house – Page 9 – emerald city diaries

a housewarming.

our realtor PJ – if you need one, he is the best! – offered to throw us a housewarming party as a closing gift. pretty sweet, huh? PJ’s husband, justin, owns two local restaurants – the hanger in georgetown & the ridgeback café in ballard – & was brought in as our crepe expert. yep, we had fresh, delicious savory & sweet crepes hot off the crepe iron to serve our guests. and, it turns out, a lot of wine (i guess that is what happens when your host brings a case of wine & then every guest brings a bottle. we have enough wine to throw a few more parties!).

our little housewarming party took place this last saturday evening. it was great to get friends & family together & show off our house (most of the guests hadn’t seen it yet & others hadn’t seen all the updates we have done).

{a few appetizers to go along with the crepes.}

{me, justin, & PJ chatting about home décor & food.}

{our sweet neighbor antonia!}

{since we had to endure threatening skies & rain at times, we got a double rainbow!}

have you thrown any parties lately?

kitchen cabinet update.

as some of you know, i recently did a bit of an overhaul to our kitchen in regards to the cabinets. the process was long & tested my patience, but we now have fresh, updated kitchen cabinets & a start to an entire update to the kitchen space.

per usual, i found some pinspiration. i love the look of two-tone cabinets, don’t you? i knew this would be a great way to modernize our kitchen without totally destroying the craftsman-style feel of our house.

{via}

{our kitchen before we moved in.}

{our cabinets right before i took them down. sorry for the blurry i-Phone pictures.}

i started the update to the kitchen by doing the toughest (well, hopefully!) work first & that was priming, sanding, deglossing, & painting the kitchen cabinets {soon to follow is updating the backsplash tile & laminate countertop!}. i followed the young house love painting cabinets tutorial, which i found to be really thorough & helpful. i pretty much followed their timeline, although my project was a bit more complicated because i painted the upper & lower cabinets two different colors. i used benjamin moore cloud cover (same as YHL) on the uppers, & benjamin moore cinder on the lowers. after doing a bit of research & then chatting with aaron, we decided to pull the trigger & buy the benjamin moore advance paint (which is also what YHL used). it is a bit more expensive, & i still had to buy a primer as well (i used a valspar contractor’s bonding primer which was low-VOC), but it was money well spent. so. worth. it. the advance paint is great to work with, has no odor, & dries with an amazing finish (i chose satin). i highly, highly recommend anyone who is painting kitchen cabinets (or wood furniture?) to use benjamin moore advance paint.

we also replaced the hinges & hardware while we were at it. originally there were knobs on the cabinets, but i ~~could hardly~~ couldn’t reach the knobs on the top cabinets (like above the stove) because they were placed a few inches above the bottom of the cabinet door. we figured since we would have to wood fill, sand, & drill new holes for the knobs, we might as well replace them with something we really liked, & that ended up being handles. then we figured we needed to replace the hinges to match the color of the handles. we bought our handles & hinges from myknobs.com.

i don’t feel like i need to give you a play-by-play since the YHL tutorial is so good. i will just let the pictures fill in the details. you really just wanted to see the pictures anyways, right?

{we also hung some artwork up. this lovely corkboard was made by my mom for our wedding (the seating chart was pinned to it). we just bought an empty antique frame & my mom hot glued corks to a piece of corkboard & duck-taped/gorilla glued the board to the frame.}

the whole space has really changed just with a few coats of paint – it is awesome! we are really loving the updated cabinet colors & i am really happy we went two-tone.

next week i am going to attempt to paint the backsplash tiles (as the forest green & pink hearts really aren’t going to make the cut with the new cabinet colors). wish me luck! the following week i will attempt to paint the laminate. i am still deciding on a color, but something in the grey family.

have you painted kitchen cabinets before? would you ever want a two-toned kitchen?

my weekend in pictures.

