Deciding on a sectional sofa for our small space

For me deciding on a NEW sofa / sectional was a very hard decision.. I obviously love the idea of sectionals as I have just realized that is all I own!!! one in our rec room, family room and now living room.. omg whats wrong with me?? lol!!  But really its because I love how many people can fit on a sectional, and the comfort.. aside from a recliner they can be the best way to put your feet up after a long day.. See how it all turns out below..

Adding Ikea Billy Bookcases to flank a Window

I absolutely love the built in bookshelf look. We used it at our previous home too.. If you have approx 30 inches on either side of your window its like an 'ah-ha' moment.. I like the idea of real built-ins but these are the next best thing.. and in-expensive which is the best part! Another great idea is to add mouldings to the top of them for a real custom look. BUT I really like and NEED the extra display space on top so I  decided to leave them as is.. See how we achieved this look below...

Girl's Playroom Reveal

Here is our daughters play haven...It is a smaller room just off our basement Family Room. Anyone following me knows I love my neutrals and whites, This is the one true spot where the more colour the better ;) Our daughter is the most important thing to us so we wanted to give her a space to remember.. When I was younger I had a playroom and I remember all the fun I used to have with my sister playing dress up or kitchen. See how we created a special room for our Daughter Elle. 

Simple twist to the Ikea Mala Easel

I just LOVE, LOVE this Ikea easel.. The price can't be beat at only $20! 

It's a great size for our daughter to grow into.. The only real thing I didn't love was the red plastic easel space.. so with some chalk paint and decals it was easily transformed.. See the details below.. 

Ikea Expedit Makeover

These are the Expedit bookcase that we use to have in our previous basement.. For our current house I no longer wanted dark colours in our basement.. I should have just bought white bookcases to begin with..BUT my hubby wanted the dark!.. Trust me he doesn't ask for much so I gave in..) We needed a new sofa table for our basement but a new one was out of the question and budget!! So with some paint and wood planks we did a little makeover on our Expedit Bookcase, now it flows with the rest of our basement decor. See below for more details...

Simple & Affordable Bookcases to flank Fireplace

So we needed an affordable storage solution for our basement.. you may have noticed that I love Ikea, especially the Billy bookcases.. so when we were refinishing our basement I searched and searched for what I ultimately created and the comparables were over $300 a piece. In total our Billy bookcase makeover was under $130.. $40 for the bookcase, $30 for each door, $16 each for the hardware and the crown moulding trim my carpenter did for free. I am so happy with how they turned out. 

Have a look.. 

We used the Billy Bookcase as a base.

Ikea Oxberg Door and we just installed our own hardware.

Restoration Hardware Utility latches gave it the bookcases a more custom look.

And lastly to complete the look.. we had our contractor add custom crown to trim out the moulding.

Thanks for looking today!

 Our FULL Basement Reveal is coming soon...

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Nautical Inspired Blue and white Laundry / Mudroom Reveal

So when we bought this house.. I knew this laundry room was too big to just be used for laundry. So I thought since it was right off the garage why not make it a mud room too.. My husband was in charge of buying the washer and dryer HIMSELF! Keep in mind I am a neutral girl.. and he bought BLUE ones! Sooo the blue and white theme began.. I actually LOVE them now!! 

We kept the wall colour. It was painted in BM Natural Linen. We also kept the cabinets, sink and shelf. And Changed out the white plastic Cabinet hardware to Chrome handles to match with the faucet. See Before Pic below:

We Hung a wooden Laundry sign above the closet doors. I used some Vintage Mason Jars I had picked up a a Garage sale a few years back to hold various sewing items like White Cotton thread spools and spare loose buttons.

A Blue Wooden Seahorse is one of the first things you see when you walk into the room. I used the extra height above the Mudroom Benches to display Vintage Glass Bottles with a Antique Wash board and a Antique Iron.

Here is our LG Blue washer. More Vintage Glass Jugs with Vintage cloths pins inside are displayed above the Mudroom Bench units. The laundry Tin was a is the perfect hiding spot for all our Random Missing socks.. How does that even happen???

The mudroom benches is a great spot for extra storage. I love them so much! Inside the big drawers are small tools, hardware and spare paint... It saves me from running into our cold garage every time I need a measuring tape. The greyish wicker baskets above are from Ikea, they hold some of our extra winter gear like mittens and hats And the hooks are fabulous for hanging our hang-to-dry laundry

Source List:
Laundry sign- Vintage shop a few years ago
Wooden Blue Seahorse- Homesense
Blue and White Rug- Alslev Ikea
Mudroom Storage Units- Walmart.ca
Wicker Baskets- Byholma Ikea
Antique Wash Board- Antique Fair
Vintage Glass Jugs- Garage Sale
Antique Iron- Antique Store
White Laundry Tin- The Bay
Mason Jars- Garage Sale finds
Mason jar soap dispenser- Etsy

Built-in Bookshelves to flank fireplace

I have always wanted bookshelves to display all my goodies . So when we purchased this house I knew I was definitely getting my gas fireplace and bookshelves!! We decided to go with Ikea Billy Bookshelves for the starting base as they are a great price for what you get. We also Bought the Billy doors. We started by adding thicker trim on either side of bookshelf with L brackets, no more nails and lots of caulking!!! We bought 2 large pieces of wood to create a faux side to bookshelf to make the bookcase look wider and finish the side of unit. For the crown we used left over crown from our kitchen cabinets. Lastly for a finishing touch I added my own hardware and painted it. We took our Ikea shelf to our local Benjamin Moore store where they were able to make the perfect paint match! So all we had to do was go home and paint the trim and crown. See below for pics of our transformation. You can also check out the rest of our Home Tour here.

Before: The room just looked like it was missing something..

This is after we added the faux sides, trim and crown moulding on one side.. Missing crown,  caulking of the trim and Paint! 

 Mission Complete! So happy with the results!! Love our new Bookshelves!! Once painted and caulked you could never tell that they were simple Ikea bookcases. All in all, total cost was under $400 for built-ins! Last pic shows how we painted the back wall a light Khaki green to make bookshelves just pop. Thanks for reading.