September is a big month around here! Not only have we been anticipating our anniversary trip, but also the official start of our kitchen refresh! This project has been months in the making. Many of you expressed interest in hearing more about it in my mid-year goals update, so I thought we could chat about it today!
The background:
From the day we stepped foot in this house ten years ago, I knew I’d someday want to paint the cabinets. The kitchen was actually one of our favorite parts of the house – the layout was good, there was ton of storage space, the countertops were unoffensive, and overall it was in great shape – but the reddish wood of the cabinets combined with the reddish tone of our floors was just not my style.
That being said, we emphatically did not have the budget to hire a cabinet painter for the first many years of homeownership, and it was not a project I was interested in taking on myself. We also were unsure how long we planned to stay in this house, and therefore unsure whether the expense of a kitchen refresh made sense. We did make a few tiny upgrades along the way – a sliver of a chalkboard wall in 2013 and new pendant lights in 2014 – but the kitchen largely still looks the way it did the day we got the keys. Here’s a home tour from 2015 for a little background; I’ve sprinkled a few “before” photos throughout this post, too, very much unstyled :)
We’ve decided that this will, likely, be our home for at least the next few years, and that, combined with a more recent ability to pay for these upgrades, made us comfortable slating a kitchen refresh for 2022. For all the excitement I’ve had for this project, though, I’ve also been in my head a bit.
First, this project represents a large outlay of money for us. I feel pressure to craft an outcome I’ll LOVE and be happy with for a long while (probably the rest of our time in this house), especially because I am the one driving this refresh. (John would be happy to leave things as-is.) I’ve waited ten years to spend this money, and I want to spend it well and not have regrets. That’s a lot of pressure!
Second, while I am proud that we’ve lived with a kitchen that didn’t feel like us for a decade in an age when it’s easy to find instant, extravagant, ripped-to-the-studs renovations everywhere you look online, there’s still something in me that feels conflicted about replacing things for (almost) purely aesthetic reasons. I’ve wrestled with whether I’m being a good steward of the earth and of our finances in doing so.
Those are not rabbit holes for which there are easy answers, but I’ve come to a place I can live with and am truly excited for what’s ahead.
The process:
In planning for 2022, I dubbed the kitchen refresh a Q1 goal. LOL.
In reality, in what felt like a part-time job at times, I spent all of Q1 and into Q2 chasing down contractors to bid on our project. We did, by the end of May, choose two and pay deposits, and were able to get on their calendars for three months later.
A bright spot was meeting with my friend Callie of Haven & Hinge in January. For an hourly fee, we met in my kitchen, talked through options, and weeded through my Pinterest board together. She recommended contractors to reach out to and sent me a simple design plan based on what we chatted about. Based on our meeting, I ordered and then hung up four paint sample swatches. Friends, they have been taped to our cabinets since January. EIGHT MONTHS! Even though we chose our cabinet color in the spring, I refused to take them down. Through all the waiting, frustration, and delays, they were my sign – my beacon of hope! – that something was eventually going to happen in this kitchen, ha!
In August, I had a final meeting with Callie. To maximize our time, I combed through the whole project and bulleted out in granular detail my exact questions before she came over: where should we put knobs and where should we put pulls? Which style of hood? 8″ or 13″ pendant lights over the bar? Etc. etc. etc. These are the types of questions I could spend hours debating; instead, it was so nice to spend ONE hour making all the decisions.
Once I had answers, I had final meetings to relay them to Don (who is doing most of the work aside from the cabinets) and Sean (who is doing the cabinets – not confusing at all to have a Don and a Sean working on our project). I also entered the official “spending money” stage and purchased the light fixtures, cabinet hardware, tile, and hood vent. And that pretty much brings us to where we are today!
The plan:
So what actually are we doing in this refresh? Here’s the punch list:
STOVE WALL | We’re replacing the cabinet doors with Shaker-style fronts, replacing the hardware, and painting the cabinets.
HOOD | Removing the microwave, installing a hood that vents to the outside, and building and installing a wooden hood cover
REFRIGERATOR WALL | Removing the counter and cabinets to the right of the fridge, building a tall double-doored cabinet to the right of the fridge (the microwave will go inside), and building cabinets out around the rest of the fridge, to the ceiling. The wire shelf currently next to the fridge will be rehomed.
LIGHTS | Replacing the pendant lights over the bar and the dining room table fixture
OTHER | Adding or replacing a few other decorative pieces: adding a rug, painting over the chalkboard wall, removing an old intercom, simplifying the molding, removing blinds, hanging curtains, etc.
