Kitchen Improvement Day Dreaming

Posted on May 6, 2013 by

It’s been a while since my last post, but don’t worry… that doesn’t mean we haven’t been knee-deep in projects!  We’ve built a custom desk and two custom filing cabinets, I’ve painted a chair, we’ve re-landscaped our back yard, rearranged our living and family rooms, added some awesome wall art in the house, and added some much-needed furniture to the back yard!  Whew… clearly, I need to get back to blogging!

But, lately… I’ve been day-dreaming about redoing our kitchen!  There’s nothing particularly terrible or offensive about it.  It just simply is NOT my thing.

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You see, my good friend Jenn over at A Home In The Making, recently redid her kitchen and it turned out absolutely dreamy!  From the copper countertops, to the vintage-inspired white cabinets, to the killer painted floors and dazzling pendant lights… I’m IN LOVE!  Really, seriously, she just needs to drop kick her Oregon kitchen on down to California and have in land smack in my house!!! Winking smile

Oh… and then the backsplash!  Oh. My. Goodness.  Enough… I can’t take it now!

And, beyond sheer kitchen-envy, the hubs and I really need something a bit more practical!  We need a kitchen with more counter space since we both cook, more functional storage, and a built-in bar.  We also hate our granite- it was super poorly installed, doesn’t go with our style at all, and has chips in it from the previous owners beating it up!  And the honey oak cabinets are just not our thing at all.  We’d love some warm mocha cabinets or white, shaker style cabinets.

Oh, and the list goes on and on… sparkly seeded glass pendant lights would be nice, as well as some sparkly knobs and pulls to adorn the cabinetry.  And, what about a bar stool makeover?!?!?  Yes, I would love that!!!

For now, we’ve got lots of other projects dominating our sights, but when the time comes, we’ll have to hit Home Depot for all of their amazing kitchen renovation tips!  Check out their video below to see what I mean:

 

WHAT KITCHEN RENOVATION ARE YOU DYING TO DO?  WHAT WOULD YOUR DREAM KITCHEN CONSIST OF?

Posted in Get Inspired, Kitchen | 6 Comments

Life Happens = Life Changes

Posted on February 26, 2013 by

Life has been crazy lately.  Good, but crazy.  Eric and I have been slammed with to-do’s and we’ve literally been doing our best to get through everything we can.  Sadly, this has meant that the blog has taken a back seat.  BUT, this will absolutely not be permanent.  I’ve really struggled with what to do about our blog. 

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LIFE CHALLENGES

Eric’s job as a trial attorney is very time-intensive, and starting my own business and finishing my last year of law school is equally as time-intensive.  Eric has been working as much as ever, and traveling for work on occasion.  This always meant that I’d pick up the slack of projects during the week and then work more together on the weekends.  Now, I easily work six days per week, and am doing my best to wrap up law school in the interim.  Also, law school this year has had a really random exam schedule and a lot more busy work to prep for the bar exam.  With everything getting so busy, I’ve taken steps to delegate work.  I’ve hired two employees, one who works full-time for me, and an assistant, who helps as needed to take care of administrative tasks.  I’ve also officially scheduled one day per work for me to work at the office, so that I’m not doing office work outside of work hours.  This just started this week, and let me tell you… I feel like I’ve gotten a bit of my sanity back!

That said, the blog has suffered.  I haven’t been able to write and share as much as I’d like.  But, that’s not to say that DIY projects haven’t happened.  In fact, we’ve knocked out a TON of major DIY projects and I’m really looking forward to sharing them with y’all!

THE PROJECTS MUST GO ON!

Among others, my favorite DIY projects we’ve completed lately and are thoroughly enjoying are:

  • The Spray-Painted Upholstered Heirloom Chair
  • Coat Closet Gut & Remodel (swapped our Pantry and Coat Closet)
  • Artwork for our Kitchen
  • Framing Artwork for our Home Office
  • DIY, Custom Filing Cabinets (set of two)
  • DIY, Custom 2-person Desk with Drawer Bases on Each End
  • Furniture Swaps Galore!!! (I’ve moved furniture all around our house… bought some pieces, sold some pieces… you know how I do! Winking smile )
  • Planning for a Completely New Guest Bedroom (separate from our new home office)

I think that pretty much captures our big project accomplishments.  All of which, I will write about… I promise! 

