Our New Island Counter

I have long yearned for a wood counter on my island and marble in the rest of the kitchen and that's exactly what we chose for our new kitchen.

I did a ton of reading and research about using these materials and while I realize that they are higher maintenance than the granite tops we previously had, I am thrilled with our decision.

I will do a more detailed post about our counters once I can show off the marble, but for now I couldn't wait to show you the island:

We had a custom top made from blue-stain pine.  I looooove pine, and I think it just gets better with age and use. The bug holes, tree rings and knots add a rustic charm.

We also hung the lantern (Bolton from Pottery Barn). ADORE!!!!!!

Slowly but surely, the details are all coming together!

 The best thing about this week? We get our kitchen sink back. Hallelujah.


Linking my island counter to these parties:

 Jennifer Rizzo

Savvy Southern Style

Stone Gable

The Shabby Nest

Miss Mustard Seed

Between Naps on the Porch

My Romantic Home

French Country Cottage

Thrifty Decor Chick

I'd love for you to follow along with me on Instagram,  Pinterest, and Twitter.

Kitchen and Living Room Sneak Peek

We are this.close to being done. Alas, it's those finishing touches that seem to take the longest, doesn't it?

I so want to show you everything, but there are still pots, cutlery, plates etc etc strewn about, waiting (im)patiently for the go ahead to be put away into the kitchen.

In fact, if you look closely at these pictures, you'll probably see drywall dust. The drywallers do a final sand tomorrow, and then it's deep clean time!

Anyhow, here's a few sneak peeks to give you an idea of how things are coming along:

Living Room:

Kitchen:

As you can see, there are a lot of finishing details yet to be done in the kitchen: moldings, trims, hardware, counter-tops etc. We get our new range on Wed, so at least we can cook again-yippeee!! Marble counter tops (I can't wait for these-I'll share the details soon!) in 1-2 weeks, which means our sink is back and we're fully functional! The cabinetry should be completed this week. It's coming along!

I'll be back soon with more progress pictures (I do tend to post more progress pictures on Instagram, so check it out there!).

Linking my sneak peeks to these parties:

 Jennifer Rizzo

Savvy Southern Style

Stone Gable

The Shabby Nest

Miss Mustard Seed

Between Naps on the Porch

My Romantic Home

French Country Cottage

Thrifty Decor Chick

I'd love for you to follow along with me on Instagram,  Pinterest, and Twitter.




 

Nothing pretty to see here!

Just popping in to show you what we've been up to.

Behold:

 

Nothing pretty to see here!!

 

 

Today we have venting, gas lines, water lines and drywall happening, all in preparation for cabinet install one week today.

 

All our selections have been made, and I can't wait to show you!

 

Pardon me for a few days/weeks or so, while I try to manage life with three young kids, no sink, no stove or oven and a huge mess. I'm not complaining though-I'm sooooo excited about this reno!

 

I'll be back just as soon as there's something pretty to show!

 

 





Board and Batten in the Hallway

Part of our redecorating of the main floor included adding character and interest to our rather plain and boring hallway.

We have board and batten in many parts of our house. Putting it down our hallway made perfect sense; it connects the spaces and allows them to flow together.

We kept the same Horizon Grey colour above the B & B and painted the lower portion Marble White (Benjamin Moore).

Here you can see the mudroom board and batten wall, and how nicely it flows through to the hallway.
We decided not to extend the B & B up quite so high as I wanted to be able to really see the art.

I hung these antique, 1870's map etchings down the entire hall (in my favorite Ikea Ribba frames).

There are two sections of hallway, and we did the same treatment and art in both. You can see a sneak peek of our next project: the stairway. It's the last space to be painted from the original blue on the walls. I can't wait to start this space! It, too, will be getting a B & B treatment, as well as a banister make over and a gallery wall. I also want to paint out the baby gate so it blends (ie disappears!) a bit better. Baby gates are rather unfortunate, but necessary, design elements.

Check out the (boring) before:

And much better after:

What a difference a little paint and trim makes!!

Linking my hallway to these parties:

 Jennifer Rizzo

Savvy Southern Style

Stone Gable

The Shabby Nest

Miss Mustard Seed

Between Naps on the Porch

My Romantic Home

French Country Cottage

Thrifty Decor Chick

I'd love for you to follow along with me on Instagram,  Pinterest, and Twitter.

Granny's New Clothes

My Granny-chair is stylin in her new outfit!!

For those of you who are new here, I'm working with Holly Mathis in redecorating our family room, dining room and renovating our kitchen {as a side note, I just have to say what a joy it has been working with her and seeing the home of my dreams come to reality!!}.

If you recall, I had my Granny wingback in this corner before. It actually was my Grandmother's.
I love the shape, and love a good wingback.  Not all wingbacks are equal-I find some too upright and formal, but this one is a great shape and very comfy.

What I didn't love, was the upholstery fabric OR the faded chintz slipcover it previously had.

I was fairly certain I wanted a plain slightly off white cover, that can be jazzed up with a throw pillow. Holly thought so as well, so I contacted my upholsterer to whip up a slipcover for me.

I did attempt to sew the cover myself, but became frustrated. Best to leave this project to the professional! For those who have sewed a slipcover such as this, hats off to you. Count me impressed.

Anyhow, here are the results:

I adore it. It's the perfect cottagey/casual look I was hoping for. It is quite 'sweet' but we are balancing this with other elements in the room to keep the entire space from being too pretty/sweet. We're going for a more eclectic blend of cottage-casual.