Here’s a sketch I made of the refrigerator wall, since it’s a little harder to picture:
We are not replacing our countertops, sink, or any appliances. However, we are doing a few smaller projects in or adjacent to the main room, but outside of the kitchen, at the same time:
POWDER ROOM | Painting the walls and replacing the light fixture, towel ring, artwork, and hand towels
FIREPLACE | Building and installing a custom wood mantel and replacing the tile with the same tile as the backsplash
STAIRS | Removing some fussy scrollwork detail for a more classic, simplified look
SIDE HALLWAY | Installing three large fabric bulletin boards to display kid artwork and photos
The inspiration:
Let’s look at a few lovely photos to wrap things up for today!
Though I love a white kitchen, I wanted something a little warmer for our space. We’re going with Benjamin Moore’s Natural Cream, which is the same color used in Alaina’s kitchen (top left – so beautiful!). We’ll also be using gold hardware. (Other sources clockwise from top right: unknown, a friend’s kitchen, LEB Interiors, Friday & Co Design, unknown)
This kitchen by Emily Henderson has the same beautiful Zellige tiles that we’re using for our backsplash and fireplace surround.
Don is using this photo (from a Caitlin Creer home) for reference as he builds our mantel. (We aren’t doing the horizontal planking above.)
And he’s using this photo as a reference for our hood (I don’t have a credit for this one!).
And there you have it! Friends, the paint samples are still on my cabinets as I type because this all still doesn’t seem real – but maybe by next week it will? Because there will be new tile in my kitchen?! Thank you, as always, for being excited about the journey – even the very long ones :)
Back in the fall of 2020, when our preschool opened back up, we met two of our dear family friends.
The preschool opened up with more limited hours, and so the three of us all suddenly picked up at the same time. After a distanced summer, we were hungry for even casual interactions with strangers – which is what this started out as, as our children ran and played outside the school for a few minutes before loading into cars.
Day after day, strangers grew into acquaintances who grew into friends. By piggybacking off our kiddos, we were able to “hack” one of the oldest tricks in the book: making new friends at school – except this time, it was our kids’ school, not our own. This allowed us to quickly up the time quotient of the friendship equation, which can be hard to do post-graduation. Casual interactions, swapped stories, and frequent check-ins piled on top of another until one day, I realized these new friends were as close as many old ones.
We swapped phone numbers. We met up at a park. And then, after many months, we took a big step forward: one of the families hosted a weekend dinner. There’s just something about being in someone’s home that’s a huge leap forward for relationships, don’t you think? We had a lovely evening, and then several months later, the other family hosted us all at their home.
As we pulled out of the driveway, John and I chatted about how it was our turn to host, but that we wished our home was more conducive to having multiple families with kids over. (Our house is wonderful for our own family with young kids – the open plan makes it easy to interact while I’m cooking and they’re playing, for example – but it can get loud and chaotic and hard for both the kids and grown-ups to enjoy themselves when it feels like we’re all on top of each other and the floor is somehow suddenly strewn with every toy we own.)
Then, June piped up from the back in a sad little voice: “I wish we could have the friends over to our house.” Not realizing she had been listening, we fell over each other to assure her that we could have friends over to our house and that our house was wonderful, because the last thing I want her to think is that there’s such a thing as a house that’s not good enough to host friends, or that I was anything but grateful for our perfectly wonderful home. She was reassured, and we talked about how it might be nice to have a spring party so that we could enjoy our backyard. And then I forgot about it.
But she did not :) And so, a few weeks ago – apropos nothing – June asked when we were going to have our spring party. And so, a spring party it was. We set a date, and the planning commenced.
Friends, my big girl is her mother’s daughter, and she launched into party planning with great zeal. Here’s a sheet with some of her notes:
Over several weeks, we brainstormed food, we made decorations, we planned activities, we baked and frosted sugar cookie party favors, and on the day of, we did all the final preparations together. She was in heaven. In celebration of imperfect hosting, I thought I’d share a few photos…
The flowers for the back fence were the biggest project – they probably took 3-4 or so hours over several days. Does that seem like a lot for something we tossed in the recycling post party? Maybe, but it was a delight. June and I listened to the Yoto radio while we cut the petals out of paper plates (I still have a gigantic stack from pandemic preschool-at-home) and then Shep joined in to paint 60 flowers. I hot glued them onto twine and John helped us hang them right before the party. It was SO fun, and they looked so sunny and cheerful!
We also hung some honeycomb poms from my party-planning stash from our trellis and the branches of the trees.
For food, we started with a charcuterie spread from Raleigh Cheesy that one of the other families brought (SO GOOD!) and lemonade/lemonade cocktails for the grown-ups. We kept things easy for dinner with hot dogs and brats on the grill, plus fruit salad, cut veggies, and a tray of Chick-fil-a mac and cheese. Dessert was warm box brownies (Betty Crocker always) with freshly-picked strawberries and whipped cream spooned over the top. June’s sugar cookies (from our favorite baking book) were the take-home favors.
