Kitchen Reveal!!!!

I can't even believe that we have finally finished the kitchen! What's been months in the making (we started planing this in August!) and months in Reno (January to March) and then this last month we've been putting the finishing details in...

Although I can say the kitchen is done, the playroom/sunroom is not, for those that have been following along, it was our surprise part of the reno, and not a nice one.

But that aside we've finally made it and I've been dying to show you! First let's take a look at the before...

Ok, one last look at the before....

Tada!!! Do you love it as much as I do?!

Not only do we have standard height cabinets, but we also have standard depth cabinets and a wider work surface, pot drawers and a built in dishwasher! We've gained more cabinet space too by moving the dishwasher over beside the sink.

The microwave is up off the counter and our floors are to die for!!! For those of you that are wondering which floor we went with...we went with #1-the total opposite of what everyone liked...LOL! In the end Mike choose the final one, cause he said he had no say in the kitchen at all :)

I love our big sink, we went from a double to an XL single and it is perfect! And our tap no longer drips!

Oh, and check out the glass tile...LOVE!!! Originally I wanted either a turquoise or white subway tile...but we fell in love with this 1x2 slate colored one, I know..total opposite!

I also love my light fixture that I made! For the full tutorial go{here}. Unfortunately, it is still the only fixture in the kitchen. We do plan on adding a ceiling light, but I can't stand the thought of ripping holes in the ceiling now that it is 'finished.'

I love my Vintage Tins too-thanks mom! For our counter top we went with a standard laminate. Durable, and easy on the wallet.

The biggest change to our kitchen though was to the side the dishwasher used to be on. We went with  shallow depth cabinets here, which left lots of room to walk around each other in our very long galley style kitchen. We also left the upper part empty so that I could add some creative touches and pops of color!

I bought this old shutter at a flea market a couple summers ago and it has been sitting in the garage till now. I've had this end result in mind for so long and have now been able to actually use it! It was a dirty old white color and now it is a distressed turquoise. LOVE IT!

My curtains totally kick butt too...I got the material from Tonic Living and it was the inspiration for the whole room. 

I saw an idea like this on Pinterest, where they used spoons on the wall as little nesting spots for trinkets. I just flipped it around and it became a hook for our hand towel. I have plans to add some more spoons as decorative elements, but all in good time!

I love how wide open the space is now, two people can walk around each other without having to squeeze by and there is so much counter space!!

All in all, yep I pretty much love it...

But was it worth living in chaos for two months? Worth the amounts of drywall dust I had to clean off everything? The ridiculous amounts of emails back and forth between our kitchen installer over things that were incorrect? The fights between Mike and I over finishing details? The amount of time spent trying to juggle our kids and getting things done?

MMM...ya...but let's just say we will not be doing another LARGE Reno anytime soon!

Linking up :

How to Nest for Less, Vintage Wanna Bee, Sweet Little Gals, Cherished Bliss, Crayon Freckles, The Kurtz Corner, Homework, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Uncommon Designs, Live Laugh Rowe, Embracing Change, 52 Mantels, The Artsy Girl Connection, Happy Hour Projects, Ginger Snap Crafts, Lolly Jane Boutique, Tatertots & Jello, It's Overflowing

This Post was Sponsored By PinkCamelia-Casual Jewelry

You've Got Mail & Kitchen Design Board

I'm not sure about you, but I love getting little parcels in the mail...it just makes all those bills and flyer's look a bit more cheerful doesn't it? Last week was a particularly busy week for our mail lady...between some clothes I ordered for the boys and my fabric samples for the kitchen curtains, I also got my business cards in the mail from Moo! Did you know that if you have an Etsy shop you can get 50 free (you pay shipping) business cards from Moo! I just stumbled upon that and totally rushed over to get my freebies. I've seen a few other bloggers with Moo cards and thought they always looked really great....and truth be told they are fabulous! I wish the freebies came with the option for rounded corners, but oh well...here's what mine look like...

You should totally go on over to Moo and order up some for yourself! I even have a discount code/link for you to get 10% off your order if your not an Etsy Shop Owner...click here. Click here for the 50 Freebies if you are :)

Like I mentioned above my fabric samples came in the mail too, so I've finally chosen a fabric for my kitchen curtains...oh, I love it so much. It's so happy and colorful. I had been looking all over for a pattern that just said 'hi, buy me. i love you," but could only find boring, old lady like stuff around here. So after searching the net for what seemed like hours I finally came upon Tonic Living. What I loved about this site was first, that they were Canadian-yay! And second, their selection was fabulous as well as their prices. I was not keen on paying upwards of $20 for a nice fabric at other places! I finally narrowed it down to a couple that I loved and then ordered a sample of each one for only $1! This was the final step in pulling together a design inspiration board for my kitchen once it's finished! Here it is...

Kinda a modern, rustic, crafty combo...LOL...if that's a style! I wanted to keep the background to the kitchen fairly simple and neutral, so we have gray countertops, white shaker style cabinets, weathered nickle handles and Barley Beige as the wall color. I love the that we picked out too, which is a 1x2 glass tile in a slate color. We still haven't decided on a floor, so this is just a representation of what we like. All the accessories in the room will be bright and happy, just like my fabric choice!! I absolutely love these vintage canisters that my mom was going to get rid of!!! No way, I said, I'll take them...plus, I grew up with these sitting on our kitchen countertops! Oohh and did you catch a glimpse of that light? I made it!!! Tutorial will be coming later on!

So that's it for today, happy Monday friends!

This post is my own personal opinion and was not endorsed or sponsored in any way by Moo or Tonic Living.

