Home Tour {kitchen progress}

I'm going to share changes we have made in the kitchen, mostly with the magic of paint.... a lot of paint.  We actually completed what we have done several months ago when I was still pregnant, but with third trimester and new baby, little gets done {including blog posts}.  Better late than never though...

You can see a lot of "before" house pictures here to see what the entire house looked like before we did anything to it.  I'll re-post some "before" kitchen photos though to show you where all the paint had to come in...

The two pictures above are even after we switched out the light fixtures over the island... I didn't get a great picture of the two HUGE chandeliers that used to be there except for this pic I snapped with my phone as Caleb and his dad were taking them down...

They hung right in your sight line when you were looking at someone on the other side of the island, plus they are just really not my style.

And the small eat-in area...

Soooo pumpkin orange and brownish/purple really weren't doing it for me... here's the now...

I choose black for the cabinets because I wasn't about to do four coats of white to try and cover the previous colors.  Two coats of black did the trick! I also choose a flat black paint to get a matte look... maybe that wasn't very smart of me since semi gloss is traditionally used for cabinets.  Only time will tell... right now my Norwex cloth wipes little marks off just fine.

I'm still a little unsure about the floors, I really don't like the color.  Too reminiscent of the previous colors I guess.  It's not in the budget to replace them, but maybe a heavy duty deck/porch paint? Some people think I'm crazy when I throw out that idea... again, time will tell.

I've constantly been on the hunt for a small antique table to put in this corner with two or three chairs. Hoping to hit that jackpot soon.

We had to do some cabinetry changes to get started... the previous owner had the dishwasher raised up so that you didn't have to bend over as far when loading and unloading.  I wasn't a fan because it took away from useable counter space that I already don't have a ton of.  So we lowered it down to normal height, which meant we needed to get a new counter top because the granite stopped and there was just a stainless steel counter over the dishwasher.  Fine with me... I didn't really like the granite anyway.  A local company made us a new cabinet for the opposite side of the dishwasher that matched the cabinets for about $150.

The new counters are birch butcher block from Ikea.  I finished them with a coating called Waterlox that lots of other bloggers with Ikea counter's had used.  I'm not sure I'd use it again... I would be interested to see what someone who just used the tung oil that Ikea sells thought about their finish and durability.  The Waterlox is just a lot of work to apply and it does bring out a very warm tone in the wood {which I don't necessarily dislike}.  But maybe since I have butcher block next to my sink it's necessary to use a Waterlox-like product, I don't know.  It does cause liquid to "bead up" when it gets on the counter, which is good.


This picture really shows some of quirks of the cabinets, they definitely aren't perfect.  There are also two styles of cabinetry in the kitchen.  It has a very cottage-like, mismatch quality to it. This "reno" is all about embracing that and making it look as good as possible without replacing much. :)  The drawer pulls and knobs are brass... duh. Who doesn't love brass right now?!

The pendants, also brassy, I bought long ago when we first moved in.  Love them.

The sink is new, and no it's not under mount... obvi.  An under mount sink would have meant really perfect cuts made in the butcher block {by us, we installed it ourselves, with help}, plus sanding the cut edges with a tool we don't have, and extra treatment of the Waterlox stuff... like 6 layers of it... so I read.  No thanks, I think the over mount looks fine and putting it in with the counters was much easier!

The wall behind the sink desperately needs tile and open shelving... that's on the to-do list, maybe this summer!  Once I have open shelving I can clear my counters off! Plus my everyday dishes are plain white, so they can go up there too!

the writing on my glass containers is a product of a long nap by Reid and a new chalk marker for myself :)

I do love how some of my dishes stand out against the black...

One thing I desperately need to do is put fabric or something under the screen that is the top half of our pantry door.  I mean...why? Why would a person make their pantry door see through...? Also, too bad I didn't organize my pantry before I took this picture.  Real life people.

Well that's the progress folks...

Sources:
Wall paint color: BM Classic Gray {mixed in SW paint}
Trim paint color: SW Simply White
Cabinet pain color: BM Black Panther {mixed in SW paint}
Counters: Ikea birch butcher block
Brass hardware: Martha Stewart line at Home Depot {online}
Recipe box: Rifle Paper Co.
Brass Pineapple: antique
Stools in kitchen: antiques
White cast iron sink: Home Depot
Glass containers: Target & Hobby Lobby
Colored bowls: Anthropologie
Island pendants: Etsy

Home Tour {Reid's nursery}

My baby is two months old! What an exhausting, amazing, crazy, wonderful two months its been! Needless to say I've been busy.  It's been hard to adjust being busy with things that don't involve crossing things off of a to-do list.  On my to-do list for a while now has been sharing Reid's nursery... so I'm finally getting to that!
I shared my ideas for a nursery here {before we knew the gender} and here {after we knew the gender}.  I stuck with most of the ideas from the second mood board.  The vintage paint by number picture seen in that post inspired the colors for the nursery.  First we should see the hideous before picture of this room...

