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

*Hangs Head in Shame*

I know, I know...it's been MONTHS since I wrote. Obviously that's how I operate. I wouldn't want to freak you guys out by actually posting, oh, weekly...or even monthly.

There has been lots going on in the Wong family!  In September, Clarence applied for a job in Greenville, SC and in less than a week he had an offer. Within a month, we made the move! Good thing we enjoy change. We were blessed to find an apartment that would rent on a monthly basis since we wanted to buy a house. We spent a few months looking at houses and then found one that was the perfect fit! I was able to see it the day it went on the market and we put an offer in the next day. It has a great open plan perfect for entertaining. We wanted an older home with a good bit of land and this house provides just that. We love it!

Though the house was move-in ready, there are definitely ways we want to add our own touch. Because we are surrounded by trees, the living room can feel a bit dark during certain times of the day. I loved the fireplace and built-ins, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought it would suit the room better if we lightened it up a bit.

With flash before

Without flash before

Besides the fact it made the living room feel even darker, I really didn't have a problem with the look before. But I wanted to make it lighter, and I wanted more depth to the fireplace than just a solid one-color. 

I remembered seeing a makeover segment on Rachael Ray featuring John Gidding and an overnight makeover he did for a viewer. He did a sponge technique (I know, flashback to the early 90's) to the fireplace and it looked SO much better! I knew that's what I wanted to try, but I could not for the life of me find a description of exactly what he did. So I did what any woman in her 30's would do...I looked on pinterest! I found a tutorial on Lowes website that I think was probably pretty much the same thing.

First, we painted the whole fireplace Abalone by Benjamin Moore. I was starting to get a bit worried cause it looked SO white. Excuse the iphone pic. 

But we forged ahead. Once we had it all painted, we moved on to the sponge technique. For the color, we used Ashley Gray by Benjamin Moore, at about 75% strength. I really wasn't digging it when we started, but the more we put on, the more it started to look right.

It didn't have enough variation, so we went back over some bricks with the sponge again, so it looked more unplanned and random.

We then decided to paint the built ins as well. I'm not a wood hater, but I didn't like that the wood was only in the front portion of the shelves. Plus, we were trying to lighten up the space. We painted it Ultra White by Valspar both on the outside and inside. It took many more coats than I would've liked and lots of physical contorting to get in all the nooks and crannies, but it had to be done.

I wanted to paint the back of the bookshelves, but just couldn't decide on a color. At first I thought of something bold, but then didn't want to have to change all of our decor afterwards. So I decided on going with a dark gray after seeing a few images on...where else...pinterest.

Oh, but we know what a pain in the booty gray is! I figured one with a bit more brown in it would work better than one with too much blue because of the black mantle and tan fireplace. I settled on Mined Coal by Behr. And because I'm a rebel, I bought half a quart without getting a sample first to "test". I laugh in the fear of painting disasters! Muahahaha. Thankfully, it was PERFECT! Here is how it turned out:

We would still like to add doors on the bottom part of the built-in at some point to give it a more finished look. Still, we think it's much improved and are really happy with how it turned out!

Here it is partially decorated and styled...

More to come! Though I can't promise it won't be another few months...

Make your own floor pouf!

I love floor poufs.

There, I said it.

They are cute and practical and just such a fun way to bring some pattern and color into a room. They are also expensive! If you have no idea what I'm talking about....here are some adorable poufs:

Via

Cute, right? I really wanted one to put in front of our glider in the nursery, but could not justify spending $100 or more on one. I didn't really want to add another DIY to my list, but DID want to choose my own fabric and save money...so DIY it is.

I found a lot of blogs that raved about the Better Homes and Garden's pouf tutorial. They also said it wasn't too hard and I found that to be very true. In fact, I think pretty much anyone could tackle this tutorial and be just fine. It only took me a few hours and I was so pleased with how it turned out! 

I bought two coordinating fabrics from Hawthorn Threads, one yard of each for about $20 total. One of my fabrics was not cut very well and did not equal a whole yard, so I was a bit disappointed about that, but it was still enough to make my pouf. They have a great selection of fabric on this site and it was fun to go through and decide which ones I wanted to use. 

I didn't have enough fabric for the hexagon shape that BH&G used for the top, but just had to google how to sew it closed instead. It's not perfect, but does the job. I used a bunch of old clothes to fill it up and then bought one bag of fiberfill at Michael's for about $5 with coupon to use along the sides and the top. 

