Quick and free kitchen update

 

So I am very much a light and bright kind of girl when it comes to decorating my home.  Over the last two years or so, I’ve have slowly gone through my house and painted walls and furniture to reflect my tastes.  But there is one area in my house that isn’t at all my style and I have felt stuck and unable to do anything about it.  That would be my kitchen.

It is filled with lots of dark wood cabinets and dark countertops.  My dream kitchen is white and airy, with open shelves.  I have thought a lot about painting the cabinets, but for several reasons, I’ve decided (for now) not to paint. 

My Reasons:

1. It would be an insane amount of work and mess to sand and paint all the drawers and cabinets (37 in all!). And I’m not sure I could sanely handle weeks of kitchen disaster with three small kids under tow right now.

2.  Eventually we will move with Tim’s job.  It could be six months from now; it could be three years from now.  We don’t know, but I can’t hardly fathom doing all the hard work to make it my dream kitchen and then moving away.  It would seem pointless. 

3.  Our house is only six years old and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the cabinets.  In fact, for resale value, it’s probably best that we leave them the way they are. 

So, for all those reasons, I have left them alone.  But my heart yearns for light and airy with fun pops of color.

So I found a way to have a little bit of a compromise.

 

Here is the before picture of the brown cabinets, gray counter tops, and tan floors.  Blah.  It’s not me.  There are more cabinets to the left side of the room, which contributes to overloading of dark blandness all across the room.

 

Yes, I know that it’s nice and all, but like I said, it’s just not me and it leaves me uninspired.  So in an effort to appease myself and my desire for less brown and more color, one afternoon, I had the bright idea to just take off some of the cabinet doors.

Ta-da!

 

I instantly liked the change.  This was a no-cost, little effort, quick fix that allows me to bring in more lights and brights to my kitchen, while also making it possible to quickly and easily change it back at some point if/when we end up moving.  A friend suggested I wallpaper the backs of the cabinets with fun patterned scrapbook paper to make even more of a statement.  I think that’s a great idea and hope to do that soon.

So that’s my quick kitchen update.

Until I have my own white kitchen, here are some white kitchens I’m drooling over:

via here

 

here

 

via here

 

via here

 

via here

I love those aqua cabinets!  I could totally do that!

 

And just because I’m curious on your opinion, would you paint or not paint your kitchen cabinets if you were me.  Have any of ya’ll ever painted your kitchen cabinets?  If so, how terrible was it? 

Living Room Chair Update

After buying our new couch back in January and then selling our old sofa and loveseat, our living room was looking a little bit sparse.  And although our new couch offered plenty of room for our own family to cozy up on and the kids thoroughly enjoyed all the open space to run and play, we were quite limited on extra seating for any guests. So I knew I wanted to add in a few comfy chairs to complete the room. 

I have learned my lesson in the past from trying to replace something too quickly and then ending up with something that’s not really what I want because I was too impatient.  So this time, I set my mind not to settle and to wait patiently until the right chairs came along.  For a while, I dreamed of white tufted chairs, but once common sense kicked in, I knew that white chairs would not mix well with kids.  I didn’t want to be fanatically yelling at them all day not to touch the chairs. So, eventually, I let that dream die and although I didn’t know exactly what I wanted instead, I felt like I would know when I saw them.  The problem was that I really had no time to shop for chairs.  And I know this might sound weird a little bit, but I had felt the Lord leading me to trust Him more in providing us with the things we need and even want for our home (rather than stressing and exhausting myself trying to make things happen).  So in an effort to follow His leading, I told Him that I would trust him to provide the right chairs for us in His timing.  This is kind of new to me (to trust God with decorating my home), but He’s God and He knows what I like, what we need, He’s intimately involved in the details of my life, and He loves to bless us as His children.  I also figured He would be an excellent decorator and I was excited to see how and what He would provide for us.

So after a few months of patiently waiting (and maybe sometimes reminding God that I was patiently waiting), one day I was perusing through my daily email from Joss and Main and I saw some chairs that I thought were cute and might possibly work in our living room.  If you’re not familiar with Joss and Main, it is “a premier members-only site that offers private, limited-time sale events on the world's best brands for your home and life. Each day, members receive an email invitation to exclusive sale events on the best merchandise at prices up to 70% off retail.” (from J&M website) The only hiccup was that these chairs were non-returnable.  And since there was no way for me to check them out in real life, sit in them, or make sure the color and pattern would work in my living room, it would require a pretty big leap of faith on my part to order them. I mean, it’s not like we have money to burn around here.  And I definitely didn’t want to be stuck with something I hated.

