Inspiration: Kitchen

As I mentioned in my last post, we are planning a major overhaul of the kitchen starting this May. MAJOR overhaul...down to the studs, new wiring, structural changes, the works. It's daunting and it will probably take us a couple years to complete, but it's also really really really exciting.

Here are some of my favorite inspiration pics...

While I like elements of all of these kitchens, I think the 5th picture down is closest to what we're planning. White cabinets, dark countertops, big window centered on the back wall...

Oh, and although we refer to it as "the kitchen renovation", the project also includes the adjoining sunroom. We're thinking that the new version will include a casual dining area, probably featuring built in banquette seating...

and hopefully some accommodations for plants...

as well as a little "entryway" station to keep things organized...

That's the plan, anyway!

DIY Skim Coat: The Magic Trowel

*Steven rolling on the joint compound in the master bedroom*

As I mentioned previously, Steven did the skim coating of the master bedroom and nursery walls himself. Just like in the downstairs rooms that we renovated last year, these 2 rooms had rough, unfinished horse hair plaster under the wallpaper...but unlike the downstairs, we decided to save money and try to DIY. If it came out less than perfect, so be it.

We did, however, have our plasterer redo the ceilings in the 2 bedrooms--new blue board & plaster--as they were probably going to collapse on our heads within the next couple of years. Signed, Chicken Little

So anyways, Steven did his usual exhaustive research and came across a specialty tool called The Magic Trowel. Despite its rather infomercial-y vibe, the reviews were promising, so we decided to give it a try.

And it works! You basically use a paint roller to apply thinned out joint compound to the wall, then come along with the Magic Trowel and smooth it out. Of course there are some tricks here and there...getting the joint compound to the right consistency and keeping the applied compound & trowel nice and moist, for example...but all in all it's a great tool and Steven did a great job!

*See how smooth the just-troweled section to the right is?*

The 18" trowel costs about 25 bucks, and a 5 gallon bucket of all purpose joint compound is only about $14 at the home improvement stores, so we saved a serious chunk of change (hundreds) by going this route. Not too shabby!

*Freshly skimmed and primed*

Nursery Preview!

*special touch: our closet door turned blackboard*

Just wanted to take a minute to share some pics of the nursery, for which major renovations are complete, and the "feathering" phase has started. As usual, I'm gonna hit you with some before pics first...

This is what the room looked like in the beginning. Steven immediately attacked that purple carpet and got it into the dumpster...

Here it is after we wiped it down and made it our temporary bedroom while we worked on other parts of the house...

And here it is now...

We started with the now familiar first step of stripping the wallpaper, and then Steven skim coated the raw plaster walls (future post about how he did it currently in the pipeline). We had the ceilings redone & the fir floors refinished. Steven added crown moulding, and of course we painted, painted, painted. We chose a light & happy green from Valspar's National Trust Historic colors collection called Belle Grove Aloe Green. A new simple light fixture and closets redone (another future post), and here we are.
The crib is all set up and looking cute, and the newly refinished rocking chair has taken up residence, as well. We are currently working on refinishing an old dresser to serve as both extra storage and a changing table and then we'll hang some of the wall decorations (yes, we actually have some!) and continue adding bits and pieces to the room.

I'll be sure to post more pictures when we get the dresser and accessories in!

Dining Room featured on Favorite Paint Colors!

I'm rather flattered to report that pictures of our dining room were featured on Favorite Paint Colors, a blog about, you guessed it, paint colors! It's a great resource for real life inspiration pics and as Steven & I are regular readers, we're quite excited to see our Sharkey Gray by Martha Stewart walls included among all the other beautifully painted rooms.

Many thanks to Kristin for posting our dining room!

Foyer Before & Afters

The foyer may just constitute my favorite Before & After so far, which is pretty funny considering it is the least used room in the whole downstairs (whole house?). But saying goodbye to all of that ambery-orange shellac was sure to result in a truly striking transformation.

(If I do say so myself...and I do. ;)

Carpets out, wallpaper stripped, walls and ceiling replastered, oak floors refinished...

Shellac post and railing stripped and then stained (can you say ELBOW GREASE!?)...

Treads sanded and stained "Jacobean"...

Plenty of white paint to go around and Oyster Pearl by Valspar on the walls...

Sheesh, I'm exhausted just looking at the pictures! And Steven really did most of the hard stuff (particularly stripping/staining the newel post and railing), so I didn't even have it that bad. Anyways, I can't believe how different this room looks!

Dining Room

Wanna take a photo tour of the refinished dining room?

For comparison, here's what the room looked like when we moved in...

After pulling out the carpet, removing the wallpaper (related post *here*), and getting a new skim coat of plaster, we painted the walls Sharkey Gray by Martha Stewart (I love this color!) and the mouldings white.

Just like in the other rooms (living room post *here*), we also had the floors redone and painted the radiators.

As cool as it was to have a chandelier that dated back to at least the 1940's, it just didn't work in the refreshed space. So we splurged on a Schonbek crystal chandelier and could not be happier with the upgrade. It's hard to capture the sparkle with my point & shoot camera, but just imagine.

We kept the dining room furniture that came with the house, which included a matching buffet and tallboy china cabinet, six chairs, and a table that extends to seat 8. We simply recovered the chairs (the fabric was 50% off at Jo-Ann Fabrics, and we had an additional 20% off coupon...so the project cost us less than $40 total!!!) with a neutral print. Take a peek back at the old pics to see the rather putrid spring green fabric we replaced.

We're really happy with how the dining room turned out. We're still decorating, and of course there are no curtains yet (curtains are my kryptonite!!!), but at the very least the built in china cabinet is fulfilling its decorating duties!

We just hosted our first major family event--my mom's birthday dinner (Happy Birthday, Mom!) and it was a great success.

The dining room is officially open!

China Cabinet

With the majority of the downstairs renovation complete (although there are some lingering touch ups that we're stalling on), it's a fine time to turn my attention to fun stuff like the china cabinet.

The china cabinet is a built-in number in the dining room, and just like everything else, it needed to be refreshed. Here is the oldest picture I could find, taken during our first tour of the house. Take a moment to appreciate the wallpaper and carpet. ;)

And here it is now:

We had the plasterers do a quick skim coat on the interior walls, and then we painted, painted, and painted some more.

Based on tip found in This Old House magazine, we boiled the door hardware to remove the bazillion layers of goopy paint that had accumulated over the decades. (Totally worked.)

Since we didn't really care for the original glass drawer pulls, we bought these antique bronze reproductions online. They are so much more substantial and I think they add a lot of visual interest.

Steven used serial layers of copper and oil-rubbed bronze spray paints and some steel wool to refinish the old door hardware to match the new drawer pulls.

We wanted to use an accent color inside the china cabinet that would both make it *pop* and create a flattering background for the items on display inside, particularly my grandmother's china, which she just recently handed down to me. (Thanks, Babi!) We settled on a dusty plum tone called "Victorian" and it really highlights the elegant silver and gray of the china.

So now I'm just puttering around with this project...slowly unpacking the various treasures that we've acquired over the past few years and arranging them in their final destination. It feels SO GOOD to be putting stuff where it belongs, and it's a lot of fun to envision how I might use all these lovelies in the future.

P.S.-Happy New Year!