The never-ending kitchen list!

Happy 100th post to me! :)

Now that I've revealed the kitchen renovation, I have some follow up ideas! My mind is always turning...it's a blessing and a curse!

I might have given Mark a heart attack the other day when I mentioned that I wanted to take out the single cabinet to the right of our sink and put in shelves to hold some of our pretty and frequently-used dishes. His eyes got very wide, but I'm not sure if that is good or bad...

I got the idea from (where else) Young House Love:

They installed these shelves in the photo above in their new house as part of their "phase one" change, but they also tested them out first in their old house and loved them!

They sure know how to do a kitchen, don't they? Love!!!

So the shelving idea may be down the road a bit (when Mark can look at the bank account without wincing), but it's about time to replace that ceiling fan in the kitchen, isn't it?! 

I was planning about blogging about this earlier, but couldn't get motivated. Then I stumbled across this pin the other day on Pinterest:

Considering this was posted first on Apartment Therapy (great site, but not always budget-conscious), we can barely afford any of them. Not to mention the fact that I don't LOVE all of them. I really like #1, #3, #4, and the idea of #13, #16, and #17. 

First check out the space we are dealing with:

Now, here are some options I've found previously that I would consider...

Here's the thing. I keep thinking I should keep it simple and go with this fixture from Ikea:

Here it is, whaddya know, in YHL's kitchen:

Plus, there is an entire DIY blog post about this EXACT light that Mark could follow when installing. Bonus!

I'm thinking this option is cost conscious, clean looking, provides light, and easy to install. We have a huge opportunity in the breakfast area to go with something that will make more of a statement, so I'd like to save our pennies (and gift cards) for that. 

What do you think? Is Ikea acceptable for our kitchen light? Have you seen anything elsewhere that we should consider?

Gotta get down with ORB on Friday, Friday!

Friday! 

That's right, y'all. It's FRIDAY! In my case, it's the Friday before we start transforming our house and I am beyond excited about that. I don't love painting by any means, but if it means we can get rid of 50% of the tan/beige in this house, I am all for it. We are inviting friends and family over to help us paint so if any of you have a free morning and want to get some complimentary breakfast, come on over and we will find something for you to do! :) What do you all have planned for the first weekend in August?

I mentioned that I was working on two different projects at the house this week. The first was cleaning the grout (and I've received some other tips and tricks since posting that, so I will have to try them and get back with you!) and the second was/is painting all of the door hardware. I saw this first on YHL (duh) and was surprised I had never thought to do this. You simply spray paint the door handles in whatever finish you would like to make a huge impact without the huge investment of new handles. For our house, I chose ORB, also known as oil-rubbed bronze. I like the dark finish and I feel like they will go with any decor that I have without being too harsh, like black might be. 

Here is the tutorial from Young House Love, in case you'd like to read it. 

So most of the handles in our house are a nice 70's gold with the exception of the guest room, guest bath, and master bath. For the guest room and guest bath, the door knobs had been replaced with brushed nickel fixtures, which are nice. So instead of painting those rooms, I just took the knob that faced the hallway and sprayed that, so all of the door knobs in the hallway will match but the brushed nickel finish will stay in those rooms without interfering or feeling weird to the rest of the house. Also, the bathrooms had more nickel components like the towel rod, faucet, and toilet paper holder, so it makes more sense to leave that as-is. 

Here is a wide shot of before in our master bedroom showing the linen closet and main door knobs.

The first thing I did was to go around and take off all of door knobs that I wanted to paint. (I'm holding off on the front, back, and garage doors for a nice day when I can leave the doors open and paint the door and the knobs at the same time, since it takes a while for them to dry)

Then, I took a medium grit sand block (this is a foam block with sandpaper on the edges. I got mine at Wal-Mart) and sanded down the knob. See the difference below.

 The sanding is meant to take the sheen off of the handles and rough them up so paint will adhere to them. 

YHL's instructions were to then use a liquid deglosser to further prepare the knobs for paint, but I couldn't find that at Wal-Mart and I tend to get impatient so I just skipped that step. Hopefully my painted door knobs will still hold up for a while, but if not, I know why!

After they were sanded and brushed off, I took them out into the garage and put them on a piece of cardboard, ready to be sprayed.

I used Rustoleum ORB spray paint, found at Wal-Mart and did a light misting to cover the knobs.

I continued this about 5 times, and then I flipped them over (after they were dry and onto clean cardboard) to get the underside.

I did this all in one evening, so they could air out and dry to be ready for the next day.

And here they are, back on the linen closet after 24 hours of curing.

What do you think? Worth it?

We also plan to sand down and repaint this cabinet, but I think this change makes a HUGE difference on the appearance of the house. The gold handles just age our house more than we'd like. I love the change already!

Like I said, we didn't have a lot of time to work on things over just two evenings this week, so I haven't finished all of the knobs yet. I have taken all interior knobs off and began spraying, but I haven't finished or installed any back to their doors. Here is the same before picture and steps for the door knobs, though.

P.S., all of that dirt on the door was just that, simply dirt! I went around and wiped all the doors down and they already look a million times better. This was just another thing we noticed after the house was empty. 

This shows a sanded knob on the left and an untouched knob on the right.

I'll be back next week with finished photos of the knobs and hopefully some progress photos of the painting! Now, who wants to start a poll of when we will start moving in? 

Have a great weekend!

Bloggy friends

It will take a few days to make enough progress on the new house to share, so I want to share some of my favorite blogs with you! If you are new to blogging or reading blogs, I can't say enough that you should find a community of blogs to follow. They offer inspiration, new ideas, and fun stories. 