{stocking up for the housewarming party at TJ’s.}

{ironing all six 109” long panels. so worth it! pics will be up on the blog soon.}

{measurements for curtain hanging.}

{friday was actually warm – not to be confused with hot! – enough to wear a maxi dress & sit on the back porch.}

{shared dessert with aaron from pies & pints.}

{drink & food spread for the par-tay. we also had crepes that were ah-maze-ing!}

{baubles.}

{this is how sadie holds my hand. interlocking forearms.}

{sunday night dinner at boom noodle with my grandmother.}

{we wanted to see moonrise kingdom but it was sold out. the next movie showing was that’s my boy. i knew it was going to be bad, but it was way worse than i thought it could possibly be. i had more faith in leighton meester. oh well! i think some of the upcoming summer blockbusters will make up for this one.}

we got to catch up with a few old friends & show-off our house – so fun! how was your weekend?

a color scheme for our living space.

our living room & dining room combine to form a large, wonderful living space. the big picture windows on the front & side of the house are awesome & let in so much light (when there is any light!), but the yellow color was awful. i knew i wanted to update the color in this space immediately, so i waited to unpack most of this room until i could get paint on the walls. it was a lot of taping, but it was so worth it! i left the upper portion of the wall above the picture rail the original white & also left the picture rail & baseboard the original colors. we anticipated needing to re-paint the trim, but after the new color went on the wall, it was clear that the trim color was perfect the way it was, phew!

these pictures were taken before we even moved in (& are the same as the ones on the house tour page). obviously there was a huge update in just furnishing the space.

i wanted to add some color in this space & really, really worked at not painting it grey. aaron & i both gravitate towards grey & i know it will show up in other places in the house (yep, like in the kitchen. you will see soon enough!). i knew that if i painted this big room a not grey color, i could basically paint every other room in the house grey & it would probably be fine. our couch is grey & our coffee table & bookshelf are black, so i didn’t have much of a jumping off point since basically any color would go with our furniture. i found inspiration in two places: pinterest & young house love.

{color scheme pinspiration}

when i saw this color scheme, i fell in love instantly. it was the first & last color scheme i considered for the space. the next step was finding the perfect shade of mint green for the walls.

i looked online for colors & originally thought mint julep by benjamin moore would be a good choice. even seeing it again it looks like a great choice, but when i got a color sample home & put it up on the wall, it turned into this yellow mess. i don’t know whether it was the blue-hue in our grey couch or the existing yellow wall, but it was an immediate no.

i also picked up some other mint-y green colors from the store, along with carolina inn club aqua by valspar which is the color john & sherry of young house love painted their bedroom.

i was a little hesitant about using aqua at first, but this color (the winner!) is gorgeous! you can see in some of the pictures that we have a color trifecta going on in this room: white upper walls, ivory-ish picture rail, & aqua lower walls. {i didn’t have a ton of light when i took these pictures, so i apologize for the darkness. you do get an idea of the color though, & that is the point. i will try to update the pictures once we get a little more sun!}

the three dining room lights are on the chopping block, but we need to get an electrician in the house in order to put the power over the actual table. right now the lights are centered in the middle of the room. lighting placement fail. so for now, we have really brightly colored dining room pendants.

also, i am not joining the show extreme couponing. i like to use paper cut-outs on the walls to help with art placement & coupons are what we had on hand since we don’t get the newspaper. i hope to get the rest of the art up in the living room this weekend!

source list: {if you are interested}

entryway table {antique from my mom & dad}
eiffel tower lamp & shade {target}
diy upholstered tables
lounge couch {crate & barrel}
coffee table {craigslist}
rug {overstock}
diy pillows
(old) billy bookshelf {ikea}
dining table {long term loan from a friend}
sideboard {ikea}
diy framed chalkboard
tv stand {unknown}
torchers {target}
white ceramic garden stool {target}
blue & white ceramic garden stool {vintage from my grandmother}
dog bed {fetch dog}
magazine basket with handles {pottery barn}
white throw blanket {pottery barn}

a test case: the entryway.

our entryway is small & dark, but takes care of the basics of housing a doormat & a few hooks for coats.

i wanted to jazz the space up a bit by adding some color on the wall, a little artwork, & a few hooks. at some point in the future we would like to add a light in this space, but there is no electrical in the room, so a light will have to wait.

{this is the best & only picture of the entryway before i got my hands on it.}

some of my inspiration came totally from my own head. i adore chalkboard paint & pretty much like to use it wherever i can. i loved the idea of having a chalkboard wall (you know, floor to ceiling) but there just didn’t seem to be a good space in our house for it. until i started brainstorming for the entryway. yep, it is covered in chalkboard paint. you may be thinking that i am crazy for wanting to paint such a small space with no light a dark color. you are right, i was probably a little crazy, but the great news is that the room really isn’t too dark, even with the nearly black walls.

the bad news {isn’t there always bad news?} is that i really didn’t consider how messy a chalkboard wall would be. i think all of that creativity got in the way of reality. so, i may eventually try to add some kind of board & batten wall treatment in order to keep that chalk dust at bay.

my other inspiration is actually a pinspiration.

