Traumatic Kitchen Renovation
Here’s a fast review of my worst winter in 50 years experience. Start with the longest winter ever, add the worst flu I’ve ever experienced, smother with the depressing ‘Trump’ effect, and toss in a full kitchen renovation and you get the idea? Gratefully the sun has just reappeared and spring is just around the corner and we are almost coming to the end of the kitchen renovation, an experience nobody could have forewarned me about! I met up with a kitchen designer employed by a cabinet store in November, and in no time he provided a plan and a shopping list. He was going to...
Read More12 Fun Furniture Finds
Living on Vancouver Island, all of us are very aware of nature and most of us are animal lovers, so how much fun would it be to fill your home with furniture inspired by animals? Recently, I wrote an article on 20 fun-shaped designs that range from this pretty awesome cow cupboard (by Marcantonio Raimondi Malerba) to an owl partition screen. The 20 designs include birds, animals, and even a whale design, all incorporated into animal-shaped or painted furniture – you should see the goth-looking hand painted pink flamingo chairs. There are so many designs that I even managed to do a separate...
Read MoreTrendy and Functional
Back in May of this year, Bruce and I bought a new house, spent two months doing the obligatory tear out of all things not liked and the next two months moving in and moving our shop, all while having the busiest year for Design House to date. Something had to give and for six months I did not do any new art nor did I write for Trendir and I cut way back on my writings for LocaLHomeSpot.com as well. In a previous article, I talked about my new assignment with Trendir, a Chicago-based online design magazine for whom I write home tours on house designs and modern interiors from around the...
Read MoreSmall Space Living
Earlier this year, I was approached to design a self-contained suite within a detached building on my customer’s property. The building is 16’-6”x13”-6” and was already separated into two sections, each with their own entrance. The idea was to turn the larger of the two spaces into the social/sleeping and kitchen zones and steal enough space from the second zone to build a bathroom, still allowing the homeowners to retain a small storage space for their outdoor furnishings come winter. The homeowners had one jumping off point and that was an abstract metal sculpture that resembled...
Read MoreIt’s All About The Contrast
When my Comox customers first approached me to come up with a whole home concept to convert their single family 2-storey home into a residence with a self-contained rental suite downstairs, I got very excited. Now that the renovations are complete, I am just as excited. Originally the homeowner wanted a white-on-white kitchen with white walls and pale flooring. She was a fan of mid-century and Scandinavian design and had a collection of vintage pieces scattered throughout her home. I didn’t want her “new” home to be caught in the trap of one look – and a period one at that...
Read MoreWhimsical White Washroom
White is not one of my favourite wall colours, UNLESS it is paired with bright multi-coloured accessories. There is nothing like a clean white backdrop to showcase a collection of items in bright eye-popping shades of the rainbow. When Redonda bought a new home and wanted it renovated to suit her taste and lifestyle, the upstairs washroom was not first on the list for a complete redo. Instead, we worked with what was already there. This was easy to do since everything was new – just not to Redonda’s tastes. The only thing we changed within the room’s bones was the colour of the ceiling,...
Read MoreDog Days of Summer
There’s no denying it; summer is here and we are firmly entrenched in the dog days of summer. With the heat of the season comes the opportunity to “fun up” the look of your home in a way that doesn’t just focus on us humans. We all know about bringing in fun pops of colour in vases, pillows, towels and so on, but what about the floor and all of your pooches toys? These beautiful Harry Barker dog toys are a great way to add a bit of beach flavour to any room in the house, and your dog will thank you for it too. On the deck or in the garden, The Company Store pet Adirondack...
Read MoreArtsy Coffee Shop Redo
We were excited to take on the interior design of Campbell River’s Serious Coffee earlier this year. Before we began, the coffee shop was orange everywhere – display counter, all the walls and even the bathroom ceiling. But orange is just a colour and can easily be replaced with a more current scheme in both the paint and the materials chosen. The brief from the chain’s headquarters was to create an industrial West Coast vibe with an emphasis on creating a space that would showcase the rotating artwork on the shop’s gallery walls. I think this end result fits the brief...
