A Kitchen Face Lift

When we were looking at houses I had a very intense “must have” list. Like, Must Have: Duel vanity, granite counters, updated kitchen, three car garage, big grassy backyard, and I do NOT want to be in Mesa. Guess how many of those things I got? Not. One. We bought a small (I’m talking about 1200sq ft.) home in the heart of Mesa that was straight out of 1989, the year it was built and a year before I was born. We have a vanity in our bedroom with one sink, nasty oak cabinets everywhere, and a backyard that could double as a junk yard. I talked about that more here. We knew we had a lot of projects in the future and we’ve been tackling them one by one. In January we started the kitchen face lift. Our goal was to have it done by Nixon’s second birthday (Feb. 15). I laugh at myself now, that was just ridiculous! Jim and I aren’t exactly the ideal candidates for DIY, but I read enough on pinterest that made me completely confident that I could tackle our countertops with no problems.

 

Boy was I wrong. I had no idea what I was doing. but eventually I figured it out! Jim was so kind to build up two waterfall edges for me. I always hated that weird gap between the upper counter and the “backsplash” of the normal counter. I then started a concrete overlay. Once I got the hang of it it wasn’t too bad, but I got sick of doing it after awhile and Jim had to take over the final steps. It took about two weeks I believe, and then we had to seal it. I kick myself everyday about that process. Long story short, we didn’t put a wax seal on top of the seal we did use and so we’ve had a lot of things soak in a leave a stain (I’m looking at you bacon grease). So I need to sand it and do a few more layers, seal it, and then seal it again with wax this time!! I’ll be honest, I’ve been putting it off for MONTHS because it’s so time consuming! We bought a new sink and faucet too. Our old sink was only 5” deep. 5” people. Do you even realize how hard that is to work with? and our faucet wasn’t much better but I realize it could have been MUCH worse. We bought a nice 9” deep sink with a pretty faucet and my life changed and the amount of dishes left in the sink somehow tripled. It looks so so much better and I LOVE it.

Next up was the cabinets. I read on pinterest that a really easy way to update your kitchen with minimal effort is to replace the doors! DONE! Alas, pinterest failed me again. It was hard to find somewhere that made just cabinet doors, and forget about figuring out what kind you need! Eventually we found a place in Payson that does just that! Unfortunately because of the way our boxes were made we couldn’t use the hidden hinges that make your kitchen look that much better! I came to terms with that and we ordered the doors (in January) and they came and were perfect and beautiful! This was the kick start to busy season so I knew they wouldn’t get done for awhile. Fast forward to August and we were ready to start the process of the doors. I planned on using the existing hinges we had and just spraying them to match the pulls I found! Wrong again, these crazy hinges attach IN the door as well as ON the door. I eventually found hinges that would work with our door/box situation and wouldn’t you know they only came in ONE finish, not the finish I had in mind for the handles. My sister-in-law had the genius idea to pain the hinges with the cabinets, just like some pictures she had seen on pinterest. They looked great and it seemed easy enough!

As august kept progressing and we were getting deeper and deeper into fall busy season we began to realize that we weren’t going to be getting this project any time soon! I decided that we were not going to be able to paint them and have them turn out the way we wanted. I called a painter recommended to me by a friend and that was that! We were having the cabinets painted and it was going to take 3 days and not 3 months like if we were going to do it. We had to hang the doors ourselves and I don’t know if Jim will ever forgive me for that. It’s not that he CAN’T do it, it’s that he doesn’t LIKE to do it, and claims it doesn’t turn out right. Well he spent a Saturday tackling the project before an ASU game and I think it turned out great! All that was left was deciding on a color, and that is by far the hardest part!

Last summer as I was walking out of J. Crew at station park in Farmington I looked at the door and it hit me like a ton of bricks! THAT was the color I wanted my kitchen, with brass hardware. The door was a dark dark gray, almost black depending on the light. I went home and found a few pictures (the one above was like the one that did me in. Concrete counters and dark cabinets) and pinned them right away and I had my heart set on white counters and dark cabinets. It actually really surprised me. I’ve LOVED white kitchens for years, no shocker. My favorite thing to do is look at homes on zillow and pick apart what I hate and how I would change it before I moved in. My first thought is still “it doesn’t have a white kitchen”. But for some reason, this kitchen in this house needed to be dark gray with white counters and I absolutely love it! I picked the color “cavernous” by Dunn Edwards (the middle color) and I would pick it again and again! For now we have nickel hinges because the painter said it would chip and he wouldn’t paint them. We will remain hardwareless for awhile because of that. I want so badly to have brass hardware, I love the look of mixed metals, but I don’t think you should mix your hinges and your handles, that’s just too weird. I’m also having a hard time letting go of my brass hardware vision. I do think that nickel would look really good too though. So instead of making holes in my amazing new doors for something I’m just not sure about, they will remain empty!

