mason jar champagne: September 2014

Family Room Reveal

Here's a quick update on the almost finished product. It's taken a long time to take photos since the moments of the house being quasi-clean, having good lighting, and having the toddler entertained elsewhere are few and far between. It's like a split-second utopia.

Overall, we love the house. We still have some nesting to do, but it will come (right??). The big stuff is complete, and making it ours is a work-in-progress. We are getting there slowly but surely. But, here's where we are today...

the little rocking chair was left with the house. i painted it & B loves having his own "big boy" space in the family room.

Need a reminder of the before? (shield your eyes from the shag carpet!)

The inspiration behind the transformation...

Favorites in this room:

The black windows. Replacing all of the aluminum-framed casement windows throughout the house wasn't in the budget. Painting them black gave them an INSTANT update and we love it, despite the pain it was to get the painters to finish the job correctly.
Natural light
Fireplace - hubs did an amazing job installing the wood cladding.
Fireplace surround
Shelving update - a little trim on the shelf fronts and paint on the rear wall is another instant update
B's play area isn't as pretty or contained as the Sarah Richardson in me would like, but I wouldn't trade having him a place to hang out for all the designer fabric in the world.

Details:

Rug: One Kings Lane
Bench: Antique
Mantel: Custom reclaimed Douglas Fir
Fireplace surround: Absolute Black granite, honed
Fireplace cladding: Custom
Armoire: Crate & Barrel
Curtains: Ikea
Wall hanging: vintage
Paint colors: see here

Kitchen Reveal

As we near a year on being in our house, it's about time I post some pics of the finished product. Well, almost finished. Between trying to finish some little projects and keeping the house quasi-clean amidst a toddler's endless energy, it's been tough to get photos. Let alone upload them and find time to post them. So, bear with me.

We are really happy with our kitchen, to say the least.

It started ugly, but with a little inspiration like this...

...we went from drab to fab.

We didn't do too much in this room from a structural perspective except remove the peninsula. Knocking down the bulkheads helped to elevate the ceilings and open up the space all around. We removed the pantry and replaced it with floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinets for more functional storage.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Some of my favorites in this room:

Dual fuel range - this sucker can turn out some yumminess in a jiffy
Bench storage & window seat - perfect spot for coffee and family meals
Open shelving - this is uber functional for us and we're surprisingly able to keep it tidy. We love the mix of old & new that this adds, too.
Marble counters - we languished over this decision a good bit, and we're ultimately really happy with it. More on that coming in a future post.
The openness - we originally planned to have a small island in the middle of the kitchen, but we nixed that after living in the space a while. We love being able to dance during dinner prep (neighbors must love watching us) and Burke can spread out his toys to really make quite a mess.

Details:

Cabinets: Wellborn Shaker full overlay, glacier white
Countertops: honed Carrara marble, more on that search here
Shelves: Custom from reclaimed Douglas Fir
Hardware: Signature Hardware and My Knobs
Bench: Custom
Paint colors: see here
Lighting: Restoration Hardware (over sink) and Ballard Designs (over table)

Paint Colors

We labored over paint colors like most people do. Endless swatches painted on walls, way too many pints of test paint. It's a tough decision! We ended up going with one paint strip throughout the majority of the house, and I'm super pleased with how well the colors all work together yet still give enough interest throughout the home. It flows without being the same color. (the screen makes these look a bit more yellowy than they truly are...so be sure to test for yourself.)