Guest blog / Jenn Hannotte: The perpetual kitchen reno

Jenn Hannotte: Last October, after my youngest pulled what looked like 1930s underwear out from behind the radiator in our kitchen, I called John at Cera Stone. "GUT IT," I said. Really, I didn't *want* to renovate the kitchen, I wanted to live with it and save up for the real-deal. 

But after the underwear, and because earlier in the summer I had removed all the cabinet doors because they were covered in SLIME, and because after the bathroom renovation we had a big ol' hole in the kitchen ceiling thanks to the old toilet losing it's shhhhh all over the place - well, it wasn't a kitchen anymore. And so, like I do, I started to rip things apart myself and discovered the original asbestos-tiles, and while not exactly good for the lungs, they were in really good shape which gave me hope for the pine-plank subfloor. Yes, we were going to gut the kitchen, but, no, we weren't going to spend much putting it back! Once everything was out, I decided to have a wall framed out over the messed up plaster that held the old cabinets in place, and we clad it in beautiful birch plywood. The sink, stove and fridge all stayed in the same place to keep costs down. A couple of base cabinets from Ikea, an inexpensive butcher block countertop, rough-pine shelf from Home Depot ($12!) and bingo, we had a kitchen. 

Okay, it didn't go that smoothly - I have hung different cabinets and shelves, moved the fridge around, painted the floors after resolving not to, and painted half a wall black before deciding (surprise!) white it was! This is a temporary kitchen - if temporary means 5 years or more to you. So, because we'll be living with it for quite some time, we figured that we might consider getting some appliances that work. I know people go on about "function and form" all the time, but sometimes I like to ignore that and spend money in places we shouldn't instead of... .getting appliances that work.

And so, this week a new crop of appliances that will bring harmony to the kitchen are set to arrive. Appliances that marry form AND function. I know, what a concept. Once they're here and installed I promise a full kitchen tour. For now, here are some shots of the before and during - and a sneak-peak of the 'after', shot for the Marion House Book last month! (which, incidentally, already looks different!)

For more of Jenn's take on style click here.

A chair story, part one

I'm definitely up for a challenge, so when Virginie Martocq - Chatelaine's Decor Editor - e-mailed to ask me about re-doing a fleamarket chair for the mag I said sure! So, a day or two later when a rather grubby looking chair showed up on my doorstep I knew the game was on. Luckily I'd recently been inspired by a particular DwellStudio fabric I'd spotted at inVU Drapery called Vintage Plumes (you can see a shot of it here) and set to work figuring out the look.

Step one was to unscrew the dusty old red velvet seat and thoroughly clean the chair. Next, I lightly sanded the frame with some steel wool, and carefully painted two coats in a lovely soft beigey grey called Fashion Grey from Behr. Now, I knew that nailheads would be fun but didn't want to commit to nickel or brass. Instead, I'd seen some white painted nailheads at Home Depot and thought that they might be just the ticket. Well, the colour was waaay too bright a white, but that was quickly remedied by pushing the nails into a cardboard fruit box and spraying the whole lot cream all in one go (outside of course). I dropped the chair off at inVU this morning for the re-upholstery job and can't wait to see how it turns out!

guest blog / Jenn Hannotte: A touch of the RT's

Drumroll! Church bells! Fireworks! It's done! After some finishing touches, I was super lucky to have Naomi Finlay come by to take photographs of the final bathroom reveal, and Arren to help style! I am beyond happy with how it turned out - it's got that Royal Tenenbaum edge, but it's got a lot more of 'me' and a whole lot of this houses' heart in it, too. Here's the complete list of materials and other good stuffs used in the shots and in real life:  

Bancroft toilet, Brockway sink with Cannock faucets - Kohler. Daltile Subway and Octagon and Dot tiles, baseboard, Behr Paint in Ashes - Home Depot. Trim tile - Pollock's. Wild Flower wallpaper - Ferm Living. Fords Mill light fixture - Rejuvination Lighting  (Who, I noticed when I went to grab this link have some AMAZING new product). Towels, bathmat, plate - Anthropologie. Shower curtain - Urban Outfitters. Milk glass vases, vintage fan, MOR soap - Russet and Empire. Vintage pharmacy jars - The Arthur. Molger mirror - Ikea. Kartell Componibilii - Neat.

