Projects of Penrose: Kitchen Remodel

When we were making selections for our kitchen at the builder's design center last year, I knew I would want to have different finishes than our previous home and I also knew that I would want to select the granite and backsplash on my own--not from the builder's limited selection.  Sometimes builders can have nice colors but often times they are basic options and I like granite that has more movement in the pattern. Plus, I am admittedly picky when it comes to things like this after I spent almost two years doing high-end kitchen remodeling at my first job.  #designerproblems  So, we initially just installed a laminate that had a granite-like pattern to it.

We have a large kitchen - about 12'x19'- and the layout allowed for a bigger island than what came standard from the builder (just 3'x4').  I knew I wanted to extend that, so I decided to go with a furniture-style island.  We extended it to be about 40"x 72" using a frame and furniture post legs, which gives us overhang on the back and one side of the original base cabinet which we kept for the storage.  We used bead-board to cover the back and sides of the island for easier painting.  I wanted my island to be a contrasting cabinet color because our floors ended up very similar in color to our dark Espresso cabinets.  The entire 1st floor of our house has shades of blues as accents, so I decided to gamble and go a little bold with a blue island.  I LOVE how it turned out!  The photo below does not show the color exactly, it's got some teal/gray undertones.

After the island frame was done, we had granite installed.  I had decided on white for this kitchen, and fell in love with this slab of Himalaya White.  The whites and grays with some dark speckling swirled in work perfectly with the other colors of our home and tie in so well to the dark cabinets.  Since the granite had a lot going on, we went with a simple white porcelain subway mosaic in 2"x4" size.  I wanted a gray grout for some contrast and to bring in a little bit more of the dark contrast.  We went with Dove Gray, which is the medium-tone gray that was available. I'm glad we did not go with the darker Charcoal and I think the lighter gray would not have stood out as much as I would have wanted. #win

This photo was taken just a short time after grouting was finished, so it had not completely dried and now is just a tiny bit lighter than what you see in the photo.  I'm so happy with how the grout color pulls the dark veining in the granite.

Patience is a virtue, and I'm so glad that we waited to do this the way that I wanted instead of settling with the builder options.  

Aubrey Kate's Nursery Design Plans

Planning the nursery decor is always one of my favorite baby checklist items! I am incredibly excited to see my plans for Aubrey's nursery come together.  Here is a little peek into what we are working on...

It typically starts for me by looking through fabrics and finding one that is my inspiration starting point.  Last time for Ryleigh's nursery, I found a cute, colorful giraffe print that became her whole nursery theme.  This time, Aubrey's design started with Budquette in Nightfall from Bari. J's Emmy Grace collection.  I immediately fell in love with the artsy floral print and the charcoal background.  Our house has a lot of gray and blue tones so this fit in well.  After looking at a lot of paint samples, I chose SW Restful for an accent wall.  The other walls are SW Agreeable Gray like the rest of our house.

I always like to include the baby's name in the nursery and started brainstorming after I read a recent blog post from Katie about the Alphabet Soup letters at Michael's craft store.  I spent a good hour there rooting through the options since some are on clearance/discontinued, and coming up with this (although I have a lot of work to do with them before they are ready to hang)...

I ordered a crib skirt and one fitted sheet in the Budquette fabric from HappyMae on Etsy.  From there, the floral print took my mind in a wildflower/woodland direction.  I stumbled across this Monogram wall art from Anthropologie (unfortunately now discontinued) and looked up the artist, Starla Michelle Halfmann.  Her work is incredible! I am so in love with her style and wanted to order canvases and prints of everything, but eventually I decided on a large print of Kandy Forest.  I found the handpainted clipart images of woodland animals with flower crowns from FHFclipart on Etsy, and I shared a sneak peek on instagram of some cute artwork I've made to go over the changing table and rocking chair....

And of course, we will be re-using the crib and dresser/changing table from Ryleigh's nursery, now that she's in a toddler bed and we have a different set of furniture for her (my childhood bedroom suite).  

The accent wall has been painted and now we have lots of organizing and moving around of furniture to do.  I'm excited to start making progress!

Projects of Penrose: Foyer Lighting

A new home is always a process to decorate. I've been getting little bits and pieces of things done, tackling the necessities first, of course.  One small change that I have been wanting to make is the light fixture in our foyer.  Something that we did not anticipate when we decided to do the builder option of making the front 'den/office' area enclosed with double doors, was that the light from the bright, double-window in that room was now blocked from the foyer by the wall.  The light fixture that the builder installed in the foyer is really not adequate to brighten the area.  I hope to also alleviate this by installing a glass storm door so that we can leave our front door open during the day and let light in, but we will also be switching out the light fixture...

