Here are two extremely similar night stands, but their price tags vary greatly…as in by $2930.
1950’s Paul McCobb Planner Group Nightstands, $3000, Consort
Hemnes nightstand, $69.99, Ikea
Which one do you like better? Which one would you buy?
If you’re in the design or blogging world, you’ve likely already heard of the One Room Challenge. The ORC, as it is also called, gives designers, bloggers, and design enthusiasts a challenge to make over a room in a 6-week period. Challenge is right. As an observer, I love to see the transformations. I think just about any before-and-after is dramatic, even if they don’t include professional photography sessions that sometimes happen with the ORC rooms.
There’s a select group of 20 designers/enthusiasts who are officially ORC participants, and then there are another 200 or so (I think) who are guest participants. It’s all very fascinating, if you ask me. People really get into it, and the participants are fairly open about sharing their design vision and process.
Here are five end products that really caught my attention, but I would encourage you to check out all the ORC featured designers and guest participants if you’re looking to be inspired by traditional/modern/interesting design!
powder room, Wife in Progress (that floor!)
sun porch, Worthwhile Domicile (those shelves! that ceiling height!)
teen room, Vanessa Francis Design
(I love the addition of the trumpet and the story that goes with)
bedroom, Love on Sunday (I love Amy’s use of textures in her white bedroom.)
bathroom, Simplified Bee (such a luxurious shower space!)
A 6-week timeline for a room make-over…could you do it? Have you done it?
I haven’t yet taken us to Scandinavia in this hotel-to-home series, have I? Let’s do it today, shall we? Grab your virtual passport and let’s head on over to the Görvälns Slott hotel 25km north of Stockholm, Sweden. It sits on the shores of Lake Mälaren at the heart of the Görväln Nature Reserve in Järfälla. Sounds pretty idyllic.
This bathroom is just about perfect, isn’t it?
mirror, tiles, votives, sink, makeup mirror, candelabra, rug, towel, plant pot
I love the candelabra on the window sill. I hadn’t noticed it when I first pulled the photo. Isn’t it luxe?
As some of you may know, I have declared that this year is the #YearOfMyBed.
I bought a gorgeous (really gorgeous) antique French bed a month or so ago and added a set of night stands soon after that (after some DIY attention, they’re looking just perfect with the bed if I do say so myself).
But, what’s a bed without a mattress?
Until recently, I’ve been sleeping on a double mattress inside a queen frame. It’s been fine, but it was obviously not the look (or sleep) I was going for.
To complete the #YearOfMyBed, there was obviously one thing that I really needed to do – buy a new queen mattress set. This purchase has been on my mind for a long while, but I’ve been putting it off because, frankly, I found it a bit daunting. So many mattresses, so little time? Yeah, something like that.
In the end, I headed to the sleep experts at Sleep Country Canada. I figured that it was a one-stop shop that would have helpful and knowledgeable staff who could guide me through the process. Thankfully, I figured right. (This is not a sponsored post, by the way.)
So how did I find a perfect-for-me mattress? Let me tell you!
First, I sang the Sleep Country Canada jingle.
Jokes. Jokes. I didn’t. Okay. I did. I mean, what Canadian doesn’t know Christine Magee or the Sleep Country jingle?
Moving on…
After I headed to my local Sleep Country, I met with a sleep expert (Hi, ES!) who asked me how I sleep (side, mostly) and what type of mattress I like (more firm that soft). I told her that the brand wasn’t one of my concerns, but I did want a really good mattress that would be super comfortable (who doesn’t, right?). She narrowed the beds down for me, then told me to try everything out. What? Pretend sleep on the mattresses in the store? It felt a bit weird at the beginning, but she encouraged me to just go for it. I went back and forth between the narrowed down mattresses and “slept” on them. Feet up and everything!
I was a bit resistant at first – Would I actually be able to tell the difference between mattresses? What’s the big deal about the pillow top? – but I got into it. I did actually notice a difference between mattresses, and some were easy to take out of the running (e.g., too soft, too hard).
I narrowed down my options to two – a Kingsdown and a Serta. In the end, I opted for the Serta (shown in the two photos above), and I was hoping that it would be just right! (As I’m writing this, it seems that I’ve turned into Goldilocks.) I honestly think I would have been happy with either the Kingsdown or the Serta, but the Serta was slightly more firm, which I liked.
here I am learning about the coils (coils, coils, coils) and the details of the Serta mattress set; it’s a pillow top mattress, by the way
Still a bit nervous, I was told about Sleep Country’s amazing sleep country guarantee. If I don’t like the mattress, I can actually exchange it for another one. Isn’t that amazing? It’s a win-win situation if you ask me!
My mattress arrived this past Saturday, and I’m sleeping soundly so far. It did take a couple of nights to adjust to it, which I think is completely normal. I think I’m happy with it, but it’s also comforting to know about the comfort guarantee.
Tell me, dear readers, have you bought a mattress recently? How’d you do it? What features did you look for?
Thanks, ES, for your help!
Today’s two for Tuesday is extra special because it’s my dad’s birthday! This styling man…
has gone from hiking in suits in Italy as a teenager to…
hanging out in baseball-style tees in Toronto and texting local and international family and friends on his iPhone.
And he’s the most photogenic out of anyone in our family.
Seriously.
My Dad continues to have bursts of energy (in between resting, of course) and has helped me with countless reno projects at my home…you’ve surely seen shout-outs in these posts! Soon we’ll be off to Italy on our father-daughter trip of 2016. Bring on the gelato (you’re paying, right, Dad?)!
Happy Birthday, Dad!