STYLING OPEN SHELVES IN MY KITCHEN

Dayum y'all.....so much love for the new coffee table:)

Thank you!

I have moved a few things around until I make up my mind.  The acrylic coffee table headed to the guest room as a bench stacked with books.  I moved the pigeon basket back to the family room where it was long ago....and now I have sufficient time to think about it.....which could be anywhere between 2 weeks and a year......give or take.

I don't like to be rushed ya know.....

Anyway......guess what?  I have some shelves to show you today.  From my house.  I know right....who am I?  Some crazy blogger?  Well I was looking at them on Christmas eve day and all of a sudden they were stripped down and I was cleaning them.  

Again....who the heck am I?

Here is the before!

Hot.  Damn.  Mess.

I had just been shoving crap on them and really not paying attention.  But hey....I am cutting myself some slack because we all do that right.

They aren't perfect yet but and I could have definitely weeded them out even more but in reality I use these everyday.  They were the only upper cabinets I had in my kitchen so I thought long and hard about removing them a few years ago.

I think I am an "over accessorizer" on shelves and sometimes I have to stand back and edit.....and maybe I am not there yet.... 

BUT.....in actuality these have to be functional for me and they are fitting that bill right now.

What I use on a daily basis is on the first shelf. Dishes and such.

I love finding pretty pottery and flea markets.....especially when it can actually be used for something:)

I have never regretted taking the cabinets down.....not one minute!

You are probably looking at the before and scratching your head thinking they don't look any different.....haha

At least they are dusted and washed so there's that.

Somebody asked about the basket on the DR table and I got it at a flea market.  I wish there had of been 2 of them:)

Last night in the middle of the night I woke up and one eye was stinging and watering to the point I could not even open the eye.  It was crazy and it went on for over 15-25 minutes.  I was freaking out thinking maybe a spider of small bug bit my eye and I was going to be blind.....I always take everything to the extreme.

It seems to be OK this morning but I have never experienced anything like that in my life....out of the clear blue!

I will be posting on Thursday instead of Friday this week....joining a few friends in discussing Design Trends for 2021!  They asked me 4 months ago and you would think I would be all organized and such but heck no.  

I have not even started the post yet which is a quality I hate about myself.

Hang in there people!

Shaydraggingtoday

12

BEFORE AND AFTER OFFICE MAKEOVER

I am so glad you enjoyed the tour of Pam's getaway home!  What is amazing to me is that while it looks old....it is not.  It was all newly built in the last few years!

Another thing is Pam is the sweetest person ever....

So how was Christmas for everyone?  Mine was very low key....I stayed home Christmas Eve day, night and most of Christmas until I walked down to my sisters for a quick dinner!  We ate on paper plates because her DW is broken....... we still have not started her kitchen!  Soon though.....planning is the most important part!

I have hinted for a while that I decided to do a little makeover in my office/laundry room.  This was my husbands domaine....and well....he is gone so I decided to make it mine!  

I can't tell you how good it feels to have this room be purposeful for me!  Let's start from the beginning...well I say that.....but it was such a quick decision I did not take before pics when it was a complete mess...and when I say mess I truly mean it.

One more thing....I needed to stick to my budget...using smoke and mirrors which really means PAINT....which as we all know is a game changer!

Here is the laundry area....after I had cleared most of it out.  It took a few days to go through everything and find new homes for a lot of it!  I mean why is there a roasting pan in here:)

To the right of this picture there is another knee area and a window which is where my ex sat.  I literally never occupied this space.

So what was the plan?  I decided to remove all the upper cabinets and paint.  Also leaving the tile floor, bottom cabinets and the countertops which are cheap laminate!  Luckily 30 years ago I picked a neutral :)

And it's painted.....SW Urbane Bronze!

Below you can see I was excited about accessorizing the space...haha!

Alrighty then.....

Yup....the excitement was building.....

As much as I wanted white oak floating shelves I decided NOT to spend the money and went with using Poplar for them.  My guy put a nice lip around them so they looked more finished.

I ordered the brackets on Etsy and they came in a week.....

Can you feel how excited I am?  Seriously y'all this was a long time coming!

Every time I got overwhelmed  I would soothe myself with a little shelf styling....haha.

This was the dining room table....and the rest of the LR looked the same!

It  took three whole days of the weekend starting on Friday.....

