Kitchen Plans

Geeze, I have been MIA on this blog for a while! I do have an excuse though…we have been busy working on the house! I will post pictures of everything we have done soon!  But on to the important stuff…the kitchen. A major selling point for us in buying the house was the huge kitchen that it had. Even though it had blue wallpaper, cabinets, and appliances we knew it was a great space we could make our own. After removing all the wallpaper and taking down some cabinets we were left with a semi blank slate...

Which meant up next was the daunting task of sanding, priming, and painting the inside and outside of the cabinets. I was preparing myself that this would probably take me a good month or two to accomplish…but after talking about it with Cody and some friends we decided it was probably best for someone that actually knew what they were doing to paint them. It pains me a great deal to shell out $$ to someone to do a job that I know I can on my own….but in reality the job they would do would last a lot longer and get done a lot quicker! This means we wouldn’t have to live in utter chaos for over a month. Which is a real saving grace for our marriageJ  And it also means we could move a lot quicker onto all the fun stuff! So,  here is my plan for the kitchen….which will inevitably change I’m sure.

White cabinets. I have always loved them. Were also planning on doing a bead board ceiling.

Subway tile, classic and this we will install ourselves....Cody and my Dad did our master bath tile floor so this should be easy peasy:) I also want to add some brackets under some of the cabinets and under the island counter top.

 Like what that little purple arrow is pointing too...I love that look and I think it adds so much for not so much money!

This is the hardware I am planning on, I ordered one of each to see what we think before I ordered enough for the whole kitchen.

I have this obsession with big white farmhouse sinks. I'm pretty sure I need one in my kitchen. And here is a faucet option that I like...I want something this style.

We have this spot where we tore out the cabinets where we plan to hang a few pendant lights....Remember what it looks like?

Well I am thinking 2 or 3 of these babies in pendant form...

And here are the cork floors we are thinking about...

As for counters....If I had my choice I would obviously choose marble or granite, but since we don't have a money tree in our back yard we are thinking of something more like Corian. Any suggestions on counter top options??

So, can you see it?

all images via pinterest

Mark One Of The List...

Remember the list we made of everything we want to accomplish this month?

The downstairs bathroom is officially done. This is what it looked like when we moved in...

Not bad just in need of a little revamp. We started by priming and painting the paneling. We painted it the same color as the walls in the basement. We had a half gallon of paint left over so that’s pretty much why we decided on this color! We bought a new light fixture and mirror from Lowes. The shower curtain is from Bed Bath and Beyond. I pretty much got that to cover up the ugly shower down there.

And I am also supposed to note that Cody decorated it all on his ownJ He picked out the towel holder and towels, and hung the pictures. It’s funny that the basement is pretty much done and that is the space where we spend the least amount of time in. And we have been busy upstairs too!! Can't wait to show you what we've done up there!

New Year, New List

I’m not going to make a list of things I want to accomplish this year because who knows how big that list would be. I do better with short term goals that I know I can get done as opposed to a HUGE list of 50 things that I would “someday” like to accomplish. It normally ends up being that someday=never. We want to get started on the cabinet sanding/priming/painting step in our kitchen process. Since we know this will take us a good month or more to do (we have a ton of cabinets) we are giving ourselves a month to finish up a bunch of small unfinished projects. So here is the list…we’ve already got some accomplished too! I will share each project when it’s done!

• Touch up paint downstairs
• Prime and paint basement bathroom
• Hang new light fixture and mirror in down stairs bathroom
• Hang curtain rods and curtains in sunroom
• Finish sanding and stain new end tables for sunroom
• Finish table lamps for sunroom
• Hang crown moulding in sunroom
• Hang bead board in hallway on ceiling
• Hang crown moulding in hallway
• Hang 3 light fixtures in hallway
• Re paint front entry table
• Make cushions for window seat in sunroom
• Make upholstered ottoman/coffee table for sunroom

Think it's doable in a month? Here's hoping it is!

Wish Me Luck...

So, I have spent a few months trying to find the perfect side/end tables for our back room. I have wanted something more rustic looking to balance out some other stuff we have going on in that room.  After months of looking online and checking out a few stores I couldn’t find anything I liked. Well I take that back, I found plenty I liked but I didn’t quite think Cody would think it would be a good idea to spend almost $800 on 2 end tables. But I also didn’t want to buy something that I didn’t really like and something that I would get sick of. So I decided I would make them myself. These are the two end tables that I liked the best, but were wayyyy out of my price range.

The first one is from Crate and Barrel and it is $399 per end table! WHAAAATT? I’ll be honest, for that price they should throw in a coffee table and lamp!

The second one is from a really great shopping site called One King’s Lane. I really liked the stain on this one and that it had sides.

