Guest Post- 'Dream Land' a la Tim Lam / Design Maze...and a Winner...and a Baby

Well...it's Monday.

Four things to note:

1. We close on our new house/lot today...wooooohooooooo....let the official dream house planning begin...on that note, my architect and I are meeting again today, along with the stucco guy...yes, the new house will be mostly stucco...of the white variety;)

2. I didn't draw for the winner of my giveaway last night (will do so at the bottom of this post)...which leads me to numero trois...

3. My dream baby in every way has completely stopped sleeping...like he literally wakes up every 30 minutes, which means I boobed him about 10 times last night...which means he sucked the life force completely out of me...which means I'm brain dead...which leads me to number 4...

4. My adorable/dear/sweet friend Tim....



...from Design Maze...



... has swept in like the superhero he is and whipped up an AMAZING post for all of you to enjoy, so that I can allow my brain a little re-coup time....chances are any post by me today would be of the gar-bajjjj variety, thanks to noted brain/force depletion.

Anyhoo...Tim is one of my absolute favourite people in the universe. His blog posts are always incredibly inspired and loaded with pretty. On top of that, he's an awesomely talented designer who does things like this....

- all photos via Style at Home-

...and most importantly, he's literally one of the most supportive and kind people I've ever met...yes indeed...he's definitely on my fave list.

So...without further ado...sit back and enjoy his positively dreamboat post...

.......

Hello Friday and friends at Bijou and Boheme! I am very excited to be here today and share with you my ideas of a dream space to lounge, work, and rest inspired by our stylish fashion & design icon, Christine Dovey.  Her work is truly exceptional, and I admire Christine for her design approach: go with what you love and zero compromise.

I have been spying on her recent projects and may I just say I am with love with this woman! If Christine and I are living together, this is how our place may look like and I call it the "Dream Land".

images via 1/ 2/ 3/ 4

When I think of Christine, the first hue comes to mind is pink.  To combine her love of shiny brass with the delicate blush, I welcome you to the land of rose gold.  This sizzling hot and trendy metallic finish is definitely my favourite design element at the moment.  The pale pink undertone adds depth and charm compare to its warm yellow cousin.  Here is the dream office I put together for Christine.  It is all about luxe, glam, and drama, and I hope it inspires this design genius for many more delicious projects to come.

images via 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5/ 6/ 7

After a long day of work, there is nothing more relaxing and rejuvenating than lounging on a super comfort settee with a glass of wine for a cozy moment.  In this episode of Dream Land, I am dreaming a soothing palette of creams and natural wood, embellished with a handcrafted sofa in distressed antique gold, tuxedo styled pillows, a statement coffee table in brushed brass and glossy black, and of course a luxurious copper-hued faux fox throw for an extra shot of texture and comfort. images via 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5/ 6 It is now time to check out the bedroom.  To infuse the romantic, feminine elements Christine loves, my jumping off point is this sumptuous upholstered bed with beautiful nailhead detail.  To contrast this curvaceous silhouette, I am partnering the bed with a pair of angular lucite beauties with brass accent.  These nightstands are high in style and they offer ample of surface for books and a couple glasses of wine perhaps.  And the juxtaposition of femininity and masculinity continues with a pair of rose gold lamps by Nate Berkus and spectacular horn mirrors available at 219. For a dramatic backdrop, I am layering in this Gracie Studio wallpaper.  To ground the overall light and airy palette, this graphic ink and cream Nixon rug is a definitely winner!  Add a starburst inspired chandelier and a pair of  lucite stools at the foot of the bed, this bedroom is ready to meet Christine!     I hope you enjoy the Dream Land I put together for Christine and it is truly my pleasure to meet you all today at Bijou and Boheme.  Thanks Christine for having me today and more importantly, for inspiring me with all your beautiful work.  I look forward to see you all again soon! ....... What did I tell you? Tim. is. the. best. And I need that Gracie wallpaper somewhere. And that first board nails what I want for the new house. And so does the lounge. And so does the office...though boo on that front, I'm giving that room to husband...figure the new house should probably have a little less pink and a little more boy parts. ...... Now back to the much anticipated Friedasophie giveaway winner. A humongous congrats to... ...taletrader, these gorgeous crystal cluster earrings are yours! ....... And finally, one more little tid-bit. We were away when Jasper baby turned 5 months so I haven't posted his monthly shot yet...he's actually going to be 6 months next week so I figured I better get on that train. Here he is at 5 (though the picture was taken a little late at 5.5;) ...re point #3, it's a good thing he's so damn cute. xo

The Dream House Diaries #5- BIG NEWS and Moodboards

Happy Monday...I trust  you all had an enjoyable Father's Day weekend.

