Our Kitchen Reveal

"Part 2"

After a year of renovating we finally arrived here!

Here's a some reference pictures for you!

- faucet - countertops - farmhouse sink - rug - chairs (craigslist) - table - backsplash tile - 

** fun fact about the cabinet color! I actually wanted to do 'Pigeon' by Farrow&Ball, but I did not have

$100 to spend on paint, and an additional $20-$30 to have it shipped internationally to me, so I ordered

a sample and had it paint matched at home depot, in Behr Premium. I can't even tell you how much joy

I get, walking out of our room every morning, into this lovely quaint kitchen. 

This is what's next, we have been wanting to redo the tile in our kitchen, pretty much since we moved

in. But since the entry, kitchen, dining, and laundry room are all connected. It would be a good chunk

of money and time to redo all of it. So this is the point where desperation could kick in. I've almost

settled for 3 or 4 other tiles. And justify them by "Well, they are kind of what we're looking for, and we

won't live here forever." But I am so glad that we didn't do it. Because we finally found the perfect tile! 

Are you guys ready to be amazed?! SUTHERLANDS!  I mean, Look at these!

I saw these and I was so glad that we waited for the perfect tile. After seeing these, we decided to move

forward with the laundry room renovation as well. Here's what we are planning. We are going to do a

larger version of my brothers laundry room that he designed for his home.

Isn't it amazing?! He worked as a contractor so everything he does is just exquisitely done. And it

doesn't hurt that we're best friends. He'll typically do work for some nutella and dinner. So i'm

definitely good with that!

We'll do the modern shiplap, and the wood waterfall over the washer and dryer. And we will get the 

matching shelf from IKEA, and the wall hangers from there as well! I'll talk more about just the laundry 

room renovation in a couple weeks when we get started. But this is just a little preview.

I have previously claimed that we would NEVER have shiplap in our house, and I'm here to make a

public apology to that affect. Now that i've seen it look really modern and cool, here, and in my friend

Courtney's house. I'm singing a different tune..

We also thought about merging this tile into the laundry room, almost like a puzzle effect.

But I haven't decided if this is too taupe for the more clean, modern look we are going for.

And lastly, I want to spay dye these killer chairs grey.

I'm not sure which of these projects will come first. But feel free to follow along on my instagram story!

I don't know what it is. But there is something truly magical about coming out of our room every

morning having the overwhelming feeling of what we have accomplished here with our own two

hands. 

Until next time!

Etsy | Instagram | Facebook

Our Kitchen Reveal

"Part 1"

Finally, I am here to show you our kitchen update. I've been avoiding it, because there were still a

couple of big things I wanted to finish. But if renovating our own home has taught me anything, it's that

a home is never really "done", so here we go!

These were the photos that I saw on Zillow of our soon to be kitchen.

Clearly, it's dated.  But the one thing that I did like about it, was that there was only a half  wall

between the kitchen and living room. So, that meant it would be pretty easy to open that bad boy up.

The second thing that I liked was perfect placement of the upper cabinets on the right side. They would

be really easy to remove and we could have open shelving. Which we were really wanting!

And thirdly, I was pretty grateful that since we would be taking out the wall and cabinet, it would

become a necessity to remove the countertops, and sink. And I really didn't want to put it off. On top of

which, look at all of the original General Electric appliances! Wowza!

Here are some actual photos from the first couple of days that we were here. Clearly Little Cesars is 

essential before taking on a kitchen renovation. And any other fast food that keeps you sane. 

Also, obvious, look how dark it is in here. It definitely needed to be open up. So the first thing we tackled with the kitchen was removing the half wall. Which, let's just take a moment, what the heck is going on with this little half wall? It's kind of like they wanted privacy, and then changed their mind by putting in the window. Why even have the wall?! It makes no sense! 

So, away it goes!

When we first moved in, I thought I was being real cute by painting a J&K 2015 on the wall expecting 

it to get done immediately. But alas, it stayed there for a good 6 months, just mocking me. 

In case you were wondering, it became less cute month by month..And the next thing was to take down 

the cabinet doors, and drawers. 

Next was spraying down all of the doors and drawers. As well as covering all of the things we didn't 

want painted with papers, and tape. That part wasn't fun, but it definitely made our cabinets look so 

much better. And let me tell you, this sprayer saved our booties a number of times. 

My dad helped Justin and I frame in all of the cabinet doors, with flat trim wood, and a nail gun. It gave 

our doors a nice shaker style, which we loved. And then we just painted the drawers. 

So, i'll be honest. I really really really wanted to buy gold hardware. But when all was said and done, 

there was just no extra expense for $200 worth of hardware. Honestly, it was such a blessing that the 

cabinets already had the silver version of the kind we wanted. So I decided to take matters into my own 

hands and paint them.

I have had to repaint a couple of them, but other than that. It's worked out splendidly!

I'm pretty thrilled at the way they came out!

So, here's a "let's be real" moment. It's all well and good to see peoples instagram, and blog photos of 

how quickly renovations are getting done. But on the real side of things, our cabinet doors sat up like 

this for a good month or so before we were able to hand them back up. So don't loose heart if this is 

where you are at! Go get some gelato, and get back in there girl!

