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Creative Process

Dining Room / Bar / Kitchen Reveal in Partnership with HomeSense Canada | A Bohemian, Mid Century Modern Apartment in Calgary, Alberta, Canada // JustineCelina.com

Bar, Create, Creative Process, Dining Room, DIY, Dwell, Entertain, Flowers, Goals, Kitchen, Life, Plants, Space Refresh, Sponsored, Wine & Cocktails

SPACE REFRESH | DINING ROOM, BAR & KITCHEN REVEAL

Happy Monday everyone — and welcome back for the next, highly anticipated reveal in our SPACE REFRESH series! Today, in partnership with HomeSense Canada, I’m elated to unveil the other half of our refreshed main living area — the Dining Room, Bar & Kitchen. While we’ve been refreshing our space since last summer (when we embarked on our huge Paint Transformation!), most of our time was spent gathering inspiration for the Living Room, as we almost completely started from scratch furniture and decor wise over there. Our Living Room took the better part of 6 months to pull together — and during my many HomeSense runs as it came to life (a lot of you came along via Insta Stories!), I also had a vision for the adjacent Dining Room, Bar & Kitchen in mind, picking up items for this space as I curated details for our Living Room. So, relatively speaking, this area came together quite quickly in comparison!

Our Living Room, Dining Room, Bar & Kitchen are all located in the same space — a large, long and somewhat narrow room. So, we kept the overall look and feel as cohesive as possible to unify the separate areas of the room with an overarching design sensibility. We took design cues for our SPACE REFRESH from our developer who was inspired by earth’s natural elements — our space features natural materials and textures with a warm, mid century modern vibe, a touch of boho and an abundance of greenery! Not only are we thrilled with the aesthetic appeal of our refreshed Dining Room, Bar & Kitchen, this space is also very functional for the way we live in it, which I consider the true mark of great design. Today I’m sharing all my tips, tricks and inspiration for designating different areas within one large room, creating and maximizing apartment storage, as well cost effective ways to refresh your space while repurposing your existing furniture (our only new piece in this space is our sideboard — the rest has been with us for years!). Pull up a seat at our table and settle in for your evening read, friends — can I fix you a cocktail?

May 28, 2018 by Justine

Business, Create, Creative Process, Dessert & Treats, Dwell, Flowers, Goals, Inspiration, Life, Local Love, Occasions, Pantone, Spring, Wellness, Wine & Cocktails

MY 3RD BLOGIVERSARY + 10 THINGS I LEARNED IN MY THIRD YEAR OF BLOGGING

Friends, welcome back for my annual (and very belated!) Blogiversary celebration! My 3rd Blogiversary went roaring by on March 2nd — but to be honest, I was completely engrossed in our Living Room Reveal and some other fun, last minute projects at the time. Earlier this year I chatted about changing things up around here and creating space to let life happen — and that’s exactly what I’ve done! There’s been a lot happening here at JustineCelina lately as we get ready to reveal the next rooms in our SPACE REFRESH series (coming your way later this month!) and I simply had to prioritize my time differently to make this all possible. March was one of my most creatively fulfilling months of my life — it left me completely exhausted but also incredibly inspired! In the two months since My 3rd Blogiversary I’ve reached some milestones I’ve dreamed of achieving since launching JustineCelina and they’ve reminded me exactly why I started this whole thing in the first place. So, although it’s a bit late and I’ve been chipping away at this post when I can, I couldn’t be more thrilled to share this Pantone Spring 2018 inspired 3rd Blogiversary soirée with you!

In the midst of it all, I came up with the concept for this celebratory post pretty last minute — about 10 days before the shoot (which, admittedly, was about 2 months ago!). It was so spontaneous, but serendipitous and things just fell into place (I shot it myself one sunny Friday afternoon with my tripod and self timer). This year, we’re going all out — because after 323 blog posts, almost a million views (OMG!), 180 000 images, 2 900 comments and a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears (quite literally), I truly never thought I’d get here! My third year was one of intense growth, both on these pages and off of them — I hope you enjoy reading about 10 Things I Learned in my Third Year of Blogging in this raw, honest, unabashed post (you may need a sparkling glass of rosé to get though it!). Whether you’re new to JustineCelina (and there are a lot of you beautiful people — welcome!) or have been with me since the very beginning, I’m so grateful to have you here celebrating with me today!

