Our work in Progress Kitchen...

When we purchased our home, one of the big selling points was the kitchen. I loved the size of it and loved that it was pretty updated! I have tons of cabinet space, a great island, a place for an eat in table (which is currently housing all things "baby kitchen") granite counter tops, attractive ORB hardware, freshly painted cabinets, and decent appliances.

Things that I don't love but can't/won't change...

(Disclaimer: I live in AMERICA in a BEAUTIFUL home and am BEYOND thankful for EVERY tiny thing. To say what I don't like about my kitchen is actually pretty ridiculous. I'm just putting on my "I love to decorate hat" here. Please take no offense.) This is our first house and we are a one income family so I am INCREDIBLY blessed to have such a great home. 

The textured walls. Sure I could probably change these but it would be a lot of work and money that we don't want to spend have. We have to be picky about money that we spend around here, and that just doesn't make the cut.

Super small pantry. I love that I have a pantry but it is very narrow and limited for space.

Popcorn ceilings. Ugh. I really dislike our ugly ceilings all over this house but again, the time and work and money involved is just not happening here. We couldn't afford to hire it out (its on every square foot of our ceilings) and to DIY it.... BIG mess and I have twins :)

Our sink. It is a granite composite sink. Quite Nice. BUT it is impossible for me to keep clean. I don't know if it is the minerals here in the water or what, but there are constantly spots and this sink shows any bit of dirt or food in it. Its just high maintenance and not for me. 

Things I would like to eventually change:

Tile floor. I am just not a fan of this tile. At all. It is also the same tile in our half bath, laundry room and master bath. The dark grout and kind of small and not so attractive tile just doesn't win me over. I am thankful that it is real ceramic tile (not linoleum) and that it is neutral. I would love to carry our dark laminate wood floors into the kitchen or do a larger scale, more updated tile.

Replace our dishwasher. Pretty sure it is original with the house (20 years old) and lets just say it has seen better days!

Replace our back door. It has seen better days. The glass is severely scratched from the previous owners dog I am guessing and the paint has bled into the glass in weird places.   I will probably paint it the same blue as my front door until we can replace it but I would love to have a beautiful door maybe like this. 

Things I am changing soon (well, relatively soon) 

Replace our florescent lighting (HATE HATE HATE) with recessed can lighting.

Add lighting above and below our cabinets. Lighting makes such a difference and our kitchen is very dark. 

Rework where our trash can goes. We have a pull-out drawer for our trashcan, but it is a really oversized awkward space that just gets really dirty, especially with two sweet ones who miss the trash can constantly.  I want to have Luke build a wooden platform inside the drawer where the trashcan can fit into. 

Build a bench type/ booth seating under the kitchen windows. We used to have our now dining room table, in the eat in kitchen space. It was large but it worked and I kind of liked it. However we didn't have a dining room table and that room was just totally blank. The real reason we moved it was when my sister in law and her children came to visit us, we needed to add our leaf to our cream and round table. If we added the leaf, it would be too large for the kitchen, so we moved it to the dining room and ended up liking it in there more. We then had a blank spot in there, which is now filled with a tiny table for two and play kitchen where my babies enjoy much of their time. We would to eventually like to build a bench, add a small table with a couple of cool chairs.

I want to paint our black chandelier white. I have the paint for this, I just need to do it. The black just darkens things up. 

The space above my exposed shelving is SCREAMING for an accessory. I'm just keeping my eyes peeled for the right one.  

Overall Accessorizing. I just haven't done much on this end.

My island has these great shelves built into the side which currently houses our cat food (wah, wah) and nothing else because tiny hands would only be tempted to reach and move any accessories I attempt. One day :)

Things we have already done.

Painted the walls.

Purchased a fridge. (That ended up breaking, and some amazingly precious and generous people helped get us a new one) 

Added exposed shelving.

IKEA botanical prints x3

Added pottery barn stools x2. Bought them on craiglist for $20 each. Currently sell for $149 each, so a GREAT deal. They were stained red, so I painted black. 

Wreath from Pier one. 

Giant chalkboard. This organizes our family. Tutorial here.

As you can see, not much here friends.

So I think that pretty much covers it. Here is our kitchen...

View from our family room/ entry 

Glass door leads to dining room, and you can see the stairs in our entry above.

