Guest Post: Timber and Lace!!!

 Today I have a very new friend guesting, Marci from Timber and Lace! I just love her no nonsense approach to design and the great way that she blends practicality with pretty...not to mention she is just the sweetest person! They are actually experiencing the floods back in their neck of the woods right now, so keep them in your thoughts and prayers!!!

Hi, I'm Marci from Timber and Lace, and I am so excited to be here, after my invite from Aubrey.  How did I get included in such a fabulous line-up of so many great designers?  Wow.  What a privilege.

We our still in the process of making our house into our little sanctuary but I am happy to share what we have done so far.  For us making our house a home started with the design process.   There were two things that were priorities on our list when we started designing our house. 

1.We wanted our entry to be in the center (or heart) and have the remainder of the house 'hug' it to create an entrance that says 'welcome', or 'come on in' with ample exterior lighting to beckon you in from the cold.  (Let's face it - in Southern Alberta we could, and have had snow fall in every month of the year.)

2.  We also wanted the kitchen to be designed so that our kids could be close but not necessarily right under foot when cooking.  The curved island is where the kids are often found coloring, painting, playing play-doh etc. while I am working in the kitchen and I love how it feels like I am surrounded by them but they are never in the way as I prepare MANY meals and snacks in this space.

Now, we all know that even a well designed house is truly not a home until its occupants have added their personal touch.

I have a passion for mixing textures and elements.  I selected stacked quartzite for our contemporary fireplace, combined with a thick shag multi-colored area rug over birch knotty tavern hardwood, warm thick creamy throw, soft velvet pillows, and hopefully soon a chunky raw wood coffee table will finish creating a cozy great room for us.  We also plan to add exposed timbers to the ceiling in this area someday.  The kids toys are neatly tucked into storage ottomans placed strategically close for easy access.

  In this small half bath we added stone veneer to the wall (very hard to capture in pictures but the black wall you see in the photos is a textured, real stone panel), cored out the center of some leftover timber from the exterior of our house to use as a vanity, and added a little shine with polished plumbing fixtures and a crystal light.

I love to use large scale photos of my children as artwork in my home.  It definitely adds some personality to those blank walls and the size often has huge impact.  Both of the canvases pictured above are 5 ft in length.

$$$ saving tip:  I take the photos myself and have them printed on canvas at our local sign shop and then stretch them onto a homemade frame with custom dimensions myself.  Where else can you find 5 ft custom sized art for under $200 dollars?

And of course there is nothing like a few DIY projects to really put your own stamp on a space.

Please visit me over at Timber and Lace as we continue to create our own little haven right at home.

Thanks Marci! Isn't that photo/canvas idea just BRILLIANT??? I just love all the personal touches in her home, did you know that she did a lot of the finishing work (aka laying tile etc) for her home HERSELF?!? Amazing...and what is this craziness about not knowing how you got included in this, Miss Marci??? 'Cause you're FABULOUS! *duh* (c; 

Definitely go and take her house tour so you can see the rest of her great spaces like her fantastic guest bedroom and her daughter's room:

Like I said, no nonsense, just lovely!

Up Tomorrow:

Kim from Keller Creative!!!