Welcome to my 2021 post! (Because I'm averaging one a year 😂)

I am so excited to say that our kitchen is finally DONE!! *besides a couple tiny things, but I'm calling it good enough to share*. I'll share the links at the bottom of the post in case you're interested.

We started this last October when I got a crazy idea to paint our cabinets by myself. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the cabinets the way they were, but it just wasn't my style. I wanted something lighter and brighter (especially since our house is surrounded by beautiful mature trees and gets dark in the summer with all the leaves out). I knew I wanted white quartz counters, so I told Clarence I would paint the cabinets myself to save $$. Thankfully, a friend of mine from Arkansas does this for a living and has an AMAZING tutorial that I'm so thankful I had! It is under $50 and worth every penny if you're thinking of painting cabinets yourself! 

Here's where we started. Again, everything was fine, just felt dark. 

Now, this is how it looks....

It's really hard to photograph in the summer bc of the tree cover, but doesn't it feel so much brighter? After a lot of swatches, and painted poster board, and indecision, I finally went with was Silvermist by Sherwin Williams. It's a gray, green, blue, depending on the light. I thought about doing white, but just wanted to go with something a little different. Classic middle-child decision. 

One of the things we did that I'm really loving, is added a frosted glass vinyl to the back of the two glass cabinets. We have kids which means lots of colored plates that don't really look amazing on display. 😉This solved that issue! 

Another small change that made a big difference? Taking down that big microwave cabinet. It came out and down so far, that the counter space underneath it was all but useless. We really lacked useable space over there, so down it came. It seemed like a simple solution until the wall behind was covered in holes and damaged drywall. We attempted to fix it ourselves....it did not go well. 😂Drywall is such an art. We ended up bringing someone in and paying them a few hundred dollars to fix it. Then we had a huge space between the cabinets for MONTHS before we finally got around to putting the shelves up. Real life DIY.

Sooooo much better! We also had to get creative with an outlet that is behind the framed art. Turns out, the microwave needed to be plugged in there because it was on it's own breaker and it would trip anytime we tried to run it and something else. So, we plugged in a extension cord, cut a hole in the bottom of the shelf for the cord to run through, attached it to the underside of the cabinet and now it sits behind the microwave. Unless you look underneath (or behind the frame) you would never know!

One of the biggest changes came on the other side of the kitchen. We took down the upper cabinets in the photo below so we could replace the counters. Once they were down, it seemed so much more open, so I decided to change it up totally! We used the backsplash to tile the wall and then put open shelves over top. 

Before we tiled, Clarence attached three metal brackets for each shelf to the studs in the wall. We then cut the tile around those poles. Clarence bought a piece of pine at Lowes that was 12ft long and 1ft deep and had them cut it into two long pieces. Then, he had the crazy job of trying to get holes drilled in the wood to match *exactly* with where the poles were already in the wall. It was not an easy process, but he eventually made it work! Once we slid the shelf on, we realized the tile cuts showed 😤

Well, it was too late to go back now, so we bought a small piece of trim, stained it to match the shelf, and placed it along the back to cover the gaps. You can barely see it now. Ahhh the joys of DIY haha. 

Mom life. The play kitchen has a prominent part in our kitchen still. 😉We also took down the wine rack at the end of the peninsula cabinet and left it open. I still need to figure out what I'm going to put in there. It may be time to finally buy those Magnolia cookbooks I've been wanting! 

The play kitchen clutter isn't doing me any favors, but I don't even care, because it's such a huge difference! Soooo many hours spent prepping, and sanding, and painting. I will be 100% honest, it was SO MUCH work and I have no desire to do it again, but at the same time, I'm so proud that I did it all by myself! It was completely worth it. We ended up spending about $400 to paint versus paying $2-$3k for a professional to do it. 

We also upgraded our sinks and faucets.

Bye drop-in, two basin sink!

Hello undermount beauty!