Click here and here to check out the other posts on the bathroom reno (including the awful before shots), and stay tuned, something else is cooking up at the Hannotte house - pun intended. Wink, wink.

For more of Jenn's take on style click here

Guest blog / Jenn Hannotte: The bath equation

Jenn Hannotte: My bathroom renovation began about three months ago, and we're still working on some finishing touches before we can present the BIG REVEAL. But until then (soon, I promise!), I thought I'd recount the story thus far. Trouble is, it's not terribly interesting. Nothing scary jumped out from the walls, there was no layer of black mold ready to poison my children, no hiccups with the contractors or materials. The only reason why it's taken as long as it has is because I had to go and choose things that you can't grab from your local big- box store.

You might recall that my main source of inspiration was the bathroom featured in the film, The Royal Tenenbaums. To get there, we used a lot of classic materials that really fell architecturally into line with the aesthetic of the rest of the house. Always-right and inexpensive Daltile white subway tiles placed 3/4 of the way up the wall from Home Depot, capped with a classic chair rail profile found at Pollock's on Roncesvalles, just down the street from me. For the floors, it was again Home Depot's Daltile in the 'Octagon and Dot' pattern. I sourced a cast-iron clawfoot tub from Craigslist for a steal at $150 including the faucet, shower head and tub surround. The toilet is from Kohler and it's amazing to not be terrified every time we flush like we were with the old one! My favorite piece is the sink - the Brockway from Kohler. It was this baby that we had to wait for a long time to arrive, but it was worth it once installed. 

Without giving too much else away, I found this amazing wallpaper from Ferm Living that looks pretty   much identical to the shower curtain you see behind Margot Tenenbaum that really sets off the entire space. So the question is, class, can this equation be solved?  

  

Meeting Martha

I was lucky enough to part of a Canadian crew of design media that popped down to check out Home Depot's de-lovely new Martha Stewart Living kitchen collection in NYC, and yep, actually got to meet Martha too! I was trying not to be all goofy and star struck, but as you can see from that kooky grin on my face, that might not have happened. From left to right in the pic is Samantha Pynn, me, Martha, Suzanne Dimma, Deidre Kelly and Karl Lohnes (the delightful Margot Austin was there too, but somehow didn't make it into the photo op). On top of all this - if that wasn't jammy enough - I also got to chat with both Kevin Sharkey and Gael Towey from Martha's team (who just happened to mention that they'll be launching an iPad issue of the mag soon!), as well as Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan and Aaron Able of Apartment Therapy.

The first snap shows how stunning the Martha HQ actually is, all Deco curved windows in a two storey high space with lots of white and polished concrete. Stunning indeed. Next up is a pic of Martha addressing all the folks who attended, standing in front of the very Martha-esque putty toned Seal Harbor cabinetry, with details like the corbels inspired by her own kitchen, followed up with a close-up shot of the plate rack and cabinets. Yum. On the more modern side of things is The Weston, which takes its design cue from Martha's Chief Creative Officer Gael Towey's Manhattan kitchen. All told there are 6 cabinetry styles in a range of painted and wood finishes, 8 exclusive honed marble inspired Corian countertops and a slew of perfect hardware to finish everything off. Expect to see it all in Home Depot stores soon!

Principally speaking

Where, oh where, has the week gone? All my best laid plans of it being a quiet week have literally been chucked out the window, and now it's practically the weekend for heaven's sake! Getting back on track, I wanted to show you lot the pics of the principal bedroom and bathroom from the House & Home feature (shot by Angus Fergusson, of course), so without further ado, here we go.