Read MoreCurated Cat Designs
Everyone knows I love dogs; after all, I write a regular blog called Dax’s Dog Spot, and I’ve written previously for Island Woman about customizable dog beds, dog decor and designing for dogs, but I also love cats. Unfortunately my husband is VERY allergic to them so I keep my feline fun down to a minimum and make sure I change clothes and wash hands before having any contact with Bruce. That said, enjoying awesome cat designs causes absolutely no allergies whatsoever. While purr-fectly paw-some designs for cats don’t cause allergies, they do cause elevated pulse – I mean who...
Read MoreMerging Art + Architecture
I was so mesmerized and impressed by this latest merging of art and architecture that it got me revisiting some of my other “Ev Fan Favourites” and it wasn’t hard to come up with a selection of uber exciting examples to write about; the only hard part was keeping it to five! Samantha Everton’s Masquerade Artwork Surreal Building FacadeKavellaris Urban Design and Samantha Everton’s structural composition of art and architecture culminated in a building called “2 Girls”. Located in Melbourne, Australia and using the photo art Masquerade from Samantha Everton’s “Vintage...
Read MoreThe Art of Hanging Art
It never fails to amaze me how many people say they wish they could hang more of their art in their homes, but they can’t because their walls are full. Then I take a look and realize that the walls aren’t full of art at all. After rearranging their collections to create compositions that include more then one piece per wall area, the results are usually far more interesting and include more pieces than before. Homeowners usually hang art or photos in a line, with way too much space between each piece. For example, in the foyer shown at right, most people would have hung one piece over...
Read MoreTiny Kitchen Transformation
The transformation of Tina’s kitchen from how it began to what it is now still amazes me. Now a large and functional space with lots of counter and plenty of storage, it features a custom island with a Barris Butcher Block on top made out of Canadian Hardrock Maple and South American Purple Heart. We were originally asked by Tina’s husband to come by his home and see if there was anything we could do with Tina’s tiny kitchen. They had owned their home for ten years and had always wanted to do something with the original teeny tiny space, but to this point, no one had a solution...
Read MoreAvant-Garde Upcycling
With upcycling being the new “IT” word, and recycling materials seen as a way to create fun and fabulous designs for both interior and exterior lifestyles, Pinterest and other sites are being bombarded with zillions of upcycled designs that are really not much better – and sometimes worse – than the original product. This is a shame because it leaves the impression that upcycled generally means junky. Yet there are so many amazing designs out there – some of them avante garde – that are truly inspiring, such as this oh-so-fun paper mache installation called “Linda the...
Read MoreRockin’ Reindeer
Each year it seems I have a different focus when itcomes to holiday décor. Last year it was all about tree imagery and this year finds me focusing on reindeer. Rockin’ ReindeerIt all started on a trip through Art Knapp’s in Courtenay back in November on my way home from a jobsite. I stumbled across a pair of metal deer in a hammered silver finish. The pair were just so darn adorable that I immediately purchased them, knowing they would be an integral part of my 2014 holiday home. I had no qualms about the purchase as I set myself a budget every year to spend on holiday items, and...
Read MoreThe Artistic Process
It is coming on two years since I started writing for Island Woman and in that time I have presented numerous interior design projects and inspirations. What I haven’t yet done is feature the fine art aspect of “Evelyn M Interior Designer and Artist”, so I thought I would give you a glimpse of how artistic expression begins within me as a thought that progresses into a concept and finally, a finished mixed media canvas. I have chosen seven of my 2014 paintings that express the natural flow from one abstract inspiration to the next. Venus Pi TrapperOriginally I wanted to create a...
Read MoreChalkboard for the Modern Home
Once reserved for playrooms and schools, the functional and somewhat dreaded chalkboard has metamorphosed into a super fun statement that can jazz up the most discerning of tastes. I love a good chalkboard design but have found many of my clients are afraid to try it out – if that’s you, the reader, I’ve attached four awesome examples that are sure to ease your trepidation. Chalkboard Kitchen Here, Int2 Architecture of Moscow has painted one complete wall with chalkboard paint, including the built-in shelving and baseboards, for a smooth overall appearance. Combined with the naturally...
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