I'm late in sharing this post, but better late than never, right? Designing and buying our Ikea kitchen was a new experience for us. We'd never went through the process of designing, creating and purchasing Ikea cabinets, and while it was definitely an experience, we're still glad we did it. When we first bought our Willow House, basically everything needed gutted. There really wasn't anything worth saving, and the kitchen cabinets were in really, really rough shape. We knew, just like with the rest of the house, the kitchen would be getting new everything. And because we needed to remodel the house on a budget, we'd be leaning on Ikea for the cabinets because of their solid ...
Tagged with: kitchen
On The Search For New Dinnerware
You may be surprised to know, that even with all of the table setting and entertaining ideas I've shared over the years, I've never really had an "official" dinnerware set to use for everyday meals. I've collected a lot of dishes, mainly from thrift stores and estate sales, but they've never been in a complete set, or in perfect condition. Affiliate links are provided below. Full disclosure here. Several years ago, I bought a really pretty set, that I've showcased in so many table decor ideas, but there's always been a few things about them that I haven't loved. Todd and I have been using them exclusively since we got married, but the little things I'd noticed about ...
The Kitchen Design Plan
The kitchen design plan has been one of the harder rooms to really nail down. Overall, I've known what I wanted to do, but there were still a few key elements that I just couldn't decide on. Elements, that I felt really needed to be picked before moving forward with the final plan for our kitchen. Since we have so much work to do with the entire house, we've really tried to do a healthy dose of "high and low" finishes all blended together. We've splurged a little in some areas, while staying budget focused with other things. It's been exciting to see it all come together in such a beautiful way. The kitchen is going to be a very happy balance of budget friendly items, with a few ...
Replacing The Kitchen Sub Flooring
If you ask either one of us what our least favorite project has been to date, we'd both probably answer with replacing the kitchen sub flooring. Don't get me wrong, we were thrilled to get the nasty, rotted sub flooring up and out, but the process of actually doing it left a lot to be desired... Remember when I shared all about demo'ing the kitchen? And when we found mold around the sink? The previous people obviously didn't care about the leak, because not only did they let it start growing mold, but it also rotted the main layer of sub flooring. (Palm to the forehead...) When we broke up the kitchen tile, and pulled up the thin layer of wood underneath, we could ...
Demo’ing The Kitchen
If you've ever bought a fixer upper home that had really gross rooms, you know the thrill of demo'ing the space and taking it down to bare bones. Demo'ing the kitchen was just like that... it was so refreshing to get everything out and to have a blank canvas. Remember the kitchen? The picture makes it look about 100 times better than what it actually was. The cabinets were falling apart and most of the drawers were broken, not to mention loads of mice droppings everywhere. There was also a big water leak underneath the sink that had gone on for so long, it caused mold on the wall and all over in the base cabinet. The stove had burners that didn't work, and the room was just ...
Alfalfa Clippings
You're in for a real treat today friends, because I'm sharing an absolutely gorgeous peek into my beautiful friend Chelsea's kitchen! Remember her dining room? Swoon! Her home is utterly fabulous, and I love being able to share it with you... major inspiration, and I know you all love it as much as I do! Chelsea has always mentioned how much she loves how I use the outdoors so much in my décor. Be that just as my initial inspiration, or when I bring the outdoors in with fresh clippings. You know how much I love using tree clippings as my focal point, but for her kitchen, we decided on some Alfalfa clippings. Gorgeous! Living in a very rural area like we do, it's easy to ...
How I Organize My Spices
Today's post is yet another "helpful post". It's not necessarily filled with beautiful, jaw dropping pictures, but rather the simplified take on exactly how I organize my spices. In comparison to blog land with most people creating fancy labels, removing the "ugly" items and adding a whole lot of staging, my take is, well, simple. I find myself leaning more and more to this as I do projects and decorate our home. I'm not sure what it's all about, but I just know I want one thing, and that's simplicity. That doesn't mean simple can't be beautiful, but it also doesn't mean every entire space, nook and cranny in our home has to be completely decked out just "because of the blog". I'm ...