After hanging them, it was time to address the real eye sore. THE COUNTERTOPS. 

By the way, your eyes are not deceiving you, these counters are not a dream. They are very real. The 

purple, the pink, the sponge effect. It's all real. And although we picture someone at some point in our 

home's life thinking, "yes! These countertops are IT!" They definitely did not have that effect on us. So 

out they go!

Removing countertops are not for the faint of heart. But it's what I like to call the break up phase. 

Painful, goes until midnight, tears, and leaves you a little bare. But it's all for the best!

And then before you know it…There they are. And its like they were always there. 

I'm very happy to say that the infatuation phase with these countertops has still yet to fade. And I'm also 

happy to say, that all photos of me laying on our counters, hugging them, have been destroyed. 

One of these days, i'll walk you through our long love story. How we found each other, how we were 

kept apart for so long, and the joy of when we finally were abled to be together. But since this is getting 

a little weird, let's move on. 

You may not believe this, but we actually found these brackets in the garage, and a long piece of wood 

that we cut in half to make these make shift shelves. 

The next big project that we tackled was the wall that had been exposing wires, and that large unseemly 

pipe. Justin told everyone we were going for an "industrial" look. But let's be honest, we weren't 

fooling anyone.  

My wonderful Unlce Jay came over and knocked this out in a matter of a couple hours. And his work 

is always immaculate! 

After removing this, he put up a new thing of drywall, and then my dad came in and framed it in to 

match our cabinet doors. It is seriously one of my favorite features that we have added. 

And that's where we left it for a good 9 months. 

Until inspiration struck, we finally decided on a tile to put on the backsplash. We probably looked at a 

dozen or more. We decided on a plain white ceramic subway tile from Home Depot. And just decided 

on making it look more modern by lining it up. And not doing a subway style. You can see below that 

after taking out the cabinets there were a lot of imperfections on the wall to cover up. 

And we decided to do the whole wall, and i'm actually glad that we did. Especially now that we've 

seen the finished product. 

Part 2 of the kitchen reveal to come in the next couple days, with where we are now, all of the info on 

where we bought everything, and plans with what is still left to do!

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Our Room

Our room has been through so many phases. It's one of those rooms that it has so much space, so the

number of options can be overwhelming. We initially decided to take the smaller room, because in our

previous apartment, we never really spent any time in our room. So we didn't want to put all of this time

and money into it. 

The initial thought was to do it as 1/3 living area, 1/3 Justin's workspace, 1/3 Kaylan's workspace. 

Great in theory, but really tough to execute. We imagined doing shelving on the right wall with all of 

our books and TV, and then obviously painting, and doing a little living space in front of it. 

Then, facing the windows would be Justin's desk, and mine there on the back wall. 

Here we are halfway through the execution. It was definitely a fun surprise to find vinyl tile under all of 

that carpet.. 

Here is where we had it just before Christmas. Little did I know, this was our room's puberty phase. 

You know like, we knew we were having company, se we decided to make it look fairly presentable. 

And then 3 months later we had it here. 

I like to call this the pre-teen phase, You can tell it's really trying. But it just doesn't know what it wants 

to do with its life yet.

We still had the closet doors off, and had yet to finish the floors, but we felt 'OK' with it like this. We 

lived with it like that for about 10 months. and then a couple months ago while Justin was at work I had 

a profound thought. What the hay are we doing?! We have this huge room back here and this whole 

combined workspace thing is NOT working! You can tell, his audio equipment was leaking over into 

the living area, and we were always sharing plugs. It just wasn't a great set up. And I just never had 

THAT feeling when I walked in there. So I just started moving things. 

Let's call this phase, the pre-mid-life crisis. It's kind of like when you're moving out of puberty and you 

are between who you were, and who you want to be. We're getting deep now, people.

  

I'm going to be honest, I'm definitely one of those people who would rather get a hernia moving my 

own furniture rather than ask for help. Which got us here. I moved our mattress and plaid chair into the 

hallway, and then loaded our books into boxes, moved the TV, and the couch.

Guys…it was rough. Justin got home from work and I had a lot of our stuff in the hallway. It was

definitely a Leslie Knope adopting 32 dogs moment when he got home. 

But within 2 days, we finally had our room. Now it's like, what were we even doing before this?



We tried to make everything in here very practical. The couch is actually from Walmart. Crazy right?! And it also folds down into a bed. And with a foam topper and sheets, its actually really comfortable. The lamp is perfect for late nights reading or blogging (currently sitting there now). And the rug is actually an outdoor rug, which is perfect because its fibers don't absorb dirt! And the artwork from left to right is from Jo&Junes, and the flea market.
(Rug/couch/lamp/clock)





Over here on this side!
We actually got the dresser from Craigslist, but I think I will paint the outside white. And in case you were wondering, the fiddle tree is from Home Depot, they will randomly sell them in spring, and fall.
(gold sconces/Area rug)

I pretty much spend all my spare time in here. I just love it so much! Of course we will make tweaks

here and there, but overall we are really enjoying it!

Do you have a room that you've felt like this about? 

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