BOUNCING BACK RESOLUTION-STYLE

But, for now, I’ve made some resolutions.  I’ve been hard pressed to come to this point, and Eric has been resistant in letting me give up the blog.  So, since neither of us feel that giving up the blog is a good idea, we’ve made the following resolutions:

  • The next six months (through my completion of the CA bar exam) will only see occasional blog posts on more major, large-scale projects, with a sprinkle of informal, free-form posts about life/travel/food
  • I won’t adhere to a blogging schedule of any sorts
  • I’ll randomly post projects as they’re completed, and as I feel inspired to write about them
  • I’ll do my best to keep up on all of my favorite blogs, but won’t feel guilty when I miss something (MAJOR APOLOGY to Michelle at Décor & The Dog for missing the announcement that she’ll be co-hosting the most recent Pinterest Challenge – I honestly didn’t even know that there was a Pinterest Challenge happening… that’s how withdrawn I’ve been.  Super super excited for Michelle though!  She’s completely awesome and has a kick-ass personality and sense of humor to boot!  Check out her blog if you haven’t already!)
  • I’m planning to put together a plan of attack for fully revamping the look and function of the blog, including adding a “Projects” tab so that navigation is a bit easier
  • Since I won’t be blogging as much, I do plan to get more active on Social Media, because that is sometimes the most fun of all!

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?!?

Basically, all that is simply to say that, I love y’all!  Blogging is a big part of my life and that’s not going to change.  In fact, when life gets crazy-stressful, Eric encourages me to retreat to blogging.  It really brings me back to center!  I’m sure that some of you can understand.  Smile 

Also, I just want to say thank you to those sweet friends that have reached out to me and asked if everything was okay, since I’ve been MIA in blog-land.  I absolutely promise… every is GOOD.  Really good.  And I feel blessed beyond words!

SO, SINCE I’M A LAME-O AND HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO CATCH UP WITH EVERYONE LATELY, PLEASE SHARE WHAT’S BEEN UP WITH YOU IN THE COMMENTS!!!  ALSO, SINCE I HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO READ MUCH IN BLOG-LAND, DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE DIY/DÉCOR PROJECT OR SOMETHING JUST PLAIN AWESOME TO SHARE THAT I CAN CHECK OUT?

Love ya,

Ashley

Posted in Life, Our Love | 4 Comments

Large & Linen (Linen Closet Overhaul on the Cheap)

Posted on January 31, 2013 by

Just like with her Pantry, my good friend Lindsey was looking to maximize the storage capacity in her linen closet.  She wanted to be able to house all of her blankets, linens, extra bath products, and more… all in one convenient, consolidated location!  To talk a little more about what we did, I’m letting Lindsey take it away again!

Recently I wrote a post about transitioning out hall closet into a pantry. It was such a success we decided to tackle our linen closet.

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Our current linen closet was fully functioning but I wanted to make it match our pantry (stained wood shelving) and add some more space-efficient design aspects.

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After falling in love with PureBond after using it with Ashley for our pantry, it was a no brainer for this project. We had Home Depot cut the wood for us again.  Let me tell you… this makes it so much easier!  It was a great option because we wanted to get the wood cut while my hubby was home working on other house projects.

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To keep things consistent, we stained the wood to match our pantry.  After that, we started installing! We used shelving with smaller 2-inch wide cuts as our support pieces.  In the linen closet, I knew that shelving would work great, but I also wanted some flexibility in the storage.  To get this, I decided to mix it up and add in some wire, pull-out baskets.

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The baskets totally add extra function to the closet for sure, and I’m now able to organize my items in the best way possible!

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Again, with Ashley’s help, we were able to knock-out a completely functional, amazingly beautiful linen closet!

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WHO WISHES THEY HAD A LINEN CLOSET THAT BIG?!?  I know I do!

As part of my partnership with Purebond, I’ve been reimbursed for my plywood purchases with Home Depot gift cards.  Regardless, I can tell you 100% that I would be using this product anyways!!!  It is beautiful, and far superior to any other sanded plywood.  Not to mention, it’s much safer for your health.
Posted in Closets, DIY, Painting | 4 Comments

A Pantry for Momma (Affordable Pantry Build)

Posted on January 30, 2013 by

Busy moms know how difficult a crazy morning can be.  Getting yourself up and going can be hard enough, but when you’re a momma, you’ve got a whole team of people to coordinate.  Well, my friend Lindsey is a wife and momma of three adorable little kiddos, and while she’s a master of planning and organization, her pantry was acting as a real roadblock to her morning routine!