We are still waiting on a floor lamp to be delivered, then I'll show this entire corner. It's coming along beautifully!

If you recall on my family room plan, I loved an image of a chair that had a buttoned pleating along the bottom. We talked about doing this, but decided that since my chair is lower, the skirt needs to be shorter and the buttons wouldn't look right.

We did add another extra detail, though, which I am in love with :

The chair back is actually zippered shut, but I asked her to put in this faux back. She covered a few buttons for me, and I sewed them on the back and added ribbon.

It can also be done up corset style.

You can only really see the back from the Sunroom, but you never know if the chair will be moved in the future, in which case this extra special touch to the back may be more showcased.

We are waiting on 2 more chairs (on the longest backorder in history) and some pillows being sewn, and then it's reveal time!!


Linking my Granny chair to these parties:

 Jennifer Rizzo

Savvy Southern Style

Stone Gable

The Shabby Nest

Miss Mustard Seed

Between Naps on the Porch

My Romantic Home

French Country Cottage

I'd love for you to follow along with me on Instagram,  Pinterest, and Twitter.

Our Laundry Room

I am thrilled to finally show you our completed laundry room!

This room was patiently waiting for nearly 2 years to be decorated. We started with ugly mustard yellow walls, no decor, and no character.

The room did have some great features though, such as tons of storage, granite counter tops, and slate flooring. I also love that there is a window with lots of natural light.

We painted the walls the same colour as most of our main floor: Horizon Grey by Benjamin Moore. It truly is the perfect grey/blue neutral. My hubby added wainscotting treatment, painted out in BM Marble White.

Looking back through to the mudroom.

Great storage and a utility sink are much appreciated in this space.

We placed a shelf above the washer/dryer. It has hooks which are perfect for hanging clothing to dry.

 

 

I kept the counter decor pretty simple, since I really wanted the space to spread out clothes for folding.

 

This is the best smelling window cleaner, and it works great too! I thought the bottle was too cute to hide away in the cupboard.

A large jar holds Oxiclean, and a basket holds my dryer sheets.

 

Our pets are fed here, and there's the perfect space for the litter box, tucked away under the shelf.

 

Maggie, our 14 year old rescue Lhasa Apso, has her bed in here, but truly her Royal Highness is usually resting upon our bed.

I kept the shelf decor pretty simple as well; jars full of sea shells, some from my childhood shell collection.

These botanicals were printed via this site. I had actually ordered some beautiful botanical art from an Etsy shop, and after waiting since early February (very impatiently as I wanted to post my laundry room reveal!!), I had to open an Etsy and Paypal claim as I never received them. The seller wouldn't respond to any of my emails, and only when I opened the claim did she send them. I still haven't received them, so for now, I placed these in the frames. I think they are beautiful too!
I have bought many things through Etsy, and this is the first time I've ever had a problem.

My clock obsession/collection continues.....

An old chipped up frame turned chalkboard.

 

Who doesn't love a good before and after? Here's a reminder of what we started with:

 



 

Much improved!

 



I love how this space turned out! Next on our list of projects is board and batten down the hallways and stairway. I have some great art to hang in the hall, and I'm planning a gallery wall for the stairway.

We also sold our old kitchen cabinets as of yesterday (yah!!) so I need to get everything packed away and then the demo begins!!! Phew, busy times ahead!

Sources:

Granite counters: Cashmere White
Flooring: Natural Slate
Wall colour: BM Horizon Grey and Marble White (wainscotting)
Jars: Walmart
Basket on counter: Ikea
Shelf: Ikea
Rug: Home Sense
Frames: Ikea, Ribba
Clock: Cozy Cottage Interiors
Bird Cage: Home Sense


Linking my laundry room to these parties:

 Jennifer Rizzo

Savvy Southern Style

Stone Gable

The Shabby Nest

Miss Mustard Seed

Between Naps on the Porch

My Romantic Home

French Country Cottage

Thrifty Decor Chick

I'd love for you to follow along with me on Instagram,  Pinterest, and Twitter.

A Wee bit of Easter

With the {big} exception of Christmas, I'm not much of a seasonal decorator.

I'm trying to bring out the flavors of each season with flowers, colours and textures rather than cute figurines and such.

That's not to say that I don't enjoy a bit of seasonal cuteness....I sure do, and really, Easter pretties are hard to resist.

What's not to love about bunnies, chicks, pastel colours and pretty coloured eggs? Besides, my girls love it too.

My spring 'decorating' thus far has been my mantel, my centerpiece on the new dining table, and this tiered stand in the kitchen. It's a full dose of Easter pretty!

The gorgeous glittered eggs are from Heidi Devlin's shop, and the silhouettes were purchased last year from Dear Lillie.

I do have one more Easter treat to share with you yet. Hopefully it will be ready very soon.

As soon as Easter is over, it's pack up the kitchen time and demo will begin!

The new kitchen install is end of April, and we have quite a bit of preparations to do before then. I'll be sharing a lot of kitchen details with you in the coming weeks.

We're finalizing the details such as the backsplash, faucet, counter tops, hardware etc. I can't wait to show you what we decided on!


Linking my Easter decor to these parties:

 Jennifer Rizzo

Savvy Southern Style

Stone Gable

The Shabby Nest

Miss Mustard Seed

Between Naps on the Porch

My Romantic Home

French Country Cottage

I'd love for you to follow along with me on Instagram,  Pinterest, and Twitter.