Just pick a color already!

With the guys squaring out and finishing off that TV cabinet space came a very interesting phone call one night. Matt, our family contractor (who is AMAZING!) called one afternoon about that. He told me he put new drywall in to even that space out, and had the guys tape and finish it all off. I was thinking, "great so why are you calling me?" He asked me what i wanted to do about painting that area. I laughed. The downstairs to our house doesn't have a single stopping point when it comes to painting. You are doing the entire office, dining room, fireplace room, 2 story living room, up the stairs and down the upstairs hallway. I was like, "fine let's just paint it all...clearly it needs to be done." Matt said, "Great! Pick out a color tonight and I will have the guys start tomorrow!" What? It's 4 o'clock and I'm still at work.

I drove over to Home Depot and picked up what must have been 100 paint chips. I brought them all home and told Jay we had 20 minutes to pick a color and get over to Home Depot while there was still someone in the paint department. I found the perfect color. It was perfect. So great in fact, that my mother-in-law used it as the main color in their new house, and my mom is using it in hers as well. We get there and I hand the chip to the paint guy and tell him I need 2 gallons to get the painters started in the morning. They could figure out how much more they were going to need when they got there.

The older gentleman behind the counter kept fidgeting with the paint machine and trying to put my color in. All of a sudden the unthinkable happened! He dropped my only paint chip behind the giant mixing machine. It was a Martha Stewart color, but I couldn't remember what shade of gray it was. What's worse? This Home Depot was different than the one I picked the paint chips up at. They were out of all of the gray and white toned paint chips by Martha Stewart. He looked at me like he didn't know what to do. He even suggested that I just walk around and pick a new color! You don't just pick a new color! It took me 100 paint chips to get to that one.

He suggested all sorts of ridiculous ways of getting my chip out from under the machine. It's back was right to the counter I was standing in front of. I could see my little chip down there just waiting to be turned into paint. He was going to try to get a leaf blower and blow it out of there. He thought about trying to get 4 or 5 guys to move the machine.

All while he is attempting to rig a way out of this situation I grabbed a pole that you typically put a roller onto when painting high ceilings. I attached some duct tape to one in, and stuck it down behind the machine while he wasn't watching. Of course, I suggested this to him twice and he thought I was crazy. Dude! A leaf blower is crazy, this is southern ingenuity!

Needless to say, with Jay's help, we got that little chip out there with our ingenious idea. The paint guy was flabbergasted that it actually worked. Too bad we got stuck at Home Depot for an hour over a couple of gallons of paint though! Jay clearly thought I had lost it. And I probably did a little bit. But, I was tired of my house being in shambles, and tired of having dust everywhere, and the only thing I could control in my life was the color of the walls in my house. And dang it if the guy at Home Depot was going to stand between Martha's perfect color and I!

I still have my little paint chip. I keep it in my make up drawer so I always know where it is. I can see it every morning, and have given the color to several people.

All I can say is women are crazy! I know it and admit it daily. But, my husband, like every other good one out there, knows if momma ain't happy ain't nobody happy!

The During...

Once we talked to our contractor about start dates and what we were really trying to do, we had to start making some actual decisions. I usually spend a lot of time on Pinterest anyway, but I was pretty much on overload at this point. There wasn't a kitchen that got uploaded to that website that I didn't know about. You would think there would be too much to choose from. Not true. We are pretty good about knowing what is our style and what isn't. We both really like dark colors. Dark rooms, dark furniture, anything that comes in black. However, we don't have any natural light in our kitchen, and it's long and narrow, making it not very open. We knew that dark cabinets would make our kitchen look even smaller, and probably hurt us when it came to resale. With that thought in mind, we were looking at really light cabinets, and adding dark elements when and where we could. Here is part of our color palette.

I think our biggest struggle was the floor. I am just not good with flooring that isn't wood. We went to Floor & Decor in Roswell (also one in Atlanta and Kennesaw) to get ideas. They had these travertine tiles we just fell in love with. We didn't want anything too close to white since our cabinets were going to be true white, but didn't want anything too close to brown since we wanted to add elements of gray and black in the backsplash. Jay actually picked out the backsplash at Floor & Decor on the same day. They had 6 sheets left, and that is exactly how many we needed. I feel like it was design fate! I had to go to a tile and granite store in Suwanee in order to find the subway tiles that went with it. Another design fate was waiting for me there. They actually didn't have anymore of the sheets of tile, but had the dark grey glass tile in a subway tile. They matched perfectly. Clearly meant to be. They also had the right color grout that Floor & Decor didn't have. I would suggest if you are looking for flooring or bathroom tiles, check them out. Their inventory is constantly changing, but they have some great deals. We got the flooring at a third of the price that we would have paid for the same thing anywhere else. Floor tiles and backsplash can really eat a hole through your budget if you aren't careful, and this is a great way to save.

