If you’ve been following me, you’ll know that I live in a 100-year old brick home on a busy street in SW Ontario, Canada. A long time ago, Hamilton Brick Works was a bustling successful business. Many bricks from Hamilton Brick Works have been used in residential home construction throughout the City of Hamilton. Our home is one of many along our street that was built using bricks as an exterior veneer. Brick as a veneer, is not a coastal material. It’s more of a historical veneer. I’ve been trying to give our home a coastal feel all while keeping the orange brick. It has been challenging to say the least. Luckily some of the paint company websites have a feature that suggests colours that will go well with the colour you would like to use. I wanted to go with gray and white against the orange brick because gray and white are nice exterior coastal colours to me that I felt would look nice on the brick. To read more about the exterior of our home, you can click here to read my blog post. It’s hard to believe that these bricks have lasted so long!
As for the inside of our house, we could not agree on what we wanted. We both had different style preferences. We decided to keep the main floor more traditional with the furnishings to echo what was already happening on the outside. Over time, the traditional decor wore on me especially since we did not have great lighting. It always seemed so dark on our main floor. The inside of our home used to be divided into separate rooms (well before we moved in) and had pocket doors to close off the dining room from the living room. These rooms also had a fireplace to keep them warm. Today, there is only one fireplace in the house and it is in need of repair. It has not been used in over nine years as a result. Hopefully one day, it will either be repaired or it will be replaced with a gas fireplace. Either would be nice to heat the main floor in the colder months.
In 2013, the upgrades began to start the transformation to Coastal Decor. The main floor was painted Fencepost by Dulux Paints. The dining room, living room and foyer are still the same colour. It’s a great colour. It makes the house seem brighter and bigger and I love that. We also purchased new living room furniture which is also white and that has also made the house seem much brighter. My friends thought I was crazy for getting white furniture with three boys, but here we are eight years later and my furniture is still in great condition and is still white! I have covered my furniture with inexpensive white blankets from IKEA all of these years. They do still sell them, but no longer carry white. These blankets have been my saving grace.
When we first purchased our home in 2000, the house did not have any crown moulding so we added it to bring more of that historical interest to the house. We painted all of the trim white and the walls Bennington Gray by Benjamin Moore. It gave our home a cozy feel which we both loved. The furniture was a hard sell for me. It was dark and the furniture itself was bulky and very traditional in style. I did not win the battle on furniture for the main floor.
In 2013, the furniture was replaced. It was my turn to decorate the main floor and I have really enjoyed transforming the main floor to a more coastal home with a few farmhouse accents here and there, nothing over the top though. Originally, my colour palette included brighter turquoise accents, but has eventually evolved to the more muted coastal colour palette. I love it when a home feels relaxing when you enter it. If my house could be beside the ocean, I think I’d be set, but since now is not the time in our lives when that can happen, I try to bring the coast to us with subtle coastal pieces using rattan, wicker and other natural fibers. I still have a few pieces on my main floor that are dark and do not (in my opinion) go well, but I am still looking for the right pieces to replace them with.
In December 2019, I replaced my living room area rug with an Oriental area rug. It has been such a great rug for us. I purchased it from Wayfair and have loved the quality and seeing it in our living room.
Up until this past Spring, we have never had table lamps in the living room. What have we been missing? The addition of the table lamps from Wayfair have been a game changer. I love the dim lighting in the evening hours. In the winter months, it’ll be nice to have as well as the darkness sets much earlier.
I am still looking for the perfect coffee table to nestle between the chaise side of my couch and the straight run of the couch. My living room is a tight space and I struggle with laying out my furniture. I am leaning towards a circular table, but haven’t found exactly what I want yet. If you have any suggestions, please drop a comment down below.
During the pandemic, I thought I’d try my luck with sewing a slipcover prototype for my armchair. It was harder than I thought, but still doable. I have been waiting for the fabric stores to open up so I can make a proper slipcover. Now I’m just procrastinating. This sounds like a great Fall project when the cooler temperatures keep us indoors.
The end tables in the living room were refinished by a family member. I think they look amazing in our living room. I have had them in there and in our third floor TV room. I love them in both places, but for the summer months, they are needed in the living room.
I have enjoyed taking photographs of scenery on our vacations with the intentions of framing them. I have two of my photographs framed and hanging to the right of the mantel. The photos were taken in Huntington Beach, California. I understand that Ruby’s Diner at the end of the Huntington Beach Pier is no longer in business. I’m so glad that we were able to enjoy it while it was open. These photos are now even more special to us for this reason. Do you have souvenirs in your home that remind you of your travels? I love the memories they bring back to me of time spent with loved ones.
Thank you so much for reading my post today. I hope you will take time to subscribe to my blog. Please know that your subscription helps me tremendously. Thank you again.
Shari xo
