Woman in Real Life

Over the past few days I have used muscles that I'm quite sure I had never used before. Not for a very long time anyway! My husband had been installing our beautiful millwork from Metrie whenever he had a spare moment or two over the last few weeks. You can read more about that process and our paint choices in this post.

Then I heard there was an opening in the Canadian Bloggers Holiday Home Tour this week and I thought, "Why not?" As in, why not finish installing the trim, painting the walls and trim, buying and hanging artwork, accessorizing and doing a bunch of little Christmas diys in one short week? Good thinking, right? My husband would definitely not have made that choice. But I kindly made the decision for both of us. So we put up our wallpaper feature wall on Friday night and we worked all through the weekend. Despite my sore muscles, I'm really glad we did! I have to say I truly love our new foyer space.


Knowing that my colour scheme for the foyer makeover would be black, white, gray and touches of teal, I created this diy Christmas wreath above (instructions here) to introduce the black and white theme even before entering the house. Once inside, it feels like a completely different house now. I wish you could have seen our foyer before! Oh yeah, you can. Check out this post to see the strikingly different "before" photographs. You'll see that the end result is in keeping with the mood board I created at the start, with the impromptu addition of some newly purchased accessories.


As with the exterior of the door, we painted the interior of the door with Fusion Mineral Paint in Coal Black. The door has certainly been used and abused over the years but the paint gives the illusion of a brand new door for a small cost.


We have a lot of short, angled walls in the foyer. (My husband can tell you that makes for a lot of cuts when it comes to baseboards and crown moulding!) I decided to create a feature wall inside the door using wallpaper. It is actually the first time we've ever used wallpaper. I'm not going to lie - we were scared! But we worked together and it wasn't that bad. I think part of the reason was that we used the type of wallpaper where you paste the wall rather than the paper - it's Graham & Brown Superfresco Easy wallpaper. And we only needed one roll! So we got to return the second roll we thought we would need.


Although so much is new in our foyer, we had already installed the dark hardwood flooring several years back. I decided to return our reclaimed wood bench to the space too - it is quite beaten up now but I think it just adds to the charm. And let's face it, a new bench would be beaten up in no time anyway.

Once our foyer renovation was complete, I was so thrilled to have a bright, clean backdrop to dress up with Christmas decor. The Metrie chair rails and picture frame wainscoting make the space so much more sophisticated. All of the trim is painted in Benjamin Moore's Simply White and the walls are painted in Intense White, which has a gray hue. These fresh whites make accessorizing a joy. You can pretty much do whatever you want - whether it's bold, bright colours or natural accents such as pine cones and greenery.


I browsed Afloral.com to find gorgeous faux flowers for my Christmas decor. I looked for whites and creams to accentuate our refreshed space. First off, I had to have this sweet little bunch of tulips in white. I knew just what I wanted to do with them. I put them in a wee vintage glass vase and then I wrapped the same ribbon I had used for my diy wreath around the vase, gluing it in place with a hot glue gun. (I first trimmed the ribbon to make it more narrow.) I made a small bow with the ribbon, tying it with a twist tie and covering the twist tie up with twine. Then you just glue the bow on and voila, a quick diy vase in my foyer/Christmas colour scheme!

Easiest-Ever Gift Wrap Idea!

I bought a big tube of kraft paper when I made my diy hand-printed Christmas gift wrap. For my foyer's Christmas decor, I used that same paper to wrap a couple of gifts. I then added Seal-It Glitter Tape in silver for the pretty look of ribbon without the hassle of tying ribbon. The other nice thing about this glitter tape is the glitter does not come off! How much do you hate when glitter gets all over the place? I also hot glued on some of the Afloral.com faux leaves that were left over when I cut the rose heads to put on my diy wreath. This wrapping idea takes mere minutes and it's hassle-free (unless you burn your fingers with the hot glue - hello, did it).


I also picked out these cream magnolias and placed them in one of my milk glass vases. Behind them, I placed two taller gladiolus stems in white.


I used the silver glitter tape to add a touch of glamour to one of the milk glass vases, quickly wrapping two pieces around the upper portion of the vase. A makeover in minutes seconds!




