The Kitchen is Done!

Don't ever let anyone tell you moving is a good time. Wow, that was a lot of work - and there's still a LOT to be done! But, we are making some progress in getting things organized and decorating a few rooms at a time, so I thought I'd share some of that today. 

Getting the kitchen put together was, of course, at the top of the priority list right after E's room. I also received the fun news that our kitchen is going to be featured in some marketing done by our custom cabinet company, so that provided some extra incentive to get things moving in this room and make it look pretty. 

Here's a semi-wide shot of the whole room:

and just for fun, here's the same view from the before:

Just a few changes, huh?

I'm loving how this little breakfast nook area came out:

The upholstered bench brings a nice touch of softness and pattern to a room full of hard surfaces. The bench is the Ballard Coventry bench, and I'm really happy with it. 

Someday I may replace the table with the Saarinen table I covet, but for the time being, we've got the Ikea version there. I think it looks great and like that it's a modern, clean-lined table. It cleans up really nicely post-mealtime, and the center pedestal makes it easy to get in and out of the bench too, which is important. 

Display for some of my favorite cookbooks was something I knew I wanted to incorporate into the kitchen. We settled on this built-in bookshelf above the bench seat:

I like how this turned out and I LOVE having a place to display my most favorite and prettiest cookbooks. Even though most of my recipe-hunting these days is done online, I love using books as decor and having them to reference or jar my memory when I see them displayed. 

The little butler's pantry area is a nice space that we can use for drinks staging during parties and to keep some of our immense collection of glassware on display:

We keep some glasses in the dining room and some in the basement bar as well, but I like having our most-often used drink receptacles readily accessible here.

The cabinets, hardware, countertop, and backsplash are the same as used throughout the kitchen but we added these decorative corbels to this space to dress it up a little bit:

The island came out just as I'd hoped it would, and I just love it. The cabinets beneath have nice pull-outs so it's easy to keep everything organized. We built in this little microwave nook down at the far end and it includes space for our larger cutting boards, etc. in a really handy spot. 

I like the open shelves for glasses and mugs and I love that we were able to incorporate a ton of storage into the kitchen while still maintaining all the windows and keeping things nice and open-feeling. I think using glass fronts on the uppers really helps with the light and airy feeling: 

Note to anyone designing a kitchen: I'm 100% thrilled with my decision to go with mainly drawers for the lowers rather than cabinets. It's so much easier to find things, keep things organized, and get into and out of. I'd highly recommend this approach! 

The range is a 36" professional model and it definitely feels like a solid appliance that we'll have for a long time. The hood is totally functional, but I happen to think it looks really cool too. 

The tile backsplash is pretty, and I love the double herringbone pattern I chose, but there was a miscommunication between our tile setter and the GC so instead of the medium-grey grout I wanted, I got plain white. 

I was very annoyed at first, but it's one of those things that just happens in the course of a big job like this, and there's not really an easy way to change it (we'd basically have to rip all the tile out, re-drywall, then re-tile....so not happening) so I'm living with it. Anyway...

The sink is this enormous farmhouse sink with an apron front: 

I love having such a nice big sink for rinsing dishes, and the bridge faucet works perfectly with it. My only regret here is I opted to have the sprayer on the left rather than the right. I thought we'd like having it closer to the drain, but actually it's a little awkward since we are both right-handed. Oh well.

For the counter stools, I went back and forth, but finally decided to get these backless ones from world market:

I decided I didn't want to break up the line of the island by having barstool tops showing and I like that these tuck nicely under the overhang. They are really comfortable too!

Lastly, the workhorse of the kitchen is this built-in pantry:

We hide all the goods behind these enormous sliding barn doors and are able to store so much in an easily accessible place that is still protected from snoopy dogs and curious toddlers. I also really like the look of the barn doors and think they bring an interesting element to an otherwise pretty glam kitchen.

There's a possibility we'll remove this unit at some point down the road in order to open up the space more, but for now I'm glad we kept it and happy to have the storage.

Whew, that was a lot of pictures! Here's one more pulled back shot where I tried to capture the whole room:

We absolutely love this room and I hope you like it too!

Home Decor That Didn't Make the Cut

I'm really happy with all of the decor selections I've made, and there's nothing so far that I'd change (thank god!). But, now that the decisions are made for most of the house, I've still got a long list of wallpapers, paint colors, fixtures, and other items that I love but that didn't make the cut this time. 

I figured I'd round them all up here so that I'll remember them when it's time to redecorate (just kidding B!) or in case any of you like my style and want some suggestions. 

First, this killer Jonathan Adler light fixture:



Oh, how I love this. It's mid-century, without being quite as literal as some MCM pieces can be, and a little bit funky. It mixes well with transitional, modern, and vintage items, AKA right in my sweet spot. It's also totally fairly priced in my opinion at around $300. 

I wanted this baby BAD in my master bath, but the layout just wouldn't accommodate it. I would have just used one between our two medicine cabinets since it gives off a lot of light. I also think a couple of these would look gorgeous in a hallway or flanking a fireplace. There's also a 30-light ceiling version of this light that is pretty as well. 

