{renovate: kitchen remodel} open living

Friends, we made some major progress/changes last weekend on our kitchen remodel and renovations! 

A little back story: we'd been talking about a kitchen remodel for years, but was finally prompted us to move on this little project was an idea that came up over pancakes on Saturday morning. A brilliant idea, really. Why not tear down the wall between the kitchen and the living room? Really open up the space? And friends, that's exactly what we did.

Last week, when you walked in our front door, this was the view:

Today, that view now looks like this:

Whoa. Right? So different! 

From inside the kitchen, before:

And, now:

Old house rooms tend to be very closed off, and our house is no exception. There were so many instances where we had friends over and I felt like I was stuck in the kitchen because 1. there was no seating in there for others and 2. the old little tiny door didn't facilitate conversation. So, we've taken care of the door, and next we'll take care of seating! :)

Up on the schedule this week ... the electrician. We adding tons and tons of light. YAH! :)

{inspired} mood board monday

It's that time again! Mood board Monday! This is my favorite link party ... I love that it stretches me to be creative and think outside the box. For this one, our lovely host Sarah chose a few different chairs for us to build a room around.

I chose this amazing chair, because really, how gorgeous is IT?!

I was having trouble coming up with an "imaginary" room for this lovely to live, so instead this mood board is based in reality. As most of you know, my family has a beach house. And my mom and I've been brainstorming ways to update my bedroom there, and so this moodboard is a jumping off point for that room. We already own the seagrass headboard, and the side tables and dresser are very similar to what is already there. We've been talking about using PB's blue stripe duvet on the bed, so I used these things as a jumping off point to add in the gorgeous chair and update the room.

1. Colors. The walls will be a nice, bright, warm white. And, we'll incorporate accents of blues, pinks/corals.
2. Seagrass headboard.
3. Blue stripe bedding. Will use the shams and the duvet, so roll up at the end of the bed.
4. White quilt. Will be the main bedding. It adds a lovely dose of neutral and texture.
5. Pillows Pink flower pillow
6. Wall art  So, so gorgeous. A beautiful water painting that doesn't scream: I'm at the beach!
7. Pendant lights  To hang over each side table.
8. Side tables 
9. Mirror. Lovely. A little beachy, but not too "theme-y"
10. Dresser 
11. Blue Chair
12. Floor lamp To create a cozy little nook around the chair. Perfect for curling up with a blanket (see #13) and a book.
13. Blanket
14. Pink flower pillow

Make sure you visit Pewter and Sage to check out all the incredibly creative mood boards! And, make sure you check back on Wednesday for kitchen remodel progress. Let's just say we had a very productive weekend :)

{inspired} kitchen mood board

Happy Friday friends! I have super crazy happy that it's the end of the week and we're onto to the weekend!

I finally had a chance to actually put together the mood board for our kitchen renovation. The overriding basis for a lot of the kitchen decisions was that it has to flow with the living room. See, we're opening up the wall between the living room and the kitchen, so these rooms need to correlate more than ever before.

As a reminder, here's an {older} pic of our living room. We've actually begun incorporating more navy into the room since:

By incorporating the creams, blues and browns into the kitchen area, we feel like we'll have good flow. Beyond that, we want the space to be bright and friendly. We'd like to add in a touch of industrial, to fit with the rest of the house, but making sure it is still classic and fits the "bones" of our older home.

1. Colors. The greige, the same color as our back entryway directly off the kitchen, will go on the walls. We'll accent with a lighter blue, darker blue and some small, small pops of orange and yellow. 
2. Adel Cabinets from IKEA. We debated long and hard about IKEA cabinets. But in the end they won because in reality, this update is as much for our enjoyment as it is for upping our resale value. If we went with cabinets that are TOO expensive, we won't get our money back.
3. Hardware. A little industrial, a little librarian. Love.
4. Lighting. This is still up for debate, but I do really like this one. It's clear glass (not grey as it looks in the photo) and think it would be very pretty above our island. But, we'll see.
5. Swiss Cross Tile from Ann Sacks. LOVE. Like so, so, so much.
6. Faucet. A little more industrial.
7. Farm sink. This was at the top of my list when we started planning. It hasn't budged an inch :).
8. Butcher block counters. This was also at the top of my list, but has moved around a bit. In the end though, it fits the look we're going for.
9. Lighting for above the sink. All I  knew was that I didn't want a pendant above the sink, but I think I really love this one.
10. Island stools. I've been looking EVERYWHERE for stools. And omg, they're expensive. I really like these though, so we'll see.
11. Hardwood floors. It's been a roller coaster that I'll tell you about more later, but I'm just so, so, so happy that we're refinishing our original hardwoods! 
12. Fabric. I'll bring the pelmet box back to add a little color to the room.
13. Accessories. Some bowls were already have, a spoon rest we already have and plants all round out the color scheme nicely.

 So, that's where this remodel is heading friends! Which part is your favorite? :)

I hope you all have a great weekend!