Kitchen facelift

I am totally embarrassed by the fact that I haven't blogged in (seemingly) years. The reasons are many, none of which I will get into today. Perhaps at a later date. However, I have been truly touched by the family and friends who say "we miss your posts! Where are you?" I know I am very behind on my updates of Caroline, and the various projects we are tackling - one in particular - if you follow me on Instagram.

But I am not giving up!

So for my friends who have been missing my updates - this post is especially for you.

We are currently neck deep in a kitchen facelift. If you remember this post from many moons ago, I had dreamed about re-doing our kitchen. And I mean a full overhaul. But when Hubby and I really sat down to think about it, a brand spankin' new kitchen would be nice (and I mean really niiiice), but frankly, if we were going to put that kinda cha-ching into our home, we should really add a second bathroom (because right now we only have one. Yes, one). So as much as I would love a nice new kitchen, we knew deep down our funds would be better spent somewhere else.

So we set out to do a kitchen facelift, using our existing crappy cabinets, and the not-so-ideal layout. The budget is small. We wanted to modernize our kitchen without spending a ton, dipping into savings, taking out a loan, or hiring a single contractor ('cause daycare is expensive, yo!). This is a total DIY project - if we couldn't do the install ourselves, or order the materials ourselves - we picked different sources.

I started with this inspiration, Erika's Kitchen. You will notice a few borrowed ideas from her kitchen facelift a few years ago.

(Photo from Urban Grace Blog)

...only she has better cabinets to start with. Our cabinets were not in such great shape. But hey, we are workin' with what we have.

 

Our 1942 house is cape/cottage, so that's the look we are shooting for. We could glam up the kitchen all we want, but in the end, it will still be a little yellow cape, and I think this facelift goes well with our house. Here's what we picked:

We decided the current white paint was not doing our 1940s cabinets any favors. It accentuated the flaws and dings, and what we needed was to cover up the blemishes. We decided on Martha Stewart's Mourning Dove (matched in Behr Paint + Primer), which hides all the imperfections very nicely.

For the floors, we are pulling up the inexpensive laminate tile we installed when we first moved into the house. We had originally installed it, because it was cheap, we were house poor, and it was better than the mint green laminate that was in the kitchen when we moved in. But we found this inexpensive wood option, which is the same shade as the rest of the home's wood floors, and should blend nicely. The sample we received was great, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for the full shipment, which should be here this week.

We updated the cabinet pulls a couple years ago, with these knobs, and bin pulls from Restoration Hardware (now discontinued, but are similar to these). This time around, we also changed out the old hinges to match the brushed nickel pulls, with these. This was a real pain, as the cabinet doors were tough to fit-just-so. But we made it work and I think it was worth the effort.

We are going to clad the walls in 1x6 tongue-in-groove wood paneling, painted bright white. Did you know the 1x6 paneling has a bead board pattern on one side, and is plain on the other side? So you can just flip it over to get the look you like. We are using the "plain" side, and I like how it's going to look.

We wanted a good bang for your buck sink, and it doesn't get better than this one from Ikea. It looks like a $600 sink, all for less than two. I really like the farm house look, and it goes perfect with the space. The only scary part - our cabinets weren't set up for a farmhouse sink, so we had to cut away (!) our cabinets to make it fit. It ended up just fine in the end, but I almost pooped my pants in the process. It was all or nothing. (Side note: the Ikea sink is a drop-in farm house style, when I know a lot of people prefer undermount. Something to keep in mind, when the apron front sink is resting on the front cabinets, and is undermount - should anything happen to the sink (crack, damage, etc), you can't remove the sink without removing the counters, or ruining the cabinets. At least with the drop-in sink, you can switch it out, should anything happen, keeping the counters and cabinets in tact.)

We picked these butcher block counters, also from Ikea, in the beech color. Why did we go with butcher block? Well, it's much cheaper than any other material, it was a HUGE step up from what we had to start, it goes with the feel of our house - and the zinger - we could install it ourselves. Bonus.

