kitchen eye candy

Short post today! It's so rare for me not to be wordy, but these are busy times, people.

I've been helping out some friends from college with their new home, and the kitchen is the first major room they want to tackle. All of the cabinets and appliances will stay, but they are open to painting them, replacing wall and floor tile, and new countertops.

You DON'T have to replace everything in your kitchen to make a big difference in your space. Just changing one of those surfaces can have a huge impact. Especially if you buy a pretty light and mint green toaster.

Three pretty kitchens, for your viewing pleasure.

Dramatic: This kitchen is so New Orleans. High contrast, deep painted base cabinets, brass, luxe, and enough white to keep it from being dark. Somebody pass me a pastry.

Light & Airy: This kitchen is bright and inviting. Lots of different textures and warm touches keep it from being boring.

Eclectic: This kitchen has personality. Painting your base cabinets a color is a powerful move, but in the right space it can give you a warm, cheerful feeling. Also, that toaster. The mid-century barstool and traditional wood floor keep it just serious enough that it doesn't feel childish.

I didn't link to all of the sources here (because holy wow I'm just too busy right now), but you can find all of the sources on this Pinterest board. Have a specific question on any item? Just drop a comment!


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Classic + Bright Kitchen

sidney's downtown loft tour

classic southern cheese grits

so southern pinto bean soup

monogrammed newlywed pillow

Couples spend quite a bit of time on their wedding registries. I did when I got married. It makes perfect sense. "We'll make a list of all the things we like, and then people will go buy them, and we won't get any weird gifts!"

Enter Tara.

I am notorious for shopping off-registry. Don't get me wrong, I look at the registry, but then I tend to make something that (I hope) will compliment it. Anyone who dislikes this practice might want to mention it to me in the future before their big day.

B-T-dubs, Interior Designers are notorious for shopping off registry. We think we know better than you what you need. Right, wrong, or indifferent, it's just who we are.

Such is the case for Kyle and Summer. Kyle is my boss' son and Summer happens to like handmade things. Or so her Pinterest boards would have me believe. So for their nuptuals, I decided to make them a little something something.

Their registry had lots of classic items. Blues, navys, and whites. And the one thing that all couples' registries have in common - MONOGRAMS.

It makes sense. If the gal is going traditional and taking the guy's last name, she naturally wants it emblazoned on everything they own. This happy couple will now be sporting an equally cheerful monogrammed pillow.

I actually started with this side, which is basically a simple square mini-quilt. These are 3.5" squares, 5 high by 5 wide. It's a simple checkerboard pattern with whites and navys. It came out to roughly 15.5" square when it was done.

I bought a 16" pillow form. The rules are that I probably should have made the pillow top finish at 17" (because you lose 1" when you sew the front and back of the pillow case together with a 1/2" seam allowance), but I tend to like my pillows either - A) a little overstuffed or B) insanely squishy with a feather pillow form that feels like it's vintage. I went with Option A on this one.

At any rate, I made the top and quilted it with navy thread, 1/4" off of each seam to make a grid. Nearly all of these fabrics are from JoAnn's.

Then, the back. Drumroll please....

This turned out even cuter than it was in my brain. My plan had been to do a blue monogram on a plain white background. But then I realized I had enough of this preppy polka dot fabric left over from the front to make the back. It's so darn cheerful!

I love it when things work out.

selly's outdoor living area

I love designing outdoor spaces, which is kind of odd when you think about it, because I'm what you would call indoorsy. This probably stems from my propensity to sunburn, my total lack of athletic ability, and my distaste of being dirty. All of that to say though: give me a gorgeous patio, great weather, and a cold cocktail, and I AM THERE.

That's why I was super jazzed when Selly contacted me via the blog and asked if I could help her design an outdoor space for her family. They just moved from a teeny tiny apartment in Philadelphia to this gorgeous house in the 'burbs, a whopping 3 times bigger than their old place.

And it came with THIS.

Oh my gosh, this deck. It's the deck of my dreams. Modern and new and spacious. And that view. The stuff of dreams.

quilt club: reverse inset circiles

First, let's talk about that title. Reverse inset circles. It sounds extremely daunting, and let me tell ya, it felt extremely daunting when I opened the study guide. I've seen quilts with circles or curves in them before and just could not wrap my mind around how you can sew two pieces of fabric together, fold them over, and get a curve. It defies the laws of nature. 

