Client Design - A Spring Kitchen

Kitchens are some of my favorite spaces to decorate because they are a space that you spend a lot of time - in fact, I've been sitting in my kitchen all day working!

Valerie sent me a note a few weeks back looking for help styling her kitchen, dining, seating area space.  This is a great space, I love how much room there is to gather your family and friends. 

Valerie wanted to leave the paint color and stenciling as is but fill the space with additional color and decor elements.  I worked closely with Valerie on this design since she already had her eye on some dining room chairs and bar stools.   Here is the design we came up with!  I can't wait to see after pictures!

If you are interested in booking a custom e-design for your space, I would love to help!  Click here for more information. I am currently taking clients, turn around time is approximately two weeks.

Kitchen sneak peek

Our home renovation is finally coming to a close - just waiting on the painter to come back for touch ups and to finish painting our trim.  I am so ready to have my entire house put back together and to be done working with contractors coming and going.  While I appreciate their hard work, I'm ready to be back on my own schedule, especially Saturday mornings. (Coffee and a little HGTV and Food Network tv-watching - in my pj's of course!)

Once I get to bringing our house together with our decorating plans more posts will come but for now, here is a sneak peek of our kitchen.

Before / Tear Down

During

After

I am more than pleased with the result! :)  Can't wait to show you more!!

Tile Decisions

Our home renovation is moving along quite smoothly.  In fact, my last decision (that I'm aware of) is what tile to go with for our backsplash.  I've narrowed down my choices to two options from The Tile Shop.  My two options are shown with the quartz counter top we decided on.

Option 1: Hampton Carrara Smooth Rectified Tile

Option 2: Hampton Carrara Cardine Tile

Our kitchen is a small U-shaped kitchen (we didn't add on) so to help the space look larger we chose a light-colored counter top surface and are going to compliment it with a very light colored backsplash.  The cabinets will be a dark walnut (white is out of the question for us since we live on a farm) and the flooring will be a wood laminate.  I like the classic look of these tile options because I want something that will look nice and still somewhat "modern" down the road. 

I'm stuck - I like both of these backsplash options!  Ahhhh!! What do you think?  I would love to get your opinion so please leave a comment below letting me know what you would choose!

The worst kitchen in the world... besides not having one

Are you ready for this?  These before pictures of our kitchen may shock you.

Don't mind the packing mess... however it didn't look that much better when it was all picked up. This kitchen was an addition that was put on our house in (probably) the 60's or 70's.  Where the carpet meets the linoleum is where the original house ended.  The construction was poor on this kitchen addition... the floor slanted, there was minimal insulation (thus the reason I had to thaw a beef roast in my living room) and the ceiling rafters were not fastened down.  Oh yeah and we sorta had a mouse problem.  

Here is our game plan...

• Tear out everything to the studs (actually to the dirt floor underneath the kitchen)
• Refasten and level floor boards
• Add a new floor
• Change out windows
• Remove header
• Update waterlines
• Add spray foam insulation!
• New countertops and tile backsplash
• New custom cabinets
• New appliances
• New wood laminate flooring
• Adjust lighting

Here is the other side of our kitchen.

Don't judge. The wallpaper was not our decision.  And who, by the way, puts a bathroom in the center of the house?! It's super awesome to have guests over and everyone can hear them pee...

To do list continued...

• Remove the whole bathroom to to create an open floor plan
• Remove plumbing to the bathroom
• Replace the north-facing window with a larger window
• Extend the countertop under the window (ending where the current bathroom wall connects) to create a breakfast bar
• New paint

Here is how the kitchen area currently looks.

It looks better already, doesn't it?