After we scraped some terrible wall decals off the of walls we started adding wainscoting.  I wanted horizontal wood paneling, so we used pine tongue and grove paneling.  We topped the paneling with a 1x4 pine board to trim it out.  The only difficult part of this was in a 100 year old house, nothing is level.  Leveling the bottom board is necessary to not make the rest of the paneling look wonky, so if you look closely there is a range of gaps between the floor trim and the first panel on top of it. After that we gave everything a nice thick coat of primer! 

The wall color for the room is Benjamin Moore Harbor Gray and the trim color is Sherwin Williams Simply White {as is in the rest of the house}.  Here are the after photos...

The paint by number ship print that started it all is the center of the gallery wall...

We added a wardrobe to the room because this room didn't have a closet.

Antique store finds sit upon the shelf...

Originally I had wanted this crib in a gray color, but after many attempts to order it, it was unavailable everywhere.  I'm actually glad because I ended up really loving the black!

The anchor print crib sheet is one of my absolute favorite things in the entire nursery! It adds to the nautical theme without being overwhelming.

Over the crib, I went with a garland rather than a mobile, which I was able to make myself with yarn I already had.

I used the lined basket as a hamper, while the other baskets in the room hold toys, stuffed animals, and extra blankets.

Source list:
Crib - DaVinci Jenny Lind crib in black via overstock.com
Rug - Jute Chenille Herringbone rug in Ivory {8x10} via West Elm {got on sale and saved shipping costs by ordering it and picking it up from the store}
Sheepskin rug - Ikea
Crib sheet - Anchor Print crib sheet via RH Baby & Child {gifted}
Dresser - antique store {gifted}
Rocker - already owned, it was Caleb's grandmothers! Bought my own fabric and had it reupholstered
Pouf ottoman - clearance from Target
Baskets - all three found at Tuesday Morning
Mirror - Tuesday Morning
Tongue and grove paneling - Lowe's
Black and gold accent table - Target
Striped Throw - Ikea
Blue Turkish Cotton Throw - clearance from Anthropolgie
Black & White pillow - Ikea {already owned}
Pom-pom garland - DIY
Picture Ledges {holding books} - Ikea {already owned}
Large shelf and brackets - Ikea
Picture frames - Target, Ikea, and vintage finds
Vintage paint by number - Etsy
Hand drawn Bible Verse - DIY
"The World is Your Oyster print" - via Rifle Paper Co.
"Rise and Shine" print - via Minted

Diaper pad changing cover - Etsy {gifted}
Lamp - Ikea {then spray painted gold}
Wardrobe - Ikea {handles were spray painted gold}
Curtains - Fresh Linen Curtain Panels in blue via Land of Nod
"R" initial - Zinc Letters via Anthropologie {got on sale!}
Mini pendant - Retro KU pendant via Rally House

Paint colors - walls are BM Harbor Gray, trim is SW Simply White

Home Tour {living room}

Finally it's time for me to share some updates in our house.  The living room area was definitely one of the first rooms I started working on after we moved in.  It got a lot of attention quickly, and while I definitely still have a "to-do" list of things to get accomplished in here, it's coming along quite nicely.  I'll start you out with lovely {maybe not so lovely}, before pictures...

And the living room fireplace before {I already did a post about painting the fireplace you can find here}

And here is what the living room looks like now...

A few things about the room in general: the paint color is called Oyster White by Sherwin Williams, the trim color {of what I have repainted so far} is a Benjamin Moore color called Simply White, all the hardwoods are original as far as we know - they could use a nice buff and smooth coat of polyurethane... but that's for a later day year.

First I'll mention the new rug... it's an 8'x10' rug that I bought online.  I was trying to mimic the look of the West Elm Souk Wool Rug, except I was not trying to mimic the price tag of $899!  I found a good deal on rugsusa.com during a 70% off sale and landed on the Marrakesh Shag Natural Rug.  The website was also offering free shipping, so I got a great 8'x10' rug for under $300. I'm really happy with the rug, it does shed some, because it's wool, but with occasional vacuuming it does really well.  I also really like the braided detail on the ends. Lola likes it too :) {You'll notice she made every attempt to get in my pictures in this post}

Next up the window treatments.  The woven blinds I ordered online {you think I could have lowered them to the same height to take pictures, huh? guess not...}.  They are called Petite Rustique Bamboo Roman Shades from overstock.com.  I thought I would be able to find them locally but Home Depot did not have the right color I wanted and Lowe's did have the right color, but it was their top of the line brand and were a little more expensive per shade than the ones I ordered.  They also come in several varying widths which was great, because in our old home the widths of the windows aren't always the same. I also got free shipping since my order was over $50.