But it's actually possible. And it's not so hard. You just need a little patience and a little Elmer's glue. Seeeee?!

It's so gloriously 1980's that I can barely contain myself. Remember Todd and Margo's house in Christmas Vacation? Yeah, this would totally have been at home there.

"Then why is the carpet all wet, Todd?"
"I don't know Margo!"

We had a smaller group this month because of graduations and end of school stuff and spring and life. And not everyone brought inset circles, because we're relaxed at modern quilt club and that's how we roll. But the quilts that everyone brought were amazing.

This post could alternatively be called "quilt club: awkward talking faces." I have no hopes of a career as a photo journalist. I do not have that gift that the paparazzi have of catching celebrities talking and NOT capturing weird faces. Sorry guys.

Shannon made this super cute West Park tote bag. You can read about it on her blog to get info on the pattern and her process.

classic southern cheese grits

Cheese. Grits. CHEESE GRITS. Need I say more?

If you're from the south, then you know the magic of which I speak. If you've never had them, you MUST try them immediately. Like cheesy mashed potatoes and polenta had a delicious baby.

They're breakfast food. Dinner food. Anytime in between food. And they're so EASY. They take just a few ingredients and about 15 minutes to make.

Grits are made of finely ground corn, which (I deduce) would make them gluten free! Hooray for my gluten free friends.

quilt club is back, y'all

Quilt club has been on hiatus since last fall when our patron store closed its doors (insert sad face). But, happy day, we are up and running again at a new location. Which means more pretty pictures of quilts up in here (up in here).

The group got together in April to catch up on life and show off what we've been working on since we last met. The group's consensus was that without the monthly group meeting, we weren't quilting as much as we would like. Hello, accountability.

Even still, there were lots of great quilts to see. My apologies, I left my nice camera at home, so these were just snapped with my iPhone. I'll do better next time.

quilt as you go pillow top

I love my boys. They are delightful. Spirited. Squishy.

They also systematically destroy all of the things that I love.

Case in point, this poor, pitiful Crate and Barrel pillow on my sofa. So. Sad.

So, yeah, this is why I'm posting about pillows all of the time now. Yeesh. We've been long overdue for new pillows around here. Enter this beauty.

This little ditty is a project from the book Quilt-As-You-Go Made Modern. I've used this technique once before when I made this toddler pillow sham awhile back, but that was before my sweet brother bought me the book with real, actual instructions in it. Always a plus.

Anthropologie style piped pillow

You guys.

I would love to be humble right here, I really would, but would you look at this pillow?

It. Is. Gorgeous.

It was my first pillow project to use a iron-on stabilizer. And my first project to make and use piping. And it has an invisible zipper. The trifecta.

See that zipper? No, you don't, because it's invisible.

Classic + Bright Master Bath

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you a mood board for the erstwhile new kitchen for my in-laws. This week I'm sharing the design concept for their master bath. This is an inspiration board that was meant to set the tone for the design, so it has more links to other finished spaces rather than actual products. This would have evolved into a board that contained all of the actual products we'd be putting in their space.

The goal is pretty much the same: bright and white, classic, timeless, and a teeeensy bit southern/farmhouse/cottagey.

shirred spring dress

I have been wanting to make a sweet little shirred (aka smocked) dress for more than a year now for Henry's girlfriend, Adalyn. Shirring is a technique that uses elastic thread and turns any fabric into a cute, ruffly, stretchy fabric that is just perfect for dresses and skirts.

Here's the problem. I tried umpteen tutorials and could never get the hang of it. My fabric just would not bunch. I eventually gave up in a super graceful way that definitely didn't involve pounding my fists on the sewing table or uttering curse words.

Fast forward a year and it's Adalyn's 4th birthday. I am bound and freaking determined to shirr her a dress, so I look for more tutorials. I eventually see a little note at the bottom of one that says in big red letters something like "if you have a Brother sewing machine, you're going to have a really hard time with shirring."

Oh, fantastic. Well that explains it.