May 19, 2018 by Justine

Creative Process, Dwell, Giveaways, Living Room, Plants, Space Refresh

OUR LIVING ROOM FURNITURE

Welcome back, interior design lovers — I have a very exciting post for you today! Since publishing our Living Room Reveal (and having it featured and shared across the internet — eee!) I’ve received many questions about our furniture, where we purchased it and how we chose each piece — and I’ve been quietly planning this post behind the scenes! Today I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve teamed up with Structube (where we purchased the majority of our Living Room furniture) to answer all your FAQs and giveaway a $250 Gift Card to one of my Canadian readers! How amazing is that? I know $250 certainly would have put a sizeable dent in a piece of furniture for our Living Room (I’m a bit jealous, TBH!). I’m so grateful for your support on our SPACE REFRESH series and knew I wanted to thank you by giving back — and Structube very generously offered to make that possible!

Today I’m revealing all the sources for the furniture we chose to refresh our Living Room — along with my process for creating our mood board, how we moved through the design process and how our final furniture selections deviated from the original plan (oh, the art of compromise when you’re designing a space with your partner!). I’m also sharing my best tips for maximizing an apartment sized living room and creating an inviting, functional, relatively clutter free space. If you’re a lover of mid century modern design and natural materials, you’ll love today’s post! Pour yourself a nice, crisp glass of wine (I’m actually enjoying a glass of the Côte des Roses you’ll see on our EVO Coffee Table in these photos) and settle in for your weekend read — and head to the bottom of the post for details on how to enter my $250 Structube Gift Card Giveaway (now closed)!

May 4, 2018 by Justine

Create, Creative Process, DIY, Dwell, Living Room

DIY | LARGE DRIFTWOOD MACRAME WALL HANGING

Welcome back for a fresh DIY post, friends! It’s been quite awhile since I’ve shared a home-based DIY project here at JustineCelina, but that’s about to change this spring! You see, I have expensive taste — especially when it comes to home decor. But I’m also a pretty crafty and love the challenge of figuring out how I can achieve a similar look for less — like the Natural Tree Trunk Side Table I made for a third of the price of its West Elm dupe, for example. Over the years that post has become one of my most popular pieces of content, so I know you love home based DIYs as much as I do — and I couldn’t be more thrilled to bring more of them to you this year! Tonight, I’m sharing all the DIY details that went into the Large Driftwood Macrame Wall Hanging I created for our recently refreshed Living Room!

The inspiration for this Large Driftwood Macrame Wall Hanging came about as my DIY ideas often do — I spot a stunning piece of art or decor and fall head over heels, only to experience extreme sticker shock when I find out how much it costs! In this case, I found similar scale wall hangings (for reference, this piece is 70″ x 52″) retailing online for up to $1 500 (plus shipping!) — and while I believe art is worth the investment if you absolutely love it, since this is a trendier piece, I was hesitant. I knew I could probably DIY something similar for a fraction of the cost — and I was right! I made this our Large Driftwood Macrame Wall Hanging for less than 30th of the cost of the inspiration piece — plus it ties in perfectly with our space and I have the satisfaction of knowing it’s completely unique. This project took about an hour and a half to complete and cost less than $50! If you want to know how I pulled it off, pour yourself a delicious glass of wine, get comfortable and let’s get into it!

April 9, 2018 by Justine

Living Room Reveal in Partnership with HomeSense Canada | A Bohemian, Mid Century Modern Apartment in Calgary, Alberta, Canada // JustineCelina.com

Create, Creative Process, DIY, Dwell, Flowers, Goals, Life, Living Room, Plants, Space Refresh, Sponsored, Wine & Cocktails

SPACE REFRESH | LIVING ROOM REVEAL

It’s such a surreal experience finally being able to share our Space Refresh | Living Room Reveal with you today, friends! If you just tuned into our brand new SPACE REFRESH series last week and don’t follow along with Instagram Stories, it probably seems like this happened overnight. Let me assure you — nothing is further from the truth! We’ve been planning our Space Refresh series since January 2017 and working on the Living Room since the summer. I truly believe that authentic, functional design takes time — especially in your own home. Once we had a fresh coat of paint up, we decided to start redesigning our living room first — the largest space in our apartment and where we spend the majority of our free time. The process of creating our mid century modern space with a bohemian twist was an organic one, with lots of unexpected twists and turns — but we couldn’t be more thrilled with the results!