DIY Recipe Towel Art
I decided to get a jump start on Mother's Day this year, which is right around the corner. If you're looking for an easy, customized DIY project for your mom, or that special lady in your life, look no further than this fun DIY recipe towel art.. It's the perfect way to cherish a favorite family recipe, and it's easy to create the design you love! To see my full tutorial for this fun project, visit eHow, where I'm sharing all of the details. I'm thinking this would be a fabulous way to get the kids involved, and to even add in some personal art work. It's sure to make Mom smile big! :) Also, I just wanted to check in again about the Pickin' At The Pea Market ...
How I Organize Our Baking Canisters
The pantry... it's a room I'm in and out of all day long, and up until a few days ago, I had the biggest mess! Today, it's all about how I organize our baking canisters! There are several things I've never really shared on the blog, but I am allergic to gluten. Thank goodness I am not Celiac, but I have a really hard time with gluten. When I made the switch about a year ago, our pantry underwent a big clean out. I gave away so much food... and I started fresh with ingredients I could eat without issue. One of the hardest things I've had to learn new since eating gluten free, is the baking. Gone are the days where I have one big canister holding flour. Now, I have specific ...
The White Kitchen Wall
White paint makes everything pop. We recently planked a few more walls in the house, and that led to a wall in the kitchen being painted the same color for a smoother transition... Yes, it's true. I love the color white. White walls, white flowers, white clothing, white vehicles... basically white everything. When we first built the house, I had the main color in our living room/ kitchen area painted Edgecomb Gray by Benjamin Moore. I really liked/like the color, but noticed that a few of the rooms that received the direct sunlight began turning a bit pinkish. Especially in the entry way. One of the first ideas I had, was to paint stripes on the wall. And while they did look good, I ...
Decorating with Tree Branches
Want to know my secret for adding that perfect pop of color, texture and amazing, real life decor to any season? Decorating with tree branches! They are the perfect way to bring any season into your home, all while being free from your yard! And bonus, it's a great way to give your tree/ shrub/ bush a little healthy trimming. Oh man. I've just discovered one beautiful tree that's been right in front of my face since we bought our farm about... 5 years ago. Sometimes I am so oblivious. :-D In keeping with the tradition that is my decorating style, I wanted to freshen up the house since our summer home tour a few months ago. The tree branches had long since died, and my vases were ...
Antique Kitchen Clock
Bring a bit of character to your home with an antique clock. Given to me by a friend, I was on a search to find the perfect place to put it. Now, it's happy in the kitchen, and I'm happy to look at it every day. Here's the story of our antique kitchen clock... Now that my friends, family, and acquaintances know that I have a blog (it took me forever to share this with them...), I have so many people on the lookout for me. Sometimes the items aren't so great, and other times they are amazing. Either way, I'm so humbled to have friends and family searching my town and surrounding areas, all while keeping me in mind any time they see something that could possible be "just the thing". ...
DIY Grocery Sign
I decided last week it was time to make another sign. I'll go months between making them, but then I get a new idea and... well, the rest is history. They can be a bit tedious, especially if you have a bunch of small letters, and especially if you do it all by hand. I have to be in the mood. :) But... I wanted to change things up a little bit in the kitchen, so that's how our DIY grocery sign was born... Basically, I followed the same steps as when I made our large living room sign. This guy is a lot smaller, and much simpler. First, I found my board, cut it down to 30" wide, then stained it with Early American by Minwax... Then, I typed out the letters in a Word ...
DIY Recipe Box
Happy Thursday to ya! And since today is Thursday, April from House by Hoff and Jen from Migonis Home are joining forces with me to bring you a project that you can create for $30 or less! This month I'm sharing my DIY recipe box. And even though it's really simple, it's so full of heart. My heart. I've had this sweet spot for cooking and recipes and homemaking since I was a little girl. It's who I am. You see, this life is truly about the little things. Like little boxes full of family history. Boxes full of love and laughter and memories. Boxes full of things to absolutely cherish. That's what I'm sharing today... Here's how we made it, and the supplies we used: Please ...
