Recently we became acquainted with Arne, a Dane living in Canada. I forget where he said his cottage is, but suffice it to say it doesn’t matter–it’s up north, it’s gorgeous and we are jealous of its lack of annoying neighbors.

This combination of rocks, water and evergreen trees reminds us of the boat rides we took in the Scandinavian fjords.

Arne had all of the windows made in Denmark and shipped over to get that authentic look, as well as the quality of Danish handiwork.

What a great bookcase that doubles as a room divider (or so it looks in the photo). That plus the wood paneling and slate tiles makes for a harmonious natural space.

From the deck it must feel like they are right on top of the water. And check out that extensive view from multiple angles!

I think we should have a cottage swap sometime….

Well I’m at work for the entire week (yeah that’s right 7 days straight!) So we’ve been pretty slow with posts lately, but right now Juli is at the cottage finishing up before the long weekend. She sent me a couple pictures via her iphone camera of the progress so far.

I know it looked like we were close to the finish in our last post, but there is still a lot of work to do…

The bathroom floor still needs to be painted and sealed, but the pedestal sink and that cool modern faucet look great!

There are still some parts of the floor that need to be painted, but I’m liking the look of our plywood accent walls.

Juli took her good camera up to the cottage, so hopefully we’ll have some nicer shots to share!

Our apologies for not getting many posts up over the last week. We’re right in the thick of a huge project (that we think you will love us for in the end, so hold tight!). I’m popping up north so hopefully by weeks end we’ll at least have some renovation updates to share!

Never fear, we’ll be back asap!

Well we’ve decided to give up the goods. The cottage is still such a mess, but we wanted to have a little area that looked a bit finished. We are really excited to wrap this reno up so it’s images like this that get us through the long tedious process.

The two chairs on the end are dark blue and are by designer Jorgen Baekmark for FDB Møbler, while the 6 black chairs are also for FDB Møbler by Folke Palsson.

The table is the “Two Tops Table” by Marcel Wanders for Moooi in a matt black finish. It was one of those crazy deals that happens once in a lifetime. Apparently a movie company decided to rent this table for a film and during transportation they dropped it or damaged it and the leg broke off. The movie company was responsible for the table and had to come up with some quick cash to pay for it. They asked if the Queen West Antique Center could sell it for them at a crazy low price to help out with the bill. We were just at the right place at the right time and got the table at a steal for $700. You would have to add another 0 on the end of that number to buy it new.

The disappointing thing about the table is the quality… The top is made from MDF and it just doesn’t feel like a high quality table, it feels more like a $700 table. That said, we do love the size. We were picturing a large harvest table to sit all our friends and family, and at 8 1/2 feet we could easily fit 10 people around this thing. Even better than that are the tapered legs, which are very shaker influenced and work so well with the Møbler chairs.  I couldn’t imagine a better looking table for the cottage.

Is it wrong that our cottage is starting to look better than our home?

Cottage teaser # 1 is finished, but we still have a lot more to reveal!

We have two pairs of friends who recently got engaged to be married. Congratulations Jen & Taylor and Julia & Payman!!! So in honor of our bridezillas to be, here’s our vote for florist to ease you into party planning madness. Also, eco|stems is located right next door to UpsideDive. Twofer!

Who are you?

Joseph Delarge is the owner of eco|stems. He has seven years of experience in the floral industry and is a four time award-winning Floral Designer. He has a certificate in Floral Design from Seneca College and a diploma in Horticulture from Niagara College. Joseph sits on the Seneca College Floral Design Program Advisory Committee. Joseph is also a Master Gardener, is a Student Member of the American Institute of Floral Design (SAIFD), and is a member of the Toronto Botanical Garden.

eco|stems can help with anything from weddings and events, corporate clients and accounts, sympathies and condolences and with people who just want some flowers to take home or delivered to a friend or that special someone.

Throughout our operations we try to make a difference by being Bullfrog Powered, reducing water use, using biodegradable, recycled and recyclable packaging, reducing emissions from car use by providing bicycle deliveries, reducing energy consumption, reusing and repurposing floral containers and materials, reducing and diverting waste and always buying used before new.
Drop by our store at 267 Queen Street East or call 416-214-6479. Visit our website to learn more, www.ecostems.ca.

How long has the store been open?

eco|stems has been open for 9 weeks as of Thursday, July 16, 2009.

Why did you open your store?

I opened eco|stems because I love flowers and plants, it has always been my dream to own my own flower shop.  I also saw a need for a more environmentally and socially sustainable flower shop in Toronto

What can people expect to find when visiting your store?

When people come to eco|stems they can expect to find a great selection of local, organic or fair trade flowers and plants.  We also have a unique line of fair trade pots and a great selection of unusual vases.  Flowers are sold by the stem or can be combined to create a beautiful bouquet or arrangement. I try to bring in more unusual varieties of plants and present them in interesting ways.  I also keep quite a few different types of orchids in store.  We offer a delivery service throughout Toronto and the GTA and we deliver by bicycle in the downtown and east ends of Toronto when possible. Read the rest of this entry »

Finally finally finally we get to see the fruits of our labour.

We painted the living room/dining room floors on Monday. As there was no prep besides sweeping up, it went pretty quickly, with one coat of primer and a coat of glossy floor paint. And the result is quite stunning, and so very different than it ever was.

We still need to do the baseboards and trim to cover up that red tuck tape. The paint colour we chose was Benjamin Moore Cloud White, if only because there are infinite shades of white and its a designer stand by. It’s not as white as we thought it was but it works in the space. A slight antique look, but overall it looks very white.

That’s where the dining room is going to go. After these photos, we set it up, table and chairs, and it looks amazing. But we can’t share yet, as much as that pains us.

Sadly we came to a painting standstill as Steve, our man on the job, is busy making a whole new mess in the back half of the cottage. He’s working on the bathroom right now (so. excited.) and then he said he’d do all the finishing. So in the meantime we challenged our relationship with a little bit of IKEA cabinet construction.

We had a little pep talk before hand, to ensure that whatever happened between start and finish wouldn’t mean our demise as a couple, and successfully put together a drawer base cabinet with no bickering. Imagine that!

We would have accomplished more had our sink base cabinet not had a gash in it (pictured but it looks small and insignificant, though it wasn’t). We also couldn’t figure out what those doors were for as they were smaller than any cabinet we had. We figured it out later, after we returned them, that we did in fact need them.

It still needs the fronts, but we didn’t have them yet. It feels good to have started. Only 3 more to go, and I imagine that they will be much simpler than this one (though this one was fairly simple).

We may get some summer after all!