{see original post here}

i love this simple, clean look of empty frames. i was able to find a few fun frames from etsy, but am still on the hunt for a few more. i also originally planned to paint the frames white like in the pinspiration photo, but i sort of liked the original frame color & decided to keep it until i added more frames. i am also sort of loving the idea of painting the frames gold.

so without further adieu, our entryway:

{my welcome sign in fauxligraphy & frames. that little teeny white dot next to the lower frame is actually a magnet. i painted a couple coats of magnetic primer underneath the chalkboard paint so the middle of the walls are a teeny bit magnetic.}

{two sets of hooks for aaron & me. i added a framed chalkboard mirror on this wall too.}

i did actually paint chalkboard paint in the entire little room, even above the doorways, to be consistent because it is unlikely we would ever write anything that high. although my friend amanda suggested that i write something way up high that is semi-permanent. i am still thinking about that. i seasoned the walls by rubbing them with the side of a jumbo piece of chalk. then i wiped the walls with a damp cloth many, many times to try to remove the excess chalk & help with the messiness. the purpose of seasoning a chalkboard is so that when you go to write or draw on it, whatever you write or draw won’t become permanent {well, permanent in that you will always be able to see it even after it is erased}. i am torn about the seasoning of the walls; i am glad i did so that we can erase things, but i am sad i did because (a) seasoning with the chalk is what is making the walls so messy, & (b) i wasn’t tall enough (& was too lazy to get a ladder or chair) so the seasoning only goes up about 5.5 feet. oh well.

i would like to find a fun, colorful, & durable rug for this space, but for now, our old front doormat works. any ideas on where to get a good doormat?

would you paint any of your walls with chalkboard paint, or is it just me?

source list:

doormat {target}
hooks {anthropologie}
frames {etsy}

a few updates to the bathroom.

this isn’t going to be a very exciting post, sorry in advance, but i have had a few requests for updates to the house, & one of the rooms that has received some attention in our first month as homeowners has been the bathroom.

here she was before (she being the bathroom of course) in all her beige glory. we have grand plans to do a total bathroom remodel (to include replacing the toilet, sink & bathtub) but for now, we are living with the space mostly how it was.

{the blue tile on the walls of the shower & the floor are beau-ti-ful!}

a few things that had to go, however, were: the magnifying mirror next to the medicine cabinet (neither aaron nor myself have any desire to see ourselves – or our pores – on that large of a scale), the oval shower curtain rod, the metal grip bars in the shower, & the two glass shelves that flanked the entire wall on the right side of the medicine cabinet (not pictured).

so, here are the updates. {sidenote: when i took these pictures it really was bright, but i guess bright is a relative term, especially when you consider the grey-ness of seattle. i apologize for the dark photos. but at least i didn’t use the flash (apparently that is a big no-no in the photography community).}

{former home of two glass shelves. aaron patched the wall & i painted. the two light rectangle patches are where we patched & painted. yep, paint finish fail. it is actually the same color, just a different finish & we didn’t realize until the paint was already on the wall as the paint can was incorrectly marked. so, we need to find some art or something to hang on that wall. any suggestions for bathroom art?}

{the new shower curtain rod. the old one was oval & meant to be used with a clawfoot tub, so there was about 3/4 of the rod that was never used as it was inside the shower. aaron replaced it with this curved shower rod & it is awesome! at first i thought he was going a little overboard with the curved rod, i mean, it is a pretty small bathroom, but just those extra few inches make a world of difference. i highly recommend using a curved shower rod if you are replacing an old one.}

{we, & by we i mean i, needed more storage space in the bathroom. i don’t feel like i have a lot of stuff, but the medicine cabinet was not going to cut it. so, i picked up this ikea cabinet. i liked that it had glass shelf space & hidden shelf space. plus, it was a great price! {sidenote: i originally put the little plastic legs on the bottom of the cabinet, but it was really unstable, & since we couldn’t attach the cabinet to the bathroom wall, because of the wainscoating & trim, we just opted not to have the legs.} until we are able to replace the sink with a vanity, this storage will work perfectly.}

{also, i added this sign just so that we don’t end up having to replace our old sewer line sooner rather than later!}

other than hanging some art (& a clock!) & painting (our blue tiles are awesome, but do not look awesome with the yellow walls), we probably won’t be doing much to this bathroom for some time. we would love to update the fixtures (in white), add a vanity, & radiant heat in the floors {wishful thinking, i know. at least a heated towel bar?} but that will all come in time.

have you done any updates to your bathroom?

my weekend in pictures.