So I went on about my day chasing kids, cleaning up messes, and squelching squabbles and I kind of forgot about the chairs.  Then that evening, as I was cleaning up dinner, those chairs very clearly and randomly popped back up in my mind.  I showed them to Tim.  He liked them and he especially liked the price, but he was leaving the final decision up to me.  (Cause he’s super smart like that.) And so I stared at the empty chairless spots in our living room and then I stared at the photo online.  Back and forth I stared.  I tried to mentally imagine the chairs in the room.  I walked around the room.  I sat and stared some more.  I totally stressed myself out over the decision.  I asked Tim about a million times if we should go for it.  And I prayed.  And in the end, (with a little encouragement from Tim) and on a little hunch that these were the chairs God was dropping into my lap, I decided to leap.  And then I held my breath for several weeks while I waited for them to be delivered.

And once they arrived, I ended up loving them even more than I originally thought that I would.  (Cause God’s pretty awesome like that.)

Wanna see them?

I hope so, because I’m about to bombard you with pictures of my living room. (These are all iphone pics, so the quality is not amazing, but it gets the job done.)

Here are my new Shadow Tufted Swoop Arm Chairs.

 

 

I may have had to let go of the dream of all white chairs, but the tufts were a must have for me.  I love tufted furniture right now.  And I love that the chairs go with the couch, but aren’t super matchy.  The pattern is light and fun and playful (without being over the top) and that adds some interest and personality to the room.  I don’t like super serious furniture (hence the spool being used as a side table between them) and I actually think these chairs probably fit better with our style than all white chairs would have anyway.  And clearly, the gray pattern will hide things a lot better than the white would have.

 

 

And in case you are wondering what my children do while I stage the house and take pictures, these last two pictures are for you.  Where’s Hudson?!!

 

Happy Memorial Day weekend!  Have fun.  Be safe.

The Boys’ Room Tour

Welcome to the boys’ room. 

 

Originally, this room was a nice neutral tan color and I hadn’t planned to paint it, but the more I thought about it, the more I had the persistent nagging feeling that it would look better white. (I’m really on a white kick right now!)  And by this point, I’ve learned not to ignore my gut feelings on these things because if I do, I know I will regret it later. So even though I had just finished painting Peyton’s room twice, our kitchen before that, and our living room before that (all since January), I just bit the bullet once more and spent a day re-painting this room, because I knew it would be worth it in the end. And it was. I think the white makes everything really pop. The color is called “Decorator’s White” by Benjamin Moore.

This room came together pretty fast and easily. I stuck with the same general colors that I had used in Hudson’s baby room (red, white, and blue), so I could use a lot of the things that we already had in there, which was great. I’m not real big on major themes, but there are little touches of nautical things around the room.  And Tyson is really into sharks these days, so we got them shark sheets and the shark corkboard hanging above his bed.

The main purchase for this room re-do was the bunk beds.  We really wanted bunk beds in this room because of the extra space it would free up on the other side of the room for toy storage and play space.  Thankfully, we found these Pottery Barn Kids bunk beds on Craigslist, so we saved a lot of money by going that route rather than buying them brand new. They are a dark blue, so the colors fit in perfectly with the rest of the room.  This was one of those things where I just felt like it was a God thing to find something that I really wanted at such a great price and that fit so perfectly with what we were already working with.  (We removed the ladder to keep Hudson from climbing up there and falling off.  Tyson is able to use the step stool to get up and down.)

 

The flag bunting over the window is from Etsy.  (There’s a better picture of it up top.)  I’m still thinking about hanging curtains on the lower part of the window, but have not decided exactly what I want (possibly gray and white thick horizontal stripes).  This giant window is kind of a frustration to me.  I’m not really sure what to do with it, but I think curtains might at least help soften the look of the humongo blaring white blinds. 

