Birch + Bird Vintage Home Interiors

This week was too busy and I’m so glad that it’s the weekend.  The girls are off school today because of a Professional Day so that means we didn’t have to rush anywhere this morning or the next two.  Yes.  A long weekend.  I’m looking forward to sorting through some more boxes, tea with my mom and her granddaughters, a family movie night, maybe a few errands and some housework thrown in for good measure. Speaking of housework, I make my bed almost every single day.  It helps our bedroom look tidy even if it’s not.  And I like getting into a neatly made bed rather than an unmade bed.  How about you?

 The White Company

  Blanaid

Lily and I stayed in at the Hotel Sierra in Redmond last year with a couple girlfriends and they had the most heavenly beds, I swear.  The pillows, the featherbed, the duvet, the feel of the sheets, and the weight of the blankets. Pure bliss.  We still talk about those beds.  If someone could tell me their secret, I would spend a pretty penny to have that every single night.  Is it just me or do the messy beds look cozier than the beds made neat and tidy?

House & Home

 Empire Village

 le souk

 Katrine Martensen-Larsen

 West Elm

 a few things from my life 

I hope you can indulge yourself with a sleep in or two as well and we’ll see you back here all refreshed on Monday.

Well, it’s starting to look like we are moving around here.  I made good progress this week sorting through all our belongings and it seems that things aren’t as bad as I was expecting.  I do have a few trips to the second hand store to make and a few people are picking up some odds and ends.  Since it’s the weekend, I think I’ll put my feet up but first one last French inspired post since it’s Friday and all.  Amusez-vous!

 Metro Line 6 Photography

 Rifle Paper Co.

 Design*Sponge

 Lonny Magazine

  Rifle Paper Co.

ooh pretty shiny…

 House Beautiful

 Ivory Bird

 Design*Sponge

Rifle Paper Co.

By the way, if you happen to have received an email from Birch + Bird with a very random link, don’t open it.  It wasn’t from us.  Our email account was hacked and spam was sent to  every single person we’ve ever emailed.  We sincerely apologize and we’ve taken steps to prevent it from happening again.  You can rest assured that we have not started up a side business selling a certain little blue pill.  We’ll be back on Monday!  Au revoir.

Phase 1 of my long list of things to paint this summer is complete!  My girls’ rooms are now pink and purple with crisp white trim.  It took much longer than I had anticipated but really, I should have known better.  Next time, I will start small and push my completion date out about 2 weeks.  Now, I’ll spend the rest of the week, placing furniture, reorganizing their toys and clothes so I can move on to the fun stuff like repainting furniture, hanging art and curtains.

1. Better Homes and Gardens 2. Design*Sponge

I picked really pale shades for their rooms because our home tends to be fairly dark and with all the girly clutter, I didn’t want to be overwhelmed by bubble gum shades of pink and purple.  While I was painting I started to get concerned that I had gone too conservative because both shades appeared white and actually still do at some angles.  Since stripes are so popular right now, the thought crossed my mind that by adding some horizontal stripes I could bring in more of the colour that my “clients” were looking for.

Living Etc.

Now that the rooms are finished and their beds are all made up with their pink and purple quilts, the colour actually is “just” enough for me.  And considering the length of time it’s already taken, I think the stripes will have to wait…forever.  Now on to repainting the doors, their beds, a bedside table and a desk or two.  And once that’s all done, I’ll be sure to snap a few photos to share and then take a nap.

Design*Sponge

Apartment Therapy

mixr

What do you think of the stripe craze?  Do you love it?  Or would you rather pass?

Apartment Therapy

Just in case you haven’t heard, vendor applications for the Fieldstone Vintage Market are now available.  So, if you would like to join us for an outdoor European-style market featuring a collection of all things vintage and handmade, please stop by the Fieldstone Market blog for details.

