Home Decor

There’s nothing quite like a beautiful, glimmering lake surrounded by towering green pines to say “summer”. Throughout most of my childhood, we spent many summer days at a good friend’s cottage in Ontario and they are some of my happiest memories. It’s no wonder, then, […]

Who here loves a good craft? *raises own hand* Who here loves a good craft that celebrates your national holiday? *raises both hands* Who here loves a good craft that celebrates your national holiday and costs ZERO DOLLARS? *raises both hands and feet* For the […]

Canada is turning 150 years old on July 1st, and in honour of the big day, a group of Canadian bloggers has put together a series of Canada Day celebrations to inspire you! As part of our Year of Feasting blog hop, We’re sharing our […]

I can’t believe I’m actually writing this post. Up until about 48 hours ago, I thought I’d be writing a big, sad apology for not completing my craft and sewing space makeover in time. But hey look! Thanks to some major butt-kicking (and a whole […]

I had every intention of showing you an almost-finished craft & sewing space this week. I really did! The spirit was willing, but the procrastination was stronger. “Sarah: you titled this post ‘Progress’!” Well, the answer is that I actually did make progress in my […]

Lists have been written and re-written. Mounds and mounds of paper and ribbon and fabric and paint have been sorted. Bins have been emptied and re-filled. Pinterest has been surfed. Plans have been made! My craft & sewing room makeover has begun in earnest as part […]

So here’s the thing: bloggers generally only photograph the prettied-up versions of their homes. We spend hours and hours making sure that everything is just so before snapping our pics. We then run those perfectly posed pics through a rigorous regime of re-sizing, editing, watermarking, collaging, […]

When I blogged about my 2017 goals, I alluded to a special series I was starting here on Flourish & Knot. Well, today I am so excited to be bringing you the very first instalment of There for the Making: the Zero $$ DIY Challenge! […]

“O Tannenbaum, o tannenbaum…” How truly lovely are the branches of this year’s Christmas tree! (If I do say so myself.) Putting up our Christmas tree is always the Main Event (capitalization entirely intended!) of our holiday decorating, and there’s nothing I like better about […]

Today’s post opens at the close of the One Room Challenge.  As part of the six-week ORC, my husband and I have taken our guest room and transformed it into the perfect, star-filled, Harry Potter nursery for our baby girl. We could not be more thrilled to […]

It’s the sixth and final week of the One Room Challenge, and all the participants are busily completing the finishing touches on their made-over spaces. If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that the ORC is a six-week decor challenge hosted by Calling it Home. […]

I am thrilled to announce that it’s a… NURSERY! After five weeks of hard work, our One Room Challenge nursery is finally looking like a room that a child could actually live in. You know, a room not littered with the detritus of sanding, painting, glueing, and […]

Week four of the One Room Challenge has come and gone, and I can honestly say that it was not as harrowing as I thought it would be! In case you’ve missed the first three weeks of this home decor adventure, the ORC is an event […]

The One Room Challenge, hosted by Calling it Home, is now in full swing, with participating bloggers making fabulous progress on their rooms! If you’re tuning into my Harry Potter nursery ORC makeover for the first time, be sure to catch up on my week one […]

Last week I shared our plans to decorate our baby girl’s nursery for the spring edition of the One Room Challenge, hosted by Calling it Home. If you are joining me for the first time, then welcome! So glad to have you along for this […]

One of the most hotly-anticipated events in the DIY and home decor blogosphere is the One Room Challenge, hosted by Calling it Home. The challenge invites bloggers to make over a room in just six weeks, chronicling their progress through weekly posts. I participated in the ORC […]

I partnered with UncommonGoods to create a nursery mood board inspired by a love of science. Curiosity and intellectual growth begins from day one!

