CRAVING A SPRING TABLESCAPE

I'm not one who usually wishes away a season - I really do enjoy winter, spring, summer and fall. Especially since Maryland is one of the states you are lucky to experience all four. BUT... lately I have been craving spring. Not just for the warmer weather (I have lots of hours to spend in the gym before then), but for the longer days and being able to spend my evenings outside in the garden or sipping a glass of wine on our deck.

I really enjoy hosting small groups at our house. So... to help my spring cravings I put together a small tablescape board to help you get in the mood too! Come on March 20th :-)

napkins | carafe | wine glass | flatware | dinner plates | appetizer plates | candles | votive set

FANCY GOLD THANKSGIVING TABLESCAPE

Once I saw wood chargers at Crate and Barrel, I knew I wanted them for a Thanksgiving tablescape. I think white and wood work so well together without trying. These plates are adorable - and you can find similar ones from Target! 

These white and gold monogram mugs are on my Christmas list. They would make the perfect gift for a girlfriend, too! 

To find where everything is from click the photo above!

SPRING CLEANING - GARDEN UPDATE

Although I grew up in a family where just about everyone had green thumbs, it wasn't until I had a house and yard of my own that I started paying attention to plants or even enjoyed gardening. My mom was always out in the yard and is well known for being a plant expert in our family (she used to want to be a horticulturist) - so I guess you could say that all of these years of her talking plants to me finally rubbed off. I've officially come down with the gardening bug.

This past Saturday marked one full year in our home and I have to say we fall more in love with it each day. After a crazy first year of planning our wedding and tackling some projects over the winter I was excited to dive into our yard and garden.

This is how our yard started...

I don't have any pre-fence photos since we had them install the fence right after we settled so the dogs would have a place to stay, but this shows what we started with pretty well. 

Here is a pretty good representation of where we are now:

We updated the shutters and front door color this past winter, planted some bulbs around the front cherry tree, edged the flower beds with pavers to match our back yard retaining wall and all of my perennials from last year popped back up in the front flower beds.

It really is exciting to see things you planted last year come back bigger and better this year. It sounds extremely nerdy - but it's so interesting to me now to watch how different plants grow.

Hostas, speedwell and pansies are getting HUGE in our front flower bed!

Last year as a house warming gift, my mom helped us create a retaining wall/firepit area with two planters on the side. I wasn't kidding when I said she was amazing in the yard! She drew up some plans and spent countless hours helping us create this space all by ourselves. She even took off work to work on it while we were both at the office. I'll have to do a post on the retaining wall she is working on in her yard - it's outrageous! (hint - she's putting in a pizza oven and waterfall on the wall.)

This gives you a better idea of how the retaining wall and fire pit area are positioned on the left side of our back yard. We back filled the retaining wall with dirt and planted some seed last fall and it's looking great! We still have to secure the tops of the planters and wall, but it works for now.

I won't bore you with a garden tour of our house, but I can't say it enough - gardening has been so rewarding to me. I love walking around and seeing what is popping up next and it was such a stress reliever when work was going crazy!

If you are looking for some great perennials, here are some I chose:
Bearded Iris
Astilbe
Day Lilies
Hosta
Hydrangea
Peonies
Viburnum
Bleeding Heart
Sedum
Columbine
Hyacinth
Tulips
Gladiolus
Phlox
And much more...

HOW TO INSTALL SUBWAY TILE BACK SPLASH

We’ve recently taken on the task of turning our kitchen upside down and updating it, while sticking to a budget. Although we are SO close to having it complete, there are still a few items I have to check off my list.

Since we bought the house, I have been dying to add subway tile as a back splash in our kitchen, but knew I had to wait until we first replaced our counter tops. If you are looking to add a back splash to your kitchen, subway tile is inexpensive and classic. It isn’t going out of style anytime soon! I read a few blogs and watched a few YouTube videos before tackling this project. Here’s a how-to on installing subway tile back splash by yourself!

Once you have your counter top of choice installed (important to do this first if you are thinking of replacing yours) it’s time to head to Home Depot and pick up your materials.

