Goodbye Summer....

My Living Room, August 2009

As of 5:18pm today, summer was officially over and tomorrow will be our first full day of fall.

This means in the coming days I’ll be making some small changes around the house to make it feel more cozy and seasonal, in fact I started last weekend.  Just subtle changes,,,like putting away some of the summery feeling accessories.  Below are some shots of the way the living room looked mostly towards the end of summer - I’m always changing up things even throughout a season.  Simple things like changing the covers on the toss pillows to a watery blue/grey,,,switching out the coffee table books to more summery ones in both colour and subject,,,,adding summer flowers, light weight throws, sea shells and hurricane lanterns.  Even though we live in the city, we also live by the lake so the house lends itself to a casual lakeside feel, our furniture isn’t so much that look,,,,but I think just a few touches were enough to create that mood.

This is a rental house that we moved into during the summer of 07 immediately after selling our condo.  Like most rentals, the house was not in the best of shape, it was pretty nasty in fact,,,(the exterior still is!) but a good cleaning and a fresh coat of white paint throughout the interior did wonders.     Even though we had all of these things when we moved in,,,,,the placement of the artwork and smaller accessories took some time to fall into place.  But overall, I love how our existing furniture from the condo seem to just fit right and at the same time,,take on an entirely new look in this space.   I didn't care that we were only going to be living here for a year or two,,,I was determined to make the place looked like we had always lived there and to make it comfortable and welcoming, and without buying anything new for it.  It was a great excercise in 'making the most of what you've got'.

The house had two features that i fell in love with immediately (aside from its location),,,,a wood burning stone fireplace in the living room, and a large 2nd floor loft space with cathedral ceilings, loads of natural daylight and a walkout to a second floor deck - the perfect home studio.   I knew instantly that i would fill one complete wall of the loft with Ikea expedite shelving.  I had some of these in our condo (which we built-in) and couldn’t imagine living without them, and coincidentally the height of the units fit perfectly in this loft space on the low side of the sloped ceiling, like it was meant to be.

Reference Library in my loft studio

Ikea's Expedit shelving, wall to wall

I'm not fond of corner windows but I grew to really like this one, its placement gave us great views of the lake and it has a big deep sill that makes a perfect spot for the cat to perch and he spend a lot of time there.  The landlords horizontal blinds are pretty unattractive but I keep them up most of the time so they really weren't an issue and besides there are just way too many windows in this house for me to start changing the window coverings! 

This was our last summer in the house as we’re currently searching for a permanent home that we hope to find sometime in the next few months.  But in the meantime its still home for now and I’ll continue to feather my nest here until its time to pack.  I can’t say i’m going to miss summer, because I LOVE fall,,,,and the changes that will come with it, but I’m really going to miss this fireplace, my wonderful lightfilled and spacious loft studio and the sound of the waves lapping against the shore......

All Photos:  Carol Reed