a peek inside the fishbowl

Oh my pretties. I’ve been sitting on this blog post for SOME TIME NOW and I’m happy to finally be delivering the deliverables.* :)

Some time ago a lady from Canadian Tire emailed me a copy of the Canadian Tire Spring/Summer catalogue and asked me if I would consider flipping through it and maybe test driving some solar lights.

I was surprised she was contacting me, especially since my review of their product wasn’t exactly glowing. ;)

Still, I had no problem saying yes. I have a secret soft-spot in my heart for Canadian Tire. After all, they are a major part of the Canadian landscape! Canadian Tire was Big Box before long before the Big Box concept. What kid hasn’t bought sports equipment there? Or collected Canadian Tire money? Or wandered the aisles with dad looking for the right kind of nails/caulking/paintbrushes?

Anyway, our email exchange lead to a discussion about our back veranda. I sent the lady a couple of photos. VERY VERY EMBARASSING PHOTOS. Here’s one of them:

The room is basically a back porch with a roof over it … a three-season room with no insulation whatsoever.

When the girls were small we used this space as a playroom. There was a play kitchen and a trunk full of toy food and other kitchen/outdoorsy playthings but we’ve never used this room to its full potential. In the winter it stores our outdoor furniture and our recyclables (which is what you’re seeing above) and in the other seasons it’s been host to a hodge-podge of random furnishings which rendered it USABLE but gave off a distinct feeling of POOR STUDENT at the same time.

After some discussion about what would fit best, Canadian Tire came to my rescue. After much hemming and hawing and furniture assembly and endless sorting of rocks and seashells we finally have a pretty little room that I love.

Behold:

What is missing from this photo is the 3ft. patch of unpainted wood on the ceiling. I scraped and scraped and scraped the flaking wood plank ceiling but ended up leaving it because I couldn’t scrape any more and it was sucking the very life out of me. I scraped for half a day and got nowhere. There’s 50 years worth of paint embedded into the wood. So I left it. (My mother is shaking her head in utter dismay right now because my father used to build entire rooms, lay flooring, and scrape paint with his teeth!! Ha. Kidding about that last part. I know. I’m a failure.)

I promise to return to the paint issue another day. Or hire someone else to do it.

More details! First, the shelf. I spent a long time sorting it all out. Each collection is on a tray which can be pulled out for closer inspection.

We have an ongoing shoe issue. I’m not sure how to resolve this one, but there it is:

Here’s a view of the shelf above the couch:

I like this pot:

Here’s the view of the yard while sitting at the table:

And a few things on our folding dining table (which I would like to replace some day, but it does the trick for now):

And just so you don’t think that Mark wasn’t allowed to have anything of his in the room I want to show you where I put The Magnet of Bachelor Days Gone By:

What do you think of putting a rug in an outdoor type of room? I like how it pulls it together but I’ll tell ya, we unrolled it a few days ago and it smells … like paint! The open windows are hopefully letting the the fumes escape before we lose some brain cells.

What I like about the room:

• Curtains! I know they don’t quite make it across the wall/window but we decided to make use of a rod we already had. I like how the sheers are flowy and summery and give us privacy we never had before.
• Places to sit! The modular couch is comfortable, not fall-asleep-cozy-nuzzled-in-the-couch kind of comfy, but comfy all the same. It’s from the Enso collection, and it’s modular so you can pick the components you like and figure out the best configuration for you. I like the red too, as well as the dark brown and tan cushions which came with it (all colours we use in our living room) but I might still throw in another cushion with a brighter pattern, just to liven it up.
• I like that the room reflects who we are.
• I like the visual division between mud-room and sitting area. We needed to accommodate for all the mucky gardening boots, leaves and grass clippings that somehow find their way into this room EVERY SINGLE DAY.

What’s next:

• I’d like to get a big weatherproof outdoor clock on the west-facing wall.
• New table and chairs?
• The paint issue (sigh). I can’t ignore it forever.

Anyway, that’s it!

We’re all very happy to have a new room to enjoy. It’s been a lot of work to pull it all together but we’re all extremely pleased. Thank you Canadian Tire!

* Please note: Canadian Tire paid for some of the furnishings in my veranda but I was in no way obligated to write this post or give a favourable review.