip!

Ikea is wonderful first of all, Philip goes crazy for it and even though we've already been there and the line ups will be huge, we'll likely go again before Christmas. The biggest perk about going this Saturday was saving 15% which helps when we already knew what we wanted to buy and were very organized! 

We couldn't take as many photos as we'd like because a lot of the displays were really crowded, but we did our best!

Having never experienced Ikea cuisine, we thought we'd start there to have the full experience. Both of us have been to a few Ikea's in our day - I lived in Seattle where we had one, as well as being to Ikea in Minneapolis, Chicago, Calgary, etc. Very familiar with it, but we'd never tasted the meatballs!

The Ikea Restaurant - love the white accessories everywhere!

Philip eating some delicious Swedish meatballs.

 A couple of things to note if you plan to visit this new Ikea on Wednesday:

1. Poor cell reception, make sure you don't lose your companions!
2. If you are going to buy soda, be prepared for a long arm stretch. A man with long arms must have designed that because I'm 5'10" and had to go on my tip-toes to fill our cups with some Pepsi.
3. The cart wheels all turn, all four of them, it was amazing.

Other than that I had nothing bad to say! It was a great experience and a very well designed store.

After eating, we went straight into the showroom and began the hunt. We had a list of what we wanted to buy, and we stuck to it pretty well so that was good!

A photo showing the amazing shopping carts. Philip was in love. 

Can't wait to have a new kitchen in our house...we're thinking white and something like this would definitely be alright with me!

Mint dishes - mint is the new best colour ever.

Kind of digging this tile.

Really cute salt shaker! Parents: add this to your Christmas list of things to buy for me. Also, those hand scratches are from installing trim this weekend. Yay for home improvement scars!

Inglis lives! We've replaced our Inglis Liberator Plus appliances, but apparently Inglis is still a top choice by Ikea!

I was kind of digging these colourful buckets, not sure what I would do with them but I'll think of something!

Can't wait for Spring time when I can buy these beautiful white pots!

Trying to squish Philip into this photo of our completed shopping cart!

We ended up buying:

• Maskros light fixture for our bedroom (so excited to assemble it!)
• Curtains for our bedroom - Aina curtains in grey, as well as some of these sheers to add some texture.
• Curtain rod and finials to go with the above curtains.
• Some magnetic trivets so that we don't have to put our pots on towels anymore.

Plus the 15% off saves us $30 to be used for something else! We may go back for more soon, but this was all we intended to buy so we tried to stick to it and not go impulse shopping. So proud or our will power.

Hope you'll have a chance to go to the new Ikea soon if you're local and we'd love to hear about your finds as well! Stay tuned later in the day to hear about the poll results and launch of the next poll.