Let's see one final look:

Now for some more nitty-gritty details (for anyone who is attacking their own remodel and would like more info or if you're just curious). #1 absolutely purchase Kayla's tutorial!!! She gives you a complete supply list, step by step videos, access to a FB group with other people doing the same thing, and is always available to answer questions. Ask me how I know. 😁

Take it step by step. It's much easier than looking at how much work you need to do and getting overwhelmed! I actually split our kitchen up into two sections. The U-shape I did back in the fall (which I would recommend if you're painting outside, bc doing it the summer with a respirator was so HOT!). I ran out of weather to continue, so I finished the peninsula and other cabinet this summer. It was really helpful to split up the work, though I did kind of dread having to do it all over again haha. Our kitchen was big, so it worked well this way, but if your kitchen is smaller, you could knock it out in one big chunk. 

If you have kids, I did a lot of work during naps or on the weekends. We took advantage of a lot of outside play and some movie time too. They also heard lots of "don't touch the cabinets!" 😂

We got our quartz counters from Granite Top Designs. They had, by far, the largest selection locally and was priced well too. We ended up getting Shadow by Prism Quartz which has a really pretty marble look to it. 

For backsplash, I fell in love with the Bedrosian Cloe Tile in White, but it was on backorder everrryyywhere. Through Houzz stalking, I discovered that Equipe carried the same tile in their Artisan Collection. Same manufacturer, different distributer. I was able to find it that way in stock and I really love it! It has slight variation in color and with the white grout, looks so beautiful! 

Our good friend, Mike, who has tiled many times offered to come help us get started since we were tiling newbies. Tile saw in tow, he was such a huge help and sacrificed one of his July 4th weekend days to lend a hand! It took us the better part of a day to tile the whole kitchen (and movie marathons for the kids). The next day we spent grouting and caulking. Between the two, we both preferred tiling! It made such a difference in the kitchen; really making it look finished. Changing out the hardware was also a nice change, making it feel more updated. 

All in all, we probably spent close to 7k on our update (almost 5K of that going to the counters). Spacing it out over the better part of a year really helped out (as did the stimulus check ;)

It feels so good to be done! I'm really proud of how much we were able to do ourselves, and how much brighter, happier, and more "us" it feels! 

Here are some links to the things we used. Let me know if I missed anything! 

Kitchen Sink

Kitchen Faucet (wait for it to go on sale; we got it for $100!)

Bar faucet (matte gold is no longer available. We found one on ebay)

Bar sink 

Hardware - knobs and pulls

Sconce Lights over shelves (scored them BOGO) We did the "magic light trick" for these. They have puck lights inside and are not hardwired.

Backsplash tile

Trim pieces for tile

Floating Shelf brackets

Laundry Room Redo

Our laundry room is finally finished! For years I've wanted to update this space to be much more functional for our family. We love having a mudroom (especially since we adopted the asian mentality of taking your shoes off when you come in the door), but the space was just not working for our needs. There was no place to take off or put on shoes, and the open shelving above the washer/dryer just became a dumping ground for junk. It's like a junk drawer but all over your walls....not pretty. Here is what the space has looked for over the past 5 years...

I know, it was a totally sexy space. It's way sexier now; take a look:

Oh man, I love it! It's not just functional, it's pretty! The mudroom wall has to be my favorite...and it was all built by my talented husband! As usually happens, I gave Clarence a few inspiration pictures and he made it happen. He started with the bench along the bottom so we had somewhere to sit and put on our shoes. He had to custom build it according to the measurements of our wall (my math-deficient mind doesn't even want to think about it). Baskets beneath hold our shoes. Then he added pre-made shiplap above that, and more cubbies for storage on the top. We already had those baskets, so he wanted to make the cubbies specifically for them. Once we went to install, we realized it was way too high, so he had to lower it and build molding to help it reach the ceiling. It looked pretty strange to me until we got the "stay awhile" sign for a white elephant gift at Christmas and it fit in that space perfectly!

The framed art was an 8 year wedding anniversary gift from Clarence. It tells our love story by year and is printed on linen (The 8 year traditional gift). It was such a sweet and thoughtful present!