This looks like a $400 faucet, that I scored on Overstock for less than 2. (Watch Overstock daily for price changes. I got a good deal, but it fluctuates.) I really wanted an industrial looking faucet, as a foil for the rest of the space, and this fit the bill. It comes in a model with a chrome sprayer hose, but I like the contrast of the black hose against the chrome coil (personal preference). Hubby managed to install it himself.

Stealing directly from Erika, I hunted down these brackets for my open shelves. Taking down the upper cabinets has really opened up the kitchen space. I'm stunned.

Finally, I will be changing out the fabric in the kitchen and the adjacent dining room, to this floral/paisley number. The valences will get a new look on life, and the windows in the dining room will get a "fixed" roman shade. (It will look like a roman shade, but it won't go up or down.)

Check out my Instagram page (projectshannon) to see regular updates.  I promise to post before and afters once it's done (hopefully in the next couple weeks).

And just for good measure...

Happy Monday friends. Missed you too.

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A little cousin

Over the weekend we found out that little miss Caroline was getting a little boy cousin, come this summer. Granted, he won't make a very good play friend until the winter, at least - but we are excited to have another family member on the way. And because I love designing nurseries and would consider having more children just to have an excuse to decorate another room, I thought I would throw a design board together in celebration.

I recently saw this photo on Pinterest, and I thought it would make for a great inspiration for a nursery. (You can follow me on Pinterest here.)

I love the combination of Nautical and Americana blend of decor. Plus, it's easy to find nursery appropriate items, that will easily grow with the child. As much as I love redesigning rooms, the practical side of me can't help with the budgetary efficiency of it all. I used the above photo to help create a room that is part nursery, part pre-teen, but all boy.

First, I thought it would be great to have an accent wall (or the whole room if you were ambitious enough!) clad in this 1x6 tongue-in-groove wood paneling. Painted the whole room in a classic white that will never go out of style, Benjamin Moore's White Dove. I know some people have a hard time painting rooms white, but with all the other color in this room, it's important to have a blank canvas.

I picked out a variety of red, white and blue fabrics that drive home the Americana theme, without screaming "4th of July". This sheet set in navy and white stripe also comes in crib size and would be a perfect fit for the room (buy 2 or 3!). I thought a red, white and blue stripe would be perfect for the crib skirt and a throw pillow for the rocking chair, a red and white chevron (combined with white terry sides) for the box-style crib bumpers, and a classic nautical anchor print for a covered ottoman and the curtain trim. It would be easy to sew a simple border on these inexpensive curtains. And I love these curtain rods (which are currently on sale!).

I picked a classic white crib that would work well in this room, and another other tot rooms down the road. But this vintage flag print mounted behind the crib, combined with this sail boat mobile, all tie into the theme. Every nursery needs a good rocking chair for those long nights, and this one is comfortable enough to get you through. And I love the contrast of the crisp white chair against this reclaimed wood end table (perfectly distressed without sharp corners or edges!).

And maybe for some non-traditional book storage display, you could hang two of these magazine racks stacked vertically, next to your chair for easy reach each evening. I used two of these hampers in Caroline's room for toy storage, and I think they are just the best, so I am using them again here. They are easy to tote around the room, and they make for great dirty clothes hampers, when lots of toys go by the wayside.

I used the white version of this Ikea dresser in Caroline's nursery, and I couldn't be happier. It has tons of space for clothes storage and makes for a great changing table, too. We didn't have room for a separate changing station that you won't use after two years, so this dresser is versatile enough for now and years to come! Plus the blue is perfect for this boy's room. Change out the knobs to these, so the piece doesn't look so Ikea, and it will tie into the curtain rods, too. Hang this maritime bunting on the wall next to the dresser, to distract your little one while changing dirty nappies.