I also wanted to add some construction pictures. I clearly am my father's daughter about this. I think there is nothing better than taking a sledgehammer to a wall and starting over. I feel like it is a bit of a rebirth for the space, and definitely makes life less stressful. When designing for a new space, my dad and I have never let a wall stand in our way. Everything can be moved for a price! The top left is a picture of where the sink and bar top will eventually move into place. The top right is a picture of the cabinet we picked to fill that weird tv cabinet space in the bottom left. We also got rid of that awful curve in the top of that wall. EWW! We found this great granite at a local granite warehouse. Cheaper than Home Depot or most advertised granite retailers. The middle right is a picture of the new laundry room cabinets. Such a nice day when one day you come home to the bottom right, and two days later you see top left. 

What's next? Paint dilemmas!

Before...

Before I get into the details of our major remodel of the kitchen, laundry room, and downstairs floors, I thought it was important for you to get a background, the history if you will. Our house was built in 1989. Our kitchen was probably cool in '89.  But then again, so were side ponytails, teased bangs, and scrunchies. One who was cool in '89 would probably continue to change with the times. Not our kitchen. It was like a fanny pack at Six Flags. Cool in the 80's, but laugh-worthy now. Thank God that is a style that hasn't come back. I would officially give up on all things fashion.

But on the important things. The kitchen....

We had this white kitchen. The walls were white-ish, the cabinets were white (painted by hand as a DIY job at some point to cover the brown you can see in the bottom right corner), the counters were 4"x4" white-ish tiles, and I am fairly certain the floor was white at some point in it's lifetime. When we moved in it was a cream color and the grout was black. At least it wasn't that fancy checkerboard tile you see in the bottom left that graced our mud room. EWW! I am pretty sure the counters were a DIY job too, because they weren't laid straight and weren't evenly spaced. We also had those weird square lights in the ceiling. The face plates were on a spring, so when the light bulbs were changed, you had to pry the face off with one hand while unscrewing the bulb with the other. 

The brown cabinets were from the laundry room. They don't look so bad on the outside, but I felt bad for leaving my poor cleaning products inside there. They were probably quivering at the sight of the disgusting stains in there. Another big EWWW! 

At the top, center picture you can see the china cabinet/tv cabinet. I am not sure what it's intended purpose was. There was a cable jack inside the cabinet, but not sure if it was supposed to be there or not. No real complaints on that thing, but just didn't go very well in the space. 

Now, some of you may be sitting there judging me for judging this kitchen so harshly. "You should have seen the kitchen in our first house when we were newlyweds!" I get it. My parents walked uphill to school both ways too! The real problem with the kitchen was the cabinets and the electrical work. The cabinets were made of MDF. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, that is the "wood" that Ikea furniture is made of. It's great when you need an economical furniture option for a room in your home. Not great for cabinets that have been hanging there for 23 years. We couldn't really put our plates in most of the cabinets because they were bowed so bad. The other problem was the electrical. The woman who lived here before us had a "contractor" (and yes I am using that job description loosely) rig some lights above the cabinets to give the kitchen some more light. Great idea! However, he stripped the wires, and rigged them all together, and then stripped the microwave plug so he could tie the lights into that and they would light up whenever the microwave was plugged in. It was a fire just waiting to happen. 

Aesthetically, I just hated looking at this space that had so much potential. It was functional the way it should have been, and it really just needed a face lift. 

Next up...the design elements we picked out to really pull our new kitchen together!

A Christmas Story

If you grew up at my house, you grew up watching A Christmas Story on Christmas Eve at least three times every year. My sister and I used to fall asleep to it at night under a tent that we built every year for Christmas Eve. It is one of the many traditions I am going to have to pass on one day. I could probably quote every line of this movie. When I met Jay he had never seen A Christmas Story. I wanted to cry for him. I couldn't imagine Christmas without it. But, it took me a couple of Christmases to figure this out. My parents always had the leg lamp from the movie in our front window. Looking back, Jay probably thought we were nuts for putting a leg lamp in the front window during Christmas. He couldn't figure out why the neighbor kids were so excited the day put it out. Ha...it makes me laugh just thinking about it. I finally got him to watch the movie, and then he started to figure out the lamp in the window.

