Guest Blog- Douglas and Son and an Epic Restoration! Part 1

Many of our customers at the Leslieville Flea and at our shop, Douglas + Son, are in some stage of renovating their homes and are looking for for unique vintage details to finish their spaces. We just finished an epic restoration of our century-old farmhouse in Bobcaygeon, so we know how you feel! To keep our costs down, we mixed in a ton of DIY tricks along the way and styled the place with an eclectic mix of old and new. This process led us to opening our store this year (we found so much great vintage, we have to share it!) Here's how the house turned out. ( Part 1 of 2 to be continued on Thursday)

THE KITCHEN:

Hard to believe but his whole kitchen extension is brand new. Budget dictated that we keep our cabinetry simple, so we opted for Ikea cabinets and counters (we can upgrade someday, I keep telling myself). To personalize it, we built an island out of an old work table from the local garage, topped it with thick barn board and added vintage bar stools. We laid the floor ourselves, using basic pine planks.

For extra storage, we built a low open shelf plus added a cool old locker to fit in a narrow space. For lighting we mixed old and new... little mason jar-esque ceiling lights are from Rona ($10/each!) and the factory lights are one of our vintage finds (they used to be green but we painted these white with Trem-Clad paint).

THE DEN

We eschewed expensive built-ins for a DIY shelf unit built out of weathered wood that we found in the barn. The crates and baskets along the bottom shelf hold toys and the open shelving gives us space to curate an ever-changing display of our favourite old and new things. We uncovered this wacky wall during our renos and decided to go with it so gave it a few coats of verathane to seal it in. It's become a cool backdrop for a rotating display of old prints, antlers and more.

PARLOUR

We painted the walls crisp white to offset the original wainscotting and added a mix of new and old furniture. The Victorian-style couch and chair are (our only) investment pieces from Lee Industries paired with some mid-century furniture to mix it up. Seagrass rug and curtains are from Ikea. Art, oddities, crates, lighting, wool blankets are all from Douglas + Son. And a note on taxidermy... less is more... unless you're Norman Bates.Check back on Thursday when we will take you through part 2 of our epic restoration which will include the re-design of our dining room, bathroom and sleeping loft!  In the meantime, check us out at:

Douglas + Son Vintage Mercantile at 30 King Street East in Bobcaygeon.

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