You will need:
• Grout – think outside the box, gray or white you can’t go wrong!
• Mortar or Adhesive – we used Simplemat’s Tile Setting Mats (3 boxes)
• 3x6 Subway tile – make sure to measure your area, we have a smaller kitchen so we grabbed 3 boxes of tile
• Subway tile end pieces – one side has a bull nose, it’s one option for finishing the tile to the end of the wall (optional)
• Scissors – if using a mat
• Screwdrivers – to remove your outlet plates
• Sponge
• Wet Saw
• Tile Spacers
• Grout Float

The first thing I did was measure the exact area I was tiling and lay the pattern out on the floor. This is helpful to do – if I hadn’t done it, I wouldn’t have known to send my hubby to the store to pick up more tile before beginning the process on the wall.

Next, I took my adhesive mats and lined them up against the walls, marking where my outlets were. Let me tell you, these mats made the application super easy! They are double sided so you are able to stick them to the wall ahead of time and when you are ready, you peel off the top plastic and you are ready to go!

After cutting where I marked our outlets were, I lined the entire space with the mats. I knew I wanted to tile the entire  way up the wall between the two cabinets to add height. I'll eventually convince Chris to help me build shelving for that area.

The tile setting mat instructed you to remove all air bubbles. You can easily do this with your grout float.

Next, I started laying the tile and my mom made cuts when needed (around the outlets, around cabinets, on ends). My mom is the best - she is always there when I am doing a project solo to offer me a hand. Sometimes it's nice having someone with you while you are working!

You can see I used the tile spacers to make sure everything was aligned - the good thing about this mat is you have some flexibility to move the tile before grouting (see our end pieces, I fixed them before we grouted).

Another thing to keep in mind is to turn off your electricity (duh!) - I got shocked a few times messing with moving the outlets because I was too lazy to shut it off. And nowhere online did anyone mention securing your outlet boxes on top of your tile. So that was another thing I learned along the way.

Next, mix your grout in a plastic container (with a spatula if you wish) until it is the consistency of brownie batter (we don't measure in this house - we do what feels right).

Plop some on your grout float and start making crescent strokes until all of your spaces are filled with grout. I read the grout box instructions - so I definitely recommend following their mixing and application instructions.

Note: if using mortar you will need to wait several hours before applying the grout. The tile setting mats we purchased allowed us to set the tiles and grout right away. So if you are impatient like me, this is the way to go!

Once our grout was on and 20 minutes passed, I took my damp sponge and wiped off the excess grout. I also removed the grout I spread onto the ceiling, cabinets and counters ;-)

Since we are strange around here, we made sure all of the grout looked pretty by moving our sponge along the direction of the grout so there were no bumps or lines. This took serious arm muscle!

 

And here we are all complete! I still need to run my towel over all of the tile to remove any excess haze that may be causing a slight hue and put grout sealer on, but I am obsessed with how well this turned out!

And because I am super proud of everything we have done so far - here is a reminder of our "before".

And our "progress"

Price breakdown: (rough estimates from my memory)
3 boxes of 3x6 snow white subway tile - $60
3 boxes of SimpleMat Tile Setting Mat - $60
1 box of white unsanded grout - $30
1 bag of 250 tile spacers - $15
1 spray bottle of grout sealer - $10
Tile end pieces - $9

Less than $200 for a big impact back splash that won't go out of style!

CURRENT WEST ELM FAVS

This past weekend, my BFF Nikki and I took my sister-in-laws to Tyson's corner for a major shopping outing. We were on the hunt for some sheer curtains and wanted to hit up Pottery Barn, Z Gallerie and West Elm to check out their items in person.

Though we didn't come home with curtains, the trip made me want to move right in to the West Elm store. Here are some of my favs from our trip:

 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9

KITCHEN CHECKLIST

Make two cabinets glass-front

Remove molding from above sink

Paint kitchen cabinets

Pick new cabinet hardware

Buy an under mount sink for new counter

Build wine cubby/style open cabinets above refrigerator

Buy new oven/microwave and refrigerator

Choose granite and find someone to cut/polish/install
Cover kitchen chair seats 

Install subway tile back splash - tile is bought and will go in next week most likely

Touch up paint in kitchen (possibly change paint to match adjoining family room)

Add shelving above sink (in between glass-front cabinets)

Buy and install new ORB faucet - bought a super awesome chrome faucet and installing this weekend

Add pendant above sink

Refinish fan/buy new lighting for above kitchen table

Replace flooring

Add butcher-block top island that joins family room and kitchen

Add floating shelving above island

The fabric I ordered for the kitchen chair seats came in yesterday... I'm obsessed with it! I think I have a thing for waves, because this pattern compliments our family room panels without me even thinking about that ahead of time.