{when it is 5 o’clock on a friday & your husband says he doesn’t want dinner for a few hours, you are glad you stock salsa in the pantry!}

{aaron made white pizza for dinner on friday. yum-o!}

{i like to think of saturday as homeowner’s day, as in do housework. our saturday was filled with clearing out the kitchen cabinets to sand & degloss, & trim the hedges.}

{my saturday evening was spent with my grandmother: dinner & shopping!}

{yep, those are our kitchen cabinets. in the basement. there are big things brewin’ at the lower house.}

{we finally got the car washed!}

{sunday night dinner: dinner & the avengers.}

{the 520 bridge was closed this weekend, so we took i-90 across lake washington instead. it was a much longer drive, but we got to see downtown all lit up!}

we are in the midst of one large house project – a minor update to the kitchen – which is all-consuming. how was your weekend?

my long weekend in pictures.

{on our friday morning commute, we discovered a giraffe lives in the neighborhood. apparently giraffes can live in rhodies.}

{meeting downtown. the views were superb (as was the weather)!}

{still enjoying my peonies!}

{the first of many, many trips to the yard waste bin. we spent saturday cleaning up the yard. it was A LOT of work. kudos to all of you who have yards that always look neat!}

{we saw the king tut exhibit at the pacific science center. it was a bit of a disappointment as king tut wasn’t even there, but we also saw the laser gaga show & it (partly) made up for it!}

{sadie accompanied us on our rounds to the hardware store this weekend. she was so sweet & laid down waiting for us to go home. this was after she hoovered the popcorn remnants from the floor – thanks home depot for the free popcorn!}

{my amazing husband converted the power in our new pantry (formerly a laundry closet). our microwave now has a new home. yay for more counter space!}

{another painting project completed this weekend. the kitchen.}

we kept ourselves busy this weekend with homeowner-y stuff. it was a lot of work, but really worth it! this place is really starting to feel like home. our home.

there are lots of updates on the house that i have been meaning to post. i will get them up in the next few days for sure!

how was your weekend?

my weekend in pictures.

{a small shopping spree at west elm to kick off the weekend. that place is dangerous when you have a house to decorate!}

{i had an appointment downtown and took the express bus to the tunnel. the bus dropped me off right at nordy’s, how convenient!}

{a sale at anthropologie is always a good idea!}

{family dinner at john howie steak at the bravern.}

{housewarming gifts from mom & dad – thanks!}

{the start of weekend projects.}

{we celebrated my grandmother’s birthday at the anthony’s in shilshole. the views were spectacular!}

{happy birthday candles in her sorbet.}

{i finished painting our living & dining room this weekend – finally – and discovered i accidently painted my toe. a homeowner’s pedicure, if you will.}

{a sneak peek at a completed project!}

{there were lots & lots of tolls paid this weekend from lots & lots of trips from bellevue to seattle over the 520 bridge.}

my parents were in town & helped us with lots of projects around the house. there were lots of things crossed off our to do list which feels wonderful.

how was your weekend?

my weekend in pictures.

{picked up some free paint samples from benjamin moore.}

{snacked at the french bakery. made me miss eating fresh pastries in paris last spring!}

{friday was still hot-tea-drinking weather.}

{friday night dinner & a movie.}

{hello new closet! you still aren’t quite big enough, but we will have to make it work…}

{sadie enjoyed snuggling on the couch this weekend.}

{bought our first lawnmower!}

{happy cinco de mayo! we ordered in pizza, that’s still festive, right?}

{watched born to be wild on the xbox. those baby orangutans & elephants are so darn cute!}

{spring = green tea.}

{sadie’s new game is to find all the sunny spots in the house & yard.}

{trying out the doggles on sadie. she didn’t love them.}

{we bought a hanging fuchsia for our back deck. so gorgeous!}

{we stocked up on produce at the local stand just a few blocks away!}

{nursed my knee injury. nothing crazy, just rammed it into the bed post on saturday which only aggravated the hit it took when i slipped down the stairs on friday… yep, i am a total klutz.}

our first full weekend as homeowners & we only made two trips to the hardware store! how was your weekend?