Ground the whole room with this great Dash and Albert rug (I love their stuff, we own several) and I adore this nautical-inspired overhead light in bronze to tie the whole room together. Plus the overhead works great with this table lamp (to put on the dresser), which is the same one from my inspiration room!

So there you go little man, a room of your own come July! If only putting the room together were so easy...

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Caroline's favorite books

We read in our house, a lot. Caroline loves to read and now can finally say "book" clearly. We read three or four books every night. Sometimes she likes to pick them out, and sometimes "Dadeee!" picks them out. She'll grab a book from the shelf, climb on my lap and we'll snuggle under the blanket and get cozy.

I know she loves reading and I am confident she can follow along with the stories. We go through waves in our house of favorite books, but here are some goodies that are currently sitting on our side table.

I'm pretty sure Goodnight Moon is on everyone's book shelf, but it's one of my favorites and Caroline likes finding the "two little kittens and a pair of mittens".

On the Night You Were Born is such a sweet story, I almost cried the first time I read it. I think Caroline just likes to see the dancing bears and frog, but she "wiggles her toes" when I read that page too.

If you haven't see this book, you must pick it up. Press Here is the most simple story, but I love Caroline's expressions as she watches the dot transform with each page turn. She definitely understands and loves to play along.

Come Away from the Water Shirley was my book as a kid, our copy even has the "Reading Rainbow Pick" emblem on the cover. The drawings are almost child like, but Caroline can't get enough of Shirley and her adventures. We read this every night.

During the Christmas holiday we let Caroline watch the Polar Express movie and we read the book. Every time she sees Santa, Caroline lets out a "Ho ho ho". She still wants to read this book daily, even though the season is over. The story is just so touching, it reminds me of the joys of childhood. I just don't have the heart to put it away until next December.

Do you remember Golden Books, with that special gilded spine? You can often find them at used books stores, which is where I picked up The Little Red Hen. Caroline might be a bit young to understand the moral of the story, but she thinks it's funny how everyone keeps saying "Not I!"

Another book on my shelf when I was a kid, The Snowy Day has such a simple story, but the pictures are so bright and easy to grasp for a young tot. Now that Caroline has finally played in the fluffy white stuff, she loves seeing Peter climb through the mountains of snow.

There are a lot more we read often, but these seem to be the recent hits. My reading is limited these days (I'm lucky if I can stay awake through 3 pages of Real Simple before my eyes close at night), but I'm glad that Caroline and I read together lots. It's my favorite part of the day.

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Baking with Caroline

I have to admit, I really look forward to the day when Caroline can help me cook. She already loves being in the kitchen, and thanks to her new play kitchen Santa brought, she gets to "practice" more often. On a side note, this was the best gift ever. Caroline plays with it non-stop. Even though the reviews say for 3+ years, Caroline is the perfect age. And the online reviews are correct - it took f o r e v e r to put together.

Anyways. Over the holiday, Caroline finally helped me bake for the first time. She was such a little helper. She helped stir, and pour the eggs into the bowl, and scoop flour.  I found this recipe from Bringing Up Bebe and it's literally made for little kiddos. (Which, I will say it again, if you haven't read, I would highly recommend this book for those with kids!) The base of the cake is yogurt, then you reuse the cleaned yogurt containers to measure out all the remaining ingredients. It makes it super easy for little kids to help in the kitchen.

Just be prepared for a bit of a mess! But we had fun, us two girls.

Gâteau au Yaourt  (aka Yogurt Cake)

2 6-oz. containers plain whole-milk yogurt
2 eggs
2 containers sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Just under 1 container vegetable oil
4 containers flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
Berries, powdered sugar, crème fraîche or plain yogurt for serving (I used frosting, because I had it on hand)

Preheat oven to 375ºF and grease a 9-inch cake pan.

Gently whisk together the yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing just until combined. Overmixing will make your cake chewy! (I did this by accident, and they weren't kidding! Don't over mix!) Pour into the greased cake pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool on the counter before removing from the pan.

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