How Pinteresting

I thought I would tie in my How Pinteresting post with my kitchen reno, seeing as I am living and breathing it lately. I can't wait till its over and done with!! Thank you to everyone who commented on my flooring dilemma too!! Although we are still undecided.... Today though, I'd like to introduce you to my pride and joy from this past weekend. I sanded and smoothed THIS WALL to PERFECTION! Don't mind the wire...not really sure how/where that will end up?!

All by myself, aren't you proud? I've got big plans for this wall, it's going to be my special project for the next little bit...:) I've kinda got a Message Center type of thing in my head, plus a shutter that I bought at an antique market in the summer! So of course, I headed to Pinterest for some inspiration...

1. BHG  2. Life as a Thrifter  3. Country Home 4. Can't find original source? Via my Pinterest board

5. BHG  6. Landee See, Landee Do  7. International Adventures  8. The Tortoise and the Hare  9. Tinywhitedaisies

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Kitchen Flooring-Help Me Decide!

I have a flooring dilemma and need your help! We were going to go for Laminate in our kitchen and sunroom, but after looking at the fabulous choices in a wood look vinyl, and the durability of it, we decided to go that way. We narrowed it down to two that we love...

Number 1 is a Wide Plank and a bit more ridgier (is that a word?) on your foot. It has a warmer tone to it. I think it resembles a rustic hardwood more closely then number 2 and is $1.00 more a sq. ft.

Number 2 is a smaller plank and has a smoother feel then number 1. It is also a bit ashier in tone. It's maybe a little shinier then the first one too.

Problem....we like both!!!! We've layed on the samples, took our socks off, put our socks back on, the kids jumped on them too! Which do you think? One or two? Two or one?

Reno Updates

Happy Monday!! Or is it? I know things here are moving along, but I dunno about happy. Gray was puking all Sunday afternoon, add this onto the fact that he decided to throw his soother (sucky) into the garbage on Friday night. He only used it when he slept, but Sucky was his well loved never to part with buddy. Well, it's gone! Friday night was rough, Saturday nap was rough, Saturday bedtime was better and Sunday was better too...so fingers crossed that this is the end of, "where sucky gone?", "Sucky on holiday?", "I want Sucky back!" Oh, and Westyn's sucky went with it into the garbage (but not really, cause we have back ups for him). But Gray thinks that it's gone, so we have to keep hiding Westyn's on him!

Anyway, I've been getting some emails asking how the reno is going so I thought I'd give an update. Last week our contractor started ripping things apart.

Goodbye old/rotten roof

This was just the start of the mess!

The kids and I didn't stick around to much after those photos were taken. And of course, Mike, being a man, didn't take any photos at all during the whole 'rip off the ceiling and roof, sleep with a tarp over the sunroom while the wind whistled through our house' process. So by the time I got back, Mike and his dad were putting in the insulation. Then we had to wait for the building inspector to give us the green light to start the drywall.

Yes, that is my stove in the middle of my kitchen, it's actually supposed to go over beside the microwave. I love how open the sunroom is now. The peak of our new roof is so much better then the flat ceiling we had!

We got the go ahead to start the drywall, so Mike and his friend, Justin worked all day Saturday putting that up. We still have to do some filling and taping and then the dreaded sanding! Mike's dad also put in some electrical so we get to have a ceiling fixture!! I've finally got on top of the dust for the time being and we can now walk on the floors without our shoes on. The sunroom is still blocked off from about the stove back, until everything is finished. But at least the stove is back in the right spot, so I can cook dinner!!!
I actually got a ton of inspiration over the weekend for what I am hoping is the final 'look' I want for the kitchen. I've kinda been stuck in a rut on that whole thing, but now I can't wait to show you all my inspiration, I just need to finalize a few things!!!!

Kitchen Update

Well here she is in all her unorganized, messy glory! My new kitchen! Well, part of it anyway...See that lovely plastic sheet back there? Well, it is stopping the rest of the kitchen from being installed. (and is also going to be the hugest eye sore until we get our building permit to rip off the rook and re slope it the proper way-ya that's right, the roof needs to be ripped off! Ca -CHING!) The whole situation is a huge bummer and it's tainting my beautiful kitchen that I've longed for...it's only one cabinet above the stove and one to the right of the stove, and the finishing touches like the crown moulding that needs to be installed. But it still sucks knowing that it won't be done for awhile. Sorry, the photo is a bit dark...we didn't have a light for awhile....

But I totally love the hardware and the HUGE pot drawers!

Some things left unfinished aside from the cabinets...the floor and backsplash. The floor will have to wait until the sunroom is fixed. This wasn't something we had planned on replacing but, the demo of the kitchen left a few holes marks and there is a big slit where the pantry cupboard was, you can see the basement through the hole!  We'll probably go with some kind of laminate...And the backsplash...the countertop that was installed has cracks in it, so it is being replaced. Until then, the tile is on hold, which is probably ok, cause I can't decide what I want...white subway tile? Or something fancier...?

Like this!

Another dillema...the lighting. What do you think of the light? It is the look/shape I want, but I am not completely sold on it. Mike likes it. This is the only light in our kitchen right now. I would like to put in a track light on the ceiling, but that will have to wait too...

Pinterest

This is the look I want, but $150-$250 is a little bit out of my price! So my $14.99 light from Home Depot will have to do!

I am torn on paint too...a few color schemes I have in mind revolve around...plum...turquoise...melon...yellow... and gray as the neutral, of course not all together, or could I?

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What do you guys think? Any advice?