I'm tempted to make another one for the living room, but maybe use fabric that is all the same instead of alternating panels. If you've been tempted to buy a pouf, but can't afford the price, MAKE ONE! If I can do it, you can. Mine cost about $25, but you could definitely do it cheaper if you get a great price on fabric. 

Best of all, it covers the ugly glider base of my chair quite nicely :)

Changing Table DIY Reveal!

One thing we knew we'd need for the nursery was a changing table/dresser. I wanted to get a combination of the two because our nursery is not huge and I figured it would be more practical. Plus, I just really like the look of a long dresser used as a changing table.

For months I scoured Craigslist looking for just the right dresser. I found a set that was really cute and drove 45 min to take a look at it. It was at an antique shop, so the prices were just too high for us. We wanted something we could redo, but this dresser needed work AND was still a bit expensive. I was sharing my lack of luck with my supervisor at work when she mentioned, "I have a dresser we were thinking of getting rid of, you can have it for free if you want it." Well only an idiot would say no to that! I told her we'd take it. It wasn't until I saw it in person that I was really pumped! Look at this beauty:

Yeah, I have the best supervisor ever, basically.

I knew I wanted to do an ombre paint feature on the drawers and figured it's a girl, so what better colors to use than soft pinks? I painted the main part of the dresser Behr's Vermont Cream which is an off-white as I wanted everything to be soft and not a glaring white. For the drawers I chose three pinks beside each other on a color swatch and ended up with Valspar's Brushed Rose, Salmon Bisque, and Snow Pa. We just bought a sample pot of each to keep it cheap.

For the knobs I chose these really pretty glass rose petals from Hobby Lobby. I waited until they had a 50% off sale and then snatched up 6 of them for just under $26 with shipping and tax. I am really happy with the finished product! Here are some before and after side-by-sides :)

We are so happy with how it turned it! It's exciting to see the nursery come together and we can't wait to fill the drawers with little girl clothes and have our precious angel with us to wear them. Here's one final photo for the road :)

Final cost:

Dresser - Free!

Paint - $5 each for a total of $15 and $20 for a gallon of the off-white

Knobs - $26

Total: $61!

EDIT: Apparently this dresser is a rare McCobb Planner Dresser and multiple people have felt the need to email and tell me how horrible of a person I am for destroying a piece of art. Honestly, we had no idea it was a rare piece of furniture! So for anyone else who feels the need to cut someone down for recreating a piece of furniture for her daughter's nursery when she had no idea of it's value, you can save your time... I know! But thanks for your kind words :)

Dining Table Makeover

Ok, so we technically finished this weeks ago, but there's been so much going on I hadn't had a chance to blog about it.

Have you seen the pedestal table makeovers in pinterest/blog land? I've seen a ton of people turn a hum-drum table into a thing of beauty with just a little paint and stain, so I figured I could do the same. When I was still living in Singapore last year, I spotted a pedestal table on Craigslist here in Lynchburg for a mere $60. My sweet sister was willing to go and pick it up for me and her in-laws held it for me until we returned. Gotta love family.

Well, what is a dining table without chairs? Besides a catch-all for junk...really nothing, cause we had nowhere to eat for the first month in our new place. I wanted to find 4 chairs that had an upholstered seat that I could change out and Craigslist came through again for me. I got a set of 4 for only $30! Here's what it all looked like before:

Ahhh, gotta love that orang-y wood tone :) And the fabric on the chairs? Please, take a closer look...they are amazing!

Yes, 70's! They were really appropriate for the kitchen with the all mushrooms, onions, and asparagus goodness, but alas, I decided to change them out for more updated fabric.

This is a photo I snapped after finishing the first chair. I was in love :)

Now, this was the first experience I had with Annie Sloan chalk paint. I'm not sure I would use the white again. After four coats, the coverage still wasn't very good, but I honestly just got tired of painting. Maybe it was the wood tone underneath, but I think if I paint white again, I'll probably prime and then paint with a different type of paint. Personal preference.

We sanded the top of the table and stained it a darker color which turned out perfect! Here is the finished product:

I'd say this was a successful makeover on our small budget!

The only thing I would change is the color of the walls, but considering I've made my husband repaint every room in our townhouse except for the dining/kitchen area...I've gotta let this one go. It may not match the blue in the fabric, but that won't matter in our next place.

Up next: Projects for the baby room! Here's a glimpse at my mood board: