Feb 17, 2014

Updated Kitchen and Living Room Pics!

So the last couple months have been busy!  With the holidays, birthdays, and family visiting it has been a festive time around our house.  I mentioned in this post we did a little revamp in the open spaced living/dining room and kitchen.  I had always been wanting new light fixtures since we have moved in and when you are already spending money to remodel a space, it seems like just as good a time as any to spend more!  I shopped around for good deals and with the help of my interior decorator found some fabulous lights I just love.   We replaced the ceiling fan in the living room....the old one was sponge painted gold and silver, it was hideous!  We also got new lights above the island and kitchen table and put in a few faucet in the kitchen.  I love these subtle changes!  The last change I made was the large wall in our living room.  I moved the previous pics you see here to my stairwell and instead made a collage of pics and wall decor.  I absolutely love the change and with the new appliances we got in the summer, I am completely happy with my downstairs living space, which is important since we are down here 80% of the day!  I also included some pics of the party we hosted for my husband's work that inspired all these renovations! 

party pics for work party

yummy food at work party!

I'm sure many of you are curious to know how homeschooling is going.  I plan on addressing that elephant in the room soon, sharing house pics is more fun!

Kate









Feb 15, 2014

My comeback.....the foyer makeover

Hello!  I know I have been MIA for several months, but I had some time and wanted to show you a home remodel project we had done recently.  If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen some pics about this project.  

When we purchased our home almost 3 years ago, I was not a fan of all the maple woodwork.  We did lay maple hardwood floors, which I love, but the trim, doors, and staircase all being maple was TOO much in the foyer.  It was very yellow/orange depending on the light and the wood was very worn, it was an eyesore to me, which is not what you are wanting for the entry of your home.  From the beginning we had plans to pull up the carpet on the steps and replace with wood and paint the railing.  We had some problems with the supplier of the wood and ended up getting so frustrated we just pushed the project aside for the last few years.  

In November, my husband came home from work and informed me we needed to host a holiday work party and that was the motivation we needed to get the project going again.  I had ideas in my head about colors for painting the trim in the foyer, while leaving the trim and doors throughout the rest of the house maple.  I was not bothered as much by the wood in the other rooms, just the foyer.  I had an interior designer pop over and give me her opinion.  She had the fabulous idea to paint the doors only on one side.  So the bathroom and study doors were to be painted black in the foyer, while they stayed maple inside their respected rooms.  She agreed the trim could be painted only in the foyer and it would not seem odd throughout the rest of the house to be maple.  I was thrilled with her ideas and we got right to work!  As a side note, we did not do any of the work, we hired it all out .  

So this is what we started with when we purchased the home, he walls were a soft ivory and front door was white.

 We had  the walls painted a few months after moving in a color called Comfort Gray by Sherwin Williams.  It looked very blue during certain times of the day, we were going for more of a gray....it was so frustrating, but we left it.  We also painted the front door black on the inside.  The chandelier we wanted to change too, but we left it for the time being. 
 
So the day after Christmas our remodel started!  We all lived in the basement for 10 nights, which started out as fun, but by the end we were all ready for our beds again!  We even went to the local indoor water-park for a night, we had such cabin fever and the weather outside was at record lows. 

However, the end results were fabulous!  The first night I just sat in the foyer and drank a glass of wine and was in awe of the transformation.  I felt like I was sitting in my dream home, it was a Pinterest moment come to life! The photos truly do not do it justice.  Without repainting, the wall color even changed to the silvery grayish blue we wanted from the start.   I found the light fixture, which we lovingly refer to as the "birdcage," from Joss and Main.  It has just a touch of glam and sparkle with some crystal droplets hanging around each light and the base. So, enough chit chat.....here are the pics!









 I am so happy we finally went ahead and completed this project!  I also got new light fixtures in the kitchen, dining and living room and made a huge wall collage.  The next chance I get I will post pics.  Have a great weekend!