I really really really love how everything turned out! Our house isn’t very big, and because of the location and surrounding homes putting the money into a full kitchen reno wouldn’t be smart! We just wouldn’t see our money again, and we wont be here long enough to enjoy it! It’s not our forever home, but having an updated modern looking kitchen makes it easier for me to stay for a little while longer! Also, if anyone is looking for a good painter let me know! I will definitely use him again in the future!!

Family Room Make Over

In college I took a class called Modern Architecture and Furniture. I was a Fashion major and needed a humanities credit and thought that I’d try my hand at interior design. Guess what? I LOVED it, to say the least. It was interesting, and time consuming. Every quarter we had to compile a book of different chairs and buildings, 3 per designer. All in all, there was about 150+ different images in my book. I spent so much time compiling them, drawing some and really learning about others, I wish I could do it all again in slow motion to really soak it in. Still to this day I go goo-goo over Van Der Rohe’s Barcelona chair and would die to ever own the real thing. My personal favorite is the Eames Molded Plastic Chair. As soon as I learned about this chair I knew I had to have it! When I found out I was pregnant I debated on the rocking chair I wanted. This is a huge decision to make, you spend hours in that one chair. I thought about a glider (vomit, they are just ugly) or an arm chair rocker, but I couldn’t shake the idea of the Molded Plastic Chair. I also knew that the real deal would probably be the cause for much heart ache when my child eventually takes a marker to it, you know it’s going to happen. So, I bought a knock off, and I love it. Shhhh Don’t tell. I also want to use these chairs at my kitchen table, eventually. Don’t worry, it wont be too much of an over load because the rocking chair will live in Nixon’s room and pretty much I will be the only one that knows it’s there.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I really enjoy interior design and wish that I went to school for that and not fashion (I still love you fashion). And that leads me to my next point, and purpose of this post. Lately I’ve really been LOATHING my current family room. I haven’t ever liked it actually. We are renting our house and only planned on being here for a year… and two and a half years later we are still here. The colors are all very warm, and I like very cool colors. This has really thrown me through a loop, resulting in no effort being made and a goulash of furniture, some my style, but most, not. So as a result I’ve spent all day looking around for new furniture, decorations, etc. Here’s what I’ve come up with. Please note that I have next to no Photoshop experience, and I don’t own a Photoshop program so this is all brought to you by none other than Paint. 
I’d really love to hear what you think! I’m taking any and all suggestions because in all reality, this is going to be a process. First I’ve got to talk my husband into letting me do all this, second, I’ve got to get rid of pretty much everything I own.

My Battle With Addiction

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I have a serious addiction. I’m slightly worried for myself. If you’ve never heard of the website pinterest feel free to exit my blog and no longer be my friend. Just kidding, I want everyone to be my friend. But It’s my addiction. I look through everything my friends have pinned, I look through the “everything” tab constantly, and I even go as far to pin at red lights (at least they are red?). Most of my conversations don’t only consist of “So I was reading this blog…” it’s “I was reading this blog that I found on pinterest….” I tell you friends, I need to go to AA for pinners.

But a few good things have come from this fabulous website. I feel like I’ve not only gained another 104 friends, I’m developing those amazing crafty talents that I always knew were deep down in there.  I’ve found soooo many good recipes from pinterest and they have all gotten a “repeat” from Hub. You can check out my amazing web cookbook here.  Aside from good food and cute outfits, they have amazing tutorials. This is where I found my tutorial for my amazing coffee filter wreath (not my giant powdered doughnut). I’ve found some really cute printables from pinterest as well and they are all over my house, I’ve even gone so far as to make my own because of this amazing website.