Today I’m absolutely ecstatic to bring you our Living Room Reveal in partnership with HomeSense Canada — a longtime partner here at JustineCelina and my favourite destination for unique decor and entertaining essentials. A heartfelt thank you to HomeSense for embarking on this journey with me as I transition into more DWELL content this year — I truly couldn’t imagine a more perfect partner to have by my side! Throughout this process I’ve made countless HomeSense runs (my Insta Stories crew knows!) and it’s where I purchased about 90% of our decor. I’m so excited to walk you through every detail of our refreshed Living Room — so please make yourself at home, I have a glass of chilled rosé waiting for you!

March 19, 2018 by Justine

Bar, Bathroom, Create, Creative Process, Dining Room, DIY, Dwell, Goals, Kitchen, Life, Living Room, Space Refresh

SPACE REFRESH | PAINT TRANSFORMATION

Welcome back, friends! This post officially kicks off our SPACE REFRESH series here at JustineCelina and I’ve never been more excited to publish as post as I am today! If you don’t follow along with my Insta Stories (where I’ve been documenting our Space Refresh BTS for the past 6 months!), you may only vaguely remember that we embarked on a massive space refresh project in August — starting with a with a fresh coat of paint. Due to some furniture delays as we refreshed our Living Room, we finally completed our huge paint project mid February (yes, really — you’ll have to read the post to find out why!). Today I’ve compiled a mega post detailing every step of our Paint Transformation and how you can DIY a professional quality paint job yourself — including the tools you’ll need, tips about paint selection and finish, what to expect when you’re painting over a dark colour, project cost and time involvement. If you love a good before and after, you’ll love today’s post!

But first, let me bring you up to speed about why we decided to start this huge project in the first place! We purchased our home, a 1500 sq ft apartment in inner city Calgary, from the builder back in 2012. At the time it was very modern compared to everything else on the market, but it was love at first sight! However, as the years passed we grew increasingly tired of the builders greige and the itch to refresh our space struck. Ultimately, in 2017 we decided we’d be here for another few years and there was no time like the present to start creating a our dream space. Initially I had planned to have our apartment professionally painted — that is, until the estimates came back! On average, a professional paint job for our entire home rang in at $2300 (and I was shocked!). I knew we could take the project on ourselves and achieve similar results for a fraction of the cost. Interior design, styling and DIY are huge passions of mine and I’m elated to be sharing more DWELL based content here at JustineCelina this year in our freshly painted space — so come on in!

March 13, 2018 by Justine

Business, Create, Creative Process, Dwell, Goals, Inspiration, Life, Planning, Travel, Wellness

CHECKING IN | 2017 GOALS & CULTIVATING BALANCE

Well guys, we’re over half way through 2017 — and it’s been about 7 months since I published my New Year New Goals: Cultivating a Balanced 2017 post (say what?!). I’ve just come home from a partially unplugged weekend visiting family and I’m feeling refreshed, so I thought it was a good time to check in and update you how I’m working towards the goals, intentions and plans I set out for myself this year in an attempt to cultivate more balance in my life. Overall, I’m happy to say I’m in a much better place than I was at the beginning of the year — but it’s been a lot of hard work to get there and some things definitely haven’t turned out how I planned!

Today I’ll be updating you on my progress towards my overarching goal for 2017 to return to a more balanced lifestyle and what exactly that looks like for me as an entrepreneur and blogger. I’m also sharing my progress towards more specific goals like learning to overcome perfectionism, recovering from burnout, getting organized, investing in myself and my businesses, refreshing our space and being more mindful about looking at the bigger picture more often to ensure the puzzle pieces of my life and career fit together in a way that works for me. I’m also sharing a few detours I’ve taken along the way — some intentional and some completely unintentional (but serendipitous!). If you’re interested in learning more about the changes I’ve made so far this year in my quest to cultivate balance in my life while working towards my personal and professional goals, pour yourself a nice, juicy glass of wine (or a big cup of coffee if you’re reading in the morning!) — and let’s get into it!

August 22, 2017 by Justine

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