Kitchen Island

Okay, so remember our kitchen before????

There, in the middle, is Rainman's skinny little dresser trying hard to work as an island.....

And then, wonderful, fabulous, Mark gave me a temporary island to try out?

And, now, my actual island.....even though it is still a bit of a work in progress...because I still need to paint the bottom.  But, look!

Isn't it fantastic?  

I was originally just wanting plain boards and a pseudo-butcher block look. As Mark and got to talking though, I explained that Rainman (despite there being cutting boards available any direction you turn in the kitchen) still continues to cut on the countertops....including his old dresser/island.  That lead us to conversations about having to sand and seal the wood top a few times a year.

Well, I am sorry, but my plate of noodles doesn't not have room for one more noodle that has to remember to sand and seal the island....and allow it time to dry before people start using it again.

So, Mark went to the store, planning to research sealants that I wouldn't have to do so often and found.....floor tiles.....that look like wood!

Yes......these are porcelain floor tiles!

He mounted them without grout lines and just did a bead of silicone in between the planks so there won't be any damage if liquid leaks between.

We can put hot pans right on them and even  cut on these (yes, hard on knives....but Rainman doesn't know where my good knives are).

It looks and feels fabulous.  Even though it looks rough, like weathered wood....it is smooth.  Crazy.

I painted the trim around the edge a grey that I thought blended pretty well with the top, so it doesn't look like it is floor tiles mounted in a case.

Now, I just need to figure out what color I want to paint the bottom.  But, I suppose I need to figure out what I want to do about the cupboards......first

I am still thinking something like this....for the island....and maybe the cupboards too.


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By the way, have you heard about the "Chip It" thingie available from Sherwin Williams?  After you download the app (like you do when you want to pin things on Pinterest), if you see a picture you like, you "Chip It" and it does those nifty little things, on the side, that tell you approximate paint colors for what you are seeing in the picture.

Anyway, I obviously went with a different island top than this warm wood one (that was more my original thinking for the fake butcher block)....so, does that change my look?

Or, here is a softer colored island that I like too.


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But, this one has the white marble top.

Any opinions?

I want bright and fun.....and, sort of Scandinavian.....sort of like this one.  I couldn't find pictures of these on-line, so, I went old-school and took a picture of a magazine for your viewing pleasure.

I love this look.  Happy. Bright.  Fun.  But, do I want green cabinets for the rest of my life?  I would take that stove for life though.....

In my inspiration pictures, I am just a bit afraid of too much white.  I want it to be bright and happy and sunny, but not....blinding. I don't want it to get outdated.  I want to be able to change things when the mood strikes (we all know my mood will change)......and I don't necessarily want to have to paint EVERYTHING all over again.

I also have decided that I do want to go ahead and do something with my backsplash.

Right now, it is just a sheet of laminate countertop material on the wall.  SUPER easy to wipe down and keep clean.....but it is creamy/beige and boring.

So, do I put in a colorful backsplash with my white cabinets?  Will that get old and go out of style quickly?



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I am getting happier and happier with my kitchen changes, but still have a ways to go.

Anyone want to share their opinion?  Ideas?  Pinterest pages that I MUST go look at?

Kitchen Progress

You probably remember that the kitchen was my least favorite part of our new house.  It was sort of dark....even with the big huge windows....there wasn't much counter space....and I am not in love with the shiny wood cabinets.

So, I have been working on changes.....thinking and trying out other changes.....

Here is where we started:

The white cabinet that the microwave is sitting on was from a closet we ripped out at our Minnesota house. (Make note of the stuff on top of the microwave for later in the post.)

The middle island is Rainman's old dresser.....because it was the right height and I figured out at my last house (the one with the beautiful, but small kitchen), that I really like drawers for stuff, rather than cabinets.


So, I painted the kitchen and took down the wallpaper border and curtain thingies.

It was happier and brighter, but my "island wasn't cutting it.  So, I started looking up ideas and plotting and planning.  My friend's hubby is in commercial construction and is between projects right now, so when he finished up her "to do" list, I asked if he wanted to take on a few of my projects too.

I won't say that he jumped at the chance, but he did agree to it!

So far, he has built me a temporary island, so I can try it on for size and see what I think....before it becomes permanent.

So far, I am LOVING it.

The other change I am considering is with the microwave thing in the corner.

I had already painted the bottom unit my fun, citrus green.....but the top of the microwave just ended up being a junk pile filled with stuff that people didn't know where it went....or stuff we thought we would need quick access too...maybe.  You know, coupons, batteries, fly swatter, various plastic parts that we weren't sure what they went to, but didn't want to lose. (See the above before picture of the kitchen.)

Anyway, my friend, Betty, recently remodeled her kitchen and got new cabinets.  She had her old ones put in her garage for storage options....but, her microwave cabinet wasn't needed, so she passed it along to me.  

The funny thing is, the little cut out parts of the doors perfectly match the little cut-outs in my cabinets, so once it is painted, it will seem like it was always part of the kitchen.

When we first put it up there, I didn't like it.....because I felt like it sort of blocked the light and I didn't like the bulk of the cabinet on top.  But, now, only 24 hours later, I am sort of digging it.  It makes that corner of the kitchen seem more like it is part of the whole kitchen, you know?  Like it isn't such a wasted corner space.  The other positive thing is that the junk pile that used to be on top, is now behind closed doors, so it is our little secret, right?

I am sure once I get all my cabinets painted, I will like it even more and with the lighter color I am planning, it will reflect some of the light back, so it won't seem so dark.  I am considering using a milk paint in a white/cream for my cabinets and then a fun color...probably aqua on my island....but we shall see what I settle on.

New House Stuff

I haven't posted about our new house in awhile.

Partly because I haven't been in the mood to do much around here lately.

Partly because I was having a hard time making up my mind about what to do.

But, I have made a few decisions and once I make a decision, look out.  I was done in 24 hours!

It helped that there was a deadline for a paint rebate from Lowe's too.

Our house looked very classy on the outside.

Classy.....but, sort of boring.  And, honestly, while I am not exactly "unclassy" or uncouth....I don't really consider myself classy.  It didn't really seem like me.

The house is tan, with black shutters and a black front door.

I did not want to deal with painting the shutters, so I started looking around Pinterest for homes that had dark shutters and painted their front door a different color.

I founds lots and lots of that.....so, I started picking out paint chips.  I had the kids vote, then vote again, when I changed my mind about which direction I wanted to go.

I was thinking yellow because of this door that is next to D-man's school.

(I have a slightly better, less fuzzy, picture of the house, but, since we totally did the....drive reaaaaaallly slow and stalkerish, by their house and take a picture thingie....D-man got me trying to keep my face out of the shot face...which gave me a reaaaaaaalllly bad double chin.....so, you get the slightly fuzzy version and can keep your sugar coated version of what I look like....which is...... that I have no double chin.  Right? Right?)

But, then I started looking at yellow paint chips and A-girl and L-girl reminded me of how much yellow I already have in the new house.  Boring.  So I started looking at raspberry pinks and oranges.  I found some really pretty ones......


(via carolyn morrison on Pinterest)

Or this...


(viahttp://www.warlinepainting.ca/gallery.asp)

Or this....


To be fair, I might have liked the shape of this door and the stone work more than the orange color.  (via Hamilton Building)

But, I kept coming back to yellow.....


(via Bob Vila  )

It is just so happy and sunny, you know?

I was going to go with yellow.

Until, I saw this.....


(via http://www.athomeinlove.com/)

Yes, the house is gray, not tan...but the shutters are black...there are brick stairs...and white is there as an accent.  I like.

So, are you ready for the result?

I went from this:

I know....the reflection is bad....maybe this one will show it better..

To this:

Isn't it fun and happy?

I will admit that once I was done, I had a few days where I thought I had made a huge mistake.  I drove creepy slow whenever I was coming or going and just stared at my door.....and thought.....oh no....I don't love it.

But, now, after I have lived with it for a week or so.....I love it.  It makes me happy.  It truly is more of a reflection of what is really happening behind that front door than the classy black was.

It makes me happy from the inside too...

Our neighbor boys, 5 and 3, love it too.  More, accurately, the  5 year old said, "Hey, did you paint your door blue?  I like it."  And, the 3 year old said, "I wuv your blue door!"

I finally made a decision on my hall bathroom and am still working through possible scenarios for my kitchen island.  I will show you what I have soon.

House Changes

I cannot tell you how happy I am in our new house.

