Photo Gallery Wall

I've adored photo gallery walls for years.  The Pottery Barn catalog always has the most amazing gallery walls and I knew someday I wanted one for my house.

The problem is that because of the floorplan of our house, I couldn't envision a good spot for one.  After reorganizing a bit (and taking down the print that used to hang there), I decided this little space in our foyer would be perfect.  Yes, the thermostat is in among the frames too!

Enter the gallery wall! 

Since it is a corner on the far edge of our foyer, it's a wee bit dark and hard to get a bright picture of it.



I found the vast majority of the frames at Goodwill and a few at Ikea.  I refused to pay more than $3 for any frame and I spray painted them all off white (the trim in our house is antique white).

I hung most of the frames with 3M Command Velcro Hanging Strips.  I love those things!  They are super easy to use, they hold the frames tightly, no holes in the walls, and the frames don't wobble on the wall.

I love that I now have a place to display all of our beautiful photos and as my babies grow and change, it will be easy to swap out the photos for new ones.

the Crown Molding Project

A few weeks before Thanksgiving, I finally convinced Ryan to put up crown molding in our foyer and dining room.

Dining room, before:

Foyer before:

More foyer, before:

Last before shot of the foyer:

The work begins! He taped off where the bottom piece of molding would go. We did a 3 section molding, with the crown in between. It gave us more of a stacked or thicker crown look.

My job was to paint the trim and crown pieces.

Installation has begun! You can see the top piece of molding (attached to the ceiling) and the bottom piece. The crown goes in between these two.

The finished product!

We have a small section of our foyer that is two stories with about 8" where there was a gap. Ryan just took the crown all the way across so we have two pieces that stick out a bit. It was a perfect solution to these weird sections.

Ryan did such a great job! It took a lot of convincing and it took several weekends of hard work. This was only his second crown molding project, but I think it looks completely professional. I appreciate his need to be a perfectionist and it turned out beautifully!

New Desk Chair

The before, a $9 chair I found at Goodwill, sitting in our messy garage (don't judge - we were in the midst of a big project at our house).

I had been searching for a ladderback chair for a while and even bought one on Craigslist. Unfortunately, that chair was super uncomfortable. But this chair was the total opposite! It was in great condition, no wobbly legs, cushy seat and uber comfortable, or as comfortable as a ladderback chair can be.




It just needed a touch up for our office. After a few coats of black matte spray paint and $6 invested in jazzy new green zebra fabric, it's perfect. :)



I'm so happy with how it turned out :)

Baby's Nursery Progress

I am so thrilled with Ryan's work on the nursery. He has made the room absolutely beautiful for our little boy! We still need to do some touch-ups on the paint, but it will be ready for furniture very soon. The furniture I have picked out is black and the bedding is very simple, just white with blue striping.

Here's the nursery before:





Ryan working hard at cutting the trim pieces:



Baxter working equally as hard!



A work in progress:





The finished product:

Happy New Year and the Beginnings of Baby's Nursery!

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. Sorry I have been slacking so much! We had a great Christmas with our family and friends. It was just over so quickly! Happy 2009 everyone!

We have some plans for the house for 2009, the first being the nursery. We found out on December 22 that we are expecting a boy!

Ryan got started on our baby's room during his winter break and it's coming along beautifully! This photo is the inspiration, but only for the wall trim. I found this nursery on HGTV's Rate my Space. Ignore the bedding, window treatments, and the nautical-inspired items.



Using his new nail gun, Ryan put up all of the trim and has painted the upper portion. It's the same color as our master bedroom, Sherwin Williams' Icy. The bottom half of the trim will be painted the same cream as the rest of the trim througout our house. He's also started on the crown molding and despite the fact that he only has one piece up so far, it looks great!

I'll post some progress photos as soon as I can find the little cord for my camera! I seem to lose it frequently.

The Kitchen Project

We started our kitchen project in August when our new granite countertops were installed. It took about another 3-4 weeks to finish up the backsplash and I haven't had a chance to take new pictures until now!

Just as a reminder, here is our kitchen before:

Drumroll please......the kitchen now! We added new granite countertops in Oura Brazil granite with a triple waterfall edge, a new sink and faucet, beadboard backsplash and undercabinet lighting.