 

One of the challenges of this room was making Tyson’s top bunk a space that functioned well for him. Usually, he stays up looking at books after Hudson has fallen asleep, so two things that he needed easy access to up there were a place to keep a few books and a light source.  After trying out a few ideas (a flashlight and a camping lantern) that didn’t work very well, we settled on this wall sconce that we found on sale at PBK.  And the bookshelf is actually part of a pallet that I found. Tim added boards to the bottom of it and then I painted it. It was easy and free.  We also put up the red cubbies above his headboard for an extra place to keep things that he doesn’t want Hudson or Peyton getting into. 

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A close up of the pallet book shelf.

 

On the other side of the room, we stacked two Ikea shelves (that we already had in another room) to organize all their books, blocks, and toys.  (Tim attached the shelves to each other and then wired them to the wall for safety.)  I love when everything has a place to go and it looks nice too….form and function.

 

I used different buckets and baskets to add storage spaces for smaller toys (like Hot wheels or blocks) and to bring in colors and textures to this side of the room.  

 

The dresser in the boy’s room was originally Tim’s dresser when he was a kid.  A few years ago, we painted it white  and used it for Tyson and Peyton while they were sharing a room.  But over the years, the white had gotten pretty scuffed up and it wasn’t looking so great anymore.  So one day in the middle of this room re-do, I just got tired of looking at it (obviously the scuff marks weren’t going to disappear on their own), so I grabbed a roller, a paint brush and some gray paint that was sitting in the garage and just started painting away.  It was such a spur of the moment thing to do, but there really was nothing to lose and it turned out great.

 

I originally made the shelves hanging above the dresser for Hudson’s baby room a few years ago. They are a knock-off from some shelves I saw in the PBK catalog back then. I still love them and wanted to incorporate them into the boy’s room. 

 

Well, I guess that about wraps up this room tour! Thanks for stopping by!

Peyton’s Room Tour

Since we moved Hudson into Tyson’s room and Peyton into her own room a few weeks ago, it was time for some room re-dos.   Although I’m still adding a few touches here and there, for the most part, I’m finally done with both rooms, so it’s time for the room tours. 

We’ll start with Peyton’s room.  I’m using a mixture of iphone pics and camera pics.  So get ready to be overloaded with pictures.

The color of her walls is Benjamin Moore’s “Irish Mist”, a super soft gray/white. Originally, I had painted the walls “Heaven” by Benjamin Moore and I loved the color, but once I moved the dresser and vanity in, the color of the furniture did not work well with the walls.  I went back and forth on what to re-paint, but settled on re-painting the walls. So, yea, I painted this entire room twice.  It was not fun.  But I’m happy with the color now, so it was worth it.

 

 

Peyton painted the rainbow pic.  The alphabet and number prints are from Etsy.  And a friend made the giraffe picture a few years ago with scrapbook paper.  Isn’t it cute?! (Elizabeth, do you remember that one?!)

 

When I saw this side table at an antique store, I knew it would be perfect for Peyton’s room. And I took a boring lamp we had sitting around, spray painted the base yellow and re-covered the lamp shade with some fun fabric and ribbon. I used things we already had, so it was a free transformation.

 

Sadly, lamps and Hudson do not mix well right now, so not long after that picture was taken, he threw a coaster and busted the lamp.  This is the second lamp in about a week that he has busted.  At least the lamp shade is still usable.

 

For Peyton’s birthday last year, I made this flag bunting with ribbon, scrapbook paper and a hot glue gun. I was excited to be able to use it in her big girl room.  In many ways, this was the inspiration for the colors I used in her room.  I really wanted her room to feel bright and happy.  The curtain rods were previously dark wood.  A little paint works wonders. 

 

Here’s a close-up of the wall. As I’ve mentioned before I looove Katie Daisy prints…. and my favorite weather is bird chirping weather. The crate was something I made several months ago and painted.  I thought it looked cute hanging on the wall. 

 

As a reminder, this is what her dresser looked like before:

 

And now:

The color is called “Whispering Spring” by Benjamin Moore.

Some details:

The window is from an antique store.  The dress was her baby dedication dress.

 

The fake flowers were from another spot in our home.  I wrapped them in twine and stuck them in a ball jar. And here’s another lovely print by Katie Daisy.

 

Moving right along to the other side of the room…

 

Cheap decorations made from paper products that add fun and color to the space.

 

The vanity before:

 

And after:

 

This was an antique stool we had sitting around.  It was brown and ugly.  A little paint, a little fabric, and some distressing totally transformed it into something adorable.

 

So there you have it… her room tour.