Whether you’re nervous to host or it feels like your circumstances are less than ideal, I hope this post encourages you to go for it if it’s something that matters to you! This night is such a sweet memory – and we’re all eager for the next one :)
And never forget – string lights make everything 100x more magical.
Now that her birth story is recorded, I feel like I can share Annie’s newborn photos! To be honest, this day lives as a stressful one in my memory. (I’m sure many mamas can say that about newborn sessions, especially when siblings are in the mix!) After being perfect angels for our maternity family shoot with Ally, the big kids were a bit of a disaster for this one – totally rambunctious, not listening well, not taking direction, very minimal interest in smiling at the camera, you know the drill. In case it helps a future mama, I think there were a few reasons for the difference:
1. Our spring shoot was outdoors, so they could run around in between shots and it didn’t feel disruptive. 2. Our spring shoot was in a novel location, so they were more attuned to us and both more interested in and less at ease in their surroundings than at home. 3. There was a tiny baby at this shoot, so we were planning fewer active photos and more “cuddle together” photos – not as interesting to big sibs. 4. John and I were a bit hobbled in this shoot compared to our spring one – I was post-partum and holding a tiny baby, and his ankle was still recovering – which made corralling them more difficult (and they knew it, ha). 5. We definitely could have done a better job of prepping them with our expectations in advance. Had a few other things on our mind, though :)
I also felt like I pulled our outfits together at the last minute, I could have prepared our house a bit better… BUT ENOUGH COMPLAINING! As always, Graham worked his magic out of our chaos and returned some absolutely beautiful (and spunky) images that we’ll treasure forever. We feel so grateful to have them. I hope you enjoy this peek!
There was only one photo I specifically asked Graham for – the newest version of a photo he’s taken for us with every newborn session.
There we are :) Thank you for letting me share, friends!
File this under classic third child situation: baby girl will not have a dedicated nursery.
BUT – we still have some special plans up our sleeves, and since where our newest addition will sleep has been one of our most commonly asked questions, I thought we could chat about our plans today!
In our home, the master bedroom is downstairs, and we are grateful to have three bedrooms upstairs. June is in one, Shep is in another, and the third is our guest room. The guest room was the very first room we painted in this house (Benjamin Moore Healing Aloe – the prettiest soft green, which I still love!), and after we hung a pair of magnolia art prints on the wall, we dubbed it the Magnolia Room. It’s perfect for welcoming our mostly northern guests to our Southern home! Here is what it looks like today:
Since we live far from loved ones and my sister and her family visit for weekend trips often, it’s important to us to keep a queen bed upstairs. Because of this, this room will largely stay intact, but we will be making a few adjustments to accommodate baby girl! (On that note, I am very glad that baby is, indeed, a girl and not a boy, because the existing decor definitely skews feminine! We could have made it work if we were welcoming a boy, but it’s a much lighter lift this way, ha!)
Here’s a look at the plan, and then a few more details:
First, of course, we’ll add a crib. We’ll use Shep’s same white Jenny Lind crib, even though he’s currently occupying it. We figure we have at least until the end of the year without overlap (if we need it!), since our babies usually sleep in the bassinet in our room for the first few months. Once we move the crib into her room, we’ll add this beautiful magnolia crib sheet (with this floral design as a back-up) and eventually this muslin quilt.
We’ll also switch out the curtains. While I love the current curtains, they’re not black-out and don’t even exactly cover the entire window when closed. (Oops – one of my earliest commissioned projects :)) I’m planning to find a seamstress to make black-out roman shades with the gorgeous Poppy fabric by Lulie Wallace, which I think will tie together lots of the colors in the room and be a fun, feminine touch for baby girl.
Finally, we’ll hopefully switch out the dresser. There is currently a dresser in the room, which was a free hand-me-down from one of our cottages in Maine. It is lovely, but smells AGGRESSIVELY like mothballs. We have tried various things to air it out over the years, but none have made much difference and we don’t have much hope of further progress. We’re currently storing a few things in there that don’t really absorb smells or we don’t care if they do, but ideally we would like some storage for baby girl things. So, we may opt to replace this dresser with another one – maybe this one. If I could get an exact dupe of the dresser in June’s room, I would in a second – I still think it is the most gorgeous honey wood color!! Alas, it was a one-of-a-kind flea market find.
We’ll also likely take the opportunity to switch out the lamps for a matching pair, add some happy yellow artwork over the bed, and frame a few family photos for the dresser!
For those who are curious, we figure the room in this configuration should be just fine for at least the first 2-3 years of baby girl’s life. Our kids don’t keep too many toys in their room until they start quiet time, so it shouldn’t be an issue to preserve the guest room feel. After that, we might consider having two of the kids share a room, or shifting the guest room to be more custom for baby girl (but still keep a queen bed). Or, we might be in a new house entirely! We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it :)
Sharing these posts is always good motivation to nail down the details – now I just need to execute! T-10 weeks to go…