Turns out that Brother machines don't shirr well due to the fact that they have a drop-in bobbin with no bobbin tension adjustment. There is a work around though. It sounds totally scary, but I promise it's not. You just tighten one little screw with a tiny Flathead screwdriver and VOILA! You can shirr! Here's a link to the video that will show you how to shirr on your Brother machine. Don't be afraid. It's worth it.

If you don't have a Brother, congratulations, because life just got a whole lot easier for you.

Now that my machine was shirr-ready, I followed this tutorial from Pretty Prudent to whip up this adorable springy dress for Adalyn out of some vintage fabric. Pink and purple paisley. Doesn't get much cuter than that.

Check out that shirring. And those pom poms. Come on.

I even had Henry model it to be sure it would fit Adalyn, since they're the same size. Yes, I have photos. No, I will not be sharing them. You're welcome, future 15 year old Henry.

Here's Adalyn modeling her dress. My future daughter-in-law, ladies and gentlemen. Those who can't seem to produce girl babies can sew for the girl babies of others.

This would be a great technique to use on grown up skirts too. Could you imagine a shirred comfy waistline on a cotton skirt when you're pregnant? I'm not (thank goodness), but this would definitely have been nice to have when my belly was the size of a beer keg.

MAY I INTEREST YOU IN…

muu muu summer dress tutorial

easy elastic waist skirt tutorial

super hero cape tutorial

neon sergered swaddle blanket "tutorial"

done in a weekend(ish): boys' bathroom refresh

The boys' bathroom is the final frontier of our house as far as redecoration goes. Not that there aren't a million and one things we (I) still want to change, but it is the only room that's gone completely untouched since we moved in. I mean completely. Same gross green walls. Same nail holes from the old homeowners. Same 80's towel bars. You get the picture.

I shared my design plan with you guys about a year ago. A year. By anyone's standard that's a freakishly long time between planning and execution. But here's the thing...it didn't feel right. There was nothing wrong with my plan per se, but I just wasn't feeling it. So I stalled. And I don't think that's a terrible thing. Better to sit on it and come up with a better plan (or, rather, wait a year for a new plan to magically materialize in your mind while you're supposed to be working on something else) rather than force it and spend money on something you ultimately won't like.

Or at least that's what I'm choosing to tell myself.

Last week I woke up after a late night Pinteresting session (I should not be allowed to Pinterest after 9 PM) and decided it was THE DAY to do something about that bathroom. So I grabbed a can of paint from the garage and got busy. It was kind of fortunate that I had the exact color that I wanted leftover from another project and ready to go. It was meant to be.

I call this a weekend-ish refresh because it totally could be accomplished in a weekend, I just chose to stretch it out over about 5 days. Painted day 1, nothing day 2. hung stuff day 3, plumbing nightmare days 4-5. But more on that in a moment.

Here's the room before. Ugh, it's so ugly it hurts my eyes. So embarrassing. Do you like how I didn't even bother to take the potty seat off the throne before the photo? Keeping it real.

The only things this space really had going for it were the white tile which is in good shape, and a skylight that brings in mucho natural daylight. This is most certainly not the tile I would pick out today if I were doing a total remodel, but since we aren't going to drop the money right now for an overhaul, it's totally non-offensive, and that's good enough for me.

how I cranked up the wow factor in my kitchen

Last week I shared the Kitchen Mood Board I created for my in-laws with you guys. There was a lot of Pinteresting going on, and while I intended to be totally focused on their project, I couldn't help but think about updates to our place. The curse of the designer. It's a heavy burden to bear.

One thing I noticed - and I truly don't know how I didn't see this before - like 80% of the kitchens I've ever pinned (completely unscientific and likely inaccurate estimate) had one thing in common: an oriental rug. I mean, look at this.

sources : one | two | three | four | five | six

Classic + Bright Kitchen

If you follow me on Pinterest, you may have noticed the insane spike of pinning activity this last week. My in-laws decided to build a house and asked for my help. YAAAAAY! The home was already under construction to be a spec house, but was still in the framing stage, so they had the chance to customize the inside. So I got busy designing.

Then....life happened. The deal ended up falling through. Kind of sad but they probably also dodged a bullet. These things happen for a reason.