I love a good challenge, and this month’s Create & Share presented that and more! We were partnered with Graphic Stock, a great online resource for stock images, and tasked with creating a home decor project using one of their images. I decided that since […]

As promised in last week’s Christmas home tour, today I am sharing my 2015 Christmas tree! All together now: “it’s the most wonderful time of the yeeaarrr!” Along with 24 other wonderful home decor and DIY bloggers, I’m sharing my tree as part of the […]

We made it! A month and a half ago, my handy husband and I signed on for a seemingly crazy venture: to make over our master bathroom in six weeks with $300. As part of the One Room Challenge hosted by Calling it Home, we planned […]

As we feverishly work on our master bathroom One Room Challenge makeover (it’s now WE because, let’s face it: my husband has become SUPER [Handy]MAN), I can’t help but become pretty excited to see all of the reveals! And since the ORC is a SIX-week makeover […]

We're on the home stretch of the #OneRoomChallenge, and today I'm sharing 5 Things I've Learned in 5 Weeks (of making over my bathroom)!

Progress for progress’s sake happened around here*. And the jury is most definitely OUT. (*Yes, that was a Harry Potter reference. Yes, I am a 27-year-old who still reads HP. What is your point?) For those of you who are joining me for the first […]

My One Room Challenge master bath makeover progress has been slow this week, but things are being crossed off the to-do list! This week's conundrum? Lighting!

For the October Create & Share Challenge, I teamed up with Cutting Edge Stencils to create a Poe-etically inspired raven pillow. Perfect for a spooky literary soirée! (And a giveaway!)

Happy Friday! Halloween is fast approaching and it is one of my favourite holidays. I love any event that involves costumes, so Halloween is like a field day for me! What I do NOT love about Halloween (and most holidays in general) is all the […]

Welcome! If you’re new to Flourish & Knot: thanks for stopping by! I hope you’ll take some time to explore my posts and projects. I love sharing my adventures (and sometimes my misadventures) in the land of DIY! It was a pretty exciting week here […]

It’s here! It’s finally HERE! No, not Christmas. The #OneRoomChallenge from Calling it Home!!! *crickets* What’s the ORC you ask? Why, only one of the most awesome decor challenges in Blogland! Linda, over at Calling it Home created the event as a way of motivating herself […]

Thanks for stopping by Flourish & Knot today! I am really pleased to be participating in the My Home Style Blog Hop, hosted by Casa Watkins. The hop, which began yesterday, features 20 bloggers’ homes! You’re invited to “hop” around by following the links from one […]

Like any room, our living room is in a constant state of progress. It’s pretty rare to find someone – even a blogger – who will ever declare a room truly “finished”. Well, our living room is FAR from finished but it is definitely coming along […]

Hi gang! I’ve entered my recent music room makeover in the Domino decorating contest! (Domino is an awesome decorating magazine, by the way! Just in case you didn’t already know. And no, there are no points for brown-nosing. Boo.) I’d love for you to stop […]

Have a stylish summer - Here's how I've styled my table for outdoor summer entertaining.

Here's how I decorated my living room for Spring, for less than $20. Yes, it is possible!

I’m having an amazing time here in India, singing and making music with some fantastic young people! In fact, no time for a real post because I have to get back to rehearsal. Instead, I’ll let this quotation speak for me.

Here comes the sun and I say... Time for a music room reveal! Check out the sunny and bright "after" of my music room makeover.

What a difference a day week makes. I’ve almost finished painting the music room! As you can see in today’s photo, I have some touch-ups to do on the ceiling (damn those salmony ceilings!) and the walls definitely need another coat. And I have to […]

Happy Sunday, all! Even though the temperature here has dipped down again (-20 last time I checked), the crisp winter light flooding through my windows has put me in a makeover kind of mood! My music room has been crying out for attention since we […]

Sometimes I look around at our house and think “This looks nothing like other bloggers’ houses. Nothing feels pulled together. I have no artwork. I have two hand-me-down sofas. I am failing at this home-decor-blog-thing.” And then I look around at our house and think “Holy […]

Merry Christmas! I hope that this post finds you enjoying a beautiful day with friends and family. Inspired by my most recent sewing project, I decided that THIS was the year to finally make myself a beautiful tree skirt. Now, anyone who knows me, knows […]