Really, really happy.

It just feels right for us.

I rejoice in the sunrises through the trees.

I rejoice in watching the deer graze in my yard early in the morning.

I rejoice in the fact that it is feeling and looking more and more like it is "our house".

I have made some changes.  Remember my color problem in the dining room? 

I loved the aqua color in small places, but it ended up being totally overwhelming on the wall.

So, I did this, instead!

So much better.  Now I will just use my aqua as an accent color.  It is a happy room now.  I am very happy.


I love it!  I even added the extra leaf in our table and it still feels like we have a lot of room in here!

I still want to figure out some new curtains....but, overall....I am super happy with it!

Oops, just realized that in this shot the bottom hasn't been repainted yet.....but, you get the idea of how open it looks, right?


I have the old door thingie that I had at the old house and want to hang this up on the wall horizontally....I just have to figure out how to do it because the studs aren't where I need them to be....so, for now, it is just leaning against the wall behind the chairs!

There is my aqua as an accent color! 

I hung this above the fireplace.

I moved a little furniture.

This holds all our school supplies and just the miscellaneous stuff we need during our day...it used to be in the dining room....but this is still close enough to be convenient and now I have room for the big table in there!

I started painting in the kitchen.  I have decided I am NOT ready to touch my cabinets yet, but I still want to.

I will show you pictures of that later.

While I was painting, I put A-girl and L-girl to work and just set them free with our family pictures.  I told them my basic ideas and that I wanted it in our main hallway....and they did it!  They did an awesome job.  It makes me feel really happy seeing their little faces when I walk down the hall every day.

This house is really feeling like home.  Like a family lives here.  Like we belong here.

I am blessed.

A Little House Progress....Not Sure I Am Loving It...

I have made some progress on painting and making the new house more "ours".  I got all the wallpaper border removed...and just doing that really lightened things ups.  I have moved on to the painting portion of my plans.  

Reminder of the "Befores"

 

Remember....that green is really darker than it looks in that picture...it is more like it shows up in this one....

 

 

I forgot a little how hard it is to fit in painting with the running of a homeschooling household with 6 children...one of which is a teenager who can't drive yet, and needs to be driven to numerous things. 

I also forgot how messy your house gets when you take time that you would normally use to do laundry and wash dishes and things.....to paint.

So, I have made a little progress....I am happy with some of my work...not sure I love the other parts.

I mean...look how pretty my color swatches are together?!?!

And, here are my fabrics that I am choosing between for my curtain topper thingies in the kitchen.  Pretty, right?  I am leaning towards the one with the bigger flowers - I love the colors and it reminds me of some curtains that my Grandma Pearl had in her house (now if I could only get her black and white kitty clock that moved its eyes and tail....oh, and her telephone table....I would be happy!)

Now, here is what the colors look like on the wall in the dining room.

I just don't know about the aqua on the walls...now it feels too bold....and for me, that is saying something.

I am in the process of painting the living room (which is to the right of this wall) the same soft yellow and I am loving that.  But, I am still playing around with colors in the kitchen.  I had planned for the aqua to be a more prominent color in there....but on the wall it is much bolder than the soft color swatch I played around with before I started.

So, progress is slow, but I am still loving our new house.  It just feels.....right.

I have been behind in blogging lately....and most of the only things you have seen are reviews, but I promise I am getting back in the groove and will show you - belated now - Halloween shots and other family stuff.  Plus, I should (cross your fingers) make a decision soon about my kitchen colors....so hopefully there will be some good before and after shots from that!

No Money

I am currently out of money to use for my home improvement projects.

Which means, that I have a few walls that are partially painted.  I have painter's tape that was been up for at least a month now.  I have outlet covers that are off.

My bathroom still looks like this.....

You get the idea.

Being out of money also means that I spend a LOT less time on Pinterest.  Which, I suppose, is a good thing.

I keep thinking that our budget will loosen up so I can go get that last can of yellow paint to finish the living room....or the gallon of trim paint I still need to finish the woodwork on the first floor....or the.....fill in the blank......

But, just when I think it is going to be safe for me to head to Lowes.....something comes up....cavities....baseball....braces....baseball cleats (because your son's feet have somehow grown to gigantic proportions)....car accidents.

Yup.  Rainman was in a car accident a few weeks ago.