Now that I’ve got all you non-pinners excited about how great it is, I’ve got one more thing to show you. My current pride and joy, this amazing ruffle tree skirt. The second I laid eyes on this tutorial I knew this was a project that I could conquer. That’s just what I did. I had a few minor set backs… like a dead car battery when I went to leave for the fabric store, and then a hungry hub after I finally got there, and once I started I ran out of glue sticks. The tutorial that I followed was really good, so I’ll just direct to it here. Pretty great huh? Instead of canvas, or painter’s drop cloth, I used white denim that I found at a fabric store that was going out of business. I imagine that the painters canvas would be cheaper than denim though.

What is the most crazy about these pictures is that they don’t show just how big it really is. It is HUGE! But it’s ok, because I LOVE it!

But now I’m off to make these lovely sugar balls, and maybe to pin a few more things. I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t pin like 10 things in between writing this, and editing, and looking at pictures.

If you see anything on pinterest that you think I’ve missed and I would like, please tag me in your repinning! Seriously, I’m obsessed.

Printables

I have recently become obsessed with printables. I have them all over our house! I have one in our bathroom….

one in our family room….

and one in our dining room… almost. It’s in the frame. I just need hub to hang it on the wall already!

but I saw one on Pinterest that caught my eye….

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I love it!

except I knew I couldn’t order it. and I didn’t want it to say Tom and Lucy, although, I’m sure they are lovely people. Again, while browsing through the wonderful world of pinterest I stumbled upon this website, and I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. (PS I have fixed Minnie Mouse)

I can’t wait to print it!! but where on earth am I going to put it?! I think this is getting a little out of control!

Holy Craft

To sum up in two words what’s been going on around our house lately: Holy Craft

That’s right, folks. This girl here has become some sort of domestic goddess.

I think a picture story would do it a lot more justice.

To start off… We got some new additions to our family…

That’s right. I paid the pretty price of a plate of cookies for these bad boys. Isn’t the love seat just amazing?! We have the full length couch is in our spare bedroom. We tried to get it into the office, but the doorway to hall ratio is… well… off.

Now on to the food… There’s been lots of food in my life. We had Jen and Bryce over for the ASU football game, so naturally I had to attempt to make every bite size food possible! So I made Guacamole, salsa, Apple Dip, and I saw hopes of potato skins… but things didn’t go so well. Then last week, cousin Paige asked me to babysit for her. When I was on my way over to her house, she somehow tricked me into going to cooking class with her, so Glen, Paige, and I headed over to Whisked Away for some cooking lessons. Paige and I made bread pudding, and I’m still drooling over it.

After the cooking class I became a little bit more inspire. I made chicken pesto stuffed shells, and some other yummy chicken stuff. Both amazing. I’ve also made some not so  amazing things, but we don’t blog about our imperfections now do we?

Onto Projects….

Halloween is coming up… what? You didn’t know? So I pulled out the Fall candle’s and soaps that I bought…. oh a month ago?

Aren’t they the cutest? Yes I have an obsession. I’m a SOAP SNOB as my husband has called me. :)

And say hello to our fall decorations. I’m so sad I forgot to take a picture of the witch towel my mom sent me last year. It’s seriously so cute!

But these are my personal favorites. I made both of them and I LOVE them. I want to make more and put them everywhere in my house. Tacky?

Almost half way…. and finished! For now this one lives in the guest bathroom. The only problem is, I don’t use this bathroom enough.

Jim and I have a really awkward space between our two mirrors and I’ve tried and tried to come up with something to put between them. Alas… I have found the perfect solution.

Perfect right? I’m currently obsessed with quote printables. I don’t know why… but I just love them!

Last, but not least…. our front door.

Wait your obsessed with coffee filter wreathes, printables, and moss letters too? I’m so happy I’m not alone.

What’s next?!

PS. Check out my sister in laws blog for amazing fall food!

DIY Magnet Board...

Or Don't DIY because it's kind of a pain in the butt.

I really did have a lot of fun making this, even though it was a big pain in the butt. I stumbled upon this blog and thought to myself, "Simple enough". Please read that tutorial before reading the rest of my post.

You thought to yourself the same thing I thought, huh? I'll let you in on a little secret... these blog moms are crazy good at crafts. Their tutorials seem sooooo simple, just like any little housewife could do it! Sure, there's a lot of people out there talented enough to do such simple things like cook edible dinners and make magnet boards... I however am not one of them... once again I realize, I was not born to craft.