Mine was swell...hubster and I had our first datenight since Jasper was born and it was nifty...I drank two glasses of wine...so civilized.

Also, little munchkin turned 3 months...

...which I totally can't believe.

TIME GOES TOO QUICKLY

And aside from that, I totally fixated on all things #dreamhouse...

...mostly because....

WE BOUGHT THE LOT!

Yuppers...this little beaut of a property now belongs to us...

...which means the dream house is going to happen.

Holy Dinah.

Now as for the plan itself, we're actually not selling our existing house...instead, we're going to rent it out with the idea that we'll sell it down the road after some more good old fashioned appreciation has happened.

As for the new property, we're going to throw some paint on the hold house, clean her up a bit and hopefully rent it out while the planning/designing/permit getting phase of #projectdreamhouse takes place...if all goes according to plan, we'll rent the old house on the new property out for 8-12 months, and start building in early summer 2014...we'll stay in our exisiting house while construction takes place and then move on over to the new place, and hopefully rent our house.

There's definitely a lot of moving parts in this plan and I won't lie, I'm slightly terrified by the mere thought of it.

There be a lot of money on the table here and well, we don't want to loose the farm as it were.

Thankfully, our 'worst comes to worse' back up plans means that if all falls apart, we'll just hock one of the houses/lots and be back to where we are now.

Hoping that we don't have to resort to that of course.

Anyhoo...we're VERY excited and I'm obviously unable to think about anything but designing the living shit out of this new abode.

So, on that train, I've put together some moody moodboards.

But before we get to that, let's chat about appliances...

The fam and I went and had a look at some on Saturday, just for shits and giggles.

I'm leaning towards either one of these...

or these...

...obviously totally different but I adore them both.

Either way, stove/oven/cooker/whateveryouwanttocallit will be black.

The kitchen in this place will be the biggest brain drain for sure...I've got tons of ideas but I have to sort out how to mush them all together...more on that later.

For now, I've managed to firm up plans for both the living room and Malcolm's room...hence, the moodboards.

I don't plan on buying much in the way of new furniture for this place...we just won't have the budget after actually building it...but...I do have hopes of adding a few new key pieces.

So far, this means a coffee table, sofa and some accessories for the living room and a new bed, chair and rug for Mac's room.

As much as I adore little dude's antique bed, he just really doesn't...and since his current room was largely put together with hand me down house stuff, I would like to get him a few new things...and just to note, Scarlett and Jasper will NOT be getting room re-dos...the dream home will have full scale replicas of their existing spaces...though S will probably get a different wallpaper selection just to mix it up a bit.

Anyhoo...I played around with my new fancier version of Powerpoint on the weekend and mapped out plans for the formal living room an Malcolm's room.

Here's my plan for the fancy room of the house....

...note the new black leather sofa divinity, which I've been obsessed with for like ever...it MUST happen for me to be happy with life.

The settee is the one I have in our existing living room (just didn't have a picture of it so subbed in another guy), the rug is our new guy that's in the basement right now, and the Platner chair is also mine (thinking I'll recover her in a lush emerald velvet)...oh and I also already have the Oly bust...so most of the goodness is 

In my mind, this room will be to the right of a center hall with double french doors leading in...the walls will be completely moulded/paneled and some amazing medallion will house the Mouille knock off ceiling fixture I've also loved long time.

The room won't be big but she'll be good.

Moving on.

Here's Malcolm's 'space cowboy' room...

I just finished of a similar themed room for #projectwholehouse 's son and fell in love with the concept.

My Mac dude is obsessed with Star Wars and has repeatedly asked me to change his name to Luke Skywalker...when I found those art prints for my client's kid, I pretty much knew they also had to end up in my Malcolm's room as well.

The dresser is already his, as is the throw....but aside from that, this is newbie stuff.

The hanging ball chair will definitely have to happen since Mac would swing himself to death if we let him...and the upholstered bed in that fun graphic print is my new CB2 favourite.  I've had the Paul Loebach wallpaper picked out for him for years....love how the tone on tone cowboy print looks...and speaking of wallpaper, husband is pretty relieved that those black stars are just decals and not the $$$$ Coronota Star paper that I originally showed him...happy, happy.

So....for now, I've got two rooms squared away.

And the fun has really just begun.

Je Suis Excited.

xo