So, in addition to being out of money.  I have been stressed.  Really stressed.

I will post much more on this later....but, for now, just know that:

He is alive. 

We are very happy.

Before my budget clamped itself shut, I got this cute little clock for my kitchen wall.  I got it from the Dollar Store for about $3.00. 

I know.  It is totally cheap and cheesy looking, but I like it.  I mean, look at the hands on the clock for Pete's sake!

Hopefully our budget drama will release itself soon, so I can get back to painting and taping and pinning!!!

Another Quick House Project

We are starting school at our house this week....so, in case I am too busy filling little minds with all sorts of facts and figures....here is another quick house project....

I am trying to lighten up my house, including the kitchen, which has really nice, granite countertops....but, they are black and the cabinets are a dark, cherry stain.

Before....I know I need to clean off that counter....

So, I removed some of the doors and wanted to put something pretty and bright in the back.

I got a partial roll of wrapping paper from the Habitat for Humanity Restore site for $.25.  I carefully measured my space....measured again.....marked up my cardboard....measured once more....cut  the cardboard......carefully placed the cardboard....it wasn't perfect....but it was pretty good.

Then I wrapped my cardboard in my pretty, partial roll of wrapping paper.....put the backs in and then went to put the first shelf in....

Yup.  It ripped.

The shelves were too tight.

So, I started the process all over.....measured my separate shelves....a few times each....cut my cardboard.....re-wrapped my pieces....being very careful not to use too much because I just barely had enough the first way.....and...

It worked!!!

This quick, easy, DIY project took me over 4 hours to complete. 

I know. 

4 hours.

I was pretty crabby by the time I was done....and sore from climbing up and down the ladder.

So, I just put my dishes in and they are going to stay that way for a while.  I am sure I could have arranged them more artfully....but, oh, well....

Really, my new lighter, brighter, fun colors do NOT go with the earth tone backsplash at all....but I have decided I don't care about that right now either!

Oh, here is one more tidbit of a project.

My new colors are a pale yellow, a citrus-y green and aqua.....my living room is yellow, the dining room is the citrus-y green and I was thinking my bathroom would be the aqua.

It is a really little bathroom right next to the front door.  It is a very good thing we don't get much company, because if we did they would get lots of views of little hineys going potty with the door open!

Anyway, it is little and dark....just like lots of parts of my house.  So, my thought was that I would brighten it up with a fun color.

Before....just a blah, tan, bathroom.

Here is what happened....

It sort of glows in the dark.  It really does.

The kids all love it.  I just think that it is just too much.  It is really bright and sort of claustrophobia inducing at the same time.

But, the kids really love it.....so before I totally paint over it, I am going to try a white wash technique to tone it down a bit.  We will see what happens.

But, again, you can see how fancy this house is based on the mirror and the sink stand....so not me....I am really NOT a fancy schmancy person.

So, those are my updates for now.  I will show you what my school portion of the basement turned out like once I get my students in there!

House Stuff-Just a Quickie....

Thought I would update on a bit of our house stuff.

We did a fun, quick, little art project.

At the bottom of my steps, there was a big, blank wall and I wanted something big and fun there.

A while back, I had gone to my local Habitat for Humanity Restore and found this white, three paneled thingie for $10.

I am not sure what is used to be....maybe the back mounting for kitchen cabinets???

Anyway, thanks to a great Pinterest post on how to make your own chalkboard paint. I decided to give it a shot!

We had so much fun and it turned out so well that we kept looking around for other stuff to paint with the chalkboard paint!

I guess I am giving you a sneak peak of my dining room too.

Anyway, here is what I learned.  For this project, my cheap America's Finest paint worked waaaaay better than the expensive Valspar paint. 

Isn't it cute? D-man is sort of standing their weird, isn't he?  Probably should have cropped him out.

The view from the top of my stairs...

(Hi, V-girl!)

..it makes me happy just standing there and looking at it.....I can see this from my desk in the basement too....also makes me very happy!

Apparently I didn't get any pictures of it after we actually mounted it on the wall....but, it looks basically the same....just not my children are in much less danger of being crushed by it then when it was just leaning there!

It is chalkboard paint and I can envision writing cute little inspirational words and smiley faces for the kids to see when they come down for school....but for now, I like just seeing it has happy art.