{renovate} kitchen backsplash and counters

Well, if you follow me on Instagram (jennmccormick), you know that over the long weekend we tiled! Specifically, the kitchen backsplash! But along with tiling, we also got a few other major things done. On a very related note, we seriously have the most amazing friends. You know the friends that way-back-when helped us renovate our back entry and refinish our hardwoods? Those are the same friends that helped demo the kitchen and built our cabinets? Well they came over this weekend specifically to tile and do whatever else we still needed help with. I cannot even begin to tell you guys how grateful we are that they're in our lives -- and how much we'll owe them when they buy a house :).

Backsplash

We have a backsplash! And oh does it change the look of the space!

The tile is Ann Sacks Swiss Cross. I am so in love. Because it's such a small space, we wanted something that had personality, but was still neutral and classic. I think this fit the bill so well.
 

I didn't take a lot of photos of the process, because I was actually tiling! The girls tiled while the boys did other stuff. It was my first time tiling - and it was actually pretty easy. The hardest part was figuring out the pattern so we could begin.

Up next will be grout - hopefully this weekend.  But FIRST we need to decide on what color grout - white or gray. I am so torn! Any opinions, friends?

ps. You can also see that we installed window trim after the last post about trim :). Much better!

Counter

First, the counter top extension! We've been planning this since the beginning. We couldn't plan the island to be as long as we wanted - for clearance reasons - but, we really wanted it longer than the space logically allowed. Enter, the extension. It can go up when we need it, down when we have a lot of people over and need the space. We still need to install the piece that moves it up and down, so that's next.

While the girls were tiling, the boys were adding the extension and gluing down the copper.

Making sure it's a tight, solid fit :). Yep, there was a rolling pin involved.

The boys also did some ducting work, which I'll show you later. But really, it isn't all that exciting, but is really nice to be getting done!

And this guy? He was our supervisor for the day :).

All in all, a very productive weekend. It's going to take me quite awhile to finish up and paint all the trim, but I'm getting so excited to share final photos with you guys!

{inspired} a graphical kitchen brain dump

Tell me if you can relate to this friends. You're updating or remodeling your home. You have a gazillion ideas - yes, that's a lot - and you're trying to communicate those ideas to your spouse/partner/roommate. And, somehow they just don't get it! 

I thought I'd show you the craziness that is my original brain dump for our upcoming kitchen remodel. I had a gazillion ideas and couldn't decide on anything. I had them all pinned, but flipping back and forth between pins was getting annoying. Meanwhile, Chris was visibly having trouble keeping all my ideas straight and had ideas of his own.

So I put all our ideas + sources + prices together in one big brain dump - graphic brain dump, if you will - and came up with this:

It worked like a charm! When we had everything in one place it made it SO EASY to decide what we like, what we didn't like, and what worked together to create the look we're going for in our kitchen.

We're looking at lights now, so I starting adding my favorite lighting to the mix as well.

We have a couple more ideas to pull together before I create the mood board we'll actually work off. But, I thought you guys might be interested in the process. It was a tiny bit time consuming to create this chart, of sorts, but worth it in the end because it actually helped us to communicate much more efficiently and make decisions quicker. I'm always willing to spend a little more time for that kind of result! :)

I have sources and prices listed here, but if you'd like actual links you can find all of these on my Pinterest pages.