 I figured if I waited to post pics until each room was 100%, it would NEVER happen. So there is my progress. Thanks for reading friends! 

House Tour: Laundry Room

SO after 13 months of living in our home I finally have the first room 100% complete! It feels great! Too bad it is quite possibly the least exciting room... the laundry room. I am on a tight budget to decorate this place so I had to try to work with what I had. I went to Homerama Louisville 2013 and was so excited to see my VERY FAVORITE home store in Louisville listed as one of the designers. The store is Tassles, and they decorated an entire house in Homerama which you can see here. They really can do NO wrong in my eye. I always love their bold color choices, bold patterns and how they pull everything together perfectly with the most southern charm. You should check their facebook page out. They are pricey but stunning. I fell in love with the coral/tangerine color that they had in their kitchen so I called and got the paint color and used it in my laundry room. It was Benjamin Moore color and while I can't for the life of me remember the name, I am on the hunt to find it! I have lots of coral in my living room which is more of a pinky coral and this laundry room is a very orange coral but I love it! Here is a break down and transformation of the space as well as a source list..


Here is the beautiful orange paint color I fell in love with in Louisville... 

Here is our Laundry room before...

I tried a few swatches that were all FAILS...

And after...

Our laundry room is pretty much a passthrough to our garage. Its just a little larger than a closet. The door you are looking at (above) leads to our garage and the doorway I am standing in taking the photo leads to a small hallway where our master bedroom and half bath are located that leads into our family room. You have just enough room to open the doors on either end and that is it, but I am SO thankful for this wonderful space.

 Taken from the entry to our master bedroom with our gray half bath next door. 

Above: View from our garage.

The door to the right is a coat closet and the door straight ahead is our bedroom. If you walk down the little hallway to the left you would walk right into our living room. 

Sources:
Paint color: Ben Moore >>>>????? I will post asap

Washer and Dryer: VERY GENEROUS house warming gift from my sweet parents. They are these GE (my dad works for G.E.)

Door knob: Replaced old brass with Oil Rubbed Bronze from Lowes.

Baskets above shelf. HomeGoods

Clock: BB&B wedding gift from 2008

Church print over dryer: One Luke's best friends and college room mate hired a photographer to take a shot of the place we got engaged (and old church in Mount Adams that overlooked Cincinnati) and he had it custom framed as our wedding gift. (yes he is that awesome and thoughtful)

Rabbit Topiary: A momentum taken from my late brother in law and my sister in law's home in Louisville. VERY special to me. I had always loved it and it always reminds me of fond times in their home. Orginally Jacobson's. Do ya'll remember that store? 

Black Chalkboard shelf: Target from 2008, a wedding gift

I love that you're my sister block: Given to my by my sister in law, Ash.

Kentucky tag: Again, a care package from my gorgeous sister.

Hardware on cabinets: Originally no hardware present, so I bought these knobs at Hobby Lobby.

Chandelier: Ballard Designs. Purchased at the outlet store when I lived 15 mins away in Cincinnati. There was originally a HIDEOUS cheap looking "ball" light that we replaced this with.

Burlap shades: Ballard Designs.

Hopefully I will be posting more complete rooms in the near future. 

Puppy Party: The twins turn 2.

We had a wonderful time celebrating the twins turning two with some of our wonderful Texas friends. We threw the party at church and I was so busy getting ready for the party I didn't take lots of detail shots. My sweet friend Mindy was amazing for picking up my camera and taking shots while I was hosting but I had my 50mm fixed lens on my camera (NOT good for a party) with all my other lenses at home, and with the poor lighting, I didn't get very many good shots but I will post what I have! 
We had two slide shows going on two giant tv's in the room, one of various puppies and the other of our precious twin's most recent year of life. We had pin the tale on the puppy, a puppy piñata, a puppy photo booth and a spread of yummy "puppy treats." I ordered a cake and it turned out NOTHING like I asked, the monogram on top was pitiful and I think the cake was air brushed. That was a diappointment but everything else went great!  It was low key and fun but can I just say, I am glad I only have to do that once a year? It take lots and lots of time and thought and preparation but my sweet little two year olds are worth it! Thanks to all our loved ones that came to celebrate. We love each of you and are thankful that you each pour truth into the lives of Jack Henry and Hadley and help them grow closer to Christ.