Our new pendant light was under $100, so it was an affordable way to solve the problem!

It just arrived today and I can't wait to see the change that it will make in the space.

Pinning for Penrose: Eat-in Kitchen

In our house we have an eat-in kitchen area in front of our big kitchen window.  I go back and forth with what I want to put there.  We have bar space at the island for people to eat, and when we re-do our kitchen counters within the next year (granite and backsplash) we will be adding 2-3 more bar seats on the wall between the kitchen & living room, where we currently just have wood moulding.  I am not crazy about the idea of just getting a table and chairs and calling it a day in there.  I would rather have some comfy seating, more of an informal area, where friends or family could sit and chat while we prepare a big meal.  So, I've been looking at some Keeping Room inspiration on Pinterest....

reading nook // built-in bench // club chairs // lounge area

Don't these just make you want to grab a cup of coffee or holiday beverage and some snacks to relax a little while?  I'm loving this so much more than a plain ol' table & chairs.

This is not one of the most important items on my list of ideas, but eventually I plan to create something like this.  I will have to keep my eyes open for good deals and see what I come across!

 

Our First Night on Penrose

We moved in this weekend [for the most part...] and spent our first night in the new house last night! It is so exciting to see everything coming together, and filling with furniture.  We still have a bunch of kitchen items and artwork to bring over from the apartment, but we are slowly getting there...

The first night went pretty well.  Ryleigh was loving the house and her new room all the way up until it was time for bed.  Then she had a 10 minute freak-out that completely shattered my heart to a million pieces because she was clutching onto me so tight, crying and saying "I sawwy mommy, I sawwy" because she was scared and I guess felt like we were leaving her or punishing her. I wanted to curl into a ball and die. But, with the comfort of her 13 4 blankies and every stuffed Bubble Guppy that we own, she calmed down after some rocking chair cuddles and went right to peaceful sleep.



And this is an exciting week! For several reasons...

1. Internet, phone, and cable were hooked up this morning! Yay for all of our DVR shows transferring because we are about 3 weeks behind on every single show...

2. Tomorrow is my birthday!!

3.  Wednesday we get our new living room sofa, loveseat, and entertainment center :)

4.  Our HOA approved our fence, so hopefully that is installed soon so that we don't have to bundle up at 6am to walk the dogs around the cul-de-sac!  Also, so that they can RUN. They have been so cooped up the last few months and I hate that for them. They will probably run circles for an entire day around the new yard once the fence goes in.




Also, some fun new randoms...

I am totally obsessed with Joss & Main.  I scooped these little trickets up, each for less than $8, and I had free shipping because after you make a purchase, you get free shipping for 30 days!  I have been buying several things on there lately so I've been running with free shipping for the past 2 months....... #sorrynotsorry

They have some of the CUTEST Christmas decor items right now. I got this cute little sign, which will find it's way either onto our mantle or somewhere in the kitchen.   The Bunny ring holder is for my kitchen.  I always take off my ring to cook and do the dishes, which is all the time with a little one.  I always sit my ring on the counter, but stumbled across this and thought it was too good of a deal to pass up, and so unique!   I also just bought this to go with our new duvet cover.

 


 

Projects of Penrose | Paint, Flooring & Organization

We are getting so close to move-in!!  We are hoping for this weekend if all goes according to plan.

We went to the house all day on Sunday and I painted two accent walls, one in our bedroom and one in Ryleigh's.  My handy Daddy also helped with hanging some lights and ceiling fans.  I was preoccupied so I didn't get any pictures yet, but those will be coming soon enough!

Our flooring downstairs is going to be installed on Thursday and should hopefully only take one day!!



Here is an update on some purchases and room Decor.....


Mudroom

Family Organization Center 

 This fun display will be in our mudroom across from our cubbie bench area.  I can already picture lots of beautiful pictures of our friends and family on the corkboard to celebrate their life events :) The calendar and whiteboard (aka-where we can make a grocery list) will help to keep Jake and I on the same page with our busy day-to-day.   I really love this unit with the white frame, especially since it will be across from our white cubbies, but white is backordered until February.  So, espresso it is! Luckily we are espresso people so it will match everything else and especially the kitchen which is the next room over.



Ryleigh's Room

Artwork // Be Wild and Free  |  Paint // Sherwin Williams for Lowe's

Still searching for a good vinyl decal for her name on the wall via etsy.  I think I'm leaning towards this one or this one.



