I am proud to announce we have an addition to the furniture clan here at Kitka, let me introduce you to our new (old) Børge Mogensen bench.

A while back Juli did some photography work for one of our favourite stores to loiter at in the city Machine Age Modern. Juli had some store credit left over from the shoot, and I was looking for something to spend it on. We were chatting with Jake and Carol about design and somehow we mentioned how Børge Mogensen was one of our all time favourite designers, and the owner Jake said that he had something in the back that may be of some interest to us. For the amount of store credit ($250) plus an additional $100 the bench was ours (basically what Jake paid for it).

It was a bit rough around the edges and pretty worn in, but the design was unmistakably Mogensen.

The Sofa was a contract piece for “Eaton’s”  and was used at Mount Sinai hospital (there was a Mount Sinai sticker and serial # but it was too hard to photograph). It was really neat to find out that something so familiar to the city like Eaton’s and Mount Sinai had Danish designs in their offices. I wonder if they commissioned Mogensen to produce these and there aren’t that many of them around, or if they were readily available for the public consumer…

The tired leather needs a lot of reinforcing to get back to it’s former glory. After the hours I spent refinishing that Danish Safari chair, I don’t know why I’m already jumping on another project.

The high density foam fillings they used on these old chair pads last forever, it’s always a big bonus to have the original cushions.

The solid oak slats on the back of the bench have a beautifully subtle curve to them, providing interest against the strong lined shape.

“AKTIESELSKABET – FREDERICIA STOLEFABRIK – MADE IN DENMARK – DESIGN: BORGE MOGENSEN”

I can’t wait to get to work on it! Hopefully I’ll have some updated pictures for you guys soon!

Renovation blogs are becoming quite popular these days, and with good reason. Young folk are following in their baby boomer parent’s steps buying fixer uppers and on a budget making them their own. The cheap suburban model will always exists, but it’s what people do with older homes that makes for interesting design and decorating. And this time around, we have the advantage of learning from our peers and their experiences about construction, materials and products that we wouldn’t necessarily have figured out or stumbled across ourselves.

So, since it’s Friday, I thought I’d give you some ample reading for the weekend (and possibly a little bit into next week…we promise no matter what, you will get a big reveal on Thursday!). The following are a few sites that we here at Kitka have been following lately.

The Brick House

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Morgan is forever changing up her look with amazing new furniture finds…and she is so THRIFTY she puts us to shame. She is one of those lucky people who lives in California and has access to bungalows—a rarity here—and old people’s stuff, and even though she bemoans her space once in awhile, her home is fab. Mostly she spares us the demolition dirt, and teaches us instead how to reinvigorate a room that you may have grown tired of (and she grows tired often). Keep an eye on her Etsy store because the accessories that go out the door often end up on there.

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The Townhouse

Amazing what a little paint can do…

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West Coast (Vancouver) blog Poppytalk’s husband and wife team have started another blog that will cover the renovation of their newly purchased townhouse. My attention was peaked when I read: We moved in at the beginning of the month, and are living in one room upstairs. This room is the master bedroom, where we’ve set up sleeping, eating, living and working quarters. I know, a little crazy, but like I said, this is a “makeover on a budget” and since we don’t have the luxury of renting a different place while we do this, we’ll just have to make it work. After having experienced the cottage reno, mouse poop, incessant dust, garbage mountain and all, I’d have to say this challenge should make for some very interesting blog posts!

Their townhouse is very 70s, decor and all, which should make for a gorgeous transformation. To aid along the way, they are discussing their inspirations, which will be fun to see how close they come to, or how far they stray from, in the end. This blog is fresh, so you’ll basically be following them from the start. FUN!

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Arren Williams

Rear view before

Rear view after, with new windows and doors. What a difference!

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Arren is a Toronto-based stylist, editor and trend reporter who is renovating a mid-60s house along with his partner David. This is a case of vision. Because seriously, if I had been shown this house I would have passed it by. This is because I remember as a child of no more than six, I lived on a lovely side street off of Yonge, north of Lawrence. And on this street, there was an anomoly, a 70s square building of about 3 storeys, probably containing 3 apartments, that I thought to be terribly ugly in amongst the typical houses in this neighborhood (upon reflection, I probably picked up this attitude from one of my parents, because it’s not normal for a 6-year old to notice things like this).  But Arren has shown me the way. The box style is perfect for a modern home so it appears that all these places need are new mod windows and doors, proper street appeal, and an updated interior (of course none of that is as simple as it sounds). Besides, I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. According to Arren in the early stages, Kind words and concerned looks [were] the norm.

