Inspiration
Learn From My Mistake Before You Paint Your Cabinets
Every day the kitchen plans come up over here. We'd love to start the big renovation (new cabinets, appliances, countertops, lots of windows!) next year and it's one of our favorite things to talk about these days. Endless drawings and plans and discussions. In those discussions, I almost always end up frustrated at myself. You […]
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July 16, 2014
DIY
Hardware + The Kitchen Mini-Revamp is Done!
Wednesday night, we stayed up late and put all of our new hardware on the newly painted cabinets. A lot of our old knobs were bent or broken so we gave them to my parents since they don't have hardware on their cabinets now and have about half as many cabinets as we have so […]
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June 6, 2014
DIY
Our Painted Kitchen Cabinets!
We hung all of our recently painted cabinet doors this past weekend and are here to share lots of photos. We must have adjusted quickly to the new look, because when I was searching through my files to find a before photo to share with you, I was stunned at the wood-riddled kitchen we were […]
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June 2, 2014
DIY
Would You Rather: 4th Bathroom OR Walk-in Pantry
Off of our kitchen, there's a laundry room and half bath with a sink and a toilet. Our home is currently a five bedroom and 4 bathroom (2 full baths and 2 half baths) and as of now, we have a standing pantry we recently scooted into the kitchen. There's half the contents of our […]
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May 23, 2014
DIY
Microwave Down!
This weekend, we started painting our cabinets in the kitchen. The goal was to get all the uppers painted, but we only got as far as priming them because we decided to add another spur-of-the-moment project while we're working in here. Our over-the-range microwave has been driving us crazy since we moved in. It is so low. […]
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May 19, 2014
DIY
Our Kitchen Cabinet Paint Colors
Part of my Ace Hardware Blogger duties this month included checking out their new paint studio--which is very boutique like with the slide out drawers of paint chips. Classy!--and trying out their new line of Valspar Optimus line they started carrying. Choosing what to paint wasn't difficult, our kitchen cabinets have been on my list […]
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May 15, 2014
DIY
DIY Faux Soapstone Countertop
We're diving head first into updating our current kitchen!! After we recently finished the floors, our cabinets are looking more orange than ever and we left a disposable table cloth on our island in place of a countertop. Eeeks. Although we are planning a full kitchen remodel next year (??), painting our cabinets is an […]
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April 29, 2014
DIY
Reconfiguring the Kitchen
Prior to tackling the floors, our kitchen extended into the dining area. It was always a little puzzling to us why the pantry was in the dining "room" when there was a blank wall in the kitchen. The only answer we could come up with was that 20+ years ago the builder accidentally made the […]
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April 2, 2014
DIY
The Kitchen: Before and Afters!
This kitchen has been two years in the making, constantly tweaking what we had (painting cabinets, painting countertops!, buying new appliances as we could afford them) until we were ready for a little bit more of a renovation a couple months ago. Here's what it looked like when we moved in: And here's how it […]
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July 24, 2013
DIY
That Hampton Carrara Marble Backsplash--Done-zo!!
The tile is finally finished! The last time you saw it, we had just finished the installation process of our 3x6 Hampton Carrara subway tiles, which took us over 20 hours. Grouting went faster, but we ran out right before we left for Idaho. It was torture to be so close. But when we arrived […]
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July 23, 2013
DIY
The Marble Tile--Installed!
We still need to seal and grout and seal once more, but all of the tile is in place so as promised (even if our kitchen is in a chaotic condition), here's how it looks: The area on the left is where the fridge goes. We tiled back enough so the effect of a fully […]
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July 5, 2013
DIY
Hello Marble.
We had a wonderfully busy weekend tiling our hearts out in the kitchen. We've been waiting for the tile to come in (it was on backorder) and so when we arrived home from our most recent trip the same time the tile arrived, it was like marble Christmas waiting to get our hands dirty. Before […]
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July 1, 2013
DIY
Those Scorched Windowsills.
The final shipment of our kitchen tile comes in today and we're moderately excited about it. There are just a few last minute things we have on our kitchen to-do list, one being the windowsill above the sink. You see, it looks like this...after a good scrubbing: All of the windowsills on the back of […]
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June 20, 2013
Chris Cooks
Spice Up Your Life.
When I posted this photo a few days ago, when I was discussing our incoming tile, I got a few questions about those jars hanging out under the cabinet on the left. Those are Chris's most used, favorite spices. The cabinet above them holds the rest--he has a lot of spices. We originally had a […]
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May 30, 2013
DIY
The Coolest Faucet Ever
Years ago when the Delta faucet commercials started to run on tv--I just went and found it on YouTube because it was so. cool--we were mesmerized. Especially Chris: You can touch it anywhere, with any part of your body--so, probably your arm is the most common, ha!--to turn it on when your hands are gross. […]
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April 18, 2013
DIY
Variations of White Subway Tile
We really thought our kitchen could use a touch of robin egg's blue. Jokes. I just quickly photoshopped all of the area that we're planning on tiling so you can get a visual. The whole backsplash area and around the pantry. And, of course, the other side of the fridge as well. We have always […]
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April 16, 2013
DIY
Everything And the Kitchen Sink
Our old sink was pretty standard--sub par. 17 years old. So when we were planning our kitchen remodel, a new sink had to happen. We wanted an undermount sink with one deep basin and fell in love with this 30"Kraus sink: After the undersides of the countertops were sealed three times--we were gearing ourselves up […]
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April 15, 2013
DIY
Our Walnut Countertops--Sanded, Sealed and Finished!
Those black walnut countertops we got from Craft Art are officially done and we can't wait to share a little bit about the process and a whole lot of photos with you today. First, here's how our painted countertops looked before we tore them out: And here's how the countertops look now: I'm whistling at […]
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April 12, 2013
DIY
Installing our Black Walnut Craft Art Countertops.
This weekend was a big one for our kitchen reno. We finally replaced those pink-painted-gray laminate countertops we've been living with for two years. Thursday, while my computer was getting fixed (it's all dry better now...Gretttaaaaaa!) I gave you a sneak peek at our countertops sprawled all over the family room--the black walnut edge-style countertops from Craft Art. […]
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April 8, 2013
DIY
A Sneak Peek at the Countertops
I took my computer in to get fixed yesterday and they said it wouldn't be done until Friday evening. Wah Wahhhh. So while blogging isn't easy without my computer, I didn't want the week to end without giving you a sneak peek at our countertops. After a lot of research on which wood countertops would […]
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April 4, 2013
