Edmonton Downtown Apartment Project

Today I'll share with you one of the first rooms I decorated out side of my own home. This is the home of my beautiful and strong mom-in-law (aka mom) Jamila. She is a confidante and a strong influence in my life! It was so kind of her to trust me with this project! Thank you for the support mom!
We started the room with the Cedric sofa from Urban Barn and built on to it. We kept the scheme simple, with shades of grey and browns with pops of color in the pillows and throw.  The room desperately needs some wall hangings, a rug and some styling but again it was over two years ago and I was just a beginner!

The coffee table was actually my mom's find and I believe it fits in really well!

This throw pillow was my favourite, from HomeSense. And the throw is from Ikea.

Can you believe these chairs are actually recliners? You wouldn't know it if you just looked at them. They have style and function. My nephews and nieces love to flip them around for watching television. They were also from HomeSense! I'm on the lookout for similar piece for our basement movie room!

The brown chair was purchased from Kincaid furnishings and it was an homage to the walnut brown stain of some hardwood floor boards and the accent wall behind the fireplace. Most of the other walls are beige. This room gets a ton of light from the windows on all sides of the room, my mom loves that about this home.

I'll shoot some more pictures next time of the updates that we made in the foyer about a year ago. I love that dark stained front door, so luxurious!

That foyer table is an original EP Interiors restoration, it was purchased second hand, then primed, painted in jet black and sealed with a protective clear coat!  

Looking at these pictures makes me realize how much I've learned about styling and design over the past two years!

Hope you enjoyed this walk-through!

Ameera

J'adore Home 5: Kitchen Cabinets and Hardwood Floors

We had a flood! A refrigerator flood that mangled the hardwood in our kitchen and dining! The Home Insurance covers only 40% of the main floor but we are adding to the cost to replace the flooring on the entire main floor! Hardwood throughout the main floor sounds like a luxury to me. But todays post is not about hardwood floors! Its about the colours of cabinets to floors. First let's explore the contrast option.

Traditional Kitchen by Solon Interior Designers & Decorators House of L Interior Design

This style has a more casual and lived in look. Beautiful to the eye and when you enter a room like this, you have so much to look at! The floors, cabinets, pulls, countertops and everything else eye candy! Since they matched the chair fabric to the floors to some degree, there is a cohesiveness here despite the contrast.

Traditional Kitchen by Ottawa Cabinets & Cabinetry Laurysen Kitchens Ltd.

or consider this combination! Espresso brown cabinets with dark walnut floors! Your eyes go straight to the floors.. The cabinets are acting as a backdrop for the grain of the hardwood floors. For even more contrast, look at the light and bright counters, this whole kitchen is so dramatic but beautiful! Despite all of that beauty I find myself leaning towards the tone on tone look of cabinets and wood floors. like this one: Sure its a bit more traditional but it feels more cohesive and the eye is drawn towards other elements like that fireplace or the pendants!

Transitional Kitchen by Prescott Home Builders Dorn Homes

And finally there are these three kitchens:

Traditional Kitchen

Here we see that the floors are matched to the wood on the cabinets however some cabinets with the glass doors have a contrasting paint colour. The designer is emphasizing this portion of the kitchen, our eye is drawn to this focal wall! Some beautiful crisp white serving dishes and that beautiful hood fan above the stove are must haves in my dream kitchen!

Traditional Kitchen

This one is dark from floors to cabinets to builtins and paint! but those wall kitchen cabinets are set apart in white. This is another combination of mixing the cohesive and contrast look! Dramatic and feels custom! Not sure if this will work in our space, our fireplace is very country chic not quite as classy as this dark builtin effect!

Traditional Kitchen by Lake Forest Kitchen & Bath Fixtures Preferred Kitchen & Bath

This kitchen actually has the colour scheme of our current kitchen. We have cherry wood cabinets with stainless steel appliances, stone countertops are still a work in progress.. This kitchen mixes the contrast and cohesive look. Uppers and lowers along the wall are matched to the flooring but the contrasting element is the island! This is most definitely my style! It makes the island the focal point for the whole room! Our island is 84 inches by 52 inches, perhaps it needs to be the focal point, it definitely has the size for it! So what to do? Contrasting or cohesive? Which do you prefer? any other suggestions that I should consider before signing on the dotted line...
 Best wishes, Ameera

I'm back!

After a long and much needed hiatus. I'm back with more DIYs, musings, design ideas and J'adore Home. I've been up to a lot, lots of DIYs, a Mother's Day Marathon, grieving for a loved one, school work, design work and everything in between. I wish I had some glamorous story for all that time away from the ol' blog but unfortunately its been all normal life stuff. I definitely need a vacation away from Calgary sometime soon!!
I've also been pinning like crazy on Pinterest, so if you're interested check out my boards- Ameera Jalal
I hope that I can post more frequently this time around.
Talk to you soon,
Ameera

Pinterest inspired upcycle

In honour of Earth Day, I have decided to share with you an upcycle that I am especially proud of. This is the story of my upcycled CD art.