kitchen reveal

Posted on 1.27.2015 by sarah

Hi Friends! I’m SO excited to say we are OH, SO CLOSE to finishing this kitchen!! I cannot quite believe it’s taken almost four whole months to complete, BUT I’m glad to say, it’s almost done.

We have just three things pending items left for our contractor to complete: Yes, I want to kill him, but that’s another post.

Redoing the can lights in the breakfast nook. (make sure your electrician is putting in up-to-code lighting!)
Repainting under the microwave. (When the vent guys came in, they scratched the paint. Grrr.)
Replacing the window screens (long story… paint guys, windows open, white film.)

The things I have to accomplish are more on the fun side!!

Art on those bare walls, mainly in the breakfast nook.
Vent cover under the cabinets.
Continue to reinvent the shelves with fun stuff

But before we get to the goodness of the new, lets remember the old. Below is how it looked when we first moved in. Not a bad kitchen; it was functional and clean, but it needed an update. And the wasted space above the cabinets was killing me!

Fast forward 3 1/2 years, add in a main line water leak, and here’s what it looks like today! ...when it’s clean. It’s so fun walking into this space or peeking around the corner when I’m in the living or dining room. It just looks so pretty… I hope you all like it, too. Here’s my amateur photo shoot!

If you have been following this journey, you already know just how far we have come. If not, here’s all my kitchen posts:

I’m in love with these little corner shelves! I think they bring a little color and personality to the space. It will be fun reinventing them for holiday and season changes.

Our cabinetry knobs and pulls are from Restoration Hardware and a little bit of a splurge, but I tried to find something similar at Lowe’s, Home Depot, and even online in the right finish/style, but I just couldn’t… We both kept coming back to these beauties.

Our faucet is a Grohe K7 Single-Lever main kitchen faucet in chrome. We love the modern look with a more country/traditional apron sink from Kohler.

The subway tiles are such a great look for bathrooms and kitchens, at a lower price point than many other options. I’m so glad we went ahead with that look here. And the marble-looking quartz countertops are a perfect mix of beauty and durability, too!

Here’s one more before and after picture. Wow, it’s come so far!

I hope all your curiosity is satisfied with this kitchen photo shoot!! I know I love the space… and tulips, too! Anyone in the area is always welcome to stop on by and take a look! It’s more beautiful in person! Plus, we actually cook in this kitchen, so I love dinner guests! Ha!

Happy week, Friends. I’ll try to make a source list in the next couple weeks to help with your inquiries. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment below!

kitchen sneak peak

Posted on 1.17.2015 by sarah

The kitchen has been the talk of this blog for quite some time now, and never did I believe that it would take us allllll the way into the new year! Wow! But, I’m happy to report there are only two minor things for our contractor to complete, so we can officially say it’s done.

I, on the other hand, have a lot of finishing touches to attend to, like what will go in those cute corner shelves, what will our breakfast nook artwork be (oh, the possibilities!), and so much more! But for now, for the people who have been inquiring both the hubs and I for pictures, I will be editing them this week for just that purpose! BUT UNTIL THEN…here’s a few teasers to ease the anticipation a little… I know you all are on the edge of your seat, ha!

Stay tuned for more!!

kitchen progress V: backsplash

Posted on 11.23.2014 by sarah

We have been moving along at a snail’s pace these last couple of weeks…. maybe even slower than a snail’s pace. But the tile AND flooring guys (hold your breath) actually showed up this week. Of course the flooring guys still have work to do, but the backsplash is finished!

We picked a simple white subway tile and had them inch it together as close as humanily possible. I would recommend spacers for this work to make the grout look as even as possible. We, unfortunately, were advised that we didn’t need them, and there are a couple places that could have looked better, in my opinion. Live and learn.

I’ve always been enamored by the simplicity of subway tiles, and in this space it just worked wonderfully… what do you think?

We decided not to stop the subway tile at the level of the cabinets but worked them all the way up to the middle of the window. I like the look of more subway tiles than less, plus it will be a great backsplash to whatever items I decide to place on the sill.

