birch & lily

Set Design

(You can read about the preliminary plans for this project a bit in this post.)

For the main set I was originally told to keep the red sofa and chair - a pretty bold statement to work around. Thankfully they later asked for a chair that wasn’t so deep, so I was able to mix it up (and find this pretty chair at HomeSense).

In a search for red sofa inspiration I found this picture:

It perfectly encapsulated the look I wanted: trendy, cool, eclectic… (the previous set looked like a 70’s game show set, so I wanted this one to feel more relaxed and cool). I love the super traditional mouldings with the ethnic rug and midcentury chair. This is where I was going. I emulated the grey walls and mouldings (though mine were much simpler, as that’s what the contractor wanted to do.)

The rug was a great deal I found through Etsy, and the trunk was secondhand found through UsedRegina. As you’ll see in the next shots I needed a ton of books, so I shopped Value Village out of as many good-looking hardcover, linen-bound books as I could.

I really love the lamps - particularly the ginger jar one with the brass base. They’re both beautiful hefty vintage ones from Salvation Army that I spray painted to match (a nice sunny yellow against the grey walls!) and bought matching shades for. The art in behind was a painting I completed early one morning last week before finishing up the project!

You may notice that some of the furniture placement is a little off-kilter -it has to be set up to look right on the main camera angles. That was a challenge, decorating for TV. I had to be careful about how I used white, metallics, mirrors, etc.

This is the other half of the set - a more transitional space for doing different kinds of segments. They can take those chairs and area rug out and move the island in and vice versa.

I love those chairs. Over the months I seriously debated (encouraged by my husband, no less!) keeping them for myself. But another suitable/affordable pair never came up, so they stuck with this set. They’re real mid-century modern, American-made vintage chairs. Here’s a before pic:

The lines were great, but the yucky brown vinyl and tweed had to go. I got the pair for $100, I think, and the reupholstery (in a grey navy vinyl) was only $75 per chair. I bought them off of a guy through UsedRegina. He told me the chairs were worth WAY more (and he’s right), but since it’s Regina and most people don’t know or care about this kind of thing he was selling them for cheap.

Sorry the colour’s brutal in this shot, but it gives you an idea of the overall. The bookshelves are a good ole’ IKEA Billy hack (trimming them together and painting the backs). And the side tables are an IKEA hack too, with the Rast dresser. (See Lindsey’s post here on how to do it.)

The island was IKEA hack #3, completed with the help of my talented friend Krista (who is a carpenter). We connected two Expedit bookcases, framed them in MDF, painted them, attached casters, and created a “barn board” top by staining some 2x10’s and bolting them to the top. The cost for the size and style we got was awesome. I’ve heard this is a favourite on the set.

In the end it was lots of fun to execute the design, but I did not love the delays, or the time the project took away from family, or having to work with other people’s needs. (Hah. That last point makes me sound like a real peach, eh?). Plus I found buying stuff that I absolutely LOVED (like the midcentury chairs and the Turkish rug) and not being able to keep it (and know that other people may not love it in the same way) really hard. Will I do more stuff like this in the future? Hard to say. Probably not TV sets. And maybe not while my kids are little. We’ll see!