The Practicality of an Exercise Bike

I am what you would call a “gym rat”. I love going to the gym and taking the cardio classes where I’m motivated to keep moving and push myself by my instructor and the entire class. My roommate Becca does not enjoy the gym at all – a point she’s made quite clear to me, every time I invite her to come with me using a guest past. In fact, ever since we moved in together last July, she hasn’t stopped talking about getting either a recumbent exercise bike or an upright exercise bike to put in the corner of our spacious living room (near the TV, of course). Yesterday, I finally got to the bottom of why she prefers working out at home with the exercise bike to the gym:

1. Exercise bike workouts are lower impact.
Becca has a stress fracture in her shin from running, so she can no longer do that as a form of exercise. Also, she cannot swim, so that is out of the question as well.

2. She’s in control of her workout schedule.
It’s true, I’m often dashing to a muscle conditioning or dance class – forced to arrange my personal schedule around these gym classes. Becca, on the other hand, prefers to have more control over when she can and can’t work out due to the irregular hours of her job as a photographer.

3. There are no gyms within walking distance of our apartment.
Becca refuses to walk more than 5 minutes to get to a gym and since there are none near us, she’d rather have workout equipment set up at our place.


There you have it – the main reasons why Becca wants an exercise bike so badly. I have to admit, she does make some good points. I suppose the next step would be to browse online to fine a bike that we actually both agree on!

-M

Making your bedroom beautiful with a platform bed and an upholstered headboard.

I can’t believe that my new apartment is almost fully furnished. The dining room looks fantastic and now it’s time to turn my attention to the mattress on the floor in my room surrounded by piles of clothing. Looking around at my possessions strewn around the room I realized that I would need more bedroom furniture then I had anticipated.

First thing I needed was to get the mattress of the floor. I turned to my trusty online sources for research. Once again the choice was overwhelming. Did I want to buy a simple frame and an elaborate headboard or did I want to go completely over the top with a big four poster bed, or did I want something elegant and understated like a platform bed.



I took a step back from the research and realized that my primary concern should be preparing the room to be in furnishing shape. I made my bed and folded my clothes.
Next step was to tackle the floors, now that there was nothing on them; I took my broom and dustpan and swept every inch of the room. In retrospect it probably would have been a good idea to do this BEFORE I moved all of my possessions in. I also realized I hadn’t thought to paint the walls a different color then the boring white already applied. Now faced with even more things to decide on I panicked slightly. Could I really live with the white walls? Would my friends be kind enough to help out with another round of painting? I flipped through my book of paint swatches halfheartedly, and then I came across this absolutely stunning and serene blue. With renewed enthusiasm for painting, I dug out my paint trays and brushes and went on a quick mission to the paint store.

A few days later my room was painted; now back to the search for a bed. I decided that the best option for me would be to purchase a queen size platform bed which would fit my mattress like a glove. Not only that but I wouldn’t be sleeping on the floor. I chose one in deep mahogany that is feminine yet noticeable when first walking into the room. To compliment the pretty blue walls and super comfortable bed, I decided that I wanted an upholstered headboard to lean up against. I found one in a blue almost the same shade as my walls in silk.

I cannot wait to sleep in my newly decorated (and spotless clean) room.

-RL

My journeys in finding the perfect dining room chair

When I left off I was talking about my adventures into dining room decorations. I had found the perfect dining table. My walls were painted the prettiest green anyone could imagine. Pieces were falling into place for my very first grown up apartment.

I stepped back to admire my stunning living space and realized there was something missing. How could I forget something as important as dining chairs? Where were my guests going to sit when they came over for delicious dinner parties?

I once again turned to my trusty sources. The internet gave me two well loved chairs that needed a bit of love to revive them to their former glory. The hunt was still on to complete my set of fabulous
dining room chairs. I hunted and hunted. Frustrated I put the search on hold for a pair to compliment the ones sitting in my apartment.



Instead I focused on how I was going to refurnish these stately chairs. Many different things came to mind. I could paint them, stain them. Cover them completely in fabric, endless possibilities. One thing was for certain, the well worn dated pattern on the seats were the first thing that would need to go.
In the end I decided the best and easiest thing to do would be to paint the chairs a solid color and cover the seats with a cute fabric. I really didn’t want to have a green overload, also, thinking long term for future places of residence. I had to choose my paint and fabric carefully.

I ended up painting the chairs this gorgeous deep brown, almost as rich as a dark chocolate bar. The seats got carefully removed, the old fabric hastily discarded. I also bought new cushioning for the inside of the seat, and settled on this thick upholstery fabric with an intricate leaf pattern. I get weepy thinking about how stunning these chairs turned out.

However my work was far from over, I still had to find two more chairs. One weekend I decided to take a drive as far out of the city as I could, in this small town I found the missing pieces in my dream dining room. These two chairs were almost identical to the ones I had already found and fixed up. Overwhelmed and overjoyed I carefully packed them into my car. I stopped to get a piece of pie from the stand on the side of the road and turned around to head back into the city. As I write this I look into my dining room and can’t believe that this dining room set is mine. I have lots more to do in my place, and I cannot wait to share more of my adventures into the adult world.

