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!


MAY I INTEREST YOU IN…

Classic + Bright Kitchen

sidney's downtown loft tour

classic southern cheese grits

so southern pinto bean soup

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.

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

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.

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

anthropologie style antler chandalier makeover

I had breakfast with my Interior Designer friend Sidney this week (amazing home tour post of her loft coming this week by the way) and we were musing about design and DIY projects. She told me about a blogger pal of hers at Hello from the Natos who had turned a cheap-o Home Depot antler lighting into one that looked like the one right out of the Anthropologie catalog.

Y'all, this is legit. Here is the Anthro version:

Pure bliss. For the low low price of $1,998. 

Sorry, I just passed out. Two GRAND!?!? A bit out of my price range. But there's hope because the Home Depot version is only $189...

Um, yeah. This leaves a little something to be desired. I was actually embarrassed with this in my cart at the Depot and had to refrain from telling everyone that glanced in our direction that I understood that the light was ugly but I have plans for it. See!? I have spray paint in the cart! Please don't judge me.

But at only 1/10 of the cost of the Anthro one, I got over myself and picked it up along with 2 cans of spray paint and some chandelier bulbs and GOT TO WORK on my Anthro hack.

Here's how to do this for $200 and in only about 24 hours.

house tour: our first place

It occurred to me the other night as I was falling asleep (which is when I get all of my great ideas...so irritating) that I reference "our first place" pretty often on the blog, and most of you have never seen it. You've seen our current house tour here and here, but not the old place. Time to fix that.

These photos were taken the week we put our house on the market back in March of 2013. The house sold in just one week, due in very large part to the staging. We made way more on the sale of this house than we ever expected. What, what! I'm not joking when I say that staging your home adds enormous value to your house.  That's not what this post is about, but seriously, stage your house.

I should reiterate that this was NOT real life. 1/4 of our possessions were packed up in our garage out of site. There isn't a stray toy, half folded basket of laundry, or rogue coffee mug to be found in these photos. But it was so nice to see what the house should have looked like if I had the time and energy to keep it "show ready" all the time. By now you guys know that's not me.

For your viewing pleasure, may I present to you our first place. Built in 1951, 1500 SF, 2 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, and basically perfect. Except for the lack of 3rd bedroom and really crummy school district!

9 tips for shopping big box flooring centers like a pro

For most folks, having the opportunity to redo all of the flooring in your house is at the same time awesome and totally daunting. You start out really excited about going to look at all the pretties, thinking that your experience will look like this:

Aaaaah, tile heaven.

...until you get there and realize that it actually looks like this:

Shoot me now.

pool renovation diary (or, the death of swamp thing)

When I shared part 1 and part 2 of our house tour awhile back, I didn't share any photos of the backyard. Then when did some updates to the front of the house, I still didn't show you the backyard. Yeah, here's why:

Yikes. Yeah, that's kind of embarrassing. 

I thought I would share with you guys the mini-renovation process. It's not a DIY since I have literally no business trying to replaster my own pool, and the most I had to do myself was write a (big fat) check. It's not really a design post because we didn't redesign the pool or add a waterfall or fountain or color changing lights or dolphin statues or anything else noteworthy, but it is a part of our house, so hopefully it will still be interesting to you.

spice up your entry way

I love one-day DIY projects. I get the satisfaction of a job well done without having to give up an entire weekend (or more). This project definitely qualifies. 

If you saw the house tour, you may have noticed that our entry is a bit...drab. The double doors open onto a little landing that is at the crossroads of all of the downstairs traffic and our stairs. There is no room for a great console table/mirror combo that would make the space visually interesting. Just the front doors and a closet. No wow factor whatsoever. Oh, go ahead and ignore the super hero capes along the stairs. That's another project.

Enter last week's mini-makeover project. 

oh yes, wait a minute mr. postman

The weather has turned, and it's DIY season in Texas. We moved into this house nearly a year ago, and as I mentioned in the house tour post, curb appeal was not what drew us here. Boring ranch. Beige on peach on beige, and in need of a major update. I was 2 months pregnant and pretty consumed with unpacking/nesting/travel for work/short bout of bed rest/nausea/toddler tantrums/exhaustion, so strangely enough, didn't make it to updating the exterior of the house. The outside hasn't seen anything more than basic maintenance (from the hubs) since we moved in. 

But no more! We don't have a ton of money to spend out front, so we starred with a seemingly small but packed-a-punch update with the mailbox. It's the first thing you see as you drive up, and, well....

Yeah. It was leaning really badly. So that was the first item to fix, followed by painting, staining, and planting. Here's how we did it.