Like I've mentioned before, Young House Love is one of my all-time favorites. I don't remember exactly how I found their blog, but it has been a staple of mine for what I think is about two years. The first post I read was this one. They removed the 'non baby-safe' stove out of their second home. Since then, they have redone that entire kitchen, built a deck, sold the home and bought a new fixer-upper! It really doesn't feel like I've been reading their blog for over two years because I'm always excited about their content. I love that they are down to earth with their posts and explain each thing step by step. I have learned a myriad of new tips and tricks and I tend to not shy away from DIY projects after reading about their experiences. They are always positive and gung-ho and treat their readers like family! They take the time to respond to your questions and even pass on giveaways to their readers because they don't accept "freebies" for their blog. YHL does it right! Here are John, Sherry, and Clara in their blog picture:

I started reading all of these blogs at about the same time, so I've been following most of these for about two years. I like to get my girly fix from Pink Lou Lou. I stumbled across her blog and was overwhelmed with blonde, pink, and Carrie Underwood. While Miss Lou Lou isn't quite my style, I love that she embraces all things frilly, sparkly, and girly and I love reading about her! She is OBSESSED with Carrie Underwood and it's hilarious. I was reading when she started her makeup and hair business and I'm so proud of her! She single-handedly makes me want to visit Kentucky and I admire that she is so close with her sisters. She seems like so much fun, has a big heart, and I love reading her blog!

Another girly blog I follow is Love Meagan. She is a super hip, super beautiful blogger living in California. Recently she and her husband were house-hunting in areas outside of Los Angeles and so they went on little getaways to visit the areas like Palm Springs and Lake Arrowhead. I loved reading about their travels! They ended up buying a home in Lake Arrowhead and it is so beautiful! It boggles my mind that they had snow on the ground practically all winter and they were just about 2 hours from Los Angeles. California is an interesting place! Meagan blogs about fashion, DIY, art, and her battle with infertility. She is an honest, down to earth blogger and I love that about her! 

Of course, more of my favorite blogs are these three that are close to me:

My sister's blog

My sister Angela blogs about life, happenings, and of course, my niece and nephew! Angela has a degree in English so her blogs are always easy to read and completely free of errors. :) Everyone in our family knows about her blog and is constantly checking to see pictures of the kids or a funny story! 

My sister in law's blog

Andrea is Mark's sister, and she has a super cute blog! She blogs about our two nephews and new niece Griffin. There are always loads of sweet pictures on her blog!

Emily's blog

Emily is an adventurous friend of mine that blogs about everything she finds joy in. She loves to travel and is always dreaming of her next stop. Emily also enjoys fashion and beauty so she shares her tips with her readers! She is new to blogging like me so I'm excited for us to grow our blogs together!

Go check out all of these blogs and check back here tomorrow for more house news!

It's the little things...

Happy Thursday! First off: I've had some friends and family say that they are having trouble commenting on the blog. I know that it's not impossible because some of you have been able to comment, so the only solution I've found so far is to enable your 3rd party cookies in your internet settings. Try that, test it out, and let me know if you still can't comment! Sorry for the trouble!

Today I want to chat a little about shopping. I'm a girl, I like shopping and talking about shopping, what can I say?! I've given you our big picture ideas for the house, but I want to get into the details today and talk about accessories. I feel like accessories totally make the look whether dressing yourself or dressing up your home. Young House Love, the blog that led me to create this one, is a wealth of accessory knowledge. Sherry, the better half of the husband-wife team, is obsessed with ceramic animals. Check out some from her collection:

While I'm totally there with her on the ceramic animal obsession, I can't say that I am THAT obsessed. I love the ceramic dog and horse head. I have two ceramic elephants and two ceramic birds that say "mark" and "diana" (they were supposed to be our cake toppers but got lost in the chaos), but that about does it for my collection! Either way, ceramic animals are a fun, ever-classic way to add a personal touch to your home.

Another thing I love are throws and blankets. My parents kept their house cold in the winter and I would ALWAYS need a blanket when downstairs watching TV while living with them. I love having them draped across chairs and couches in my house or tucked away in baskets, ready to grab when it gets chilly. I think the right blanket makes a home feel cozy and warm. Here are a few I like:

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Another obsession Sherry and I share is our love of pillows. OMG pillows! I think all men despise pillows, as Mark has proved by his weekly pillow complaints: "why do we have all of these?" Sherry writes about cheap ways to freshen up a space, and there's no surprise that adding pillows is number five. Here is the post. I'm obsessed! Here are some fun pillows that I would love to add to my home:

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Aside from pillows, throws, and ceramic animals, I like to decorate with candles, magazines, books, pictures, flowers(favorite!), and meaningful objects. For example, Mark and I bought some postcards in Kauai on our honeymoon and they are in hanging in our bathroom. I just love seeing them in there every morning and it's something I want to make into our own tradition. I also like bringing natural wood in when it isn't already prevalent in the architecture of the home. I think natural wood accents bring more warmth into the home. I have wood shelves, picture frames, and kitchen items that help me with that. Here are some examples of what I mean:

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As I said, I feel accessories make the space. How boring would that space above be without pillows, throws, art, and objects? Snooze. I like to find knick knacks and HomeGoods and Target, but you can pick them up almost anywhere. Boutiques have unique items and there is always a treasure waiting at Goodwill or thrift stores, garage sales, and the like. Just keep your eyes open! My advice is to stay away from the trendy items but go for something that speaks to you and carries some sort of meaning, or is something that you just really love and can mix and match throughout your home for years to come. 

I hope to get some photos of our current apartment before we start packing up to show you more of my style and show you how I make a house a home. Stay tuned for that!

If you have a place that you like to find accessories, share it with me!


Update: Can I just say how honored I feel with Sherry's response and the fact that she read my post?!!??!!! eeeek!!!! (ignore my lame sounding comment on their post!)