Master Bedroom

Loving this new color scheme and how the patterns play off each other.






 

Finally Ours! Now if we could just move in....

Yay! We finally closed on our house and we are so excited! It doesn't quite feel real yet, because re-doing the flooring downstairs is like this ominous cloud hanging over my head of a project that must be done before we move in.  However, today was a fantastic day and I feel like we got a lot accomplished!

I spoke to the flooring contractor and got some great information and advice, and per his suggestion we purchased bamboo hardwoods.  The durability is key for us, and nowadays they offer so many great colors that do not actually look like the typical stranding of bamboo.  I'm also excited that it is working out for the flooring company who worked for our builder to be the same company installing our floors.  They were so wonderful every time we visited during building and we totally feel comfortable having them in our home to install these floors.

 

Originally we were planning to go with a solid oak hardwood, but Rafael really suggested bamboo instead because it is going to be just as durable, if not more durable, and since we are on a slab bamboo will perform better.  One of the benefits to a solid hardwood is being able to sand and re-stain, but since we are on a slab if we tried to sand solid hardwoods Rafael said it can ruin the floor.  Also, we saved 50 cents per square foot by switching to bamboo, so that was a $600 win! 

 

PS--Lumber Liquidators is now in Rock Hill! Who knew?! I never drive down Cherry Road anymore, but Jake informed me that they are now where Blockbuster used to be.  Yay for free shipping to store for pick up :)  Hopefully in a few weeks this will be done and behind us, and the house will really be looking like home!

 

 

 

  

Projects of Penrose: Home Decor Update :)

So our house closing is LESS than TWO weeks away!!!!!


I'm a little bit in shock and a lot a bit excited that it's finally here.



Since we are closer I have made a few purchases lately........

This beauty will be installed over our kitchen island...[all the heart eyes]

Chandelier from Joss & Main

Shop the site through my link here:

Also our master bedroom color scheme was changed around after Jake and I both fell in love with this duvet cover:

The Blake duvet cover from Potterybarn

Next purchases...a fence and hardwoods for downstairs!  I will be so happy a month from now once those two items are installed and we are moved in.

  

Practically Penrose: Quick House Update

Things are getting so exciting out at the new house!  I mean, it has been exciting from the beginning but now it's looking much more like a home instead of a construction project.

The exterior is done with a couple little touch ups needed, the interior has cabinetry, moldings, doors, paint, hardware, fireplace, fireplace surround, mantle, vanities, and as of last Thursday it was being prepped for the tile in the master bathroom.

I'm sure that countertops and plumbing fixtures are not far behind!  Although, the kitchen countertops will be ripped back out shortly after we move in, to make way for my pretty new granite!

We will be out of town this coming weekend (can't wait for that!! our first official vacation as a family of 3?!) but I'm hoping to visit the granite yard in a couple of weeks so that we can finalize that selection and get it scheduled.

Also next up on the to-do list:
 1.  Pick a hardwood for the floor and finalize that with the contractor.
 2.  Finalize granite selection.
 3.  Start buying stuff!  It's been a lot of window shopping thus far and now we are finally at the point where we can make the purchases of some of the new items we want for the house.  Of course, it will be a process over time but mainly in the living room, we are getting a few new items.  I'm excited because this house, aside from the obvious differences, is going to look a lot different from our hold house.  It makes things fun for this interior designer :)


On the more boring side, we have our interest rate locked in and the paperwork side of things is moving along smoothly!

Leaving our Mark.

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw me post these last night.  

I got the idea a few weeks back from a blog that I follow, Grace and Love.  She's currently building a house and I instantly loved the idea of writing Bible verses in the house before drywall goes up...adding a little of our foundation to the foundation, so to speak.  Her family also buried a Bible under their concrete slab the day it was poured, which I thought was a fun idea!

We decided to write two verses, one near the middle of the downstairs and one near the middle of the upstairs.  We chose this one for the first floor, which is on the dining room column...

And this one, which we had read during our wedding ceremony, for the heart of the upstairs...

Forgive the messy handwriting, that's what happens when you're holding a toddler that's trying to wrestle the marker out of your hand....

....we also ended up with a lot of this, because well...Ryleigh wanted to participate too.

Excited that they will be starting drywall soon!  I can't wait for it to start looking more and more like home.

Pinning for Penrose: Bedroom Decor

I am so excited about decorating our new house.  I know, duh, anyone would be.  But it's just something about this house, I guess building it from scratch, that makes me feel so much more like it's ours and I want to decorate every room.  Our last house we sort of decorated as we went, some rooms never event ended up with art on the walls, because we hadn't needed to use them yet.  This house I have so many ideas for every single space.  I can't wait for it to all come together!

