Family Room Renovation

Our family room used to be the previous owner's dining room... here is a picture of the room when we went through the house for our pre-closing inspection in April 2011...

Our family room renovation began in the Winter of 2013 and Larry spent several months stripping the wallpaper and restoring the walls to enable him to paint the room. He did this wall restoration after his work day and on the weekends. We were guided by our designer Tim Badgley of Acanthus Interiors, located in Port Hope, Ontario.

As you can see from this picture, we used the room as it was being renovated with a mixture of furnishings, at times the room was a storage room and at other times it was a party room, however once the paint, drapery and sofa were in place the room started to be our favourite spot to relax in. One of the features we truly appreciated were the two shelves inserted in the wall on either side of the door leading into the kitchen. We found glass doors for these shelves in the basement however decided not to use them  as it limited the use of the shelves. Larry repainted these units and we replaced the wood shelves with glass ... we have thought about adding pot lights overhead however have not done so yet.

The accessories have been fun to collect, some art from Quinn's Flower Shop in Cobourg, camel and book ends from Glam in Port Hope.

As the room became our family room, in the summer of 2013 we installed a TV with a sound system and that further added to our home entertainment options. After months of searching for some finishing pieces of furniture we added a wonderful antique unit, a large open buffet and two incredible antique chairs from England.... the room became a mixture of modern furniture, with interesting antiques and great technology. Finally in the winter of 2013 we grounded the room with a great dark grey berber carpet with a nice suede border in a darker grey and added a funky mirror over the antique buffet.

The horse was purchased at Glam in Port Hope, mirror from Acanthus, antique buffet from Brighton Antique Shop and wall sconces came from our previous home in Toronto. The buffet is a large piece and just the right scale for our family room.

And we have a few final touches to completely finish the room ... Tim has recommended two small ottomans for the bottom of the King and Queen (throne) chairs and we are looking for a few additional pillows to compliment the colours in the room.

Notice the beautiful plaster molding in this room; it was a feature that made us fall in love with this house. It carries through to the kitchen which makes us think that room was not a kitchen in the original design especially since we have an old wood oven built into a wall in the basement. Intriguing old house. Some fun with a few Ken Danby prints found at the Waddington's Auction House in Cobourg.

This has turned into a true family room where we gather with the kids, friends and one another to relax and shut out the world for a few hours. Thanks for visiting. xo Donna

Our Bedroom Makeover...

Our bedroom renovation began in December of 2013 - one morning Larry woke up and decided it was time to rid the room of the old red wallpaper. Here are two photos of the room as it looked during our home inspection in April 2011.

As the wallpaper came off, or perhaps I should say some did and some didn't, we consulted with friends  and our designer Tim Badgely of Acanthus in Port Hope as to what to do with the walls. Larry found many cracks, a combination of drywall and old lathe and plaster and he was not sure we could restore what he found under the wall paper.

We decided to stop the wallpaper removal and put up new drywall in the entire room. This was no small feat and we were greatly helped my a local craftsman and within a week we had new fresh walls and a lot of clean up as a result.

Here are a few photos of the new drywall going up.

You can see the lovely molding at the ceiling and the trim that comes down the wall. We moved the trim up higher than it was originally to give more space for the new drapery hardware. We were pleased to use the drapery panels that were in the room originally as they were of a wonderful quality, fully lined and in our colour scheme. After an expensive trip to the dry cleaners the panels came back to life.

 We chose bedding from Acanthus and their team made the bed skirt and matching shams. We found a funky carpet in Peterborough and our wonderful chair also came from Acanthus.

The room has been completely revived and we love waking up to the sunny colour.

We are still on the hunt for a great picture to go over the bed and the fireplace may someday be enhanced with a gas insert but in the meantime candles work well.

Upper floor bathroom finally completed in May 2012

Here are some before pictures of the bathroom on the upper floor.

We left the floor plan the same as the original and had the old claw-foot tub refinished ... and believe me that sub-contractor was a whole other story!! Here are some pictures of what I call my favourite bathroom; it is so heavenly with the grey, white, black toile wallpaper; the mood is one of relax and refresh and I am inspired by the bathing beauties that hang above the tub...