We matched that same sill height to the door of the entryway into the dining room. Yes, we still need the painters to paint the frame around the window, we know.

After they put in the tiles, it was time for the grout. We went with Polyblend Oyster Gray #386. At first glance (when it was still drying), I thought it was too dark, but by the next day, I liked the color and the contrast.

All in all, we’re really pleased with the progress but can’t quite believe it’s almost Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving!), and I don’t have my kitchen back. Sigh. It’s been two months for this very small galley kitchen. Wow. Touch ups, appliances are up next!

Happy Thanksgiving Week, Friends!

kitchen progress IV: countertops

Posted on 11.08.2014 by sarah

Now that we have cabinets and everything painted, we can move onto the countertops and backsplash! Above are just a few of the may choices we brought home and debated over. Our contractor was trying to steer us toward granite, but I didn’t like many of the variations for our kitchen. Plus, we were leaning toward a lighter shade of countertops, and if you spill red wine on granite, it will stain! I like red wine, and I know I will spill, so that was a lot of pressure.

A new-er product that has been getting a lot of respect in the kitchen is quartz. It’s about the same price as granite, but you don’t have to seal it when it’s installed nor annually like granite, and if I spill Kool-aid or red wine on white quartz, which I can pretty much guarantee, this countertop is safe! Win-Win! Plus, it comes in simple patterns and some variations look like marble, which we were both drawn to.

We went to a bunch of countertop stores around the area, looked on-line, and found two that really stuck out. LG Hausys Rococo Quartz and Vicostone Calacatta Quartz. Rococo quartz only came in 2 cm and we really wanted 3 cm. Calacatta quartz was the one that shined through the rest, the whole time. It looks great with the cabinets, the newly painted walls, and was a touch of bold in our white-on-white kitchen.

I was able to go to the quartz showroom in Dallas to see the exact piece. This was exciting!! Look at those bold stripes! I was a little nervous but overall super excited!

Then it was time to talk to our fabricator. This is crucial when picking something with a pattern. Talk to your fabricator, often. I printed out this exact image above, then used it to “puzzle” the pieces we wanted for our lay out. The fabricator took it with him, laid out the design on the slab and had me come out into his shop to make sure I was okay with the design before he actually started cutting. This is what we thought it would look like…

The fabricator had to change a couple pieces, when he got the actual slab and measured everything out. But as I said before, he had me come out to the shop, and three guys and I walked through the layout. I had the puzzle pieces on the floor, and we working with the big slab until everything was correct. We came up with a plan that kept the flow of the lines consistent, kept the pieces I wanted in each area, and matched the seams perfectly! Sorry, the masking tape is hard to see, but they are there! Here’s a crude/discolored idea of what the sink side of our kitchen countertop will look like… see how the lines on the top of each side match up where the seam will be above the sink!! That was the work of one of the fabricators! Moving, measuring, and taping, over and over! Trust me, it’s worth your time to sit and make sure your pattern flows! Your eye thinks the other line connects were the sink is cut out, too (see the arrow below). Bonus!!

Okay, enough with all the details, are you ready for a peak of the real countertops?!? I figured you would!

Besides the whole sink side, this little gem is one of my favorite pieces.

And here’s that seam I was so worried about… they got it! Perfect!

I’m in love! It’s a little bit of boldness in this simple kitchen! Plus, a little dose of Jack, who absolutely loves the construction site!

With a durable surface like quartz, I won’t be as worried about every little thing I’m doing on them! It’s been a pretty fun process from start to finish.

I’ll be back with our backsplash! Yay! We’re getting SO close to the end!

kitchen progress III: paint colors

Posted on 10.27.2014 by sarah

Now that the cabinets are up, we need paint! Paint on those beautiful cabinets, crown moldings, walls, and ceiling! That’s a lot of paint! I suggest bringing as many samples as you want home. Then, check out the lighting in your space with each of the colors. We did that during the day and at night and were able to see some of the undertones you may not see at the store. Some have blue, yellow, reds…

We fell in love with one that shined through brighter than the rest, Benjamin Moore Snowfall White OC-118. It’s a perfect white-white for our space, and I love the name! Reminds me of home! Our contractor is a Sherwin Williams guy, so we had it color matched in an acrylic semi-gloss. It’s such a glossy goodness; I will suggested it to all!