On the washer/dryer side, I knew I wanted some cabinets we could close to hide all of our stuff. We ordered a few unfinished cabinets from Home Depot and I painted them "Weekend" by Magnolia Home. It's such a gorgeous, bold color which I felt this room needed. We stained a few boards to match the mudroom bench and ordered some black brackets to hold them up.

It makes me so happy to walk in that room now! It's pretty, clean, and SO MUCH more functional! Here are our sources and total breakdown:

Wood: Clarence used a lot of stuff he had lying around, but spent about $100 additional
Wall paint: Moonshine by Benjamin Moore. Had on hand (since 2015 haha)
White paint for cubbies: had on hand
Shiplap: $80 (there are def cheaper ways to do this, but Clarence wanted to go for ease)
Grey Baskets: $63.57
"Stay Awhile" sign: Christmas gift
Top Baskets: had already
Black coat hooks: $16.99
Rug: $66.77 (now priced 39.99!!)
Unfinished cabinets: $188.68
Magnolia paint: $20 for a quart
Black brackets: $46.96
Gold cabinet hardware: $15.89
Schoolhouse light: $20 at Pottery Barn Outlet
Laundry sign: $23.69

Total spent: $642.55

This is actually the first time I've added it all up. It's not bad for an entire room, but I'm also thankful we did it slowly over about 3 months to stretch the spending out. Overall, I'm super happy with how it turned out. Let me know if I missed anything you wanted more information on!

Up next? Abel's room (once we move the girl's in together).

Arden's Nursery Reveal

Have you seen this meme? It's one of my husband's favorites.

As much as it makes me laugh, and is so true in regards to various situations with multiple children, it's not true for nurseries in our house. I just can't help myself, I love decorating for each new baby's room.

We decided to move Abel and Haven in together temporarily and let Arden have Abel's room during her baby/waking in the night months. We wanted to spend as little as possible switching the boy room into a girl room so I needed to be a little creative. We decided to keep the walls navy blue and I found a beautiful floral wallpaper from Spoonflower that had navy it in. That was our only splurge in the room and we just applied it to one wall. 

This was our first time working with wallpaper and it was a bit of a challenge. Mostly dealing with the window. You were not supposed to trim it until it was applied, but the paper was thick, so getting it to lay flat around the window without trimming it was next to impossible. It is definitely not perfect, but thankfully the pattern is busy enough that it covers our mistakes. #smallvictories

We were able to reuse multiple items in the room. The glider we bought from Walmart before Haven was born, so we've definitely gotten our money worth out of it! The small pink side table was in Haven's room, but is a better fit in here for now. We are also reusing the crib and it has held up well since we bought it for Haven's nursery more than 5 years ago. We bought the rug from Rugs USA back when we were decorating for Abel's room, so that was another reuse. 

The curtains we bought from Walmart and I love the ruffle that adds a sweet feminine detail. The drum light I found on Facebook marketplace for $25! It is Pillowfort from Target and never used. It goes perfectly in here! I was so glad to finally get rid of the ugly ceiling fan that was there. Sayonara! 

The framed art was also pulled out of Haven's room and was a serendipitous match to the wallpaper! There are various Bible verses that I love to display to remind my little ones who God says they are. 

I found the lamp base at the thrift store, and grabbed an inexpensive frame from Target to finish it off. 

I also decided to reuse the crib skirt I made for Abel. Waste not, want not :)

I had my heart set on buying her a name sign to hang above the crib where the name is cut out of wood and has a 3D effect to it, but after seeing the cost, I decided to make something myself. It doesn't have the 3D effect, but we saved a bunch of $$! We bought a large, raw wood round from Home Depot for $11, painted it white, and then added the name with help from my Silhouette. All in, it probably cost me around $15...instead of $100 plus. I was also able to add her Chinese name on the sign which is an added bonus. Don't mind the anchor holes we have yet to fill in from the sign that we hung there for Abel...

The book ledges were also a "reuse". Clarence made them for Haven's nursery and they've actually been in a closet for years since we moved to South Carolina. They are perfect in this space and I hope it will instill a love for reading in her. The little floor pouf I made for Haven's nursery. I actually haven't resewn the top closed...I should prob get on that. The little laundry hamper is from Aldi. 