Close up of the backsplash and Ryan added under cabinet lighting himself:

Edge profile:



Looking out from the kitchen peninsula:



It brightened up our entire kitchen and we couldn't be happier with the outcome!

Our New Granite Revealed!

We still don't have the plumbing hooked back up or the backsplash in quite yet, but our new granite countertops are in!

Preliminary photos:

Close up:

New stainless undermount sink:

Triple waterfall edge:


We love them! What do you think? :)

The Fence Project...Completed!

Remember me talking about the time suckage caused by our fence project? Now that I have access to my camera cord again, I can finally show off the before and after photos.

Keep in mind that this is a 7' red cedar shadow box fence. Approximately 5,000 square feet between the front and back sides. After 24 gallons of stain, 22 rollers, a paint sprayer, hundreds of gallons of water, and roughly 60-70 hours of man power, it's done! And hopefully will not need updated for another 5 years!

The gray section on the left is the weathered cedar (previously what our entire fence looked like) and the section on the right is after a good power washing. The Before:

The during (fence is all power washed and the staining has begun):

Ryan is working hard:

The after!

Ryan and my dad worked so hard (with a teeny bit of help from me!). Thanks guys!

Kitchen Destruction!

On Friday, Ryan, his dad and his uncle removed our old countertops and unhooked all of the plumbing to get ready for the granite install on Wednesday.

As a result, we have been living without a functional kitchen since then and we will continue to do so at least until this Thursday. It's going to be worth it!



I can't believe they removed it all in one piece! The old countertop and sink is being re-purposed in the basement renovation of my in-laws' lake house.

The current state of our kitchen:

Our range is temporarily sitting in the corner of the kitchen. It had to be removed to fit in the granite without damaging it. Can you see little Baxter next to it wondering what the heck is going on in his house?

See these brackets? They did not use to be there...our old bar overhang did not have any additional support, but the granite installers recommended that we support the slab if the overhang is more than 10".

I went to a kitchen store that sells our cabinets to order some corbels for the supports. 2 corbels were going to cost $425! So, after I got the scoop from them on what we needed, we bought unfinished wood brackets at Lowe's and stained them to match the cabinets ourselves. Not bad, huh? My aunt did not realize that they were new additions!

We went to the warehouse to visit our granite slab on Saturday and we couldn't be more excited about it! The slab is exactly the color we ordered and the edging looks fantastic! 3 days to go...

Last Purchases Before the Big Freeze

Just days before I knew about the tax "situation", I purchased a few items I have been lusting over for my home office. I'm glad I could sneak these goodies in before the big spending freeze!

First, these Linden Street Grommet curtain panels in cool white, not navy, from JCPenney:

The curtains should be arriving any day now, but it may be a while before I can buy hardware to hang them.

And, the Serafina pillow covers from Pottery Barn:

The pillow covers are backordered until October 30. I guess I wasn't the only one who was a fan! :) It does give me time to buy pillow inserts!

Our Home Improvement Continues!

Last night we made another trip to Lowe's. We went specifically looking for two outdoor light fixtures (one for the service door and the other for our back patio). We found both lights for less than $50! What a bargain!

A light similar to the one we bought for the service door:


A light similar to the one we bought for the back patio, but ours is slightly bigger:


Buying these two fixtures was yet another step in our attempt to completely rid our house of brass. One more brass light fixture to go! And, Ryan and Laura are going green! We bought compact fluorescent light bulbs for the outdoor lights. This is a HUGE step for me. I hate the look of fluorescent lighting. I do not think it's flattering indoors, but I figured I'd give it a try outside. As an additional bonus, we get brighter light for less wattage. Can't beat that! :)

The second thing we searched for at Lowe's was tongue and groove beadboard for the kitchen backsplash. We made the decision to go for the beadboard backsplash and Ryan's uncle Scott is going to help us install it. We had priced out sheets of faux beadboard panels, but Scott suggested the individual planks for a seamless look. I'm very excited to be finishing another element of our kitchen! The only question that remains is how to trim out the beadboard.

We are not doing a backsplash with our granite, so I have been scouring the internet for inspiration photos of beadboard backsplashes, especially those without a separate stone backsplash. What do you think of these options:

Thick molding where the beadboard meets the countertop:


Or thinner shoe molding:


Or no molding:


Thoughts?