✨ Working professional , proud wifey (married to my best friend and the LOVE of my life) and blessed mother of three young children. Born and raised in la belle ville de Montréal, Canada, it’s the place I love to call home. ✨
I thrive on creating…
I know many of us DIY because often, with just a little TLC, we can make inspired pieces at just a fraction of the price and they can look pretty good. (Sure, I have those moments when I see a beautiful piece in a store, and that hamster in my brain starts sprinting, and there I am mentally deconstructing the piece and calculating if it’s feasible and practical to attempt a DIY). But to be honest, most DIY projects in my home have come about because I just love art & the creative process. My whole life I’ve thrived on the process of coming up with an idea and working with my hands to bring that idea to life and create something beautiful. And also, I’m um…. Picky. When I see a space in my home that needs to be filled, I either envision exactly what kind of piece I want to see in that spot (and I mean, right down to the style, colour, texture, size…) in which case I can then spend hours and hours perusing stores and come up empty handed (cause could you believe they couldn’t read my mind? LOL), or I have no clue what I want, but after all that perusing, I still haven’t found that perfect piece that would fit right in. So…. that’s when my mind starts buzzing and I create.
I also do love when pieces have a story behind them, big or small, so it’s not just a nice looking something that may (or may not) catch someone’s eye for a fleeting second. More often than not, just the mere fact that I made a piece can bring on questions and conversation from a visitor. When the piece is inspired by an interest I have, culture or history, a family member, a place I visited, or even a silly story or coincidence, it becomes not only a source of pride but a great conversation piece.
So, what is my preferred style? Definitely contemporary. I love neutral tones, clean lines and layered textures. I love Kelly Hoppen (queen of taupe). She’s hands down my favorite designer. Need I say more? (Yes, I will in a post 😉
When DIY’ing in a more contemporary style setting, anything can be handmade, depending on the tools, time, material and money that you want to put behind it (and depending on your skill level as well, ’cause contemporary design is all about clean lines and finishes). But I think the happy medium, or the key for me is mixing highs and lows, meaning, I don’t try to DIY everything. Certain accessories, art, furniture and even lighting can be DIY’d, but these hand-made items (some of which can even look slightly rustic when standing alone simply because they are hand made) should fit in and compliment some sleeker, streamlined contemporary big ticket items. So while I will dress my dining room for example, with some pieces I made, these are to compliment the main big ticket items (table, buffet and my love-splurge – the Schonbek chandelier) which set the tone of the room.
On this blog, I’ll be sharing the DIY projects which I made both in my home and for others. All of them are easy to do. None of them require me to use serious power tools – I don’t own an arsenal of power tools, nor do I want to!
Alright, well that’s a bit about me and my DIY’ing style. So feel free to take a look at my projects and draw some inspiration. Maybe you’ll like some of them and decide to try them out yourself, and don’t be afraid to even change it up a bit to suite your own space and style 😉 Do you have some contemporary-style DIY projects of your own you’d like to show me? Cause I’d love to see them! Send your shots to sabrina@diywithstyle.com
