There was something missing in the living room at the cottage. We needed a coffee table, but we didn’t want anything covering our rug, and we didn’t think that a glass table was that appropriate for a cottage.

The solution?

The Castor table designed by Hans Sandgren Jacoben for Askman. The two trays are reversible (white or black) and they are removable so you can bring them in the kitchen with you to easily carry a snack back to the sofa while watching Mad Men.

Isha is passed out in the background. So. Hot.

I think it needs a few books on the bottom…

Better.

We installed some birch shelves by Alvar Aalto on either side of the fireplace. They are looking fantastic!

Vintage Moomin character dolls.

Savoy vase with wild daises.

We installed a Bilberry pendant light aimed at the wall to the left of our fireplace. We don’t really have much lighting in the cottage and at night it can be really dark around here so the extra spotlight is a welcomed addition. Plus the light is so cool! It almost has its own face.

The concrete Sailor we purchased from Johan Pergenius made his long trip from Sweden to Canada. It arrived last week and we brought him to the cottage.

Thanks Johan!

Juli and I must be putterers because we always seem to come up with more projects to do while we’re at the cottage. One thing that always bugged us was the entrance way. It’s the first thing you walk into when you enter the cottage and you’re greeted with yellow knotty pine, a terrible light fixture, and an exposed coat rack.

The first thing I did was paint everything white and replace the ugly glass ceiling fixture (which seems to make an appearance in every apartment in Toronto) with a simple ceramic fitting.

Note to self: We really need to replace that old brown metal door!

Juli has been taking Japanese dress making classes and now she has a lot of confidence with the sewing machine. She made this great gingham curtain to hide our jackets and shoes.

Another quick fix was this simple doormat and cast iron door stop by Makoto Koizumi.

It looks just like a river stone.

We put up a little coat rack behind the door for another place to hang stuff. You can never have too many hangers!

Here is a picture of how the entryway looked before. Even with the sunlight coming in, it was still really dark.

By no means has this summer at the cottage been as busy as last year, but we’ve still been finding problems here and there that need to be taken care of. One thing we’ve been putting off for two years has been changing out the ugly lattice that runs along the side of the deck.

One of the big pushes for us was seeing how amazing Morgan’s (from the Brick House) slats turned out in front of her home!

The before…

The sliding door.

And the result!

I can’t believe it took us so long! For some reason we thought it was beyond our skill level, until Juli got fed up and demanded that we figure it out. It was a rough start at Home Depot, when we realized they didn’t really sell the size of slats we were looking for (and they don’t rip–cut along the grain–larger pieces). After circling the lumber department 5 times, we finally noticed some 1.5 inch thick slats of red cedar. It wasn’t the budget choice, but it was the only choice, and we figured that the savings we made not hiring someone were compensation enough. Plus, the cedar is gorgeous and these are like feature walls, so it ended up being beyond worth it.

The slats were spaced out 1.5 inches apart and by some divine grace the slats of the door actually line up perfectly.

By this point we gave each other a high-five, took a beer break, and admired our handy work.

After doing the first two, we knew we needed to finish the other side.

We got right to work. I was obviously dressed appropriately.

Another great transformation, another high five.

Next weekend, we’ll have new outdoor furniture, and hopefully some greenery for the deck too!

In other news, for dinner on Friday we had steamed clams!

Isha: I bring you mouse, you give me baguette. That’s how it works, right?

Riiight?

This weekend we were greeted with two new additions to our outdoor space up north (and a tidy yard, hooray!). The rain kept us all inside, but the new birch trees probably appreciated it.

Isha spotted this little critter whilst out on the deck. By the time I returned with the camera, Isha had retreated to the safety of the cottage. The wildlife approves.

Sunday night we were excited to head up north again. Now that Isha doesn’t have her brother to keep her company we decided to bring her with us! She was a very good girl the ride up and didn’t talk to much, I think she could tell by our body language that she wasn’t going to the vet. She quickly decided that the safari chair was hers to claim.

During our stay we stopped by a local antique market and picked up a vintage milk bottle with heart motifs. It reminds us of the enamel Kaj Franck bowls we have with the same heart motif.

I got around to installing the red Arne Jacobsen wall mounted bathroom fixtures. It’s hard to find toothbrushes that fit, since everything is so inflated these days – incidentally, these toothbrushes are made out of recycled yogurt cups and can be purchased at The Sweet Potato in the Junction. The soap holder on the right is a magnet and the soap has a bottle cap embedded into it. They’re very nautical and match the mirror perfectly.

We still need to find someone to install the Malm fireplace we got last year. those are all bags of cement sitting in it.

We also put up a broom and dustpan designed by Oji Masanori. We got to put it to use cleaning up some cat food, it worked great!

While we were hanging outside on the deck Isha would put her face to the screen and meow at us so we decided we would give her a chance (“this is your chance Isha, now don’t blow it”) and let her out onto the deck. The deck itself is gated and there weren’t that many possibilities for escape, but boy was she curious about the outside world. The best moment was when a moth flew by and she frolicked after it (not above, that is a leaf). Big paws strikes again!

And as always, our cat matches our style. Unfortunately for the white sofa.

First, let me just thank everyone who left a comment on our Cottage renovation reveal!

We celebrated the completion of the cottage with some friends over the weekend. When we made it back to the city it dawned on us… This may have been the last weekend we’ll have up here this season. Of course we’ll have to board up the cottage at the end of the month so we’ll be able to say our goodbyes, but we took our last dip in Georgian Bay on Saturday. It’s quite sad, we spent so much time working and renovating I don’t feel we had enough time to really enjoy it.

When our guests left Sunday morning we weren’t as eager to leave, I had Juli’s camera out and took some more photographs of the cottage. I know we’ve been giving you cottage overload lately, but you’ll have to wait a year to see it again!

It got pretty chilly in the mornings so we started a fire, and we kept it burning all day. It reminds me how desperate I am for a fireplace at home during the Canadian winters.

Super cosy.

We picked up a Tivoli radio at Bay Bloor Radio on the way up to the cottage Friday. We’re always listening to the CBC during the drives to and from the cottage, we even had an on going joke about calling the cottage “Definitely Not Sarah’s Cottage”, after seeing Sarah Richardson’s Georgian Bay cottage on her design T.V. show. We would refer to our cottage as “DNSC” after the CBC program “Definitely Not The Opera”… It’s just nice having something on in the background while you’re making breakfast or laying around flipping through a magazine. Plus you can hook an Ipod up to it and have a crazy dance party.

This old atomic magazine rack from the 50s made a terrific firewood carrier.

Stacked logs.

Elk antlers.

Ceramic figurines thrifted on our trip to Scandinavia.

The ceiling slightly resembles a leaf.

Here’s a closer look at our under counter fridges’ handles, we made it from scrap wood from the kitchen’s birch ply counter top.

It was as simple as cutting the shape of a handle and drilling it directly into the plywood covers with some super strong decking screws. Just cover up the holes with wood filler, sand it down after it dries, and seal it with a clear coat finish.

A wonderful fish tea towel we purchased in Stockholm.

Red cross.

We purchased these at Value Village, they’re so cool looking on the wall.

“Avoiding Goblins to be caught by Wolves”

We picked up some 2 dollar Super Nintendo games at the Salvation Army, it was really fun playing some nostalgic video games, plus Super Mario Cart two player was quite the hit!

Hygge.