-RL

Preparing Your Room for the Upcoming Professional Sports Season

I’ve mentioned that I recently moved, and my roommate and I are in the process of furnishing the place. Right now we are focusing on the Living/Entertainment room because we are eager to have guests over.

With Fall upon us, I’m starting to see plenty of tweets about the upcoming NHL pre-season show up in my stream. One thing I look forward to this winter is just hanging out with my friends on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday night, relaxing with snacks and watching the game. This got me thinking about some essential pieces of furniture needed in your entertaining space, to make sports game watching as comfortable and as fun as possible. Here are my top 5 essential pieces that every sports media room should have:

1. Recliner – Recliners the staple of the entertainment room. They are comfortable and adjust to your desired sitting level, so you can literally just put your feet up, lean back and enjoy the game. Consider a recliner that contains a cup holder for your beverage. There also exists the sofa recliner, so that more than one person can have the recliner experience in one chair.

2. Ottoman – Those that aren’t sitting in a recliner chair can still put their feet up on an ottoman. Storage ottomans will allow you to quickly stash away clutter before guests arrive.

3. Flat Screen HDTV – Any kind of TV will do, but new High Definition technology allows you to almost feel like your at the game.

4. Surround sound – Enhances the total viewing experience – it’s like the crowd is right in your living room!

5. Mini fridge – Avoid missing those crucial, game-changing plays when you have to go to the kitchen to refill drinks by having the fridge right in the room with you!

If you have these items in your rec, media, family or living room – be warned, during play-offs, you might never get your guests to leave!

-M

A recent Graduate’s adventures into dining room furnishing

When I finished school the thought of moving back home and into my parent’s basement was not very enticing. Instead I scrolled the internet for the perfect pad to compliment my newly graduated status. The endless search resulted in a great place right in the heart of the city and I couldn’t have been any happier.

I took possession of the place half way through the month. The place was sparsely furnished with the previous tenants broken cast offs and panic set in. How was I going to afford to be able to furnish my place? How could the previous tenants have left all of this stuff behind? I pulled myself together, used some elbow grease and cleaned the place until everything sparkled.

Then I once again turned to the internet, I found myself a nice chair some couches and a table or two. Slowly the place was transforming into my home. I painted the walls a soft green, figuring, hey it’s a colour that is neutral enough so that if I did move out of my amazing new home I would be less likely to have to paint the walls back to white if I ever moved out.

Now that I had the living room organized, it was time to turn my attention to the dining room. I had a very specific vision for my dining table sets I wanted something solid, elegant and understated. That would compliment the nick knacks I had spread around my apartment, but wouldn’t overshadow everything else. I scrounged vintage stores, big furniture stores, and the trusty internet for my dining table. I eventually found the perfect table. Elated I spent even more time trying to find the perfect position for my brand new piece of furniture. Once in place I realized I hadn’t bought any chairs, but that’s a story for another day.

-RL

Traditional Fireplace Out of Service? No problem!

My best friend and I moved into a new place together a couple of months ago. It’s a beautiful space: an old Victorian home divided into 2 apartments on separate floors. We occupy the 2^nd floor and attic, with my room being in the attic. Roommate and I put a lot of elbow grease into making our place home: painting, thrifting for the perfect furniture and knickknacks. One great thing about these rambling old houses is that they are almost guaranteed to have a fireplace, finished with gorgeous original features. Lo and behold, ours does have a fireplace - in the den! Bonus! Not so much of a bonus: the fireplace doesn’t work and let’s be honest, while our landlords are great, I highly doubt they’re ready to spend the money in order to bring the fireplace up to working code. As we transition from summer to fall, I can already feel the chill in the air and can’t help but think to myself how nice it would be to have a working fire place this winter.

So why not save everyone time, and money and get an electric fireplace for the living room? They are budget-friendly, attractive and you can move them around. Problem solved! Plus, in the off-chance that my landlord DID agree to update the tradition fireplace, the months of renovation means that I’ll miss the winter benefits of having one anyways. An electric or gel fueled fireplace is definitely the way to go if you’re looking for both style and convenience during these upcoming cold months.

-M

New Nursery Trends – Simple, Sophisticated and Modern

Have you noticed that more and more urban, professional and hip parents are having their children reflect their own personal taste and style? I wouldn’t go so far as to say that babies and children are becoming the latest accessories, but you have to admit that these days, we’re seeing little ones sporting less cutesy prints in favour of more sophisticated designs.

One needs only to look at the high-end wardrobe selections of Suri and Shiloh to think what stylish parents Katie Holmes/Tom Cruise and Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt must be, respectively.

Of course this trend of trickling sophisticated and modern design for adults down to children is also noticeable in recent baby nursery décor trends.

While pale blues, pinks, greens and yellows are still the most popular colour choices for nurseries amoungst parents and interior designers alike, gone are the busy wallpaper patterns, ruffles, frills, and mountains of stuffed animals. Baby crib toys are few, but high quality, intended to become keepsakes that will last throughout the baby’s adulthood. Plus, the demand for the convertible crib is growing, as are motifs and patterns with simple, clean lines.

Due to these new trends in nursery décor, the baby’s transition from infant to toddler to child becomes easier – with this new trend of sleek simplicity, and increasing popularity of convertible cribs, there is less need for drastic design changes to the nursery as the baby grows.

Who says that parents can’t be trendy and practical at the same time?

-M