So what to do with all of those mood boards and design ideas? Share them with you, of course! Mood boards come in all types. The 4 that I'll share with you in the coming weeks are about overall style and atmosphere. They include inspiration images and a few products that show how you want the space to feel. If the project would have moved forward, this would have evolved to show the actual selections for all of the hardware, cabinets, lighting, etc.

This kitchen is bright and cheerful. Casual and classic. Painted white cabinets, oil rubbed bronze fixtures, warm wood furniture, and timeless lighting and rugs. It has a bit of a farmhouse vibe, but it's subtle.

You can find even more kitchen inspiration with images that didn't make the final board my Pinterest board. Enjoy!

Sources (from top left): kitchen 1 | kitchen 2 | kitchen 3 | kitchen 4 |library pulls | sink | barstool |  faucet | light | rug |  kitchen 5| fridge | kitchen 6

MAY I INTEREST YOU IN…

eclectic breakfast nook

long live chesterfield

bright farmhouse master bath

refined rustic master bath

Henry's Knight Birthday Party

My sweet Henry man turned 4 this weekend. He requested a Knight birthday party (not to be confused with a night birthday party. Very different things) and I was happy to oblige. This was a fun one to put together. Pretty photos now; details at the end.

dig, plant, repeat

Helloooooooooooooooooo!

Yes, we are still alive. I haven't blogged in about 400 years (just over a month). We've been "boring busy" as my friend Elizabeth would say. Day to day life with kids and part time work and all that jazz. And, if I'm being super-honest, I took 3 months off to read the entire Outlander series. 8 books. Something like 6,500 pages. Took up quite a bit of my free time. WORTH IT.

But I finished all that and now it's time to do something productive. Since it's spring, that means growing stuff.

Landscaping is something that was lacking in this house when we bought it 2 years ago. It had some mature (read: scraggly and dated) 1980s shrubs and monkey grass littering basically every flower bed. We did exactly zero landscaping our first year here. I was pregnant and nesting indoors and just not feeling it. Last year we planted just a couple of things in the front beds and at the mailbox, then just stuck with containers on the patio. Thankfully (miraculously) it all lived.

I have a notoriously brown thumb, but last year I discovered the secret to keeping plants alive in the Texas summers.

You ready for it?

Brace yourselves.

Hazel Hedgehog quilt-a-long

Happy Friday! Greetings to all of the new folks following the HazelQAL blog hop, and a warm welcome to all the regulars as well.

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of woodland creatures (I made a hedgehog out of cheese last fall, after all), so when the opportunity popped up to join Gnome Angel for the Hazel Hedgehog Quilt-A-Long blog hop, I was all over it. I had no idea what a quilt-a-long actually was, nor had I ever participated in a blog hop before, but I wasn't going to let a little thing like complete-and-utter-lack-of-knowledge stop me.

If you're interested in making one for yourself, the pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman. Angie over at Gnome Angel has a discount code available. I love a good discount. I used the Hazel II pattern to whip up this child sized quilt.

bar makeover

Having a wet bar is one of my favorite features of our house. One, because I love the vino. And two, because we can keep the liquor of the gods away from tiny, grabby hands that roam our kitchen.

Our bar was pretty lack-luster when we moved in. We painted the walls and installed some shelves to get my vintage barware collection on display, and then pretty much stopped. I had high hopes (but low motivation) for this room.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. The home renovation and reorganization bug always hits me in January, and I thought this bar mini-makeover (not to be confused with a mini-bar makeover, which would be totally different) would be a great project to tackle. You know, since it had been on my to-do list since last summer.

Some before photos. Old wood cabinets. Lovely baby gate. Beige walls. Ugly tile floor. Spoiler alert - 1/2 of those will still be there in the "after" photos, because I wanted to keep this entire makeover under $100.

Oh hey, swiper. This is exactly why we have a baby gate. But babies in footsie jammies can do no wrong.