We took these light fixtures from what used to be the dining room and they fit so perfectly with this bathroom  

Main Floor Bathroom Renovated in February 2012

Before

Here is a photo of the gutted main floor bathroom...

Here are a few photos of the main floor bathroom ...  the floor is the same black slate as the kitchen ... the cabinets are white and the granite countertop is a black speckled (not shown). And yes we went wild with the "birds" wallpaper and funky art and the same bright green accent colour. Currently this is the only shower in the house and until we add more bathrooms on the second level.

This cabinet houses the washer and dryer 

Our progress over the spring and summer of 2012

More progress: The kitchen was completed November 2011 and as we have been living with it for several months now this summer we have decided to change the paint colour and will get started on this project later into  the month of September.  The medium grey walls are not "popping" according to my dear husband and the dark ceiling and trim (BM Wedgewood Grey) is simply not our style ... we will post more updated photos of the improved colour with some "pop" later this fall so be sure to follow our blog!! We also changed our kitchen light fixtures as the small schoolhouse size (in the previous blog photo) wasn't the right scale given the ceiling height ... here are the new larger sized ones.

And we have been accenting with a wonderful lime green colour and have some small decorative pieces added that make us smile every day! Here is a close up of our kitchen "peas".

In May 2012 Larry finished staining the old pine treads of the stairwell and the colour is a great match with the hardwood floors but alas pine and two dogs are not a good mix so we settled on adding a wonderful wool runner in a multi colour wool called Africa. The decorating team from Acanthus did a great job helping us add a few finishing touches to the hallway ... now all we are looking for is a wonderful bench to go under the "Birch Trees" .... see our progress...

Now that summer is almost behind us and we are getting focused back to "our project" the blog should have more updates. And if you really want to see our progress send us an email and let's find time for a visit. xo Donna and Larry

Kitchen renovation: Here are some pictures of the kitchen during our home inspection back in April '11. 

Larry's Mom was part of the inspection crew

Here is the kitchen gutted just after Thanksgiving this past October.

The slate floor tiles were being installed.















Larry painting the kitchen ceiling, walls and moulding ... we started with white and yellow and he is putting on BM Dior Grey. Given that we have  10.5 ft ceilings the dark ceiling provides a dramatic look and feels wonderful. The ceiling and moulding are now the same colour as the new island.

And the finished kitchen

Of course every project has a bump and ours is the granite. We are awaiting a visit from the company representative from Pro Stone to find out what can be done as the finish is not properly done. 

The kitchen renovation team was made up of two wonderful men; Kevin Foster of KTF Kitchens and Kevin Racine of Icandurenos and what a wonderful team to work with; they were on time, professional, clean and treated our kitchen reno like it was their own. To save on the cost Larry did all the demolition and the painting and then we left the cabinet making and installation to these two PROs.  We are so impressed and pleased with their work we have secured them to renovate two bathrooms in the New Year! Many thanks to both Kevin's for helping us achieve our dream kitchen in the Sonning House!

Painting and re-painting the Living and Dining rooms

Yes the title is accurate; Larry painted the WHOLE living room and dining room and then ... we were unsure of the choice.   Larry and I think our mistake was trying to replicate the house we loved on Jedburgh; the same colours don't really work here and we have had to step back and re-evaluate our strategy for this home. 


We settled on a Benjamin Moore colour called Bone China - CC 426 - after a thoughtful consultation with Richard from Glam in Port Hope; we are getting more clarity on how to make the Sonning House our own. Who said this would be an easy process or project?? NOW we are reupholstering our main piece of furniture in the LR - the couch (Yes Richard suggested we tone down the piece as it was done 10 years ago and was a bold choice). Stay tuned for the update as it will be ready in 8 - 10 weeks ... maybe by Christmas ...in the meantime we are happy to report our other pieces will work - plum/purple with a taupe theme.  

This is the original colour we chose ... it was Benjamin Moore - Linen Sand 2151-60 a slightly lighter shade than in our Jedburgh home - BM Straw Hat.  


Thanks for peeking, now onto the hallway, family room and kitchen paint colour choices...Richard come back!!