Are you ready for picture overload? I am pretty excited about this new kitchen remodel! But first you need to see these before pictures of what it looked like right before we moved in January this year. You can also read about the remodel process HERE and where we have come from the past five weeks on this six week design challenge. It was pretty depressing being in that old kitchen. It felt dark, dated and dirty. I was already going through a big adjustment moving 2,000 miles away from family and friends that I love so much, so this kitchen didn't help ... Read More
Paleo Chicken Pot Pie
I used to make a pot pie with canned cream of chicken...(GASP!) and I used Marie Calendar pie crust. It was a BIG hit. I have made it for over 20 people or given out the recipe. I would make it for friends and neighbors who had just had babies and make it often for my family. I started to eat strict Paleo about three years ago. I needed to come up with another way to make pot pie since my family loved it. They do love this Paleo version just as much. I normally triple this and freeze the filling to have on hand to give to someone or ... Read More
Week 5- Kitchen Remodel
BIG, HUGE, EXCITING week over here! Progress has been made in our kitchen remodel. Cabinet doors were taken down. The existing cabinets were re-faced with actual wood that was cut to fit my cabinets. I had THIS company in CT do it, you can search cabinet re-facing in your area. If you go the route of painting, my favorite white paint from Benjamin Moore is Mountain Peek White. You can read more about the counter tops and the process in our kitchen HERE. One of my favorite parts was the wood piece in between the cabinets that was blocking some of the window was taken down, so much ... Read More
Week 4- Kitchen Remodel
I am still in love with my new tile! You can read what has been done the past week on Week 3 I found a runner for under my sink and dishwasher at Home Goods. I love how it ties in the gold tones that I am mixing in. We got our new appliances this past week! You can see my new dishwasher, with my ugly old cabinets. It could not had been better timing, my old one stopped working a day before we got our new one. Cabinet re-facing has started. They have taken off all the doors and then they will wrap the existing cabinets in real wood to match the doors, I will also be getting new ... Read More
Week 3- Kitchen Remodel
Tiny houses stress me out! Especially when we attempt to move things around. Even getting the fridge out the door was an ordeal. The fridge doors were taken off and the interior door and still a lot of noise and cursing in Spanish. I had to go to my room and close the door. They did get it out and it is sitting on our deck plugged in while we wait for the new one to arrive on Thursday. The girls were too cold to sit on the deck on demo day, so they sat on the lovely linoleum floor eating their cereal and spilled it twice of coarse. I should have just left it since they were ripping it ... Read More
Striped Stairs
These stairs used to be a death trap, they are steep and slippery. I did love the look of the wood stairs and was hesitant on ordering a runner. I have to say that I love these stairs even MORE with the bold stripe. I ordered two 2.8"x8' runners. Just measure the front of one step and the actual part you step on and multiple that by how many stairs you have. My runners are from Dash and Albert it did take me some searching to figure out what one I wanted, there are so many great options, but my friend Randi gave me the thumbs up. They came in right ... Read More
Week 2- Kitchen Remodel
Get ready for a good looking picture... ok I tricked you it is Gross! But I have to share so you can see how far we have come on this 6 Week One Room Challenge. It is fun to see how far everyone else is coming and their inspiration. Notice the forest green door. The bad chair molding that cuts the already small room in half, in most cases chair rail molding needs to go, ok ALL cases. The tiny unusable built in corner cabinet. Bad yellow walls, that don't do anything for the cream appliances or for anyone. There were very old and very ugly roller shades on all the windows. I ... Read More
Accessorizing Three Different Ways
I wanted to share some ideas and my two thoughts on accessorizing. Accessorizing does take practice and playing with different options to get a feel for why things work and what looks good. I think it is funny when we get home from vacation, my girls run to their room to play with their toys they missed while we were gone and I rearrange my "toys" that I missed! I usually have a new treasure to find a home for that I found on our vacation. I first started working with designers when I was 15. I would go out with them on installs to ... Read More
Week 1- Kitchen Remodel
I was excited when my friend Jen (who is an amazing designer and has a fantastic blog) told me to do the One room Challenge in 6 weeks! She knew that I had just started on my kitchen remodel and could use a little push. I love the eclectic feel and dark patterned floors of these kitchens I found on Pinterest. I am a big fan of dark floors in a kitchen. Even though they might (let's be real, ARE) be dirty, it isn't glaringly obvious. I also love that the floors are the statement and make white cabinets really pop. For my own personal space I like to look at images on Pinterest ... Read More
Cadbury Family Room
This was our cozy family room on Cadbury Drive in Utah. It was a small family room area so I had to maximize the space. A sectional is the best way to do that, no area is wasted. As you can see here my sectional extended past the wall, and that is ok to do. I made sure we had about 3 feet walking space between the kitchen island and sectional arm. Also using a large rug can make the space feel larger. With a sectional or a sofa and settee a good rule of thumb is to always use an 8x10. You can see my dining nook in the background (you can read more about that here ... Read More