First, let me preface this post by drawing attention to the reduced formatting. I've read several articles relating to the craft of blogging and almost all of them quantify the importance of formatting and visual appeal as a mere water-tread over zero. The thing I learned about blogging (as both an author and a reader) is that if the content is at least a little interesting, the set up really doesn't matter. It's that whole beauty-is-on-the-inside thing. As an author, I also learned that to finesse a block of text costs money. A monthly cost that is much steeper than Netflix to say the least, with a heck of a lot less reward. Unless you're in my mothers house, you can't just binge cp24 so subscription television is well worth the somehow still surprising auto-debit that pops up each month. The money it cost to assemble humorous ramblings about home decor? Not worth it at all. So here it is, reader. Here's a quick and simple scribble on the backstory of Sunday Stroll.
Back in March of 2020, I learned I was bad at baking. It wasn’t so much of a following instructions type of misguide as it was an issue more so never being able to let batter become bake. Read between the lines, please.
Pandemic prison had just kicked off and I knew if I kept down the batter path, I would be stuck inside my four walls beyond the order of our government. If you still aren't grasping, this has to do with consuming raw cake batter and rapidly having something to show for it.
I looked around my condo and the only thing staring back at me was apartment beige. Whether it was in fact the tones of severe boredom seeping from my pores and reflecting onto the walls, or simply one of the forever question marks that is choosing apartment beige as your paint colour; it had to go. I ordered white paint online and a week later (Home Depot was still honing their parking lot pickup hustle) I had a project.
I painted the living room a stark, vibrant, turn your screen up to eleven WHITE and I loved it. Everything I owned popped against this clinical backdrop. Try and imagine your apartment having that hot-shower-and-into-new-sheets feeling. Ugghhh.
By this point, most people would run out of paint but I ran out of wall. This was a tiny Toronto home. The canvas was small. I started to paint some furniture in my home; those “I should definitely do that but real talk never will” pieces that Instagram motivates you flirt with and then ultimately toast a bagel and scroll past instead.
I gave TLC to things that needed it. I also listened to TLC and pretty much every other band in existence while I painted because this was all I had to pass time. I learned to use a drill (effectively), and I slowly started to build an inventory.
Months passed and supplies grew. What didn’t grow however, was the size of my home. The first floor became a jungle gym to navigate as it had evolved into a functioning workspace complete with everything from a staging corner (thanks again, white walls) to a spray tent on the patio. My own furniture was turned upright to free-up space in my new "studio" and I had gone into full crafting mode by day and catch-up-on-everything-Instagram-has-developed-since-inception by night.
It's been just over two years and Sunday Stroll is now a fully evolved vintage home decor & lifestyle brand that continues to blossom with each piece produced. My thought from the start, perhaps influenced by aforementioned prison, was that to feel love, you need to see it which is why each furniture piece is crafted with meticulous detail, colour patters and of course the occasional pop-culture inspiration. In the last year, Sunday Stroll has worked to curate a collection of vintage home decor items that are purposefully chosen to act as the finishing touches on each of our furniture pieces. We like to think of it as the sprinkles on your furnishing froyo. Don’t even pretend you walk past the toppings bar when you visit.
Home is a happy place and yours should be as unique as the person living inside it. Whatever your Sunday Stroll looks like, you deserve one.
