The Interior DIYer

#DarkRomanticLuxe

Secondhand Kijiji chandelier

Our Lower Town apartment is full of track lighting. The living room, hallway, dining room, Cora’s bedroom and the kitchen all have track lighting. I’m not shaming track lighting entirely; it does have a place but I don’t think its place is the main light source of any room. As you can see in the picture below, this was what the main lighting in our living room was up until this week. A giant strip of track lighting that was haphazardly aimed at the TV, the door to our front porch, and three random areas on the floor. It wasn’t great and depending on where you sat, you’d either get a face full of light or it would be so dark at night that you couldn’t see what you were doing.

I know I could just reposition the lights to suit specific areas, but overall as a room, having track lighting in this way was not working. So I took to Kijiji to find a new [to us] light.

I searched for “chandeliers” for a few weeks [you’d be amazed at what some people’s definition of a chandelier is] and finally came across this beauty. I know it’s not everybody’s cup of tea but the combination of gold finish, size, fancy shape and warm acrylic ‘crystals’ were exactly what I was looking for! It was advertised as $70 which sounds like a lot of money, but when you consider modern looking pendant lights I found elsewhere online were going for upwards of $120 on sale, for us, this was a total bargain. It was full of character and just what I was looking for. It also came with all the original light bulbs [two of which I’ve removed because we just don’t need 6 light bulbs. I’m hoping to get more energy efficient bulbs soon].

I took all the crystals off, washed and dried them and Handyman Dave came over last week to hang it and do all the electrical gobbledegook [something I’m terrified of and won’t do].

I patched over the holes and repainted along where the track was [it was this colour underneath] and the room immediately felt so much more welcoming. The living room feels cosy at night and with the dimmer switch, the chandelier looks about four different levels of fancy.

I could have bought a new chandelier but I knew that if I waited long enough, a perfect light would come along on Kijiji and not only at a better price, but secondhand too. Yes, I will be buying some new lights for certain rooms in our apartment but I knew a modern light wouldn’t look as good in our living room.

DIY

GoFor – building material (and furniture!) delivery service review

I first heard of the GoFor app from a friend when we first moved to Ottawa. She recommended GoFor as a service that not only collects and delivers building materials for contractors and DIYers [actual terminology used on their app, so you know I’m in], but as a company that you can also use to collect almost anything [ie – furniture] and have it collected and delivered from one place to another.

We didn’t have a car [and won’t for another few months], so it wasn’t long before I called on GoFor’s assistance. The first few weeks we lived in Ottawa all we had was the clothes in our suitcases, Cora’s crib, a pan for cooking porridge and empty fast food containers to eat out of and store our food in. After three weeks of using our clothes as a mattress and pillows, I planned a trip to IKEA and went with a list of everything we needed. A mattress, pots and pans, plates, glasses, pot scrubbers, you name it. All the basic essentials you don’t realise you really need until you don’t have them.

When I was finished my behemoth IKEA shop, I placed an order on the GoFor app to collect all my drama and within an hour, everything was delivered to our front door.

I’ve used the GoFor app a few times since and while I’ve only used it for collecting secondhand furniture / design related pieces for our home (vs. building materials), I have to say it’s been an invaluable service for us.

When you’re using the app, you can select from a number of different vehicle types depending on what you need collected and there’s the option for an additional fee if there’s more involved [meaning, if it’s not door to door and if you need their help to carry anything upstairs]. I was more than happy to opt for additional help as it meant I had help carrying our secondhand French Provincial sofa set and dining room hutch [details on that soon to come!] up two flights of stairs. Something I wouldn’t be able to do myself [as stubborn / as amazing as I like to think I am] as most deliveries were arranged during the day when Robert was in work.

Through the app you can see where your driver is at all times and it updates you through the different stages of delivery. I found that feature very handy as I could not only see how close they were to collecting a piece of furniture so I could give the third party a heads up of their arrival, but I could also see they’re about half an hour away so I have time to do a few things, or, they’re just around the corner, I better get my shit together.

No, this is not a sponsored post with GoFor. I wanted to share my experience of using their app as we’ve benefited from their service many times already and the guys who work behind the scenes are down to earth and very helpful. It’s an excellent service, speaking as someone who has a newfound penchant for buying large heavy pieces of furniture without any means of being able to collect them myself. So if you’re in the same situation as we are, I would highly recommend checking out their app.

GoFor is currently available here in Ottawa and in Nashville, Tennessee, and will be available in more cities soon. You can download GoFor on Google Play here or from the Apple Store here!

#DarkRomanticLuxe

Secondhand Schoenhut baby grand piano

As I was searching Kijiji for a storage bench for our hallway last week, one of the ads to show up in my search was this tiny toddler grand piano [and subsequent tiny toddler grand piano ‘bench’, which is how it showed up in my search]. I had to have it … for Cora. I showed Robert its picture and within 15 minutes I was arranging to collect it from the seller.

It was advertised for $40 on Kijiji as some of the legs on the bench were wobbily and the seller explained they were unable to fix it for years. Challenge accepted. I took the piano as is and 5 minutes after bringing it home I fixed both wobbily legs [I wrapped the screws on each leg with a bit of masking tape and screwed them back into the bench. The screw and socket (?) seal had just become loose over the years]. I leaned back and allowed the smugness to wash over me and I bathed in it for several minutes.

I’ve tried finding this ‘Schylling’ piano online but the closest thing I’ve found was this Schoenhut Baby Grand Piano online from Target [I can audibly hear Canadian’s weeping] for $169.38. It’s a surprisingly solid piano made entirely of wood – no cheapy plastic parts.

It has the sweetest little chime sound to it and Cora is already a huge fan. Unlike our poor neighbours. If you’d like to see our new-to-us baby grand piano in action, check it out in my saved stories on Instagram under ‘Thrifted’ [only viewable via the app]. It’s amazing and perfect and I can’t wait to put it in Cora’s room once it gets more organised.

Do you have a favourite secondhand piece you found recently for a sweet deal? That’s my favourite thing about finding excellent things secondhand; how much cheaper they are than brand new and I feel almost no guilt when buying them.