Oh, and don’t they look gorgeous!! Below is a night picture of the cabinets drying.

We then moved on to the wall color! I bought a bunch of samples and painted those on the walls! We both liked Ozark Shadows AC-26, but I wanted a little less bold/dark color with the white kitchen… So, we went a step down on the color palette with Harbor Gray AC-25. Here’s the samples with both wood and white cabinets.

Then the crown molding came in!! It was an easy decision to do the crown molding the same color as the cabinets. Glossy Benjamin Moore Snowfall White OC-118.

Lastly that ceiling, that new ceiling with all those new lights, gets some paint, too!! We went with a standard flat ceiling paint from B. Moore, which we had leftover from our other projects. We saved a little cash, too!

I’m just loving our choices, and it’s coming together beautifully. But yes, we need to paint that door and trim to match the space – we know!! It’s on the docket for this weekend! Here’s a before/progress pic, too!

I cannot wait for the countertops and backsplash to be here! I’ll share all that goodness next!! They are so gorgeous; I would sleep with the sample, if the hubs didn’t think I was crazy!

Thanks for reading, friends! Happy Week!

kitchen progress II: cabinets

Posted on 10.26.2014 by sarah

We’ve got cabbbbbinets!! If you say it like Oprah, it makes it that much more fun! They have been in the garage for a couple of days now, and I couldn’t help myself from sneaking a peak… or two… or ten!

Then the cabinet maker himself came in to install all the cabinet goodness!!

We went with a traditional shaker style inset cabinets. Super sleek in my book!! Jack’s excited about it, too! Actually I was trying to get a picture of him in this shoot, but he thought I wanted him to chase me. Ha.

And to not be confused by the original drawings here, here is where everything will be laid out. Sorry, the word pantry got cut off but I think you get the idea. We need the cabinet maker to redo the cabinet above the microwave. Our microwave is 17″ high and the leftover cooking space would only be about 10″. We plan on moving the microwave to where the bottom is ‘about 7″ above the base of the cabinets on either side, so we’ll have a little more cooking space underneath the microwave.

Having the cabinets in makes this process a lot more real. It’s really going to look like a kitchen soon!! I’ll keep you posted. Below is a progress picture! It looks so nice and tall already!!

Past kitchen posts are here and here! I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!!

kitchen progress I: dry wall and electrical

Posted on 10.25.2014 by sarah

Now that the leak has been found and fixed, the walls have been bleached and dried, and the floor has been pulled out, we can move forward with the repairs of making this space back into a kitchen!

They replaced the drywall that was affected by the leak.

Then, we moved onto lighting! I knew we needed more light! It was always so hard to take good blog pictures of food! Ha! We decided on six can lights dispersed throughout the galley, which will be on a dimmer. They also drywalled where the furrow used to be and took out that ugly fluorescent light! Yay!!

One pendant light will be hung by the kitchen sink window. We are thinking the pendant below from school house electric will be perfect. The pendant will be a natural bronze or polished nickel, and I cannot wait to see it in person! It’s so sleek and that glossy black will be a fun friend to the light above the breakfast nook!

Because of all the cracks in the ceiling and that big office light in the middle, we decided to “float the ceiling”. This required them to scrape off the existing texture, tape, mud, smooth the cracks out, and re-texture to make what we have today!

We didn’t ignore our breakfast nook in the lighting department! We added four smaller can lights in the nook, which will also be on a dimmer switch, and we plan to keep our Eldridge pendant light hung over the farm table (or another table – I haven’t decided). But I’m SO excited to see it all come together, either way!

We also have under-cabinet lighting and a light that illuminates our oven surface! Oh, Progress!

If you missed our original kitchen post, check it out here. Happy Weekend, Friends!

kitchen planning + demo

Posted on 10.18.2014 by sarah

Our galley kitchen before the demo. Minus our hardware which we sold on Craigslist.

I don’t think you realize the goodness (chaos) that is going on in our household. No, not the baby announcement!! We have a kitchen remodel in process, as I type this post! Actually, the contractor/workers have all gone home for the evening but you get my idea!

A couple of weeks ago, gosh more like a month ago, I started smelling this funky smell in our kitchen. It was especially prominent when I opened up the drawers, under the sink, and when we revved up our freight-train-sounding-dishwasher. The hubs didn’t smell it at first, and I started to believe this was something my pregnancy nose was conjuring up! Finally, the hubs smelled it, too, and we knew we had to do something. It smelled moldy! We had assessment peeps out and they established two things; yes, we were smelling mold, and pointed out some of it manifestations AND he, too, had no clue where it was coming from.

This meant demolition. Taking out the cabinets, at least on the sink side to expose the leak. At first, I was bummed that we didn’t get to do our kitchen remodel on our terms/timeline but then realized, this was the push we needed to just do it! We hired a contractor that was willing to work with our little galley kitchen and me, to make this space our own!

Below are a couple snapshots of the redesign and ideas I gave him for the space. We pushed our refrigerator over making more counter space for cooking, took out the furrow to extend the cabinets all the way up to the ceiling, added a wine cooler, apron sink, and put drawers next to the sink for towels!! It was wonderful living in our kitchen for three years before the planning, so we could tweak things we didn’t like throughout the space. There was a big part of me that wanted to open up the space (basically above the range) to the family room and have a more open concept kitchen; I pictured pendant lighting, a couple stools for the kiddos and the ability to see whats going on in the family room while in the kitchen. But, I was turned down numerous times for various reason. So, I’ll keep my uppers and the wall, and Jack and our baby girl will have to play unsupervised. I’m only kidding…

As you can tell I’m a BIG fan of white kitchens! I love the cleanliness they possess, and the accent colors you can add to white throughout the years are endless. You aren’t tied down with a color scheme, which I like.

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I’m deciding between Benjamin Moore’s Rockport Gray, which I already love, or Valley Forge Tan; it’s a little lighter than Rockport with less mud green tones and more reddish undertones. And those are white subways tiles with two different quartz countertops. Sorry it’s more yellow than pure white in this picture.

And then the demo began. Our contractor informed us this was the worst water damage he has seen, which was not uplifting news considering he has been in the business for 50+ years, but he reassured us it would look great, the leak would be fixed (yes, he found it, it was the main water line coming into the kitchen) and the damage would be fixed/replaced/cleaned and never be seen in the final product. After I saw this, I was a little leery myself…

The water damage went underneath our wood floor as well as our subfloor, which was not in the original plans for the space, but it had to be done. The leak just kept going! Luckily, our insurance will help us out with some of the cost.

Other not-so-fun parts of renovation is our soon-to-be baby’s nursery now houses our kitchen! Our guest bath is our kitchen sink, dog bowl storage, and bath/bathroom! And our living room holds our pantry, refrigeration, and microwave. Jack thinks it’s heaven…. I guess at least someone likes the chaos.

I’ll be back with the start of putting it allllll back together, soon!!

Happy weekend, Friends!

let there be light

Posted on 4.08.2013 by sarah

The father-in-law was here, the father-in-law was here! Easter weekend was spent with my in-laws at our house. They were nice enough to fly down for the extended weekend and help us with some house projects!

The husband and my father-in-law spent time switching out FOUR fixtures, two receptacles, and fixed a toilet! It was so motivating to have them here; it made me want to do even more!

The first fixture in the dining room was probably the hardest. They had to head up to the attic because I wanted them to place a fixture directly above the dining table and get rid of the center chandelier in the middle of the room. Now the space serves as both a living room and dining room instead of one big dining room. Below you can see the old chandelier in the middle of the room, reflected in the mirror.