Not only do you have to go through everything you have to figure out where to put it.  You might think the upper cabinets were better for storage but they weren’t.  The open shelves are so much better and visually help when the doors are open from the LR/DR.

The next thing to decide was a rug....to cover the ugly tile!  I went to Scott's and brought some home.  Now you know I am a neutral girl so of course I brought 4 neutral and I threw in one odd one:)

While I loved the one above.... when I put the colorful rug down it was a game changer!

In my opinion it looked the best and also you noticed the rug instead of the tile.....winner!

I just took some fabric and put it over a spring rod to cover the extra knee hole [after using iron on tape to clean up the edges] and it is also another place for storage now....clever girl:)

So here ya go.....

Black baskets on the top shelf hold some of my fav fabrics.  The printer used to be over by the other window and it you could see it.

Oh yeah....I ordered some cheap oil rubbed bronze knobs from build.com....

And  for the shelves I did not buy anything new except for that little basket to put the faux Target fern in!  I shopped my house and basement!

All of the art came from flea markets!

I remembered I had 2 blinds left over from when I took them out of my keeping area and I hung them myself which is a little amazing as I do not hang curtains ever!

Here is the washer/dryer side.  I did buy the white baskets at Target....

And I got the large white shelf at Ikea!  Best find ever as it fit's perfectly and makes that space very useful!

I brought the lamp in from my bedroom....

I ordered the chair from Overstock.....

I am thrilled with it....and I am so glad I did not rip everything out as what a mess and expense that would have been.

Now when you look towards the office this is the view....I know so many pictures...can you tell I am excited?  Of course it will always be a work in progress as I can use this area to practice styling!

It was such a long time coming.  Sorry this is late but I forgot to set my alarm and I was up finishing up Bridgerton on Netflix last night!  I was so so good.....but I had to go workout my knee is almost 100% [boy that took a long time]  and get Cami walked.

I also did a little makeover [meaning re-accessorizing] on my kitchen shelves, keeping area and LR so there are some fun post coming!

Y'all I am officially divorced now.  It took 461 days....after 31 years together and not a single word to me.  So there you have it.

Shaystillamazed

 

52

KITCHEN INSTALL

Well people....it was quite the week.....2 room installs and and curtain install gone wrong.  Not earth shattering but all kinds of hardware problems with shipping of wrong finishes.

My installer said it is getting more common....as they don't have enough people to fill the orders.  Supply chain going wrong!

But....the amount of shopping I had to do for accessories but exhausting for sure.  I've said this before but you have to practically overbuy 3 times what you will need.  

Blah Blah Blah.....it's part of the gig and hey that is what I signed up for:)

On Tuesday I had the kitchen install.  After 3 months everything finally arrived so they were anxious to have a place to sit and eat!

I worked on this renovation with Ladisic Fines Homes all spring and summer.  Architects were Pritchett Dixon

The cabinets are SW Mindful Gray.  I had the table custom made because of the space between the island and eating area was tight!

When we were in design meetings I had the idea to put open shelves here.....just for breathing room.

A custom hood and custom leather barstools from Charles Stewart.

This was a renovation so the ceiling differences made a nice place to tuck the dining area in.

I was really pleased with my choice of seating.  The Woodbridge cane chairs mixed with a pretty Charles Stewart settee.....

I used the same leather from the barstools with a fabric back for softness.....

Here is a picture of the chairs without the cushions.....

The porch behind the kitchen is the cooking area with a grill.

I used some of her items and just augmented with a few pieces from Homegoods and Crate and Barrel.

Countertops are a quartz.....Caesarstone Calcutta Nuevo

Beautiful hand made walnut table.....

Closeup of the stools.

Cute Circa Lighting sconce.....

In this picture you can see how the kitchen relates to the family room......

There is nothing more exciting that seeing how it all comes together.  It's not uncommon for me to sit around and second guess everything after three months of thinking about it:)

I am always conscious of how people live.  They have 3 very active boys and a dog.  Everything had to be durable and I tried not to accessorize too much.  I had the table custom made for size..... but I  also chose a hard wood like walnut and since it is solid wood.....the top can always be refinished in the future!

I'm pretty stoked that it is Friday.  Cami and I have big plans.....just to hang around. 

The other night we went over to my neighbors for dinner.....it was SO good!

My boo....

Alrighty then.....pictures of the family room next week!

Rock your weekend kids!

Shaywhoopingitup

10