So I am hoping I can come up with something in between these in style and color. That’s my big plan for this weekend. You may be wondering what other pieces of furniture I have made? None. But there’s a first for everything. My goal is for someone not to say “Wow, I’m guessing you made those.” But “Wow, where did you get those?” We’ll see. I have already gone to Lowes and priced out the wood I would need. If I never blog about them again, you will know it was an epic fail. Wish me Luck…

Fast like a snail

 We’re moving at lightning speed over here in the kitchen. Not really, but we are making some progress. The first order of business was to take the cabinet and soffit down in the middle. It started like this…



Then it was like this after the cabinet came down...

And now it's like this after we took the soffit out...

It made such a huge difference taking it out. It feels like our ceilings are now 20 feet tall! Did I tell you that were going to put up bead board ceilings? Well we are. And we are going to hang 2 pendants lights where the soffit was.  Next step is to finish getting all the wallpaper off, get the walls primed and on to the painting!

A tree, a movie, and a gun

I am pretty big on traditions, especially around the holidays. When I was little on Christmas Eve we would drive through the festival of lights every year as a family. Its a pretty cheesy adventure but a tradition so it doesn't matter. Another tradition is watching the movie White Christmas while putting up the Christmas tree.

So last weekend I popped in the movie and began the decorating. Our Christmas tree is obviously tall and skinny, kind of like what I wished my body type was!! our first place was super small so we needed a tree that was skinny. It actually looked big in our old place. I am hoping to find some good sales this year on trees once Christmas is over! I wanted a different color scheme this year so I ended up making quite a few ornaments. But let me back up. I had seen a picture on pinterest of a ruffle tree skirt. So I wanted to make that first.

Be warned...it will take you hours...like 5 or 6. And you will burn your little fingers off with the glue gun and your hand will cramp from holding the gun for that long. But you have no choice because ruffles are a must and they are fabulous. It is a super cheap project too. I bought a $4.00 drop cloth at Walmart to use as the skirt part then I got 3 yards of a white cotton fabric. I think it all cost me less then $10.

And because I wasn't sick of using the glue gun yet I decided to use it again but this time on ornaments! I had seen this picture on pinterest and loved the idea.

I just punched out a bunch of circles and glued them on clear ornaments. I started at the bottom and worked my way up to the top. I bought a few sheets of scrapbook paper in a navy glitter and a gingham. I think they are my favorite ornaments on the tree.

For the other ornaments I made all I did was buy some craft paint and clear ornaments. I squeezed in the paint and added a little bit of water and swished it around on the inside until it covered everything then let them dry overnight. I picked up a creamy Orange, a coral and navy craft paint. I wanted some unexpected and fun colors!

The rest of the ornaments and garland I either had or picked up this year. I really liked how it turned out.

 



Grab your popcorn...

It's movie time! I have had these vintage movie posters stashed away for a long time. I have been so excited to use them somewhere in the house. We thought the back room/sunroom would be the best space to use them in. First because there was a huge blank wall and second because that's where we watch most of our TV/movies and it only makes sense to have movie posters in a room with a TV. Cody and I love old movies. I grew up on old movies and musicals and Cody loves old westerns so we have watched our fair share of them all. I always tell Cody that in my perfect world everyone would sing how they feel just like in the musicals and we would all sound great too...he just looks at me like I'm crazy. I had seen this image awhile ago with really colorful mats and prints and simple silver frames. I knew that's what I wanted to do with mine too!

I ordered all the movie posters off of Amazon. They were only a couple bucks each and since I knew I wanted to do 8 pictures I wanted to try and keep the cost as low as possible. For my mats I headed to good old Hobby Lobby. The hardest part was choosing a complimentary color to go with each mat. The frames will be 16x20 so it will be a pretty big and fun statement in the room. (Sorry the pictures are terrible, they are from my phone) Here they are all laid out on the floor...

I defiantly got the effect that I wanted, colorful but not too crazy. First up we have Rio Bravo and the original Ocean's 11 with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Cody loves John Wayne movies, and can you blame him? He was a pretty cool cowboy....

Pillow talk and Breakfast at Tiffany's. I love Doris Day movies, they are always super cute and cheeky. And can you get any more classic then Breakfast at Tiffany's?

Meet me in St. Louis and the Sons of Katie Elder. I grew up watching Meet me in St. Louis. This is one movie I could watch over and over again and never get tired of it. The Sons of Katie Elder is another classic western and has Dean Martin in it too. Let me just tell you about our love of Dean Martin... He is our favorite singer by far, wayyy better then Mr. Sinatra if you ask me. We own all his variety shows, movies and CD's. And yes I have even read his biography. And Cody's great Grandpa's name is Dean Martin...no joke.

And then we have Guys and Dolls and Singin in the Rain. How can you not love Gene Kelly? And how can you not love a movie that that makes a song and dance out of a gambling session in the sewers like Guys and Dolls and doesn't make it seem weird??

The mats were around $14 each since I had to have them cut to fit each poster. I found a place online that I can get 16x20 poster frames in a matte silver for a reasonable price. I can't wait to get the frames and hang them up. So, if you haven't seen any of these movies I highly suggest that you do so. And hopefully afterwards you will either be running around singing everything or shooting bad guys with your pistol.