That first pic shows the bedroom under construction, when we'd knocked out the teensy old closets. Now the walls are all papered with grasscloth from Design by Color, the upholstered headboard and bedskirt are in my fave David Hicks designed Hexagon House Chenille from Lee Jofa, and the cream velvet curtains are from inVU Drapery. The ceiling fixture and lamp on the left of the bed are both vintage, while the one on the right (as well as the shades for both lamps) was snapped up at HomeSense. The closet now runs wall-to-wall, and is the Pax system with Vinstra doors from Ikea, and really, we couldn't live without all that built-in shoe storage, lol. The night tables were a sweet $10 each from Value Village, and the dresser was from Frontier, both were refinished to match in that khaki tone by Beresford's. On the dresser is a kooky vintage lamp, enamelled boxes from AT Design, and above there's a lovely West Elm mirror.

The bathroom was tiny, filthy and all pink, so we knocked out the walls and made it 18" wider to make the space that bit more generous. The vanity is KraftMaid kitchen cabinetry, the integral sinks and counter is Corian, and the walls are tiled in a Carrara marble lookalike porcelain tile called Montova, and yep, it's all from Home Depot. The sconces are from CB2, the mirrors are from Walmart (really), and the towels are Ikea. All the plumbing fixture and fittings in the space are from Kohler, and include the swish Oblo wall-mount faucets, the Purist Hatbox toilet (you can just about see it in the reflections) and the ceiling-mount WaterTile shower head. Oh, and I have to give a shout out to Home Depot Installation Services, as well as our contractors Cera Stone, for all their amazing work on the bathroom!

On the (main) level

Yep, the August issue of House & Home is finally out (with our place in it), so I thought it was high time to finally share the heinous 'before' and the lovely 'after' of the main floor of our house! So you can get your bearings, that first pic is me standing pretty much where the coffee table is now, looking back towards where the kitchen ended up, and all before the walls came down to finally open the space up. For more scary before shots click here.

Here are the deets on those glossy after shots, photographed by Angus Fergusson -

In the living room the sofa, chairs, tables and ceiling fixture are all vintage. The ottoman is from Bev Hisey, a couple of the pillows on the sofa are from The Rug Company, the Montigo fireplace is from Odyssey Fireplaces, and the rug is from Sears. Spot looks awfully cute in this next shot, against the brill Manderley wallpaper from Graham & Brown. That's a Besta cabinet from Ikea (crammed with records), topped with a turntable, a Tivoli radio and a vintage lamp. I made the dining table out of scaffolding planks and a vintage table base, and all the chairs were super-cheapy vintage finds refinished by Beresford's and, all the doors and windows in the house are Jeld Wen. The KraftMaid kitchen cabinets, Corian countertop, glass tiles and Quality Craft bamboo flooring are all Home Depot, oh, and the stools are vintage. The fantastic stainless steel slide-in gas range with downdraft (no need for a range hood!), dishwasher and French door fridge are from Jenn Air. In the powder room, the wallpaper was dragged home from BHV in Paris, and the teensy sink is from American Standard. And finally, a major shout out to our contractors, Cera Stone!

 

Finished out front

Okay, just a quick one - I'm having a barmy week, and next week will be the same - but I did want to share this while I had a sec. Take a look below and you'll see the finished front of the house!!! You'll have to excuse all the exclamation marks, but compared to the way it looked when we bought the place (take a look here), it's a MASSIVE difference. Major thanks go to our stellar contractors, Cera Stone, who pulled it all off on very short notice (thanks John!), and thanks too to our next door neighbours who kindly allowed us to park the skids of interlock bricks on their driveway while all the prep work was happening. Oh, the bricks - We went with the Charcoal Cobble Lite Paving Stone from Home Depot, laid in a nice and chic herringbone pattern, which works fantastically well with the facade of the house that the contractors painted in Farrow & Ball's dark and lovely Railings. I popped in a couple of close-up shots below so you could get a better look. And finally, how fantastic (and eco-efficient) are the Jeld-Wen windows and front door? Gotta fly, but what do you think?