I'm still loving the open shelves I created by taking off our cabinet doors over the refrigerator.

I styled them with glass containers filled with prettiness.

I need to find a stool for the kitchen since these are not easy to grab and go. 

I also placed our cupcake liners and cocktail napkins in a bread basket on the top of the fridge for easy access. 

Our spice containers moved to the side of the new fridge and I love how easy it is to grab the spices without searching through a cabinet.

I put the most used spices here... you can tell we love OLD BAY since it's almost gone!

I also grabbed this "All Out Of" pad to check off items we need from the grocery store at a small shop in Mt. Airy called The Hive. Urban Outfitters and Anthro also carry these!

I love love love our new chair seats!! I stapled the fabric to the existing seats - it took me all of 20 minutes to do 4 chairs.

I just need to spray them with scotch guard to keep them from staining and secure them to the chairs!

We are securing the new granite to the cabinets this weekend, inserting the new sink and new faucet and then touching up paint.

Next weekend we will be ready to install the subway tile back splash!

And just for fun, here is a close up of the new granite. It's so pretty! The grey coordinates with the walls and the black specs play off of the cabinet hardware.

A BIG thank you to our friend's parents who not only got us the hook up with the granite, but took time out of their own schedules to take it to get cut/polished and brought it to our house. We are super appreciative! 

LOVING THE DETAILS

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in all of the projects and to-do lists and forget about all the small details in a house that make's it feel like "you".

This weekend I definitely fell in love all over with the little details around our house that make it "ours". I'm lucky that Chris let's me be creative and express myself in our house freely. I try to intertwine masculine elements in each room so it doesn't feel too feminine. 

Our master bedroom is one of my favorite places in the house. I love waking up and seeing the woods and stream in our back yard. I bought the bed frame and headboard as soon as we bought the house as a house warming gift to us - since we never had a headboard before.

I found the nightstands on Joss and Main and one of my favorite memories is walking into the bedroom one day and seeing that Chris had placed a photo of him and I on his nightstand. I know that sounds typical and silly, but it just reminded me that I am surrounded by love in our house and I get to go to sleep and wake up with someone who loves me. [end of sappy post]

I have a photo of my grandmother on her wedding day on my nightstand and the vases were a wedding gift that we used at our wedding for the welcome table.

I'm so excited to have new appliances in the kitchen! It really gives the house an updated feel and I'm excited that I can now check the time on the stove/microwave lol Yes, even the digital clock(s) were broken on our old appliances.

I've been planning on painting our mantle since day one, but I had no plans of painting the brick - it was a "hmm, I wonder what this will look like" thought. I was actually shaking while painting the brick in fear that Chris would come home from work and kill me since there is no going back. Luckily he loved it. As in, he walked into the room and said, "Wow! That looks awesome!"

Phew.

I love that you can see the details of the mantle so much more painted white. Now to convince Chris to let me cover up the brass and redo the hearth.

The mirror was a HomeGoods find and we finally hung it last night!

Orchids are one of my favorite house plants and I especially love the oversized one that found a home in our dining room.

I love how the mirror reflects our chandelier and the mixed metals we have in the room.

No one is more happy that I finally found pillows that I love than my husband. It's been a rough scene around the house with me swapping out pillows in the room, but I finally found two that I love (and fabric that will add one more pattern to the mix this week).

I decided that this living room can't handle color (wait, that may just be me) and I like that the room has masculine and rustic elements. It balances the other rooms downstairs. 

Chris and I replaced every light switch, outlet and cover plate in the house. The next people who live here may not notice, but I hope they appreciate it.

I love how our kitchen hardware really pops against the newly white cabinets. We're adding white subway tile as a back splash, so having a contrasting color is nice and it ties in the black of the stainless steel appliances. Plus, I am obsessed with bin pulls.

 

It seems like a long time ago that I painted stripes in our entry hallway, but I'm still loving them. Some days I think of switching out one of the colors with white, but then I talk myself out of it. The gallery wall is still up and makes me smile.