On Friday night, Hub asked me what I wanted to do. Oddly enough, I wanted to make this. I just told him about it, and how it was soooo easy, it took the lady under an hour to do it! Hub, being the best little Hub out there, drove me to Home Depot. We walked up and down many isles that all looked the same, wood everywhere. That was simple enough to find. We finally had to ask for some help when it came to sheet metal,We just couldn't find any that was big enough. I have a HUGE empty wall in my kitchen and this is what I've been in search of ever since I saw my cute friend Savanna's.

We finally asked a nice man where we would find sheet metal and he showed us. I fell in love. Nothing has ever been so big and handsome (except for you hub). This was 4'x3' of pure goodness. One thing led to another, we were alone, and hub was ready to saw our wood himself! As he was just about to hit the start button, I read a huge sign above him that said something to the effect of "you don't know what you are doing, dumby". Hub had to go find the nice man again.

We then headed to nails. There was a new helper in nails and by this point I wasn't messing around. We asked him where the upholstery nails were, he kinda looked at me like "Honey, your at Home Depot, not a craft store, get out of here!". After searching and searching the wall of nails we found some. I told the new helper our plan of nailing a hole, and then nailing in the upholstery nail after. He went on and on about how we were going to need a drill, and it's going to take forever to nail them one by one, and that's not how he would do it!! I really just wanted to pull out my sassy pants and say, "Listen up, Buckaroo! I read the tutorial, I can pull it up on my phone! She nailed every single nail by hand, not with a drill! And I don't care how you would do it! This is how I am going to do it! It's going to take me less then an hour! Plus, I have a pink tool set that I rarely get to use, so I'm using it tonight!!!!". But I didn't. I was nice, and said please and thank you at the appropriate times.

I'm pretty sure that our trip to Home Depot was over an hour and we just had a short list of things. Sorry hub! But when we got home we ate a quick dinner, (It was like 9:00) and got straight to work.

DIY Magnet Board

Material: Sheet Metal, 1"x2" wood, nails, hammer, upholstery nails, or any kind of pretty nail

Step one:

I had this bright idea of gluing the wood to the metal so that it wouldn't move while I nailed it, and to reinforce it. Bright idea?? Not so bright. Our really cheap wood wasn't exactly flat, not to mention I couldn't find my hot glue gun, so I used Tacky Glue. I don't even know where I got tacky glue, or when I got it! It looks like I found it in the 80's!

To keep the wood pressed against the metal we used everything remotely heavy in our house.

Apparently Tacky Glue doesn't really dry. Like ever. We let it sit for awhile, but I'm not the most patient person. This could be why everything I do is a Disaster. So we decided to flip it over and start nailing things into place.

Step Two:

Skip step one, please oh please, I'm begging you, just skip it.

But if you didn't, now it's time to flip it. Goooooood luck. This is like a 10 man job, but there were only two of us, so as you can imagine.........

We had to hurry and push some sides in, pull some sides out, shed a tear (almost) and maybe say a curse word, or two. Our sides weren't all pushed in, so there is a really thin line of wood hanging out of the bottom, but I don't even care. It's mine, I made it, and I'm no crafter.

Step Three:

Figure out how far apart you want your pretty nails to be. I figured 2 inches apart, about an inch from the edge. So I used a Sharpie to mark the dots. Pens don't work, nor do pencils. Don't waste your time.

You can BARELY see my dots towards the top, but they are there.

Step Four and Five combined:

Tap your nail through the sheet metal into the wood just far enough for it to get stuck. Then rip it out, and put your upholstery tack there and bang that right in. This is actually pretty hard. If you don't nail far enough the first time the tack wont nail straight in and you will end up with almost 20 that look just like this....

*The top one wasn't nailed straight down, see it's little tail? And you did observe that right, I don't have a super fancy camera!!*

and this.....

And you will probably nail your thumb a few times too. I'm new at this, so I got mine 3 times and called it quits. Luckily there were like 4 holes left and Super Hub came to the rescue again.

Isn't he the best? Gosh, I sure think so too.

Then hang up that bad boy and........... TADAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Isn't it just lovely?! I am obsessed to say the least! As for time frame... we watched all of Baby Mama while we were hammering away. Or should I say, we listened in between all the banging. I guess if you are super crafter you could do it in an hour... Then again, if you are super crafter you never even made it to the bottom of this post, you were too busy showing me up!

Now I just need some cute magnets for it!! I found this today.... Maybe next time? I can't possibly mess these up! Or can I?