Getting it going out front

The driveway is happening!!! Luckily our Plan B worked out (major thanks to my brill contractors), and on Friday a big yellow backhoe made fast work of excavating all the old concrete and aphalt. Believe me, I was happy to see it all carted away. The next day, a crew arrived and everything was levelled, then the forms were built and set in place for the concrete curbs that will run from the house to the sidewalk. Plus, for some extra greenery - and really because we don't need parking spots for 3 cars - the crew also built forms for a second raised planting bed. Then the Home Depot flatbed truck arrived with our delivery of the chic and simple charcoal grey interlocking brick I'd picked out (more on that soon). Finally, the concrete mixer showed and gingerly backed into the driveway, dumping 8 cubic yards to create a stable bed for the interlock and to fill the curb and planter forms. Oh, and did I mention this was in the midst of a busy neighbourhood yard sale that we were participating in? Thanks to a v. kind neighbour (hi Mrs Fong!), we were able to set up all our bits and bobs on a yard a couple of doors down while all the construction action was happening on ours...

Before the crew shows up to lay the interlocking brick in the next day or two the painter is here slapping up a couple of coats of Farrow & Ball's super durable and environmentally friendly Exterior Masonry paint in Railings on the facade of the house. Okay, I will admit to butterflies when it first started going up, but imho, I think it looks totally fantastic!

Back in the bathroom

Hey, I'm finally able to share all the shots by Angus Fergusson (including the spooky before snaps) from that bathroom project I did with Canadian Family mag. It's a pretty sweet makeover and, I hafta say, quite the dramatic change from a bathroom that looked liked something out of the Bates Motel into a bright, glossy and very practical space.

Here are the deets: We re-used the perfectly sized vintage sink (after a very good clean that involved Polident tablets), then changed out all the other fixtures and fittings to pieces from Kohler, including a v. smart WaterSense Escale toilet. We subway tiled from floor to ceiling, and then finished the sloped ceiling in tongue-and-groove, both scored at Home Depot. The floor was penny tiled in marble from Saltillo which, apart from being gorgeous, is nice and safe to walk on with wet feet (and yes, the floor was heated too, with a True Comfort kit from Home Depot). Shelving was added in above the loo, and two marble-lined nooks were added in in the bath area (the surfaces were angled slightly so they drain properly). Finally, the pretty shower curtain was custom made by Tonic Living, and the towels and bath mat were a mix-and-match between Anthropologie and HomeSense. What do you think?

Bright and clean

Okay, well I'm happy to drop a little taste of our completely finished house. It's the laundry room, which is in the current issue of Canadian House & Home, and to quote a 1968 cigarette slogan You've come a long way baby. To see how vile it actually looked when we first bought the house click here. Yep, that's ugly, lol. Not to mention all the weird stuff we discovered when we ripped out the old basement kitchen - Part of a garden fence was behind the wall and the ceiling was suspended with sticks from apple boxes and an old chair leg. Seriously.

Here's a quick rundown of what you're looking at: We maxed out on storage and usability with Ikea kitchen cabinets fronted in Abstrakt white hi-gloss doors and a Numerar countertop (just out of view on the left there's a Lagan sink with a slick white Ringskar faucet). Built into the cabinetry on the left are the fantabulous  GE Profile SmartDispense laundry pair, more on them here. That sweet carpet is the Spun hand-knotted runner by Bev Hisey, and the wood floor beneath is actually this TrafficMaster Allure vinyl plank from Home Depot. [Image: Angus Fergusson]

IDS10: The work has begun

Well, the work started months ago really, first with the out-of-the-blue phone call inviting me to design one of the Ultimate spaces for the Interior Design Show. That led to meetings galore. Next, as soon as I'd decided on the inspiration for the 700 sq. ft. space - which I'm totally excited to say is Calvin Klein Euphoria - I set to wrangling every little detail and hashing out the concept and drawings with Boychuk + Fuller, ordering swanky fixtures from Kohler and absolutely fantabulous Italian tiles from Savoia. I guess you figured out it's a possibly a bathroom (lol) and, talking of tiles, they just arrived (phew) off of the boat from Italy.