I adore this cushion - and everything else designed by Toronto's imm Living. This is the Dancing Swans Black Swan Cushion and I think it works so well with our colour scheme. Plus, it adds some drama to our bench.



I also got these Mortise Collection Doorknobs wall jewelry holders from imm Living. I think they add whimsy to the space (as does my little deer who clearly wants to be out in the snow).


I always gravitate towards a touch of rustic. This teak armoire is my favourite piece of furniture. We got it at an auction many years ago. We moved it down to our refreshed foyer space from our bedroom (leaving a gap there that now needs to be filled!) I feel that the renovated space can carry the weight of an armoire now with all of the beautiful trim surrounding it. I have stashed our hats and scarves in here so they are handy to the front door but not out in the open.


To decorate the armoire for Christmas, I asked my daughter to make this little garland using twine and mini candy canes. This is a great diy for a child (who is old enough to tie knots). As long as they don't eat all the candy canes. I also added fresh greens trimmed from the bottom of our Christmas tree, a lantern with faux candles, a basket and a trio of pottery vases.


A garland addiction is a real thing. I'm living proof. I made another garland out of twine, white-tinted pine cones and white ball thingys (correct name right?) left over from potpourri. This is another easy diy garland that kids can help to make. I love how my rustic side table (pulled from my office) looks against the Metrie picture frame wainscot.



I cut a quick Merry Christmas decal in gold foil adhesive for my mirror. I had originally intended to buy a full-length floor mirror to lean against this wall, but I bought more accessories than I planned, so we put back a mirror we already had. I like how it reflects the wallpaper feature wall.


We couldn't resist this hipster fox dude. Our foyer is much more sophisticated now, but we also don't want it to be too serious.


One element that made a huge difference to the space is the new lighting we got from Wayfair.ca. We had one of those boob lights in the space and we really hadn't thought about how dull it looked. But once we had this Yucca Valley Flush Mount fixture up, we were like, "Oh now we need to change all of the other lights in the house." It's just so sleek and clean. And it doesn't hang down really low so it's great for 8-foot ceilings.

Now that we love our foyer makeover so much, we need to change the rest of the house to match! But I don't think that's going to happen any time soon.

By the way, it's going to be a daily challenge to keep the foyer this tidy. And we'll obviously have to add a boot tray. The boys came home while I was taking pictures. I didn't even notice the shoes on the mat until I was editing the photos. Sigh.

Does your foyer need a little love? How is your holiday decor coming along? Do you go for a simple, natural look or a "more is more" approach?

Steps in Our Foyer Makeover

The Before + Mood Board
The Progress Report
The Reveal  (you are here)

Thank you to our sponsors:

Thank you to these wonderful sponsors who provided materials for our foyer makeover:


We are also grateful for the products we received from imm Living, Afloral.com, Fusion Mineral Paint and Seal-It. All opinions expressed are authentic and my own.

Other sources: 

We bought the Graham & Brown Superfresco Easy wallpaper at The Home Depot. The silver Christmas tree on the floor, the crystal lamp and the deer and fox artwork were purchased at HomeSense. I got the silver Christmas tree with lights picture at Winners.

Canadian Bloggers Holiday Home Tour

Get ready for an abundance of Christmas decor inspiration! Every day this week, Canadian decor and lifestyle bloggers are unveiling their homes all decked out for the holidays. I can't wait to dive into these posts. Be sure to come back all week to see new posts each day. Or follow along on social media with the hashtag #CBHomeTour.





Monday

northern style exposure
The Learner Observer
The Uncommon Law
Heather In Heels
Clean and Scentsible
The Sweetest Digs

Tuesday

Amidst the Chaos
Brooklyn Berry Designs
lemon Thistle
Suburble
Life is a Party
PMQ for two

Wednesday

Love Create Celebrate
Satori Design for Living
A Pop of Pretty
So Much Better With Age
VinYet ETC
Woman in Real Life

Thursday

The DIY Mommy
Fresh Crush
Time With Thea
A Pretty Life
Home To Heather
Nalles House

Friday

This Little Estate
Craftberry Bush
The Happy Housie
Kimpowerstyle
Elliven Studio


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