Cucumbersome

[I am participating in this competition, in which I was given $12,000 to furnish a two bedroom suite within one month. More info here.]
The day before the competition was over, my mom was over helping and opened the door to the basically empty second bedroom and said, “So… what’s going on in here?” She immediately saw the crazed look in my eyes and gently closed the door. I probably shouldn’t admit these things, just in case the judges were to read this, but this was all put together on the last day. “Put together” literally, as the majority of it was picked up at Ikea that morning.
When I first started, I had my heart set on using this room as a child’s bedroom. However, the information we were given on their target markets didn’t include families. And I was further discouraged by the fact that the room was too small for THIS. So I made the room an office with a sofa bed for guests. On the last day. But, hey! It has a hanging terrarium!
I used fairly dark, moody colors in the rest of the suite, but I actually like that this small office is white and monochromatic. There seems to be lots of room to think, which my fictional clients (see explanation here) need as they do a lot of work from home while they live abroad.

I don’t have very good photos of the room, but here on the other side of the office, I had two storage units (Ikea “Melltorp” occasional tables to match the table I used as a desk) filled with storage boxes and books. There’s a whole lot of Ikea in this room, but I used accessories and lighting from elsewhere to keep it from looking too generic.
I want to get one (or three!) of those hanging terrariums for our place, which you can find at Old Faithful Shop. I went in to Old Faithful quite a lot during this competition, because it’s such an inspiring space. Panda is on friendly terms with their dog, Jean Pierre, who likes dragging Panda around by his leash. The day we ran in to get this terrarium, Jean Pierre wasn’t there and it was so cute to see Panda frantically looking for him. He’s grown so much, by the way. I thought he would grow into his ears, but they seem to be keeping pace. Okay, getting off topic…
Next I want to show you little shots of the kitchen and bathrooms.

[I am participating in this competition, in which I was given $12,000 to furnish a two bedroom suite within one month. More info here.]
Sooo… not what you were expecting, is it? Me either. I think that’s what I like about it best. It honestly feels like I was decorating for someone else – my fictional client – and not myself. I wanted to target couples in their mid-thirties, while still appealing to a wider range of people. My “clients” moved to Canada after watching the Olympics and becoming quite smitten with the Lower Mainland. This couple was quiet, reflective, and semi-outdoorsy. They wanted their apartment to feel like a cozy cabin, where they could bundle up by the fire after skiing. Morgan Crossing stood out to them because of the convenience of having lots of shops around, and the beautiful rooftop gardens. They also liked the proximity to the US border, because they could fly home from Seattle for much cheaper. So this is what I came up with for them.
Lots of the pieces I had my heart set on needed to be shipped in (why doesn’t anyone carry stock?!), which forced me to be creative in sourcing furniture. I went into stores I would usually avoid like the plague, and occasionally I was pleasantly surprised.

This is what it looked like when I arrived. I’m leaving the “before” photos untouched (they get worse) to make the “after” more dramatic. Even though I showed the “after” before. You with me? Here’s a wider shot of the living room “after”:

There’s a little console table along the wall on the right with ottomans tucked under it for additional seating and whatnot. Also, a place to mix drinks. Because that’s real important.

That clock is (was?) also sold at Terrain, but I found it here.

I was pleased to find a few things in stores here in Vancouver that I had coveted online. Another example is this lamp on the mantle which can be found online at Haus Interior, but I found it at Fullhouse.

Ryan kindly did that painting on the mantle, which is actually huge at 3′ x 3′. I wish I had time to mount it on the wall, a few inches up.
One of the things I did that I think really set my design apart is I took down the big ol’ slat blinds and replaced them with Ikea ENJE roller shades. Instead of having to wrestle those big slats up the window (they were heavy!), these open easily and let light in even when they’re closed while still giving privacy. You can cut them down to the right size fairly easily. Those slat blinds were also on the door to the balcony, see:

So I also added frosted panels to the door:

Those pictures by the door were hung seconds before the deadline, and have since fallen down numerous times. The middle one is missing from some photos. Ryan did these as well, and I loved how they turned out.
Here’s a close-up of the replacement sofa I mentioned earlier, and you can see the beautiful rooftop gardens through the window:

By the way, the wall color is really hard to capture. The top two photos (the much better ones) are taken by a professional photographer and the color seems more accurate. After really hating green for a long time (I was scared of the forest greens and institutional blue/greens of the nineties), I’ve been dying to paint a room a nice gray/green (based solely on a photo from this sneak peek). These were the contenders:

I used a Farrow & Ball paint in the bedroom and it was so nice to work with, but the greens just didn’t feel right. The green in Castle Gray is much more subtle in real life (beautiful, but not what I was looking for), and Green Smoke is really dark. So I went with a color from Restoration Hardware. Apparently Silver Sage, which is from the same family as Blue Sage, is quite popular, but I wanted something more dramatic. It was a risk painting the whole living area and dining nook this color, but I think it payed off because it really changed the overall feel of the suite as you walk in.
Phew. One room down. Are you still reading? Thanks. It’s scary knowing that people are walking through the suite, judging my choices and filling out little ballot forms, but it’s more terrifying to put it out here on my blog. Next up (and closely related): the dining room nook!