a before & after post :: 2 chairs for julz ::

this is my life, right now. dining room office? why not.

So this is a superfun post for me to write! It's the first in a before & after series centering around a 1 room apartment (shared bath & kitchen) in a beautiful humongo brick house in downtown Ottawa. I am redesigning for a friend/client, Julz. She's a university student and wants to be able to have friends over to study and not have it so it feels like everyone is sitting in her bedroom. We sat down before she left and agreed it would be perfect for 3 distinct areas: an eating/meal prep area, a living/sitting area and a sleeping area. We also decided to create a bit of an entrance way.

This rented room is fairly straight forward, shape wise, it's a 14' x 21' rectangle. Think high ceilings, an entire wall of windows equipped with rods and new white blinds, 10" high baseboard mouldings... gorgeous. Two equal size closets are next to the entrance way, both with shelves and rods built in. Perfect for storage. The floors are light hardwood and the room is a soft warm creamy yellow. Very easy to work with, especially since they aren't keen on us painting, which I totally understand. I probably wouldn't let me paint either, if I were the landlord.

So at this point I've been at it for a week now and have managed to get a plan written/drawn out including 2 possible layouts for the 3 distinct areas, as well as most of my fabric purchased. I was matching fabric to a new duvet cover Julz wanted to use on her bed, so I needed 3 co-ordinating fabrics. We're going for a bohemian beach garden feel. yah. that. (I'll should wrangle up an inspiration post to show you the overall feel, with pics, to get that point across, I see. I'll get to that.)

ANYway, my first project was to recover 2 chairs for the living room. I have had these kicking around for a while, awaiting the perfect home and the perfect fabric. Once those decisions were out of the way *woohoo* I tore apart one of the fitted covers to use as a pattern and reserved the other for reference while sewing. I labeled the pieces so I could keep track. It was pretty straight forward, just a lot of pressing and pinning and sewing slow straight lines. I was so excited to see these chairs come to life, I can't wait to see the room together with the other fabrics chosen. Here's what I speak of:

before: in my backyard. p.s. i actually weed weekly.

after: in my own living room, not the final location. evil sweet dog not included.

It feels wonderful to have this first project complete and delivered to the apartment and project 2 soon underway. I'll be sure to share bits as they come together, but I also want to make sure to save some details for the grand finale. I'll be sure to get some formal Before pictures of the room as well for a final comparison post in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for all that craziness!

♥ leel