Here was my makeover to-do list:

• Paint ugly 70s cabinets
• Refresh cabinet hardware
• Install child proof cabinet locks so we can be rid of the ugly baby gate
• Paint baseboards
• Paint underside of bar flipper counter thingy (technical term)
• Add artwork or wall decor of some sort
• Do something to make the floor look less ugly
• Relocate laundry basket somewhere more hidden

This took an entire month. Painting takes SO much prep work, you guys.

I removed the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, sanded everything down, cleaned it up, added a coat of primer, and then two finish coats of paint, sanding down any drips that inevitably happen and re-painting those, and rehung the doors. That took 8 days. EIGHT DAYS. You have to wait 24 hours after you prime one side of the doors to flip it over and do the other side. Tick, tock, tick, tock.

At this point I went ahead and painted the underside of our bar counter flipper thingy. It's a fun little feature when you're having a party with a hired bar tender - which let me tell you, we do practically every weekend because we are socialites - but most of the time it's flipped up because we're going in and out and clearing the baby gate like an Olympic hurdler. Looking at the ugly underside of it was wearing on me. A little black craft paint and 15 minutes and that was dealt with. BOOM.

Oh, the iron? Don't you do all of your ironing in your wet bar? No? Me neither.

Onto the hardware. It was so perfectly 70's that I couldn't part with it. My bedroom set growing up had almost the exact same hardware, so it gave me all the feelings. Instead of replacing it and spending $8-12 per pull, I used some antique gold and antique bronze craft paint that I had lying around, brushed it VERY lightly on the highest surfaces of the hardware (leaving the nooks and crannies the original dark bronze), let it sit for about 2 minutes, and then wiped the excess off with a dry paper towel. The result was an antique brass/bronze look that contrasts nicely with the cabinets.

This is most successful if you use an old baby shower plate as a paint palette.

Now for some art. This is a small space, and I always like to try something bold in a small space (like the navy wall in our teeny tiny powder room). Despite what most people think, small spaces can handle a big statement. I had thought about painting an accent wall or something, but I didn't want to make this space any darker. It's seriously lacking in natural daylight as it is. I kind of wanted to paint something colorful on a large canvas, but inspiration wasn't coming to me.

This is exactly why the room has sat like this for nearly 2 years. I was crippled by indecision. And laziness.

As luck would have it, the folks over at Wise Decor sent me an email after stumbling on my house tour posts on the blog. They wondered if any of their wall decal products might be a good fit for our place. I immediately thought of this bar art conundrum and - light bulb - this was totally the right solution. They have lots of standard product offerings, but you guys know me, I like custom. They were super sweet and worked with me to create a custom wall decal with my wording, size, font, and color to use in the bar. Total enablers, and I love it. Here's the link to the CHEERS design we collaborated on.

It only took about 20 minutes to install. The decal is sandwiched between sheets of paper. You line it up on the wall with some painter's tape,  use this special tool that it comes with to rub the letters and transfer the decal to the wall, and then peel the paper off. Voila.

My husband was kind enough to take some photos of me doing this. Yes, I'm in my bathrobe and have wicked bed head. No, I'm not wearing makeup. I hope you still like me.

The big lettering is clearly a bold choice, but I think the tone-on-tone color choice keeps it from being too crazy. And if I ever decide that I want to do something different, it just peels off. Less commitment than even painting the wall.

Here's the final product. The painting was so tedious, but man, it was worth it. In case you're interested, the color is Benjamin Moore Chelsea Grey. It is bar none my favorite grey color for cabinetry. Not too cool, not too warm. Just right.

As far as dealing with the ugly floor, I wasn't quite brave enough to rip up the tile and install hardwood - even though I have enough of the matching wood floor in my garage to do the job. One day. I decided instead to repurpose a rug that used to be in our entryway but had been demoted to a storage shelf in the garage. Why did I not have this rug here forever?!

I still want to find a wine rack to hang up on the small side wall and replace the light fixture. And replace the counters. And the sink. And the faucet. And the floor. But other than that super-long list, the bar is done.

So glad to have this refresh done. In a perfect world I would have finished it before New Years in time for our little party, but LIFE. I suppose I need to throw a Valentine's party to make up for it. Our bartender will be so thrilled.

MAY I INTEREST YOU IN…

house tour: part 1

house tour: part 2

sidney's downtown loft tour

fall flip-flop: refreshed house tour