This year my parents are living in a new house that can't be seen from the road. They thought it would be such a shame putting it up and no one getting to see it when they drove by. This is where my great idea comes in. Jay and I have a huge front window that everyone can see down the street at our house. After a little debate, we decided on joint custody of the lamp. YAY! Let's just say this isn't Jay's favorite Christmas decoration, but he's appeasing me with it. He kind of rolls his eyes every time I rush upstairs when it starts to get dark to turn it on!

The best part of the lamp is how it was shipped. It was sent in the same crate from the movie and has Fra-gile (if you have seen it you know the proper pronunciation...I mean it must be French!) written down the side. The same fluffy packing material was in there keeping the lamp safe.

I know this sounds somewhat ridiculous, but Christmas traditions mean so much to me. We grew up moving all over the country, and things like a Christmas story and building a tent with my sister are things that stayed the same no matter where we were. They are things I will never forget, and will probably cry about as I spend my first Christmas with my husband away from home! I couldn't ask for a better family to spend Christmas with though, and can't wait for the new traditions I am going to learn about!

A Very DIY Christmas

I love Christmas. It is probably my favorite time of year. I am one of those people who thinks Thanksgiving is merely a speed bump on the way to decorating for Christmas. This year is especially meaningful since it is our first Christmas as the Williams family, and the first Christmas we are spending in our new home. I probably went crazy, but who wants to pay bills anyway? Kidding...really! I ended up buying all of my project needs from Hobby Lobby at half off...so no worries there. Alot of the other stuff, like our tree, I have been collecting over the years. I should probably do an ode to our tree since it is a pretty funny story on how it came about. Anyways, being on Pinterest really just makes you want to bust out your glue gun, tie a ribbon on something, and go crazy. So, I did! Here are a couple of my projects so far.

This was probably my favorite project. We bought two of these lanterns from Z Gallerie before we bought our house, and I never got around to putting anything in them. I decided why not fill them for Christmas. Then I can change them as the holidays and season change. I would actually love to paint them silver and fill them with candles, but who knows when that will happen. For the candles, I sprayed them with glue, and covered them in glitter. You will soon see that glitter is this year's theme. The pine cones I got from my parents' front yard, sprayed them with glue, and again with the glitter. I filled the bottom with snow, and added a bow and pine cone to the top...voila Christmas decor! After all was done, this project cost about $10 per lantern, if you don't include the price of the lantern. But on clearance, those were only about $20 each.

Close up picture of the candles and pine cones. I just think it looks elegantly simple.

If you have ready my blog before you will know why I don't have a mantel. I mean who steals a mantel? This was my attempt to decorate around my fireplace when there is no mantel in place.I was able to attach the garland to the wood blocks where my mantel should be attached to. I strung some lights on there, wired our handmade (thanks Mom!!) stockings, and threw some poinsettias in front. Now, I originally bought those to go on the front stoop, but then learned (thanks Mom!) that those plants aren't made for outside. Good with crafts, good with food, not so good with keeping plants alive! They looked fabulous out there...too bad! 

I found these little red candles at Hobby Lobby and the jars were half off. So, a little spray glue and red glitter, throw in snow...cute for underneath the TV on top of the shelf in the living room. Had to add the Hot Mrs. Claus glass my sister gave me for Christmas last year. It's too cute not to be on display!

I had a bunch (and still do) of pine cones left over after my first couple of projects. I also added them to a basket sitting on my coffee table. I had a bunch of snow left as well, and figured I needed some sort of centerpiece for my table. A little bit of ribbon around a vase I already had, and the rest put itself together. It looks cute with the chargers I have on the table with it.

I realize this isn't a craft, but I had to add it. My grandparents gave this to Jay and I for Christmas this year. It was my great grandmother's, and this is exactly how she had it decorated in her house for Christmas. There are a couple of ornaments sitting inside of it that she put there as well. My grandparents told us we should toss those and put something cuter in there, but I think it's adorable, and amazing that it still looks the same. I don't have alot of family heirlooms, but this is something I will treasure forever. I hope that Jay and I have grandchildren we can pass this to one day. Maybe on their first married Christmas. My grandparents truly are special people, and it amazes me how the always think of family above all else.

Of course I am nowhere near done crafting for Christmas. I have a couple of gifts I am going to DIY, and might have to glitter anything that sits still long enough. Stay posted for more ideas!