These are significant milestones and as you get older and your family begins to grow, your needs tend to change. When we started our first renovation we did all of the work ourselves, and of course we were limited by our abilities and had to use some ingenuity to get the job done. Hence the crafty plywood walls (I didn’t know how to drywall) and the relentless use of white paint on the floors, walls, doors and ceilings.
We’ve reached a point that some of our initial handy work is starting to get a little shabby looking, and this summer we decided to do some aesthetic and functional renovations.
Above: A photo of some work in progress: new sconces for the mantel, repurposed from two of the bedrooms.
It now looks incredibly Swedish and has given the space a whole new energy!
The sexiest change is definitely the kitchen, which has been a source of frustration for us during the past few summers. Our small work kitchen was perfect when it was just the two of us but now with two kids we are cooking in portions to feed four each meal, and when we have guests over this number can easily reach over 10 people. Our sweet deal of a find under counter fridge died THREE years ago (we’ve been running back and forth to the guest cottage) and no one would service it (too good to be true I guess). As a result, we had to get a regular sized fridge which completely compromises our counter space.
We took a look at the configuration of the cottage and ultimately decided to move the entire kitchen(!!!), and in the process come up with an entire new design.
A couple of teaser additions are in the photo above: I am not going to lie, I have always wanted a SMEG fridge. I can’t believe they are still made in Italy, and the design is just so endearing. The jewelry so to speak is the unlacquered brass faucet resting on top which will be wall-mounted. We got this faucet from Addision’s here in Toronto, which is a fascinating architectural and antique plumbing store. I think it is made from two different fixtures put together by the owner so we could achieve a super long faucet.
You may also be wondering what will replace the old kitchen – we have zero storage so we thought some large wardrobes would be perfect, making the space more of an entryway instead of a bottleneck.
We’re looking forward to sharing the results with you as we get the work done!
In the meantime, if you want to see some of this stuff live as it happens please follow our Instagrams:
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This is officially the last weekend of the summer, and we’re currently sitting on our deck after a large pancake breakfast sipping on some coffee. I’ve been asked a bunch of times how the cottage renovation has been, and when we were going to be posting some more photos.
We’ve been holding off sharing it because we let Remodelista have the exclusive to the story. Since there will inevitably be some readers who don’t follow Remodelista, or simply missed the article we wanted to do our own post about it as a nice farewell to the summer.
Of course, I have the feeling we are in store for some beautiful weather in September, we can already feel the cool breeze coming off of Georgian Bay.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but the whole inspiration for this cottage was the “Finnish summer home”. There is a large Finnish and Estonian community in Ontario, in fact we have the highest amount of Finns outside of Finland. We liked the idea of bringing back the cottage to it’s original state with natural pine floors, and simple practical furniture. We wanted the pieces we chose to furnish the cottage with to feel as if they had always been there.
Now taking a second to study this photo, you can begin to appreciate what adding a layer of plaster did for the white fireplace. When it was simply painted stone it just didn’t look right. We also added an iron hook and a Japanese palm broom and dustpan to break up all of the white.
The sofa choice was inspired by Aalto’s blue sofa we saw in his home in Helsinki.
We just got home from a very productive couple of days at the cottage. The weather was beautiful, the birds were singing, and we’re all grinning from all of the good work we did. The first thing you’ll notice is the new additions which I will get to in a minute. The big accomplishment this week was that my brother and I painted the entire cottage in one day. You can’t tell from the photographs but the before and after is staggering. We used Benjamin Moore’s cloud white, our staple white paint, and it enhanced all of the best qualities of the cottage. One thing we did learn about paint is that getting “Cloud White” at Home Depot is not the same as from Benjamin Moore. Definitely get Benjamin Moore. It’s a little thing but makes a huge impact.
Alright moving towards furniture…
The cabinet is made from mahogany with Aalto’s signature bent birch legs. Everything is original including the shelves, a heart shaped key and the flawless patina.
***This cabinet is not for sale*** (Sorry, whenever we post anything like this we get a dozen inquiries)
We found three of these framed Swedish lithographs from the inaugural Junction Flea a few weeks ago. We didn’t really get a chance to talk about it much but we will do a post about the many other items we scored soon! Next Junction Flea is July 8 and we highly recommend you come on out to the neighborhood for the day. It’s so worth it!
These are going to look great next to our future dining table.
Hopefully it looks good with our sofa.
It almost looks intentional.
We’re hoping to start filling the cottage with furniture soon, and then we’ll be able to finally put our feet up and relax. Never fear though, there will be plenty to tackle next summer…
You can see in this photo where the lye floor meets the white painted floor. The strip is from tape and shows the colour of the unfinished pine.
On top of that, it is the most matte finish you could ever ask for, and it also allows dents in floors to rise again.
Also the sun room, which has never looked better. We have a really great idea for this room that I think you’re going to really enjoy!
The kitchen still needs a good paint job, but you can imagine what it will look like when it’s all finished.
At some point down the road we need to fix the cracks so maybe we’ll plaster the fireplace to smooth it out more.
Another Thursday and we’re crossing a lot of the big ones off of our “to-do list”. This time around we had to rent a paint sprayer and paint the entire wood ceiling (although nice, the back cottage tends toward dark and dank). We didn’t know whether or not we needed to use primer so we purchased 10 gallons of the 2 in 1 paint and primer in an egg shell cloud white. The same paint we used on the water front cottage, and even the store.
You may remember that last time around we rented the sprayer but got freaked out because the ceilings were too high so we ended up having to hire someone. Glad this time we were able to do it ourselves! Also, here’s a flashback to when we first took down the old drop ceiling!
Outfitted with white painter hats, goggles, and face masks we started painting in the corner room to perfect our painting method before moving into the living room.
Next week our friend Dan from Hindsvik is supposed to come up with us to do one last push to get this cottage in order before furnishing it, so stay tuned for some bromance next week.
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