These shades are not lined, so you can still see through them at nighttime with lights on in the house, but that's what the curtains are for.  They still let it good light during the daytime, making the living room have great light and still some privacy.  I wouldn't recommend getting these for a bedroom though - I'd definitely consider lined ones to ensure better privacy.  Lined shades just equal more money, so for the living room this was perfect!
Now the curtains... well they aren't actually curtains. They are bedsheets.  I'm sure some interior designers that don't read my blog just passed out... but who can beat "curtains" for $9.99 from Target??? I have friends that do this too, so I feel pretty good about it, I'm not alone! {Shout-out to Mel!} They are ivory twin sheets from Target's Threshold line.  They are the perfect length too!  The curtain hardware is also from Target, all in a black finish.

Next my beautiful, little Fiddle Leaf Fig tree.  Isn't he so cute?!?  I found him at my local florist shop, just happened to stumble upon him after wanting one for quite some time.  I got him as a really mature tree for $60, which I think is a pretty good price.  He has a braided trunk with three separate trunks.  I like him a lot.  I think someday he needs a cooler basket to sit in.

In the corner above the TV I have two picture ledges from Ikea.  I had these in my old house in my living room. The frames are from a mix of Target and Ikea.  I still need to fill the one frame with a picture. :)

The TV stand is from Target and we got it when we got married {almost six years ago!}, and I'm pretty sure Target sill sells the exact same one.  I've actually had my eyes out for an antique or maybe a good thrift find that I can refinish to replace this one.  It works for now but I'd like something with a little more of a furniture look to it.

This ottoman is also from Target and they also still sell it. :) It is also from six years ago and has seen better days, but serves its purpose.  I'd really like to replace this with a trunk but I have been unsuccessful at finding one the right size in the right price range so far.

The basket is one I found in the Target clearance section several months ago, it's from the Nate Berkus line and there are currently ones just like it with slightly different designs.  The wooden tray is also from Target, I got it around Christmas time last year.  The mug was a Christmas gift and it from Anthropologie.

The couch is the same couch from our old house.  I got it a few years ago from the Nebraska Furniture Mart clearance room, score! The crocheted throw on the back of the couch was a handmade wedding present.  The purple and blue pillows in the room are all old and from West Elm.  The black and white pillows are from Ikea, as well as the natural colored lumbar pillow.

The desk in the back corner is very old, it is an Ethan Allen piece that used to by my dad's when he was young.  The little gray end table is something I got since we moved in.  It's from a local antique store.  I really love the scallop detail on the top edge. The gold lamp is old, it's thrifted and spray-painted.

This brown chair is from Nebraska Furniture Mart and was also something we got right after we got married.  It's a chair and a half, which I like, but the quality of the fabric is pretty poor. The stuffing from the cushion underneath is starting to poke up through the fabric and it just looks kinda ugly. At first I was ready to blame Lola for shedding on the chair, but then I realized it wasn't her fault. {Also, I could have straightened up these pillows for this pic... looks frumpy...whatever}

Although this chair is one of her top spots to lounge... but see all that fuzzy grossness on the chair??? Believe it or not, that's not her fur! It's just crappy fabric.

I already posted about the open shelving we added here, but I'll point out a few new things in this area anyway.  The gold magazine holders are new from Target, love them! The little clamp light was $6 from Lowe's and I spray-painted it with a a light blue and gold.  I put an extra Edison light bulb I had around in it. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Moral of the story... I get a lot of stuff from Target. And I'm super pumped about Ikea and West Elm coming to Kansas City! More to come on the house... eventually... :)

home updates {living room shelves}

I love all the character of our house, but one thing the house didn't have a lot of was built-ins.  I love me some old house built-ins... and maybe there used to be some that got removed during renovations over the years, who knows.

So I was really wanting some shelving in our living room.  I looked at lots of pictures of different types of shelving that Caleb & I could do ourselves for a quick-fix that still looked nice.  One major trend that I did like was the pipe shelving units like this one...

via

But honestly that option seemed really permanent, time consuming to construct, and more expensive.  Then I remembered the post from House Tweaking where she talked about her new living room shelves and I decided to go more of the metal track route...

via

I didn't get a great "before" picture because I didn't get my camera out until we started working on it. So here is my best before... {with one of the metal tracks already up}

The metal tracks comes in a gray metal, black, & white.  It took me a while to decide between gray and black, but I went with black because I have other black hardware in the room.

Installation of these are super easy and self-explanatory.

The stain I went with is the one on the far left, a Minwax brand - color is Ipswich Pine.  The boards we used are a stain-grade pine boards.  We have yet to secure the boards to the brackets, but we will do that... someday.  I like how they turned out!

Of course Rifle Paper Co. makes its cameo in my post...

 

This is a very easy shelving unit to DIY in one afternoon...we even did another one in my master bathroom!  But now is not the time to show pics of my bathroom. :)