Kitchen and Dining Room

Let's take a minute to talk about our Kitchen and Dining Room space, if you have dug around this blog and ended up on the house tour page then you have probably already seen the before and after photos, but if not this is new to you! Actually either way it is new, because these are new photos!

Let's first go back to the before. This was the kitchen before we moved in.

You will notice the following:

• there is no hardware on the cabinets except for the lovely blue & white china knobs on the cabinets facing north (see lower left hand corner)
• there is no faucet
• there are no appliances
• the ceiling fan does not have a light kit
• the back splash area is a citrus green color - its hard to tell in this photo, but over the stove there are also teapot wallpaper cut outs. They are featured in random places throughout the kitchen and powder bath
• there is a towel rod over the sink
• a crap ton of wall anchors

that doorway on the right leads to the Laundry Room. Which is where I happened to be standing when I took the after photo.

• the orange framed cork board was reused from our last house
• those metallic silver triangles on the wall were a DIY project created with a silver sharpie pen
• the rug was a Walmart purchase for $25.00. I really wanted a nice rug in here, but lets face it - that thing is going to get destroyed. I live in the kitchen, and therefore so do my kids.
• all of the appliances totaled $150 and were purchased second-hand. Down the line we would love to have new appliances, but they just aren't in the cards for us right now.
• I shopped long and hard for that faucet and I am in absolute love with it - we also got a great deal
• all of the hardware came from a friend that works at a furniture manufacturer
• we still do not have a hood over our range. I think the plan is to install an over range microwave, and replace the upper cabinet with a couple of shelves
• all of the holes were patched, teapots removed, and walls painted in PPG atrium white
• you can't see the light fixture in this photo, but it was a $25 bargain from Lowes

You get a glimpse of the Dining Room in this photo, but lets take you back to the before.

You will notice the following:

• there is a border - and for some reason a brown dry brush treatment over the border
• the walls are a coffee color
• there is no light fixture
• you can see where the dining room and kitchen paint colors meet that they placed some of those lovely teapots

And the after.

yes, my chairs are laminated. yes, i am proud of it, and yes, I cropped this photo because i couldn't get the minnie mouse sticker off the seat.

• the table has been with us for many years
• the chairs are antiques and are due for a fresh coat of paint - I am on a 6 month plan with reupholstering those puppies i swear! we sure use them a lot!
• the chandelier was from three houses ago and was purchased from Lowe's for $168
• the sweet and salty prints were a DIY project and are in $10 poster frames from target
• the white curtains are from ikea $11
• the wall with the window is mint - this is also the same wall with the front door - you cant see it, but it is too the left of the mirror. The inside of the front door is white, but the outside features a darker but coordinating mint color.
• the gold curtain rod was from our last house and I can't remember the purchase details.
• the ornate mirror was purchased from Z&R Design when I worked there. It has been in several houses. I am ready to paint it, but scared to take on the duty - this thing is ORNATE!
• you get a better shot of the sharpie wall in the Dining Room photos. I absolutely love that wall. It is subtle but yet impactful - super fun!

Valentines 2015

Well it is that time of year again, and this year was especially fun! Wren was old enough this year to really partake in making her Valentines and it made them that much more special. We kind of followed our tradition of no candy Valentine's, and went with bubble gum. I know, I know, it is still candy....but it is one of the few things we allow wren to have on occasion so it worked for us.

I printed the tags off on plain ole' white printer paper.

Then I used my silhouette cameo and chose doily which is a stock illustration that comes with your cameo. I cut it out of black card stock.

wren glued the tags to the doily's and then she wrote her name on each one.

the kids in her class are only 3 or 4 years old, so we didn't overdo it with the gumballs. We just bought one bag and divided it up evenly, which gave ach kid 3 or 4 gumballs. another way to get your little one involved is counting out the gumballs in each bag.

we then hole punched the tag and used twine to tie the bag shut and to attach the tag. they turned out super cute and wren could not wait to get to school and give them to her friends!

Happy Valentine's Day!

To see Wren's past valentines go here.

Family Room Reveal and Pallet Ottoman

So the pallet ottoman and the family room have been done for awhile now, but i finally caught some pictures of them! if you haven't been following along with the progress of the family room, check out this post, oh and this one. and just one other one :)

for funsies let's take a look at the Family Room before, one last time!

and AFTER!!!

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! I seriously could not love it more. The white mantle and the navy walls, it is music to my ears eyes!

now, let;s talk about those curtains. my cousin and i made the gray curtains for our living/dining room, two houses ago. We have certainly gotten our use out of them, but I still love them so we made them work.

i had the idea to add panels to the bottom of them and hang them as high as possible. the result was stellar! they really add to the drama of the space and draw attention to the beautifully vaulted yellow white ceilings. super easy and cheap, win-win.

with wood floors, this room needed a rug. it is a pretty big room and we had a small budget. we were able to snag this rug from target for $160.00.  I am really happy with it. It isn't necessarily what we would have chose if we had a full wallet, but it works for us!

now for the pallet ottoman, this thing is a beast beauty! 

what you will need:

2 standard pallets

screws and screw driver to connect pallets

4 furniture legs/feet at desired height (ours are 4" tall) and we purchased them at Lowe's

4 straight leg plates, we also got these from Lowe's (here is a link)

4" foam to cover top of ottoman, about 42"x 48" purchased from local craft store

enough batting to wrap entire ottoman twice

desired upholstery fabric, approximately 3 1/2 yards (here is a link to ours if interested from fabric.com)

First, we attached two pallets together, one on top of the other to make our ottoman. we wanted the height of the ottoman to be equal to our sofa. two pallets stacked, plus 4" foam and our 4" legs was the perfect height after some pulling and tugging on that batting!

here you can see where we attached the pallets

and here you can see the pallets stacked after they were attached.

next we wrapped it all in batting. 

then we layed out the foam and placed the pallets on top, cutting an excess foam away. we could not find a piece of foam big enough so we had to piece three pieces of foam together. once it was all layed out we prepared to wrap another layer of batting, this time around the foam and the pallets.

this is the batting we used.

once the legs were attached we were ready for the fun tedious part!

i measured the entire ottoman and created a drawing with dimensions for the upholstery.

the fabric was not wide enough to cover the sides and top, so it had to be assembled in four pieces.

first i cut the top piece, adding an inch on all four sides for hemming, then i lined up the pattern on both ends so it would match and pinned it in place.

here is a close up

 here you can see the center panel laid out with two end panels

and another close up - it is a bit blurry

then just like the batting, it was pulled tight on the bottom and stapled in place.

and we have here a beautiful and sturdy ottoman!

DIY Upholstered Ottoman

Our Family Room is coming together quite well, we need a couple things to finish it up - a rug and a coffee table. With two little ones running around i wanted to be very careful with our choice of coffee table. I also wanted to get in on this pallet furniture thing. so this is where i am at. i found this DIY ottoman here, and i think it is exactly what i am looking for. 

of course i will make it my own with a different fabric and different feet.

here is a look at the bottom side so you can see how the pallet comes into play.

i have ordered this fabric from fabric.com

and these feet from ebay for only $15.99

I am SO PUMPED about this project!

Here is what I expect it to look like.

I am hoping to finish this before Christmas as we are hosting at our house, but with the holiday season and ordering things online shipping can take sometime - fingers crossed! 

If you have any tips for making ottomans or pallet furniture please comment on this post!

Focal Walls

i am all about focal walls these days. they add just the right amount of drama for a really low price. they also transform a space to make it something really unique. i have been eyeing focal walls on pinterest for quite awhile - here are some of my favorites.

source

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i have a focal wall in my kitchen/dining area (that i have not shared yet) AND i just finished one this weekend in our library! i could not be more thrilled with how it turned out!!

this space is really coming together. once the fireplace and mantle are painted it will make a huge difference. (the stripes are still wet here)

here is an update on the space.

before:

 now:

Gallery Wall reveal

last week i posted how i create a gallery wall with plans to do one in our library. now i am happy to say that it is done!

it definitely looks a little different than what i planned. see below what i drew in photoshop on how i wanted the wall.

i couldn't find the gold "S" that i have in the above collage and i found a different painting that i wanted to recreate on the canvas in the middle. i also painted over a painting i had with the gold arrow so that changed up my layout a little bit.

i created this wall for approximately $2.50. it is definitely one of my most favorite projects that i have created on the cheap. i already had all of these frames on hand so i painted them all black, white, or gold so they coordinated. The only thing I paid for was the canvas which was in a $5.99 two-pack from Hobby Lobby.

so here is how we have come along on this room.

before:

 now:

Planked Walls

The previous owners of our house left us with an empty hole above our fireplace mantle.

Here is the family room before we moved in. 

We have had many discussions over what was over the mantle - fish tank, stained glass, we will probably never know...

 

In case you can't tell from the photo, that is a hole that is trimmed out and has a fluorescent light fixture inside.

This is how we have been functioning with it over the last two months.

purty huh?

We knew that we needed to cover the hole and I knew that I wanted the TV mounted over the fireplace.

so first the hubs removed the trim and the light fixture (those planks are just sitting there for size FYI)

next he wired in an outlet for the TV

and built a brace with 2x4s to mount the TV to (in this photo we had already started the planks)

then we started mounting the planks. 

we measured our wall and divided the space evenly and came out with 11 planks each measuring 5 1/2" tall. Our trim pieces are 3 1/2" tall.

We left an opening to access the outlet and also to wire in the cable in the future - our TV will be covering the opening so we were not concerned.

FYI the planks are just 1/4" plywood that we had Home Depot cut into strips for us. Then we measured at home and cut the lengths to fit.

To space out the plywood we used nickels and attached them to the wall with a nail gun.

after all of the planks were in place we mitered our trim pieces and rounded the outer edge to give it a finished look. since our fireplace wall is angled you would be able to see the boards from the side and we wanted it to have a rounded return into the connecting walls. Then we measured and mounted the trim pieces and hung the TV.

That top piece was really tricky since our ceiling is angled. I do not have any advice or tips on that, just refer to good old math and measurements. 

So this is where we are for now, everything is sanded and ready for paint. cant wait to share the final reveal!