Au Natural

I am inspired by this room. I am in awe of this room. I think it's perfectly stunning.




I could see myself sitting here first thing in the morning enjoying a cup of coffee and being totally absorbed with my surroundings. I want it to be mine! I love, and I mean love the floor to ceiling (and then some) windows.

Are we indoors or outdoors or somewhere in between? Nothing like inviting the great outdoors in. For this weeks blog posting I thought I would look at decorating with elements inspired by nature. Find these nature inspired items and more at Moving Designz Home & Cottage.


I love these graphic pillows. We just placed another order and new ones should be in later next week.



This lamp is like a piece of artwork. The wonderful thing about all these "nature inspired" accessories is how well they work in rustic, as well, as contemporary spaces.



Solid wood magazine or book caddies filled with your favorite magazines.

I think these Eco Wood Stools are fab-u-liscious! I haven't brought them into the store yet but if you are interested please email me. info@movingdesignz.com I want to know other people love them too. Hand-chiseled from a single stump of sustainable, kiln-dried, monkey pod wood, each unique piece cleverly multi tasks as a stool, side table or sculpture. Functional, beautiful.

I like the organic feel to these tealight holders. Perfect texture.



Fabric inspired by nature.

What could be more natural than fire, wood and river rocks in these candle sets?

Mixing natural elements into contemporary interiors.

Store display.

This is a bamboo stand. I've done my research and...
Bamboo is not a tree—it’s a grass, and it grows like one. Many species of bamboo can grow two feet or more a day. When it’s harvested, it need not be replanted, because it will grow a new shoot from its extensive root system. So bamboo renews itself readily, unlike hardwood trees, which, once cut, are gone forever. Bamboo is an endlessly renewable resource.

Beautifully composed and photographed. I find this room naturally appealing.

Seagrass rug.

Cotton pillows with mother of pearl details in natural colours.

Colourful bamboo bowl sets.

Bamboo blinds from Moving Designz. Custom fitted and fully lined, these blinds operate like roman shades.

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend.

Susan

My Fascination with Tulips

Spring is finally here on our doorstep. We've been patiently waiting or rather impatiently for the weather to turn. We had a great week of balmy weather and I am happy to report the mounds of snow are retreating daily.

One of my favorite things about spring has to be tulips. They arrived in our flower stores and supermarkets a couple of months ago from a local greenhouse grower. Each week when I buy my groceries I pick up a few bouquets for my house, as well as, for the store. They are such a cheery flower. The biggest decision is usually what colour to get so each week I get a different colour.

I didn't realize my fascination/obsession with tulips until I started reviewing saved images on my hard drive. Apparently, I've been photographing them for years. So, I decided for this weeks blog to share some great images of these beautiful little gems of the season. Enjoy all things spring!

Before I get started with the tulips I thought I would post this picture. I left work around 7:30 tonight. The furniture for the river home, hurray hurray, arrived today so I was late getting back to the shop. Sorry. I digress... Everyday I drive by our harbour on my way to work (most days at least 4 times) and for the past 6 months it's been nothing but solid ice. A very bleak sight. This week the ice in the harbour has melted with the exception of a few little icebergs. This image was too perfect and luckily I had my camera with me so I snapped the beautiful sunset on the water at the boardwalk on Green's Shore. Notice the small iceberg to the left. Bye bye winter!!!

Pots of fresh tulips ready for market. So fresh, so pretty.

Tulips reaching for the sun. Sometimes you just have to point the lens up and fantastic things happen.

A lovely close up.

I took this image off the web from a florist site. Stunning, inspiring.

Buckets of the lovelies.

Beautiful pale orange tulips.

I hosted a post Mexican vacation party a couple of years ago and this was my cheery table setting. This picture really illustrates how long the stems grow and how they tend to bend and twist.

A snapshot of my mantle. I know this was at least 5 years ago because of the wall colour.

Playing with my camera settings I managed to get this cool image.


