What we've been up too: Kitchen

I'm one of those people who doesn't quite plan my design for a room until I see something "I like."

I will walk into a store and know what I'm looking for but not quite know.

When picking color choices for our house I knew I wanted something light and airy.

So I chose a light grey.

I liked the fact that it was neutral enough that it went with everything, it wasn't bland walls like white is.

& if your anything like me then this is the real selling point: It goes with ANY color you want to accessorize with.

Great for people like me who are always changing their house around ;)

The Hubby always jokes with me that he is screwed if he ever goes blind because he will crash into stuff all the time with how much I rearrange our house. Oops? :)

Up until yesterday I didn't think anything of my color choices.

Until I was going over photos of my house.

IT IS ALL GREY.

:0

I must be channeling my inner Seattle..............

My goal for this year is to bring more color into our house by accessorizing.

Because it might just be a bit too much grey.

Don't get me wrong though, Blue, Light Grey & White look amazing together.

(My whole downstairs)

&& My bathroom is Light Blue, Dark Grey, White && Black

(post about that makeover here)

& my bedroom you ask? It is Light Grey as well, Black, White, and we haven't decided what accent color we want to choose, possibly yellow or red.

But more on the bedroom later.

Today is all about the Kitchen. And Boy am I excited to share what we have been up to in this space.

Ever since we got our hardwood floors in I would cringe going into the Kitchen & seeing the Oak cabinets clash with our dark walnut floors.

Can you all take a guess as to what color we chose for our cabinets?!

I'll give you a hint.

It is oozing all over this post ^.

Before:

This picture is from right after we moved in, as you can see by the flooring.

And our outrageously out grown yard! *double cringe*

Here is one with our new floors in.

Can you see why it made me cringe everyday?!

What a horrible clash it was.

 Please excuse the bad quality.

I wasn't too excited about taking these pictures so I forgot but then remembered and had my handy dandy cellphone.

Are you ready to see what it looks like now?!?

I am.

After:

We painted the cabinets a dark grey,

We were initially going to go with white upper cabinets & a fun color bellow but opted to keep in neutral and have the two different grays play off one another.

& I am SO happy we did!

Along with painting the cabinets we put up bead board as black splash to finish the look off.

We also added all new hardware, before the drawers had no pulls so we drilled in holes to create room for our new ones.

Another bonus we added was under cabinet lighting.

As I have explained before, we don't have much natural light so any added lighting is much needed.

After putting in a dishwasher, which this house was lacking before. *YAY*

We lost some storage which was highly needed in a Kitchen this small.

So with my handy dandy dad being in town be built us this amazing pantry.

It made the kitchen feel more finished. You can still see the fridge but it no longer looks like an after thought.

Another thing I was really loving about this pantry is our microwave now has a home, creating a lot more counter space.

The new dishwasher literally made me want to run around and do cartwheels.

The best part?

No more dishes drying on the counter.

And it is SO quiet. You seriously can't even hear it even when standing next to it.

It was the only splurge we have made on this home & I am happy we did it.

Love at first sight

To make the cabinets a feel a bit more customized we bought some wood and attached molding to it before painting to heighten the cabinets & give them a more finished look.

Can you spot our epic fail?

We forgot to paint under the cabinets.

And for those of you who pay attention to detail,

all the face plates were currently being changed when I took these pictures. 

So don't worry, those are all put back on now ;)

This beautiful new sink was a Craiglist find.

For only.............

30 dollars!

{Score!}

These bad boys go for 200 brand new.

It has a few stains when you look at it up close but I was not one to complain.

I wanted the cheap stainless steal one out of here fast.

Hubby and I made a pact to renovate this place on a budget so that we will up the value since we bought it as a foreclosure. But we are being realistic about the updates because this isn't our forever home.

We might not even be in it two years from now.

Gotta love Military life!

Is anyone loving these cabinets as much as I am?! The dark grey looks so good with the white & nickle accents.

From the pulls to the new sink, to the new faucet, to the new back splash I just want to be in my kitchen all the time.

