Friday, November 30, 2012

A Little Kitchen Decorating

While I should be hauling out the Christmas decorations this week (we will probably do that this weekend) instead I have been slowly trying to put my kitchen back together. I have been taking my time and enjoying the fact that we don't have people coming and going every day. I know I will change things a million times- especially since we are going to leave the upper cabinets on either side of the sink as open shelving. I still feel like I want to get things as close to "just right" as possible on the first try.

I started by rehanging the curtains I made and I love them even more now that they aren't clashing with the blue and yellow. I also started decorating the little shelves on either side of the sink. I literally just threw whatever up there before because I didn't feel like it mattered but I am trying to choose more carefully now that I like to look at my kitchen. This is where I am now-


I want some more red to balance out the aqua. I had had my eye on a little red enamel sign on etsy for a looong time but I waited too long and it sold. I am going to try and find something similar. I will let you know when I find it. I am sure I will find other things to put up there as I go but it is going to be more about finding things I love or that have meaning than just putting stuff up there to fill space. To the right of the sink on the counter is my Christmas present!


I have been wanting an antique scale for ages and I LOVE this one! It's chippy and red. What more could a girl ask for? It's small enough to sit on the counter and not take over but also looks amazing and can useful too! I will take more pictures as the kitchen progresses. I always forget how horrible it is to take pictures in there because the lighting is weird with the window.

On the other side of the sink are my vintage canisters that I purchased I think before we moved in or right after. I have had them for a while but now they look fantastic!


I haven't gotten too far in my kitchen decorating because I wanted to seal the counter tops which took a couple of days. We got our butcher block counter tops from Ikea and typically most people oil them but we had 3 seams and I wanted to make sure we would be water proofed since one of the seams is under the faucet.  I also did one application of stain in golden oak- which just warmed the counter tops up a little bit.


I followed what Traci over at Beneath My Heart did for her counter tops. If you click on that link she will give far greater description than I am giving you. But we used the same products so it should answer any questions you could have! If you go over take a look around at her blog! She and her hubby just did an amazing fireplace makeover among many other things. She has 4 boys and I don't know how she does it! Amazing!

We are slowly making progress! On the list still-

Adding Hardware
Painting the Upper Cabinet Doors
Adding Trim above the Fridge
Painting the Walls
Painting the Trim
Add Cook Book Shelf Under Old Fridge Cabinet
Redo Backsplash (eventually)

There are probably more things I am forgetting but that is quite a bit of work there. Can't wait! Talk to you soon!

~R

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Christmas Came Early!

One of the things that I have lamented on a regular basis about since we bought this house is the kitchen. When we bought the house all I wanted was a dishwasher. That meant redoing the electric and the water supply lines. After those were done it was the matter of getting the cabinets. Those took twice as long as they told us they would. But this week allllll that changed.

Let's go back to the beginning.


Our kitchen was blue. Very, very blue. No under the sink storage. Nope we had a radiator.


We owned a dishwasher. It just was sitting in a box in a corner of the foyer for just under a year now.


Refrigerator randomly floating on a wall by itself? Check.


Which also meant where the refrigerator was "supposed" to go (in 1947 when the cabinets were installed) was a random waste of space.

For a year we have had this kitchen. NO MORE!!!!!!!

Now I am going to show you some in progress pictures. We are not done by any means. There is a long way to go. But after a long weekend of us redoing the floors and having our contractor here for 2 days here is where we are now.




It is still a construction zone- which is how I know it's my house. Every time I walk into the kitchen I feel like I somehow ended up in another person's house. It is truly amazing!

There was some rain on my parade in a big kind of way.


Mystery leak solved. While that is a good thing -it isn't fixed yet AND I have a big hole in my ceiling. I think besides the fact that we have a hole in the bathroom sink drain there is the disappointment that this is overshadowing the joy we had in making such progress in the kitchen. Plumber is coming tomorrow. We will see what he has to say. In the meantime a quick before and after is warranted I think!


I will try to give a list soon of what still needs to be done. I need to go stare at my beautiful kitchen some more! Woo hoo!!

~R

Monday, November 12, 2012

Renovation Realities and a Name Change

Surprise! We had a little name change around here. I wanted something that suited out lives a little better and was easier to remember. I am thinking a little face lift may follow but with all we have going on these next few weeks that is going on the back burner.

As for our kitchen renovation? Well it's not going as smoothly as I had hoped. We have a mystery leak in our kitchen ceiling. It leaks when no one is running water and the heat is not on. I am baffled. I am thinking it needs to be fixed BEFORE we install our nice new cabinets so that is making me a little anxious. We actually installed a new toilet upstairs thinking that may have been the culprit. Nope. Not it. However, the tank on the new toilet is about half of what the old one was. AND bonus-the new one isn't pink! I am hoping we are going to save some money on our water bill.

 This needs to be a short post as I have much to do. I could go on for ages about what is not exactly going the way it should so far but I figured I would just let some pictures do the talking.

The Before picture...

 
And the Current mid process pictures...



Aren't you jealous? I can't wait for this to be over!!!!!!

~R

Monday, November 5, 2012

Vacation and a Chair Makeover

We were fortunate enough that Matthew was able to take off 5 days in a row last week. It meant Matthew was home for the hurricane- because all of his guys still had to work! and it was a nice mini vacation that we really enjoyed. It was supposed to be filled with kitchen makeover but after finding out there was another delay with the cabinets and our contractor wasn't going to be available just yet we focused on spending time together as a family. We didn't even lose power during the hurricane! We know that was not common occurance and we are sending prayers for those who were hit with the brunt of the storm.

While we didn't get much kitchen renovating done I was able to finish a project that I started 2 weeks ago. I found 2 chairs on craigslist. This was the craigslist picture.


I got the guy to come down $15 in the price ($60 to $45) which still might be a little more than I would have liked to pay for them but I really do love them. They kind of have a french style to them. They have a carved back...


and the detail on the feet...

 
and yucky upholstery and needed to be changed.


So I started painting. I started with what I had which was white milkpaint. The chairs actually started to look blue. It was really strange. So I ordered some Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Grainsack and went over the white with that. 

I was going to use antique grainsacks to cover the seats. I have 2 that I have been saving for the *right* project but it wasn't this project because the ones I have were not wide enough. So I had some beautiful linen that I had purchased that looks amazing on these chairs!
 


I LOVE the way these chairs turned out! I distressed the back of the chairs to highlight the carving.


And I will give you a better look at the linen I used on the seats.


I will admit this was the first time I had recovered a chair and I had some struggles. I think it had a lot to do with the fabric I was using and the fact that our staple gun is somewhat temperamental but I think they turned out great!

If you are wondering where these beauties are living in our house- well they are in the living room. If you have been in our house and are wondering where in heaven's name would you put them in there?!  We had to do some rearranging. Our loveseat was practically shoved up against the radiator.  We knew we couldn't leave it there but I still wanted seating over there and these were the perfect solution. Not to mention it makes that side of the room look so much lighter and less cluttered.  I will show you pictures when I can get the whole living room. We started moving stuff around to prepare for kitchen demo and there is just stuff everywhere.

I have to tell you- even the hubby likes the way these turned out!  How about a quick before and after?



They just want to make me do a happy dance! My adorable assistant helped me with this project (as she does for so many projects) but she wanted to get in on the photo shoot this time as well.



Most adorable assistant ever.

~R