 Last, but not least, I love our new granite! We are installing it this week and we're so very thankful that our best friend's family has been so generous in helping us out with this project. This is one of the last big pieces to the puzzle in our kitchen.

Anyways, the point of this post is to stop and appreciate all of the little details in your house that make it "yours". It's so easy to become consumed with all of the projects and things you want to do and forget about all of the changes you've made so far!

HUBBA HUBBA + ONE BIG MESS

Last weekend we took advantage of the holiday sales and tax free energy efficient appliance break and bought all new appliances for the kitchen. We headed over to HHGregg on Saturday afternoon and decided on the Whirlpool Gold stainless appliances. We were in luck! They had all the appliances in stock and we planned a next-day delivery. We headed home to clear out the existing appliances.

As you can see - our appliances were original to the house and it was definitely time to replace the almond, out-dated look. Notice I haven't painted the baseboards of our cabinets - I knew we had a lot of updates going on and decided to save those for last.

We've also been living unknowingly with tiny appliances like this microwave I bought when I was 18 and moved into my first apartment. The clear and number 4 haven't worked in years! I was oblivious to the actual size a microwave should be - considering I thought the microwave was the dishwasher when they delivered the appliances.

Our refrigerator didn't even fill the space of it's home! Our new one is so large we had to remove the trim to get it in (to give you an idea of the average fridge size now).

Since we only had a hood above our range, we had to remove the cabinet above the stove, replace it with a 30x12 inch cabinet and install an outlet. My hubba hubba hubby worked all day Monday removing the cabinet and installing the new appliances (minus the microwave) all without complaining!

Since Chris and I work opposite schedules 2 nights a week my kitchen has been one big mess since the weekend. We finally are installing the cabinet and microwave tonight and I'm excited to get everything in it's place! Just in time for our granite to come in on Monday ;-)

The kitchen is coming together and I can't wait to show off the new appliances once things are cleaned up and repainted this weekend.

Brainstorming Basement Ideas

Sorry for the lack of posting this past week! While helping our best friends (now neighbors!) move in, catching a cold, the RAVENS WINNING THE SUPER BOWL and catching up on the bachelor we've been busy! Not to mention, most of last week Chris' uncle was staying with us while we were finishing the basement (thank you!) But I am back to share an update and throw out a few of my basement ideas! 

If you follow me on instagram, you've seen the progress we made to the basement already. I sneaked in a few shots with my camera to give you a better view.

Here is a peak at our main living space after we framed it out and added electrical outlets. You can see the office door frame to the right.

And here is our back room! We have a built in bench where the pipe is for our radon. Where our sump pump is, we built a closet for storage (adding shelves above). Behind the black shelving unit we are putting in a built in bookcase/cabinet. 

And here we are now! We have all the drywall up, recessed lights in, cable and electric hooked up and Chris' uncle is in town taping and mudding the walls!

Here are a few of my current must haves when we complete our basement.

Add a craftsman trim to all doors and windows once doors are installed.

Add a runner to our stairs. We still are up in the air about flooring, but I love the idea of adding a fun patterned runner to the stairs. You can easily update this throughout the years. 

Add a fun door to the laundry room. Growing up with horses, this would be fun to incorporate into the basement. We left our laundry room unfinished with storage, but having a fun sliding door would add personality. 

One of my favorite things about our basement is we plan on adding french doors to the office. We framed it out and I really love the oil rubbed bronze finishes on these! It'll also help to let light into the room since there are only 3 small windows in our entire basement. 

For the walls I am loving this neutral by Sherwin Williams - Intellectual Gray. I have grays throughout the house, and I like how it allows me to add in colors with accent pieces like lamps, pillows, rugs and throws. 

Adding a bar area to our basement is a definite. Chris and I love entertaining! I originally wanted to incorporate a bar area under the stairs, but a supporting pole and pipes didn't allow for that to happen so we turned the space into a closet for storage. Turning an Ikea expedit on it's side makes the perfect bar. Baskets can hold additional liquor bottles, cocktail napkins and more! How fun would glass lamps filled with wine corks look on top?

The basement will be a work in progress for awhile, but having Chris' uncle help finishing it to the point where we could take over was a life savor! We never would have been able to frame, drywall, tape, mud or hook up cable/outlets/lighting by ourselves. We really appreciate all of his hard work!