My Little Gal's Kitchen

I knew I wanted to get Emersyn a kitchen for Christmas this year!  She loves playing with the toy food at my mom's house, so I knew she would just pretend play with a kitchen for hours.  I began my hunt for a kitchen that I liked and that would look nice in our house.  I wanted the kitchen to stay in our actual kitchen.  My plan was for Eme to be on her play kitchen as I attempted making a real meal each night.  With that in mind, I wanted something that was decorated in a kid friendly way but also looked nice.  I didn't want plastic and most of the colors I came across were not pleasing to our home or style.  So I started thinking about the possibility of making one.  Although pinterest had loads of great ideas, i quickly realized making one was going to be more than I could handle right now.  So I finally settled on buying one and possibly doing some of my own DIY touches.

I purchased a similar kitchen to this one at Costco for $100.  (no longer listed on their website)

Needless to say this color scheme was not going to work for me!  Here is a picture I snapped of the outside of the box.

The first step was to select what paint colors I wanted the kitchen to actually be.  I tested a few free samples that I had- so that I didn't have to spend extra money on paint supplies.  

I decided to go with the gray shade and the mint color.  Both of these were calm colors that would blend in with our house decor nicely.

 Before I could paint anything, I had to use a spray paint primer on all of the surfaces that were going to get covered with paint.  That was almost everything!!  So I set up shop in the garage and it took about 3-4 cans of white primer spray paint to cover all colored surfaces.

After letting that dry completely, I brought the pieces into the house to roll with paint. (tip-paint dries better in warmer temps).  I simply spread out a huge paint rug and rolled each panel three or four times- just to be on the safe side!
Even pieces that had details on them- I went ahead and painted over all of it, knowing I would change them at the end.

 All of the handles and hardware got a gold spray painted finish.

 The backsplash was originally a multicolored tile look, I just painted over that with a chalkboard paint.

After literally an entire morning of assembling this bad boy, it was complete!!!

Christmas morning Emersyn went straight to the kitchen and got very excited!! We asked if she wanted to open other presents and she replied 'no'  She has been loving this kitchen!!

Her excited face lights up my heart!  Hopefully this kitchen will bring her many happy cooking moments!

Last Step in the Office

The last step in completing our office makeover was the wallpaper.  This is also the step that SLOWED the entire project down by about a month! AHHH... practicing patience.  The grasscloth wallpaper we selected took about a month to arrive instead of the week which we were originally told.  Oh well- that's how it goes because it was WELL worth the wait!  The darker brown tone with an underlying gold hue is perfect for the room.  As soon as it arrived, I called in my professional wallpapering crew (my mom and Aunt Karen).  These two are amazing at getting the wallpaper lined up just perfect and this room had some tricky corners and curves.  Wallpapering a room doesn't have to be hard but it does take time, attention to detail, and the proper steps followed!  They began wallpapering around 10:30 am and didn't finish until nearly 6:30 pm.  I have listed below what I think are the most important steps to remember when installing your own wallpaper!

Listen I know all those steps and I have watched these two ladies wallpaper multiple rooms and I still call them to do it every time!  So I understand this can be intimidating, so don't be afraid to call for some backup!
That's it!!! Wallpaper is fully installed and now for the fun part- which is putting it all together!  Check back on Thursday to see what the finished product looks like!!

Man On A Mission...

When it comes to home projects my husband and I function in two very different ways.  I am a discuss it, think it over, look it up on google, pinterest it- kind of girl.  It takes a while for me to settle on a design or idea- I want to do it right, the first time!  My lovely husband, on the other hand, is a chat about it once- doing it the next day, kind of guy.  I have learned to not bring up a project to him until I am really ready to make it happen.  We had a discussion a little while back about needing to get our garage in order.  We had tools, yard equipment, and other stuff just stacked in corners.  With Emersyn growing fast and gaining large outdoor toys by the minute, I figured it was a great time to get the garage organized.
I showed Ian a few pinterest pictures from my, For The Home Board, of some great peg board ideas.

Then on Saturday Eme and I went out for some shopping and errand running and came back to...

Yep- you guessed it.  A peg board organization wall up, painted our house color, framed, and tools hung.  LOVE that man.  Let's just say he gets **** done!

There is plenty of space to add to this wall with peg board baskets and hooks for toys.  I love having the flexibility of just moving the hooks when we need to rearrange items.  Thanks hunny... here's the next pinterest picture I showed him...

I told him he can start on this whenever he wants!  haha- in my dreams!!!