The dresser was given (!) to me by a friend who didn't need it anymore. We painted the drawer fronts pink ombre colors for Haven's nursery (you can go back and find that reveal to see how it looked). When we were expecting Abel, we sanded them down and stained them and bought new hardware. We decided to just keep it the same for Arden's room. Why make more work for us then we need to? The mirror above the dresser is from Target, as are the two little planters. Dollar Spot FTW! The alphabet art was also pulled over from Haven's room.

That's it! I'm really happy with how it turned out with just a little money spent. Clarence also built a closet organizer with a center tower and we were able to put a strip of leftover wallpaper in the back for a fun pop of color. We will probably move the two girls in here when Arden is bigger so we can enjoy the beautiful wallpaper for longer.

Now on to the next room! (Don't tell Clarence)

Wallpaper: Spoonflower 
Curtains: Walmart (now on sale for $10!!!)
Pom pom pillow cover: Amazon
Pink polka dot crib sheet: Crate & Barrel (no longer for sale)
Round mirror: Target (was $39.99 when we bought it)
Drumshade: FB marketplace (similar)

Abel's Nursery Reveal

I wanted to wait and post Abel's nursery when I finished decorating and styling it, but let's be honest, it could be a long time before that happens! #momlife. I figured I would just go ahead and show you how it looks now.

Way back in August I shared the mood boards for both a boy and girl nursery before we knew the gender of our precious boy. Here is what I created back then:

We started by painting the walls from an ugly brown (sorry for the fans of brown paint), to a rich navy blue. I seem to have misplaced the paint we used so I can't share the exact color. FAIL. 

Holy hole filling batman!

I kind of freaked out when the color first when on. It looked sooooo dark. Every other color in our house is light and bright, so this was totally out of my comfort zone. It is such a fun, masculine design though, so I just powered on. 

I had seen a photo of herringbone shutters and thought they would look so cool flanking the windows in this room...on the inside. Why not? Something that cool should be indoors where you can look at them everyday. All I had was a photo and a dream....and a handy husband. I literally showed him the photo and helped scour Craigslist for free pallets and he did ALL the work. Superman. They took him awhile to finish because he worked on them little by little (not to mention had to figure out HOW to do it), but they turned out AMAZING!! They are my favorite thing in the nursery and the rest of the room design revolves around them.

We used the dresser from Haven's nursery for Abel, just made a couple tweaks. We sanded down the drawers and stained them and bought some simple ring pulls to finish it off.

dresser as it looked in Haven's room

Now in Abel's room

Clarence used some leftover pallet wood to make the two arrows above the changing table. 

I found the cute basket at a yard sale for .25 cents. It wasn't so cute when I bought it, but it had potential! It was the original brown wicker and totally stained. We taped off the bottom and painted the basket white and the bottom a simple gray. It makes a great place to put toys! 

I made a simple crib sheet and crib skirt using some fabric I bought online. The crib fabric is from Spoonflower and skirt fabric from Joann Fabrics. I spent some time on Pinterest to figure out how to make the two and am happy with how easy it ended up being! 

Crib courtesy of his older sister, complete with teeth marks

Modeling the sheet like a pro
Photo by Julia Elle Photography

I bought these cute prints off etsy and stuck them in inexpensive frames from Walmart in a wood tone to play off the shutters.

Photo by Julia Elle Photography

I saw a really cool sign selling on etsy and used it as inspiration for a sign above the crib. This is not how it really looks, but I can't share the actual item because it is a copyrighted design, so I just edited and made a different sign :)

The chair is also from Haven's room that we bought from Walmart.com in late 2013. It's held up great and we are happy with the quality and price!

This is the side of the room that has yet to be decorated. We have various ideas for this big, blank wall that I'm sure we'll complete sometime this century. 

Here are a few final shots of the room. Rug can be found here and is SO soft!

It's a fun room that Abel can easily grow into. I hope he ends up loving it as much as we do!