I chose a 3-jar chandelier I got from West Elm (go figure). It worked perfect in the space. It doesn’t look too formal for the table, and I’m so pleased with the size!

Then, the pair moved on to the kitchen. In our little kitchen nook, there was a big ceiling fan, which was nice, but I want the space to have a more structured spot for eating and entertaining. Plus the big ceiling fan wasn’t that aesthetically pleasing.

I decided on Ballard‘s Eldridge Pendant. I kept the existing placement of the electrical box (the guys were happy about that) but had them swing the chain to center the light over our little farm table. At first, I was a little nervous I got too big of a fixture for such a small space, but as I look at it daily, it really works with the space.

If that wasn’t enough, they moved to the nursery. There was a very dated fan in the nursery that needed to go!! I wanted some sort of chandlier or pendant for this space depending on if it was a girl or a boy. With a boy in my belly, I went with Serena & Lily‘s Birds Nest Hanging Pendant which my father-in-law affectionately called the waste basket. Here’s the before picture of the nursery.

And the nursery light after! I’m in love with the nursery light, and at night it makes a wonderful design on the ceiling! Again, I was worried about how big it was for the space but it worked perfectly! I absolutely love it! I think it looks a little more boy-oriented and again love the wooden look that accents the wood on the crib and the woods on the dresser!

Lastly, we used our white kitchen fan to replace the current light in the guest room. The guest room had a fluorescent light in the room from the previous owners who used the space as an office.

All I had to do was clean up the fan, and I bought four new light globes for the fan to make it a little more modern. It felt good to reuse the light and get the old nasty fluorescent out!

It’s absolutely awesome to have that all off the to do list and all those lights off the ground and in there spots! I’m so thankful no one electrocuted themselves or fell through the ceiling! A big thanks to the husband and father-in-law for your extended efforts and work throughout the weekend!

kitchen nook evolution

Posted on 9.21.2012 by sarah

I’ve been working very slowly on our kitchen nook, and I feel like it’s time to update everyone on its progress! Plus, I haven’t had much on here about my house lately, and that needs to change. Today! I’ve been doing a lot of changes in this kitchen and still foresee more coming, but for now, it’s just nice to sit back and see the progress. We went from navy wallpaper, to robin’s egg blue, to chocolate brown, to no wainscoting after water damage, to removing decorative poles, to a very light gray. (sigh.) Yes, a lot of good changes.

It was a lot of labor, especially in painting, but it’s looking better and better. Plus, we added those beautiful wood floors and baseboards making it look extra special! I also decided on a yellow (well mostly green) accent color for the space which has been receiving accolades from the visitors we’ve had.

I still need a rug, curtain hardware, and curtains for this space but it’s coming together nicely.

I also have a pendant light waiting to be installed by the husband and father-in-law. Here’s a sneak preview of the pendant light. Fun, right?! Gosh, I can’t wait for this goodness to be up! And yes, I got it on sale! Score! :)

More angled views of the kitchen…

I’m especially happy with the farm table I found on craigslist. It has painted turquoise legs with a solid wood top. I sanded down the top and stained it with left over stain from our back door! It looks absolutely beautiful in this space.

Here’s a source list of my kitchen so far: Paint – Benjamin Moore – early morning mist, garbage can – simple human, chair – tolix french chair, dog bowls (beer crate) – Etsy, tray on table – west elm, pear – Z gallerie, Roman shades – imperial trellis fabric, made on Etsy, frames – thrifted, poster – “Work Hard & Be Nice to People” – anthony burill, Farm table – craigslist.

Happy Weekend!

spaghetti on bath night

Category Archives: Kitchen

kitchen reveal

kitchen sneak peak

kitchen progress V: backsplash

kitchen progress IV: countertops

kitchen progress III: paint colors

kitchen progress II: cabinets

kitchen progress I: dry wall and electrical

kitchen planning + demo

let there be light

kitchen nook evolution