Right now Cera Stone is pre-building the space in a warehouse, it'll then be disassembled and put back together - a bit like a jigsaw puzzle - on site at the MTCC, where we'll have 4 1/2 days to completely finish it. Okay... I'm trying not to hyperventilate. Take a look below and you'll see we're at the plywood-y bare bones stage, all I can say is thank heavens there's a Home Depot right around the corner!

The uproar continues...

Mucho is happening on the house today (yay). Rod, my intrepid wallpaper guy, has started in on the grasscloth in the bedroom. It's a Gramercy wallcovering available through Design By Color and it's already looking mah-vellous. And Rod, ever the perfectionist, is carefully cutting the paper down so each wall has equal sized panels. Take a look below at the first few pieces up on the wall...

Downstairs in the basement we have the Ikea installers working their magic fitting the kitchen cabinetry into the laundry area. I'd planned out the cabintery last week with the Ikea Kitchen Planner - we went with the yummy hi-gloss Abstrakt white doors - then everything was delivered in super-zippy fashion. Now the work is happening very, very fast. A few hours ago all that was down there was this SmartDispense laundry pair from GE Profile, and by tonight most of the cabinetry will be finished. Phew! Oh, and btw - the latest Ikea catalogue smacked down on my doorstep this morning, so in a quiet moment (lol) I'll be leafing through and dog-earing all my new faves.

And then finally, that last shot is the media room, after we'd gone to town with the Ralph Lauren Paint in Palais Royal (take a look at the before here).

  

Imagine the sparkle

Okay, I hardly need to remind you that I'm not a photographer; one look at the snap below will tell you that, lol. I've spent far too much time trying to catch the shimmer and sparkle on the recently tiled and grouted backsplash, and all to no avail. I'm hoping you can figure out that they're a gorgeous 2" x 12" ribbed glass tile that's back painted in white. If not, you'll just have to squint a little and use your imagination. The tiles are called Taffeta; they're from DalTile and are available to order through Home Depot. We ran them from countertop to ceiling and wrapped them into the window well above the sink too. I can't tell you how happy I am that we went with a stacked pattern for the tile - rather than having them laid brick-style - it keeps everything feeling nice and modern. And yes, this is one step closer to us being finished...

Trading in plywood for Corian

Okay, the last time you saw the kitchen it looked like this, and now take a look! The Corian countertop arrived today from Home Depot in two mondo pieces, one so large it took four guys to heft it into place. The installer's attached the two pieces together (there's now an invisible seam behind the cooktop) and set the brushed nickel adjustable-height legs from Richelieu in place for the bar. The wait was definitely worth it (we've been living with chunks of plywood and a temporary sink for a while). We'd picked Silver Birch for the surface, since it had a lovely terrazo feel, and chose a clean and modern profile with an eased edge. The sink is Corian too, in Pearl Gray, and was fit seamlessly into the countertop before the whole shebang was installed.

All the appliances are happily ensconced into the kitchen now too. They're from Jenn-Air in a stainless steel finish and are absolutely boffo with the hi-gloss white Venicia cabinetry. The fridge is a sleek counter-depth unit with a bottom-drawer freezer, the dishwasher is one of the best Energy Star rated units on the market and the dual-fuel slide-in range, well, I love the fact it has a downdraft (so no need for a rangehood!) while David, my baking-obsessed other half, loves that one of the burners has a melt setting for when he makes brownies.

The cherry on the cake is Kohler's swish Karbon articulating faucet; this one is a deck-mount, but it's just been released as a wall mount too. It's currently just there for show; the plumber is popping in tomorrow to hook it up, and the backsplash tiles happen the day after that. I swear, we're almost done!