Price Break Down:

• Sink: $ 30 - Craigslist
• New Faucet - $70 - Lowes
• Bead Board & Trim {including materials} - $70 - Lowes
• Dishwasher & Garbage Disposal - $540 - Lowes
• New Hardware - $80 - Walmart
• Under Cabinet Lighting - $30 - Home Depot
• Paint - City Smoke Stack by Color place & Polyurethane $40 - Walmart
• Wood & Molding - $30 - Lowes

Total of  $890! Now that is pretty cheap for a Kitchen Makeover when you figure we got a brand new dishwasher, a faucet & new sink!

As far as what we still want to do it is nothing compared to what we have already done.

Updates for the Future:

• Paint under the cabinets!! I can't believe we forgot to do that. {Hubbs and I are making that our goal this weekend! Along with that we are touching up our walls because we had a few oops moments as you can see in some of the pictures}
• A new fridge & stove. Both are fine, but outdated. We figure you can never go wrong updating appliances.
• Get a new rug, it looked a lot better before I tried to wash it. I have no idea what crazy state of mind I was in when I tried to wash a hand woven rug. Sigh.
• Add some personality  to the Kitchen, take the memo board down & put something more fun/crafty up.
• Possibly get new counter tops down the road, parts are stained or chipping. Nothing fancy though, I love the minimalist look with basic counter tops.

So what do you all think?

Are you loving the dark & light grey with the white accents?

I sure am :)

Have a happy Wednesday!

xoxo Jordynluise

What we have been up too: Dining Room

The day has finally come.

I've come to a conclusion, things will always be "in progress" at my house.

I'm just that kind of person.

Ideas are always going in my brain,

SO, I figured I should probably share what we have been up too lately.

My dad left town at the end of last month, yeah I know, he was here awhile! haha!

But his presence was highly appreciated.

We have gotten so much done in such a small amount of time,

I can't wait to reveal what we have done so far to our cute little home :)

I'll share with you all some photos of it now & some plans for what we want to do eventually.

So without further ado let the showing of our home begin!

Dining Room:

This table didn't always look like this.

Funny story about how this table came to be.

We had already bought a dining room table from Pier1 Imports when we moved in

but if you know me, I am ALWAYS on Craigslist & Lejeune Yard Sales. &

I stumbled across this beauty. I was in Washington at the time & had the Hubby go pick it up because I had to have it.

But once I got home from my trip I was pretty shocked to see that the table was yellow.....not white, yellow.

And not even a cute yellow, it was a mistake. & you could tell.

Someone put oil polyurethane over white paint and it was just hideous.

So then the project began.

Here is a shot of what the table & the dining room space looked like before.

I forgot to take better close ups but trust me. It was not that pretty close up.

Before:

Sigh, I loved those lamps. 

The hubby accidentally broke one so now one has found a new place in our home {the office}

I have to find new ones for the dining room once we get a new buffet table

{the table pictured is now our tv stand in the living room}

After:

That chandelier was actually a lejeuneyardsales find,

before it was an off white color which had to be changed since my furniture is white not off white ;)

Initially I had been debating between two different lights at Lowes:

vs

Can be found {here} && {here}

How much was my find? 15 dollars :) Including the can of spray paint.

Now don't get me wrong, I am still drooling over that Allen & Roth one.

I probably will change it & find a different home for my lejeuneyardsale find.

But 200 dollars seemed pretty steep for a house that isn't Mine & the Hubby's forever home.

But then I remind myself, I can always take it when we move ;)

 The Plan:

I love how much progress has been done since we bought our home, before it had dingy white ceilings, green & tan walls. Half of the downstairs was carpet and the other half was linoleum.

• We opted to make the whole downstairs hardwood rather then section it off like it was with the two different floor choices so that it would feel more bigger and open. 
• We chose a light color on the wall to brighten up the space since we are an inside unit and have no windows other than the one by the door & the window in our back door in the kitchen (opposite side of the room not pictured above ^)

So I hope you enjoyed seeing what we have been up to in the dining room && what we plan to be up too soon ;). I will be back tomorrow with another "what we've been up too: Kitchen" version.
Have a  happy Tuesday!

Xoxo
Jordynluise