Christmas is in three sleeps! Eeeeee! It’s a fantastic week already because my wonderful sister-in-law, Maricarmen, arrived from Mexico this morning! Best. Christmas. Ever. But that’s this week. Last week was a whole other roller coaster of emotions. My beloved school principal retired on Friday and gosh, […]

I know that it’s been a very silent night month here at F&K. The good news is that concert season is OVER! Everything was a success and I feel very blessed to have made music with so many wonderful people this year. Plus, there’s only two […]

It’s by no means finished, but at least we have progress! And it’s only been three months! Good Lord. I feel like Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada: “By all means, move at a glacial pace – you know how that thrills me.” In the longest […]

It’s been radio silence at F&K for a couple of days now. Sorry about that. I’ve been busy doing this: And this: Sorry for the poor-quality photos but the light source is covered by a plastic sheet. As you can see, there is still LOTS to […]

Or as I like to think of it, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, F & K style! … Sit tight, folks. I promise I’ll explain. With the Siamsa Singers, I had the pleasure of visiting the Lester-Garland House in Trinity, Newfoundland. The LGH is owned and operated by the […]

Every side table needs a beautiful lamp on it, right? But lamps can cost well into the hundreds of dollars, so a classy DIY option is always a great way to go! Here’s how I made over a dull, seen-better-days wooden lamp with just some […]

I just arrived home from Newfoundland on Saturday, and my head (and camera!) is filled with Atlantic beauty. With my choir, the Siamsa Singers, I visited St John’s, Trinity, Elliston, and Eastport. It was a trip filled with gorgeous scenery, fantastic weather, amazing camaraderie, and […]

Or rather, une canadienne et un mexicain after last night’s delicious Canada Day dinner. (For those who aren’t up on their French-Canadian folk music – and you really should be! – Un canadien errant [A wandering Canadian] is one of the most hauntingly beautiful melodies in the folk […]

So now that my summer project list looks like this: – Finish deck makeover – Buy wine – Drink wine on made-over deck I’m thinking that it’s time to turn my attention to our living room. I’ll give you a moment to take in the […]

Because, ladies and gentlemen, the chairs are DONE! I know you’ve been on the edge of your seat waiting for this post… About to fall off your chair in anticipation… Well here it is! Actually, you’re probably thinking “Oh look – she finally finished this […]

I’ve been terribly lax about posting lately and I apologize sincerely for the delay! The past two weeks have been unbelievably busy ones for me, with two major school concerts, and their obligatory dress rehearsals. Life is now back to normal, though, and the end of concert […]

When we first looked at this house as potential buyers, it was the deck that sold us. Don’t get me wrong: we loved (almost) everything else about this house, and what we don’t love is pretty much just cosmetic. But oh the deck… it was […]

This weekend, Erick and I visited my grandmother and aunt, who live in Quebec City. We had a fabulous time catching up and celebrating Easter, but it was bittersweet at times. It will come as no shock to anyone who knows my family to hear […]

Hey fellow flourishers (I think that’s your new name)! I’m thrilled to introduce the first of what I hope will be many wonderful guest posts. This one is by my friend Annie, who you’ll remember from this post. She did some really great DIY artwork […]

Our bedroom was pretty sad-looking when we first moved in. Exhibit A: Note the particularly horrible boxspring-camel-toe and the fondue-parmesan wall colour. Also note that these photos were taken in full-on, mid-day sun. Oppressive. Exhibit B: Admittedly, I did little to “help” these photos at […]

I created this little shelf-scape as a wintery tribute to my beloved maternal grandmother, Katherine. She was fiercely proud of her Scottish MacLeod roots, and inspired in me a love of all things Celtic. She had a little collection of ceramic houses that I used […]

Four years ago, my best friend/then-roommate and I rescued a little nightstand from the garbage room of our apartment building. I wish I’d taken some true before shots so that you could fully appreciate the pre-makeover ick-factor of this nightstand. Think duct-tape skid marks, strange […]