DIY Burlap Placemats
Today is $30 Thursday, so you know what that means, right? April from House by Hoff, Jen from Migonis Home and I are teaming up to bring you simple and affordable ideas that you can recreate for $30 or less! For February, I've made these DIY burlap placemats. OH boy am I thrilled with how they turned out. They're just the perfect addition to our table... They're pretty easy to make too! Please note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which allows us to make a small commission from your purchase, but your purchase price stays the same. Thank you for helping support our blog! We greatly appreciate it! Supplies: Burlap Iron Sewing ...
Our Kitchen Island
Lately, I've had several questions about our kitchen island, so today thought I'd answer your questions and tell you a bit more about it. When Anthony and I were designing our kitchen a few years back, I really wanted to have a kitchen island with a bit of contrast against our dark cabinets. I also liked the idea of having an island that looked like a piece of furniture. When we met with our cabinet company, I had them look for a kitchen island that had a butcher block top, shelves, drawers and a white/ cream finish. They found an absolutely beautiful island. It had a thick butcher block top, drawers for extra storage, a cabinet and shelves. It was lovely, and I was in love, but I ...
DIY Large Round Serving Tray
Hi there! Today is the first Thursday of the month, so that means it's $30 Thursday! In case you're new here, April from House by Hoff, Jen from Migonis Home and I team up to bring you simple and affordable ideas that you can recreate for $30 or less! We have so much fun coming up with ideas... To start off the new year, I decided to make a DIY large round serving tray... This was such an easy and affordable project! I started by buying a large 18" round board and two metal pulls from Lowes... The wood was ready to go, so I stained it with Provincial by Minwax... Once the stain dried, I applied a few coats of dark wax... Once that had dried, we drilled ...
Our Fall Home Tour
Today I'm sharing our fall home tour! I've been so excited to decorate this year. Last year I just did the very basics, which was basically nothing, but this year I wanted to give our home a real taste of fall. I love the change of seasons and our home feel so warm and cozy right now! Rather than doing a whole bunch of talking, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves... there are a lot of them! Happy fall, from our home to yours! Enjoy! You can read more about our fall shelves here. Next week I'll be sharing our fall front porch, but ...
Just Keepin’ It Real
My house is a mess. And I wish I were kidding about that. Not only are we in the process of re-doing the powder bathroom, but I have peaches coming out of my ears. I spent all evening canning peach jam. Our powder bathroom currently looks like this: The vanity is in the garage getting ready for a makeover.... and everything else is now taking up residence in the dining room. And our attached garage is full of tools and planking and beadboard... all just waiting to be installed.... And then last night I started canning peach jam. My kitchen looked like this: I couldn't have found an extra space on my countertop if I wanted too... Just keepin' ...
Rustic Chalkboard Serving Tray
A while back, I was browsing through our local craft store and found a whole section of wood that I hadn't noticed before. Sometimes I love to just walk thru the craft store and gawk at everything. Typically I'll find something that I may not have really noticed before, and then I get excited! This wood could have so many amazing uses (and did I mention there are all sorts of different shapes & sizes?), but this time I decided on making a rustic chalkboard serving tray. Plus, I'm still planning that summer party, so this was the perfect fit. And I'm pretty sure it couldn't be any easier to make. I started with my rustic slab of wood. Then I taped off the ...
Summer Kitchen Shelves
Boy. It's getting hot here, which means it's summer time! Our corn fields are growing like crazy and everywhere we look it's covered with the brightest shade of green. I love it! Since spring is gone, it was definitely time to bring a bit of summer into our home. Our kitchen shelves are the perfect place to change with the seasons, and I couldn't wait to give them a light, bright and fresh vibe. This time, I'm all about simplicity. It's a love of mine. I used my driftwood wreath and paired it with all sorts of my other favorite things. Like, blue glass and DIY Numbered Tags... I picked up this lovely little piece at the thrift store for $1. It's so cheerful! And it ...
