One of the things we realised when we made the move up to the country was that living in a house full-time is quite different from only being there on weekends and holidays. We’ve got a few small changes in the works and some more planned – nothing major, but the tweaks will make a huge difference in taking Wonderview from holiday home to actual home! Along the way, I’ve been quite inspired by some of the things we did in the apartment, and am looking forward to bringing some of those ideas up to the country as well.
Fairly near the top of the list is an office solution. In the city, we had a carpenter install a floating desk and shelves, and we painted a strip of the wall behind them to visually delineate the work space. We need something creative like that – we don’t have a spare room to use as an office up here either (and given that we now both work from home a lot more, work space is even more important!) so we’ll be looking to add something similar to the country home.
We’ll also do something clever with bathroom shelving. In the apartment, our vanity wasn’t wide enough for all the stuff we needed out and I used to have to leave my hot hair straightener on the floor to cool down, so we found a cool metal shelf that went with the vibe of our bathroom and tucked perfectly between the vanity and the wall. At Wonderview, the problem is different but the same – not enough space or storage in the bathroom. I’m looking forward to doing something clever with shelving to solve that.
Finally, I’m really looking forward to personalising Amelie’s room a bit more! I loved what we did with her room in the apartment. I wanted a wallpaper that could inspire stories, with lots of detail. At the time of our move into the apartment her favourite book was Amelia Earhart (in the Little People, Big Dreams series) – in particular, the page showing the view of a neighbourhood from an airplane. She would literally sit there looking at the page and talking about it for twenty minutes at a time, if we let her. I found the perfect wallpaper in an interiors magazine and we all still adore it. We also put display bookshelves in at her level and created a cute little reading corner for her. I don’t want to do anything expensive or permanent in her room here – in the not too distant future we want to extend the house, and at that point Amelie’s bedroom will become a guest room – but I’m excited to do something to make it more exciting and intentional for her!
We’ve already done the wardrobes, all by ourselves (we’re not very practical so for us to tear out the innards of the previous wardrobes, plaster, paint and then install the new wardrobe system is a huge source of pride!) but eventually I’d love to put in a set of shelves and hooks like I had installed in the apartment. I kept my jewellery and perfume on these, and hung my necklaces from the hooks, and it was one of those tiny little details that just makes life so much more pleasant and luxurious. The wardrobe in the apartment had a little niche that seemed designed for that – this one doesn’t, so I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do here, but I’ll make it work somewhere!
We’ve also adopted our previous unspoken rule that all new furniture should have some storage capability. So, for example, we got a cocktail cabinet for one wall instead of a console table, and now it holds our glassware, spirits and napkins. The sideboard we had in the apartment has come north with us as well.
Finally, we are installing a big closet by the entryway. This has two purposes – it’ll be our coat closet and hold coats, shoes and umbrellas, etc. – but it will also make more of an obvious entryway than what we had previously. It’s funny, when this place was a holiday home the informality of having no defined entryway was nice, but now, living here, it really feels like we need one! I really appreciated our lovely little entryway in the apartment – and the coat closet of course. Even in small spaces, having a dedicated space to pause, take a breath, and take your coat off is so completely worth it.
Looking forward to showing you the updates as we make them!
The Judd Crew 