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360 Winnett Ave.

Before – super cute, but tiny!

Getting there…modern, spacious and green.

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Jeremy and his wife are nearly finished building a brand spankin’ new home on top of the site of their initial post-war bungalow purchase in mid-Toronto. Their blog chronicles their entire experience, from chooing an architect, to buying windows, green solutions, financials, and all the nitty gritty that I can imagine is super confusing and scary when taking on a project like this.

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And finally, the renovation spectacle over here at Kitka is not over yet. As we mentioned, we are moving in November to the Junction area of Toronto. This is a whole new beginning for us, moving to a new neighborhood (and bribing our friends to follow suit), downsizing to an apartment from a house, and starting a business (which will be revealed to you in the next few months).

We are going to have to initially make the apartment our own through some smaller temporary projects, and at some point down the road, we will be doing a full transformation of making two apartments into one that we can grow into. Exciting times are ahead, indeed!

Ok, so we’re being a little bit terrible. The cottage is basically done and yes, we are totally holding out on the kitchen and full living room reveal. Mostly, this is because we are currently in a whirlwind of time deprivation. John is working every day this week until fairly late into the evening, we have a family event on the weekend and we’re in the midst of putting our home on the market. It’s crazy town. Contractors are flying about fixing all those annoying little projects and things that you easily learn to ignore for years on end, but that buyers will notice immediately. We’re looking to put it on the market for next weekend, so I am working double time to get things looking gorgeous (why can’t we just live our life like this? why do we become complacent with our space instead of keeping it tidy?).

I spent all day today unearthing the long forgotten floor of our office (I just walked in here to write this and said something to the cat—yes, I talk to my cat—and my voice actually echoed!). I am so inspired by the cottage and our minimal furniture and decorating, that I am determined to pare down the last 12 years of my life and break free from the STUFF.

So now that the update is over, back to the cottage.

Next year we may build a day bed for this front corner, but until then this is where the telescopes are. In the exposed shelving we’ve been going with a sailboat theme. The one on the left is an actual wooden toy sailboat John picked up in Port Dover years ago, and the picture on the right is a Marushka print we picked up on Etsy.  We’re toying with putting this crazy shell framed piece of art work that my dad picked up about 8 years ago in this area too.

This piece has baffled me since it first appeared on the scene. Yes, my dad got really into fish and water themed things, but this just seemed out of character, much to my immense enjoyment. The image itself is fantastic. A super old print of a man and woman in a rickety boat with a rough sea. It’s just so…romantic.

These two little rugs came from my grandmothers condo in Winnipeg. She was so obsessed with maintaining the carpeting that she covered major swaths of her place with little carpets, much to our collective exasperation (tripping and falling factor=high). The colours and graphic prints in these little rugs compliment the white floors perfectly.

And finally, John felt you needed something a bit more sexy than my random snapshots of stuff.

John here, I was lucky enough to find these two chairs during two separate occasions, it must have been fate. The chairs were designed by N. Eilerson marked made in Denmark, they are more commonly known as “Safari Chairs”.

We found our first Safari chair at Rogue Gallery in Queen St East several months ago, it was in Martin’s infamous “storage unit”. It wasn’t doing anyone any good just sitting there in storage so Martin let us take it off his hands for $75 dollars. The second chair wasn’t as easy. I found it on an eBay auction a few weeks later, except this one was a bright orange and the “Buy it Now” price was a staggering $350. Having just purchased the exact chair for $75 weeks before I sent her an offer explaining that I had just purchased the same chair at a reputable furniture dealer in Toronto, and my offer of $100 dollars was more than fair. The seller accepted, and it was only a 40 minute drive away to pick it up! The really horrible thing was sanding down all of that orange paint! It took me forever, and the orange got all over my clothes. I don’t know how many hours it took to remove all that awful orange but the result is so worth it.

I’ve never had a matching pair of chairs in a living room, they look so great together.

Now to avoid complete over exposure on our part, we’d love for you to share your spaces with us. We used to do this more when we started the blog, and we’d love to get back to it!

Don’t make us beg.