Again experimenting, I captured this floating shot.

I loved the colour on these little gems. Bright and cheery, the perfect spring accessory. Outside in my garden they are just beginning to pop out of the ground. Hopefully in another 3 weeks they will be ready to cut. Some people plant tulips for landscaping purposes, myself, I plant flowers I can cut and enjoy inside.

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend.

Susan

Progress continues... down on the river

Sorry, I've been so busy this is my first post in a couple of weeks. I have numerous projects that I am working on simultaneously, aka ... juggling in designer speak. And my blog posting has suffered.

Originally I planned to post on creating cottage style but since I was out to the river home project this afternoon it seems like a good plan to post a few new images of the progress that has been made.

We are still a couple of weeks away from completion but lots has been done both on the interior and the exterior. And hurray, hurray most of the furniture was shipped early this week, which means we are right on schedule. All of the trim work is completed and the baseboards are just beautiful. Nice and deep. The exterior siding, roof and shutters are now done, as well. I was shopping yesterday picking out the bathroom hardware and miscellaneous odds and ends for the carpenters to finish up. A quick trip to the Home Depot and I managed to check quite a few items off my to do list. Let's have a look. Please excuse the exposures on some of the images.

I love, love, love this chandelier. It's very leafy and crystally perfect for this place. The homeowners really caught my vision when I suggested this piece. I ordered it about a month ago from one of Moving Designz suppliers and wasn't expecting it for another 2 weeks since it was a back ordered item. But lo and behold it came into the shop yesterday. I brought it out to the house today and begged the electicians to install it before I left. I just had to see it hanging. It is a very very nice piece and perfect for the space, a real show stopper! I should also mention that about half of the new light fixtures were hung by the time I arrived today. Only one downer, the island pendant had broken glass. Things like this happen all the time and you just have to roll with the punches and expect that little problems do occur.

Here is a wider angle view of the room showing the chandelier (and the tools). How high did I hang it? Based on the diningroom table's height of 30" I had it hung at 64" off the floor so it will be 34" above the table. I may choose to have it lowered 2" once the table is back in place.

I love the revamped stairs. The new stair treads, stained a dark walnut are now in place. And as I mentioned in the last blog we reused the existing bannister, spindles, and newel post but painted them out in Cloud White. Notice the baseboards, as I like nice and deep.

Here is a close up of the new fireplace tiling surround. The tile company did an excellent job, it's just as I imagined. This is an actual wood burning firebox. The only thing missing is the mantle piece. It was there today but not installed, thankfully, because I didn't really love it. It wasn't quite what I had expected. Note to self show picture to builder next time. I spoke with the contractor who didn't understand my vision and we will work on building an alternate. This is the fireplace in the new great room which brings me to mention we are waiting on lantern style light fixtures. Unfortunately back orders are a reality ( and real drag) in design and construction.

Here is the breakfast room, which has almost all of the cabinets fronts installed. The bartop, sink and faucet are installed now too!

This is the downstairs half bath. The old tiles are now covered with freshly painted beadboard wainscotting. For budgetary reasons the old style sink unit was not replaced. Which I think is pretty cool looking with it's chrome legs and side towel bars. It was a keeper!

The upstairs main bath has had it's old wall tiles covered, again in the same fresh beadboard trim.

Here we're looking at the almost complete vanity in the same bathroom. Which brings us to an end of the new pictures. I didn't take any of the kitchen this time due to all the construction debris.

My next set of images should show a remarkable change. By this time next week the renovation should be pretty much complete. The cleaning crew should be done and everything will be looking shiny and new. I ordered all the window blinds last week and with any luck a few of them will be in and installed.

On a weather note, spring has finally arrived. The mounds of snow are slowly melting and the robins are back. Always a good sign. Can you believe they are called for 10cm of snow tomorrow? Yes they are... good thing I got my winter tires off on Wednesday. Hopefully this will be the last of the winter that never seemed to end.

Have a nice weekend.

Susan