Another light fixture I wanted to use but didn't is this amazing flush mount from, of course, Circa Lighting. 

It's seriously beautiful and would look great in a room where you don't want a large fixture that makes a big statement, but want something that brings more to the table than your standard builder-grade ceiling lights. It's a splurge for sure at $840, but it's so pretty I think it would be worth it in the right space. Actually, now that I think about it, I might need to swap out my boring office ceiling fixture for this one down the road. To be continued!

Last in the lighting category (although I could go on and on...I really love lighting) is this stunner from Kathy Kuo: 

If you had a smallish island that only needed one or two fixtures, I think this would be a beautiful option. It's so interesting and unlike any other pendant or island fixtures I've seen. 

I used several different wallpapers throughout our house, but there are still lots of rooms without any so maybe I'll still get a chance to use some of these beauties. In the meantime though, here's my list of also-rans. 

First up, this super fun option from Osborne and Little: 

So, those are chartreuse flocked silhouettes on a dark brown background. I get that it probably isn't for everyone, but I think in a playroom or powder room it could be amazing with lots of high gloss white trim and maybe a millwork chairrail? I think it would be great. Osborne and Little is a great wallpaper source with lots of really great non-traditional patterns so I'd highly recommend browsing their selection if you're in the market. 

Will someone with a long hallway, PLEASE install this adorable Fornasetti wallpaper? 



The pattern is called Multiplette and it comes in this cute navy/red colorway and there's a multi-colored option as well:

It's actually a border, about 18 inches high, but don't let that scare you - this is not one of the dorky old 90s borders you used to see! I think in a long hallway or even running along the bottom border of a kids bedroom, playroom, or basement this would be seriously cute.

I also am obsessed with this tortoiseshell paper and think it would look great lining bookshelves or as a bar backing, as used here.

It took me a long time to let go of this one...and truth be told I probably still haven't given up on the idea. For the longest time I've been obsessed with finding a striped carpet and then having it laid on the diagonal. Here's a shot of Lauren Santo Domingo's living room, where she did this to awesome effect: 

It's so unexpected and fun; I just love this idea. Since we have a ton of hardwood, and really only carpet in a couple of rooms, the stars just didn't align for this idea in this house, but I still think it's such a fun way to jazz up a carpeted room.

Oh, these Ochre horn pulls still haunt my dreams:

They are just stunningly beautiful and I really, really wanted to install them on our high-gloss black vanity in the master bathroom. But, they are forged in England, only available to the trade, and I would have had to sell an organ or two to get them within the budget. 

Since I already was driving headfirst into the rabbit hole of my custom shower, I decided I didn't need to add any more fools errands to my plate, so I let the idea of these pulls go. But, I still super love them and if anyone I know uses them, prepare yourself for me to show up to your home uninvited so I can ogle them :)

I've got a list of about a million more things I love, but this would be a very long post if I put them all here. So, if you are interested in my input or need help making selections for your own home, I'd be happy to assist!

Hopefully in my next post I can start sharing some of the after pictures of the house as we work on getting settled in here. 

Hardwood Floors

I was so happy to see hardwood throughout most of the house when we first walked through it. Our current house is almost entirely hardwood and I love it, so I knew I wanted hardwood in the new house as well. I also wanted a dark stain, and luckily we'd have the perfect opportunity to change the finish while the house was empty before we moved in. It's basically impossible to do anything to the floors once you live in the house, so we seized this opportunity to get them finished the way we want them.

The previous finish on the floors was an orange-y medium wood tone that you see a lot in houses in this area from the 20s and 30s. Like this: 

I don't hate this color, but since I've lived with it in my current house for 7 years, I was ready for something different. I also feel that this color reads very warm and I'm using more cool tones in this house.

Luckily, most of the boards themselves were in really good shape and didn't need to be replaced. There were just a few places where we had to use new wood, and those repairs went really quickly. 

The process of refinishing is a painstaking one, and unfortunately it's also extremely inconvenient in terms of scheduling: refinishing requires the whole job site to be closed down for over a week, with no other workers allowed in during that time. This hurt a lot since we are getting down to the wire before our move, and there's really no good time to do it. 

I think we made the best decision we could given our constraints, and I'm okay with the trade-off being that there will still be guys working on other things after we move in. 

As I mentioned, I wanted a darker finish without any red/orange to it, so what we ended up using was a custom-mixed stain (because I always have to be difficult) that's about 3 parts Minwax Jacobean to 1 part Minwax Ebony.

Having never met me before, the floor guys tried to convince me I didn't really want a dark finish, but in the end I think they realized I know what I want :)

So, the process for the floors was this: on day 1 (Monday), a team of two guys sands all the floors down to raw wood. Day 2 (Tuesday) the same guys apply stain in a very specific pattern throughout the house, then the stain is left to dry for two full days. Then for the next three days (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) they applied a coat of poly sealer, one coat each day.

