Deal Alert!

Deal Alert! I just learned that the Everett Foyer Table (affiliate link) from World Market is 20% off!  Since I just featured that table on my Kitchen Before and After, I thought I would give you a heads-up.

This "mudroom" of mine is one of my most loved posts, and the table is probably the most useful piece of furniture I own.  Did you know it has hidden drawers?  I know, so cool.  So if you have had your eye on the Everett (affiliate link) maybe now is the time?  Plus it ships free with coupon code "SHIPFREE!" Woo hoo!

Before And After Kitchen Reveal (and updated with new black windows)!

This post contains affiliate links, but all opinions are 100% mine.

As promised!!!  Last week I said I would show you my latest greatest paint project soon and today is the day!  Don't feel like waiting?  Okay fine let's jump right in:

SO much better!  Lighter!  Brighter!  I've never liked the wood trim in my kitchen. It has bugged me since Day One in this house (going on three years).  So I painted it.  And the walls.  And I'm still not done but getting to this point is a major victory.  I've literally been working on and off on this project for nine months.  As my husband said the other day, "sometimes...do you think maybe...its better to pay a professional for some of these things...???"  Yeah babe you are correct. My lower back agrees with you.

As you can see, I still haven't painted the trim around the widows.  I can't decide whether to go all white, or white on the outside with black on the inner mullions.  What would you do?

***BREAKING NEWS UPDATE***

Y'all. I am coming to you from the FUTURE to provide an update to this post. I don't even blog here anymore (these days, find me right here), but I simply couldn't not update you. It is now July, 2023--7 full years after I asked what you'd do to these windows(!)--and I want to show you what we decided! I also want to encourage those who feel like making a home takes forever. Have patience...sometimes it does, and that is okay! That is real life for those of us not making a living as DIY bloggers or pros. So, here is what the breakfast nook looks like today:

In the last 7 years I have refinished the tabletop, purchased new chairs, painted the walls white and the ceiling gray, installed bistro-style shelving, replaced the light fixture, and worked with Marvin Windows to install these beautiful new sliders. These are the Marvin Infinity fiberglass windows in black.  

How about another view of them?

By the way, working with Marvin Windows was an awesome experience. Every single person I met with the company was fantastic! And I am loving the final product. This isn't a paid endorsement, I just really like the company!  

My whole goal was to create a little bistro for my family. I love the Serena & Lily Bistro chairs (of course) but I chose these knock-offs and I am so happy I did):

I enjoy styling my long, narrow DIY bistro shelves. I used wood boards, these shelf brackets, and Grecian Gold Rub 'n Buff to "age" them for that bistro look I was going for:

And for anyone curious about other updates, here is the biggest additional change in this space:

Yes! I yanked up the carpet and refinished this entire staircase BY MYSELF in the summer of 2020. I was super cooped up and didn't have anything going on. This is one I am super proud of!

Sources for this update: Windows: Marvin Windows; Chairs: Amazon; Chandelier: Amazon; Paint: Sedate Gray by Sherwin Williams (kitchen walls); White Dove by Benjamin Moore (trim and breakfast nook walls).

And now, I will return you to your regularly scheduled programming: this blog post from 7 years ago!

***THANK YOU***

I'd also like to either paint the doors or restore them to their original wood glory.

Similar question here--should I go all-white on the window trim?  I need help, people.

I love this change.  Remembers eons ago when I was asking you how in the world I should handle that awkwardly-placed light switch?  This chalkboard wall is my solution!

I painted the wall, of course (and by the way made that frame myself with only a little help), and then spray-painted a plain switch plate with chalkboard paint.  Now the light switch is just integrated right in and even looks cute.

Yes, this is an actual rule in my house, although it applies mostly to foam swords and finger-guns.

The "mudroom" is mostly the same; I even re-cut the vinyl 'grateful' sign because we like it.  As you can see, the trim around the stairs remains unpainted.  I just plain lost my steam, people.  Oh!  Isn't that lamp adorable?  It's from World Market (affiliate link).

How about another view of that?

Angus at four months.

Angus at nineteen months.

And just because I love showing you some details...