We chose Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray as our whole-home wall color.  It's a nice warm gray that I think goes perfectly with espresso wood, which we have a ton of.  We will end up with some accent walls, because that's how I roll...you know this if  you were at our last house ;)

Here are some ideas I'm gathering with some Pinterest inspiration for bedroom decor.

Ryleigh's Room:  Bright colors & Puppy Dog theme

Anyone who is around Ryleigh knows how much she loves her dogs!  She requests to give them goodnight kisses every night before bed (or else she will refuse to go to sleep!) and she carries her stuffed "Puppy" around all the time.  She's also obsessed with Bubble Puppy from the Bubble Guppies show, her favorite!  So, baby girl gets a puppy-themed room :)

Master Bedroom:  Deep, Earthy colors with Navy & Green

I just can't seem to steer away from my favorite color, green. I love it for accents and I feel like it matches everything!  I try to not go too girly in "our" spaces because I want Jake to feel comfortable and like it's just as much his space to relax as mine.  

Pinning for Penrose: Kitchen Lighting

Gorgeous light fixtures make my heart beat faster :)  And that's not just a saying, it's really one of those things that makes me squeal with excitement and ache to have such a beautiful thing as mine!  Maybe that's a designer thing? I don't know.  What I do know, is that I need to find something outstanding for over our kitchen island.

The island is roughly 3'x4', although when we do the granite counters I'm thinking to stretch it to 3'x5' so that it overhangs the back and one side of the island cabinetry.  There is space for it, we will just need to figure out extra supports for the countertop and a couple brackets should do the trick.

So, with a good size island and 9ft ceilings, I need a sizable light fixture.  I want it to coincide with our brushed nickel cabinetry hardware and I want it to make a statement.  How I approach our home decor is kind of like this...."common areas" such as living room, hallways, bonus room, dining room, etc are the family spaces so they should be decorated in a way that the whole family would like.  The master bedroom & bathroom are both Jake & my areas so they shouldn't be overly girly.  Jake typically always defers decor decisions to me anyway, but he does appreciate when things fit his taste and are a color palette that he likes.  However, the kitchen is mine.  It's the one area of the house that I claim as my own and I will decorate it however I want.  

This kitchen is a totally different color scheme than our last house.  The last house was an earthy granite with grays & tans, and the cabinets were a crimson cherry finish.  This house I'm going for something with a little bit more pizazz...Maybe a touch more girly?....Let's use this Pinterest picture as the inspiration picture of the Espresso cabinetry and white granite counters...

Now imaging the above kitchen with something eye-catching over the island, a la something like this:

This is one of my favorites. I keep eyeing it for a sale.  It just makes my heart happy :) I love the style, love the number of lights, and I love that it has diffused light (frosted around the bulb) so that you don't get blinded looking at it. Dare I call it sexy?

I'm also a fan of the lantern style fixtures.  I think they give a room so much character and bring in beautiful lines.

This giant lantern is gorgeous but wayyyyy over budget at about $1500! Yikes!

The framing of this one is really fun.

I'm hoping to keep my eye on some of these and pray for a labor day sale just before we move in to seal the deal!

Projects of Penrose: Building our House

Here she is!  We chose a plan that is just over 2900 sqft, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom with bonus room on a cul-de-sac lot.  We are so in love with the plan! It is just so spacious and has so much storage, which was one of the biggest complaints we had in our last home [there wasn't even a linen closet!].  I also now have an eat-in kitchen, mudroom, and a full laundry room with folding table! Cannnnnn I get an Amen :)  If you ever visited our first house, you know about the sad little corner fireplace that the previous owners installed...well now we will have a real fireplace! I am so excited, especially because they are telling us that we will close around mid-October so we will be able to celebrate this Christmas in the new house!

To update you on the timeline so far...we listed AND sold our house on April 1st! Crazy day. We signed the contract for this lot a couple days before that, and then made all of our upgrade & finish selections on May 18th.  We had our pre-construction meeting on June 24th and in the last week they have cranked out framing of the 1st floor and almost all of the 2nd floor.  I love being close by to check on the progress! 

For the exterior finishes, it will be two-toned siding...The horizontal siding is a lighter tan and the accent vertical siding on the 2nd floor (where the bonus room is) will be taupe.  The trim and garage door are ivory.  The brick accent on the columns is a dark red/charcoal mix, which I think will look great against the charcoal gray door & shutters!