After the last coat of poly sealer is applied, the floor is again left untouched for two days before people can walk on the floor, but only without shoes. Here's what the floors looked like after that:

This close-up shows what is pretty close to the true color: 

I don't love how super-shiny they are right now, but I'm sure they will dull down in no time. 

The floor people recommend waiting two full weeks to move in furniture, which is not very realistic in my opinion considering we already had the house closed for a full week. So, we're going to pretend we didn't hear that recommendation and continue with our plan to move in this Thursday (!!!!!). Anyway, let's get real: we have a whirling dervish toddler and a dog, so it's not like the floors are going to stay perfectly pristine for long anyway (nor do I want them to). 

I think the floors look really pretty with the wall color and are going to look amazing with the navy/emerald color palette I'm bringing in with the furniture and art. 

There's a ton of wood trim in the house too, which I left the original color for now. 

The contrast between the wall trim/crown molding and the floors doesn't bother me, and if it does down the road, I can always get it re-stained. It's much easier to do that while we live in the house than the floors would be, so I think we'll just cross that bridge if and when we get there.

This was a big check off on the to-do list and I'm so happy we decided to get the floors done before the move. 

Modern Bathrooms - Huzzah!

The sorry state of the bathrooms in this house has been well-documented previously. They were in rough shape, so we took them down to the studs, basically. Now that they are so close to being back together and functional, it's almost enough to make me want to throw a party.  

The first floor bathroom was one that we initially thought wouldn't need a lot of work, but then as we got into it the changes needed just kept adding up. First, we had to put a support beam through the wall, then that ruined the plaster and so we had to dry wall, then the base tiles got messed up, so we had to replace those. It kind of spiraled in a really bad way. 

But, the upside is that I got to make a BIG statement in here and really make the room a showpiece:  

The wallpaper is Scalamandre Zebras in Serengeti Green, and it very nearly caused my wallpaper hanger to never speak to me again. The scale of the zebras is huge, so that combined with the fact that each strip needed to be trimmed on both sides caused her a lot of headaches. But, she got it done, and did a really great job (Lori at the Hangups, if anyone is looking for someone. Please tell her I sent you so maybe she'll start to forgive me a little bit :))

I am obsessed with this wallpaper and have loved it ever since I saw the red version in Margot's room in The Royal Tenenbaums:

Gwynnie is my spirit animal. 

On the bottom half of the wall, it previously was patterned white plaster, so although subtle, there was enough design that it could stand up to the wallpaper. The plaster was a casualty of all the structural work that had to be done, so we drywalled over what used to be a nice historical detail.

I didn't want to leave the bottom half a boring plain sheet of drywall, so I drew up a quick molding pattern and my contractor executed it. It's hard to see in the picture above, but it's three rectangles, two vertical ones on either side of the window, and a horizontal one below the window, which we painted the same color as the wall so it would look more modern (Wall Color is Benjamin Moore Martha's Vineyard). Side note: does anyone else pick paint colors based on how well they like the name? 

We also refinished the floor in this bathroom, which made a world of difference. I like the original marble so much that I was intent on keeping it, and I'm so glad we did:

Even though it's many, many years old, I think the white tile with dark grout and herringbone pattern look super modern.

We couldn't install the new sink and toilet in this bathroom yet because it's being used for storage while we refinish the wood floors in the rest of the house.

The sink I chose was this one from Signature Hardware in a shiny chrome finish:

I like that it combines modern and vintage elements in a really pretty way.

I lusted after the marble version of this sink from RH, but just couldn't pull the trigger on a $2K powder room sink. I'm sure B is grateful for that.

The toilet in the powder room will be the same Kohler Memoirs model I'm using throughout the house:

Simple and pretty - it'll do! 

We've also been making great progress in E's bathroom:

It's fully wallpapered, tiled, and the fixtures are installed. All we're missing is the medicine cabinet and vanity light.

Oh, and the plumber has to switch around the temperature labels on the taps. 

I feel guilty about asking him, since he already changed them once. He initially put the English hot and cold on them, obviously mistaking me for a sane person, so now I have to inform him that Chaud is hot, not cold. 

E's bathroom is looking really pretty, and I love the combination of the tiled floor with the wallpaper.

I also found the most perfect shower curtain for E (from Ballard): 

Black pom-pom trim and a monogram?! Be still my heart! It's going to be the perfect finishing touch on this room.

Her vanity was one I found at Home Decorators in a pretty white with feminine details and a marble top. The only downside was it came with some basic brushed nickel pulls that I swapped out for more substantial chrome ones. I think it looks really good with the new hardware!

I'm glad that E's bathroom is in such good shape, since she's going to be sharing it with mommy and daddy for about a week after we move in. The master bath is coming along, but there's still a LOT to do in that room, and with the job site closed for a full week for floor refinishing, it's just not going to happen before moving day.

Hopefully in the next blog I can share at least a few pictures of the master bath as the plan starts to come together.