From the time she was about 18 months old, one of my daughters has seriously been in love with the colour purple.  I never knew someone could be as obsessed with a particular colour as she is, especially from such a young age.  She always notices purple and is quick to point it out.  The girls shared a room up until recently when we figured it was time for them to have their own space.  And so far, it’s worked out perfectly.  I mentioned the other day that my hunt for purple bedding came to an end when I found it at a local home decor store and we were both thrilled.  Now to get on with choosing the wall colour.

Decor8

via The Style Files photographed by Petra Bindel

To save myself from driving back and forth from the paint store when trying to find the perfect colour for our main living space during our renovations, I purchased a Benjamin Moore fan deck.  It’s so handy to pull out in situations like this.  So, one afternoon, I pulled out my trusty fan deck to pick out wall colour with two 5 year old girls.  Should be easy.  Right?  Well, once they figured out that each colour had a name, it was very hard to convince them to switch.  ”Princess Purple” sounds a lot better than “Stormy Sky”, you know.  I resorted to making names up.

Decor8

via The Style Files photographed by Petra Bindel

Scandinavian design has been influencing the blog world quite a bit these days.  And I have to say that I quite like it too.  How about you?  All that white, makes even the smallest amount of colour pop.  And if purple is your favourite colour today but not tomorrow, it’s not a big deal to make a change.  But I don’t think I’d get away with white walls with my Purple Princess.  I picked a pale purple called Dreamy Cloud (a.k.a. Princess Purple) similar to the nursery space below.

1. Maggie Austin Cake 2. Sushipot

via The Style Files photographed by Petra Bindel

I tend to stick to neutrals so I’ve had to get used to all this pink and purple business.  It’s been good for me to break free from playing it safe with colour.  Do you play it safe?  Or are you a brave one when it comes to adding colour into your home?

Have you read The Happiness Project yet?  Lily mentioned the book in a post just after Christmas and I was immediately intrigued.  I’m slowly working my way through it  and it has inspired me to focus on what really matters.  It might be the combination of  Spring Cleaning season and the book because I’ve been in a clean and sweep kind of mood. In the first month of her project, Gretchen went through her home tossing anything and everything that was cluttering up her life.  Then she did it again.  All she was left with was what she needed and really wanted. How good would that feel?  I went through my bedroom closet a few days ago and did the big toss.  You should see my closet now.  I have a tonne of new space to fill up again.  I didn’t stop at my closet either, my dresser is all neat and tidy again too.  It felt really good to drop off 3 boxes of clothes at the second hand shop.  Our bedroom is officially tidy.

How does your closet look these days?  Does it need a little makeover?

photographed by Mark Burstyn for Canadian House & Home

photographed by William Waldron for Elle Decor

How grand would it be to have a dressing room?  I was trying to have a conversation with Lily the other day on the phone with my girls hooting and hollering in the background and foreground.  I mentioned the idea of a phone booth but I think I would like a dressing room instead.  A dressing room pour moi.  I could get used to that.  Yes.

photographed by Jean Allsopp for Coastal Living

Made By Girl

Dreams aside.  My husband and I share a standard sized closet and thankfully, neither of us has too many clothes and it really is just fine.  My side of the closet is similar in size to the one below except this one is so much prettier.  I’m all over wallpapering the interior of closets even if they are of the smaller variety.  Our closets are one of the first things we gaze into in the morning so it may as well be lovely.

jaboopee

For those of you dealing  with no closet space to speak of, why not put your clothes on display?  These crisp white rooms show off an unexpected pop of colour from these clothing collections.  What do you think?

Apartment Therapy + Decor8

And for the little ones if our lives, here are some ideas that might help get all that toy clutter under control or at least make things easier when clean up time rolls around.  One closet isn’t a closet at all, just a regular Ikea bookshelf.  I love the little girl’s closet from Domino, it’s inspired me to add a couple closet makeovers for my girls to my project list.

1.  Better Homes and Gardens 2. ohdeedoh 3. Real Simple 4.  Domino via mscott218

So, where’s the best place you’ve found to hide clothes from your husband?  I promise not to tell.