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After a few discussion, we set out a plan to rebuild her pantry using one of my favorite products… PureBond!  It’s the same stuff we used in our pantry, seen here.  I’m sure by know, you all know how much I love this stuff!!!  Since this was a joint venture, I asked Lindsey to share her story…

Recently my husband and I decided to under go a remodel of our home.  What started out as a small project quickly grew as we added on new projects weekly. ;)

I have a fairly good amount of cupboard space in my kitchen. However, I wanted to add some space for the items that get used, but not used on a daily basis.  So, to accommodate the change, we transitioned our hall cupboard into a full-out pantry!  To get the job done, we:

  1. Tore out the existing shelving and supports.
  2. Painted the walls to match our new wall color.
  3. And then drew up some plans and decided on the final design.

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After we knew what we wanted the pantry to look like we had to look into a product. Ashley introduced my husband and I to PureBond. This was the perfect fit and we immediately fell in love!  Especially with no formaldehyde, since I tend to be a very “natural” and chemical/artificial free person.  Being a hardwood plywood, PureBond also gave us the durability we wanted. With three kids and a busy life, it gave us the strength and durability we needed, but also had the “knotty grain” option we were looking for.

With plans and measurements in hand, I decided to have Home Depot cut our product for us. This is a great tool to
utilize if you don’t have the tools at home to do the cuts yourself, you want to save time, or you just need smaller pieces to fit in your car.  Being a busy mom with a busy family, I certainly appreciated the service!

With everything installed, and having seen Ashley’s pantry painted all white, I could not decide between staining and painting. After finding Minwax dark walnut stain, I was sold!!!  Stain it was…

A little nail here…

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And a few more here….

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And voila! A new pantry for momma!

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Lindsey’s pantry turned out absolutely amazingly and I was so glad to be able to help through the process!  Their results not only look amazing, but they were easily achieved with little to no tools thanks to Home Depot.

WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?  WOULD YOU TACKLE A PANTRY OVERHAUL AFTER SEEING HOW EASY THIS ONE WAS?

As part of my partnership with Purebond, I’ve been reimbursed for my plywood purchases with Home Depot gift cards.  Regardless, I can tell you 100% that I would be using this product anyways!!!  It is beautiful, and far superior to any other sanded plywood.  Not to mention, it’s much safer for your health.
Posted in Closets, DIY, Painting | 3 Comments

Interview with HGTV Star, Chip Wade!

Posted on December 27, 2012 by

Sometimes, really fun opportunities come your way as a blogger. Sometimes, they are incredibly exciting and very personal. For me, this opportunity came as the holidays approached. One random day, I received an email from a representative from HGTV! Say, what?!?! So cool. Anyways, they offered me the opportunity to interview Chip Wade, one of my favorite HGTV stars! The gist of the interview was totally up my alley obviously, involving DIY projects, holiday planning, and toilets. Yup, toilets. I’ll get to that.

In case you don’t know who Chip is… he’s a little more about an awesome guy!

Chip was the contractor and master carpenter on HGTV’s Curb Appeal: The Block where he explained and demonstrated the tools and processes best suited for exterior renovation, landscaping and construction. Chip also appears as the carpenter on HGTV’s Designed to Sell and will host HGTV’s new series Elbow Room where he comes to the rescue of families who love their home and love their neighborhoods, but whose houses no longer suit them. Chip completely updates and customizes their homes by pulling off big, smart, eye-popping renovation and addition projects

Anyways, for fun, I thought I’d share the video of our interview for your viewing pleasure! And, yes, I know I’m totally silly and awkward! But then again, you probably already got that from my DIY Network episode too!

So, what do you think? I’m totally Good Morning America material, right?!?! ;) Honestly, Chip was so easy to talk to and I really loved his super creative idea for creating a double-duty desk and bed combination!

IF YOU COULD INTERVIEW ANYONE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY?

All participating bloggers received a $90 Home Depot gift card and the opportunity to receive and review a Delta toilet.  Honestly, I would’ve done this interview for nothin’, nada, zilch… just because it was cool.  The gift card is totally an added bonus, and the toilet is like icing on the plumbing cake since we have awful toilets in our house!  Post all about that coming soon!!!  And I’ll give you my feedback on the fancy schmancy new toilet too! ;)
Posted in All | 6 Comments

We Have a Winner… Cutting Edge Stencil Giveaway

Posted on December 26, 2012 by

Dawn S., you are the winner!!!  Congratulations on winning your very own stencil!  With over 75 entries… the competition was fierce!  We can’t wait to see what project you work up!!! You will be receiving an email shortly regarding your prize!

Congratulations again!!!
Ashley

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