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

Dark Walnut Makeover

Recently I have had the pleasure with working with this amazing couple Ceci & Bruce.

They recently re did their kitchen & the last thing they needed to complete was their buffet table.

They went with an entire new look in their kitchen so the existing buffet tables light stain didn't match at all with their new Tobacco/Dark Walnut colored dining room table.

Before:

I love the clean lines to this table. It is so simple yet so perfect.  

At first we had discussed doing the whole buffet table stained.  

But later that became problematic so we came up with the idea to stain the top & paint the bottom. Which turned out adorable in my opinion :)  

After:

I am so in love with how this little beauty turned out!!

I think this look will tie in more with what Ceci & Bruce had going on in the the kitchen.

The dark wood matches their new table & the white matches their kitchen.

Making it feel as if it has always belonged there :)

I put about 3 heavy coats of Polycrilic on the top of the stain to protect the stain & make it easier for clean ups.

Here is a close up of the wood color. I love how you get to see all the texture in the wood when you re stain a piece. This took me a few different coats to get it this dark. The wood was a pine when I sanded it down so it was really light and needed a few coats to get it to such a dark color.

Are you as much in love with this table as I am?! Because I realllllllly wanted to keep this haha.

Just think of all the added storage this would bring to a kitchen!

While I was there picking up their buffet table to re do it, Ceci showed me this lovely rocking chair that she has had for almost 20 years. It was the rocking chair she used to rock her baby to sleep every night :)

{I love hearing that furniture can have sentimental feelings & the stories behind them}

Before it was a almost a cherry color, it was kept in great shape. She just wanted to update it to match all the wood & to get rid of a few nicks here and there, along with putting a protective coat on it which it didn't have before.

Before:

I feel like I always say how much I love all of the furniture I get to redo....

But I really do love them all!

Especially this one.

This is like the perfect rocking chair. I love the clean lines to it, yet the little detailed curves it in, like the seat :)

After:

All I did was sand the chair down & re stain it a darker color & add a protective coat to it.

It wasn't a huge change but it freshened it up :)

I loved how pretty this chair came out! 

I don't know why but the wood tones looked completely different and stood out more than they did before. 

It will fit in so perfect in it's home at Ceci & Bruce's!

I couldn't stop taking pictures of this gorgeous chair.

It is the perfect chair to just cuddle up in & relax!

So basically I was in love, yet again with my clients furniture.

But can you blame me?

They are simple timeless pieces that would look adorable in any home!

xoxox

Jordynluise

Slate Blue End Tables.

This has got to be one of my new favorite colors.

I had these two end tables lying around just waiting for a makeover.

I had first painted them white, but then realized I didn't quite like them.

They were calling for something with a bit more of a pop.

So I headed to Lowe's and perused the paint selections and came across this amazing color.

Are you ready to see pictures yet or should I just keep talking? ;)

Before:

For all you wood lovers out there, I do apologize because this was in great condition, but I am personally not a big fall of oak so although it was in great condition I thought they needed some TLC :)

Middle:

(When I thought White was the right choice)

Although they were cute this color as well, I thought it was too much white in my living room for the look I was going for, come to find out later I found different end tables I wanted instead. :)

Want to know a secret? I'm terrible at sticking with one look, I always change my mind haha, my house has been changed around so many times since we moved in last July.

After:

Obviously I was wrong, because they are just too stinkin' cute now!

I am just head over heels in love with how these tables turned out!

It was the perfect blue for this project.

I loved the contrast it gave to my white chair & dark floors. 

These tables are definitely statement pieces in a room!

What do you think? Have you fallen in love with any great colors lately?

xoxo

Jordynluise