Some of the items still on my list for the kitchen:

• Paint the stair spindles and risers.
• Paint the trim around the windows, as well as the doors.
• Install new light fixtures throughout.
• Install some kind of ceiling treatment.
• Install curtains in the breakfast nook.

Even with so much left to do I am enjoying this fresh look every single second I am in here, which is a whole hecka lot of seconds every day.  Don't you love what some paint can do!?!

Sources:

Wall Paint: Sedate Gray (SW 6169) by Sherwin Williams

Trim Paint: Benjamin Moore White Dove color-matched by Behr

Console: Everett Foyer Table at World Market (affiliate link)

Baskets in Console: Ikea

Table: World Market for similar (affiliate link)

Chairs: Walmart
Faucet: Kohler Cruette (affiliate link)

Easy Fix for Cardboard Magazine Files (Ikea Fluns Upgrade)

This post contains affiliate links, but all opinions are 100% mine.

So, back to the open shelving in my kitchen.  It vexes me.

I told you recently that I was gonna restyle it soon...and here's what it currently looks like:

I meant to get a plant up on that top shelf. before I shot this pic...whoops!

I also wanted to add some magazine files to corral all those catalogs, magazines, and papers that tend to clutter up my kitchen. Enter the Ikea FLUNS magazine files, which are white cardboard and will set you back a whole buck for four. FOUR FOR A DOLLAR???  Yep.  Great price, but unfortunately they look as cheap as they are:

If you don't have an IKEA near you, you can buy the exact same ones for a little bit more by clicking here.They are just so plain and so white, so I used craft paper and little label frames from the craft store (spray painted gold) to spruce them up and allow them to blend with my summer-y coastal blues and browns:

Spray adhesive worked great for this project.  If you want more of a tutorial, let me know!  By the way, my very favorite gold spray paint is Rustoleum Metallic Gold.

The categories are "Read" and "Plan:"

I did this quick project a few weeks ago and (in spite of being cardboard) the magazine files are holding up great!  This would be fun to do with a pretty patterned paper, too.  Let me know if you try it!

New Kitchen Faucet (and Why it Saved My Sanity)

This post contains affiliate links, but as always all opinions are 100% mine.

Our homes are bursting with little things that make a big difference in our day-to-day.  Just think about your kitchen faucet, for example.  Is it pretty?  Is it functional?

Mine was neither.  It dripped.  I could literally lose my single remaining shred of sanity listening to water (also known as money) dripping steadily down the drain.

In the case of this sad, bedraggled faucet, it would drip constantly, but if you shut off the hot water and then pulled the handle back toward you, say an eighth of an inch but not as much as a quarter of an inch, it would stop.  Well, sorta stop.  It would drip every 20 seconds instead of two.

This fun little feature rendered me insane.  It gave me the hilarious nervous tic of pulling every and any handle ever so slightly toward me, whether I was in my kitchen or the Walmart bathroom.  It also gave me the endearing trait of running up behind everyone who ever used the kitchen faucet to adjust it for them.  It was *great.*

Hubs had done what he could.  My plumber (who was here for an equally fun job involving water pouring through my ceiling right before Christmas) said the faucet wasn't even worth repairing.

Enter: my new faucet.

I love you, awesome new faucet.

After hours of research, I finally settled on the Kohler Cruette pull-down kitchen faucet, in the Vibrant Stainless Steel finish.  It was reasonably priced, very well-reviewed, and has this amazing "Sweep Spray" function (and a "pause" button on the sprayer!) which you can see in the video here.

It looks pretty good in here, right?

Here's a close-up on the sprayer--it is so ergonomically correct and has that great pause button.

So you can get a feel for the large size of this sucker.

Cue the angels singing.  It took about a week, but my nervous tics resolved.  More than that, I am appreciating the beauty of something designed well that performs well.  It does what I ask, when I ask, and there are no. more. drips.  Fairly simple change, sanity saved.

Where in your home could a simple change make a big difference?  One thing I learned from my last home is that we made a lot of improvements when it was time to sell, and that just stinks.  Much better to improve on things while you're still around to enjoy them!  Admittedly, sometimes cash is tight and we all have to make do.  But if you have the means to make a simple change sooner rather than later, especially for something you use constantly, it might just be worth saving your sanity.