House of Bennetts

We're amazed. It seems unreal. This project just requires us to do some painting (white on cabinets and cement gray on the walls) and bam. We're done.

As you'll recall, this was the plan. Wall Plan

We cleared everything out and away they went.

That's where I last left you. Since then they got almost everything done: cabinets, countertop, pendant lights, heater vent installed AND the recessed lights in the kitchen and living room! This is now our view from the front door... it doesn't just open up the house, it literally feels like a whole new house.

The view from the kitchen now... my new favorite.

Looking down the hallway and you get a glimpse of the recessed lights in the living room and kitchen. LOOK how bright our kitchen is now! Holy schmoley! My only, minuscule complaint about the recessed lights is that they aren't concave and they remind me a little of boob lights.

The heater vent that makes all the difference in the world in keeping the whole living room warm!

I can't wait to prime, paint, and light cover, so I can crockpot my arse off on this island.

Since pictures are totally deceiving, you should know that our living room currently basically looks like this. We are waiting on our new couch, for the green side tables to sell on craigslist, and then we will move the aqua side chair to my office and the dresser to the gym room. You can also see the new rug we got below. I am already super excited to get this space pulled together.

The box light in the kitchen is also GONE ZO! The difference these little bad boy recessed lights make cannot be overstated.

So we've got a date with ceiling paint and just basically endless amounts of paint.

WHO WANTS TO PAINT!?!? I can't believe this long dreamed about project is basically done.

Sources:

Pendant Lights: Ballard Designs Eldridge Pendants
Butcher Block Counter: Ikea ($149!!!)
Cabinets: Home Depot in stock

It's officially official-ish that when we refinance this house in March we are going to be getting some cash out to do work! My I-am-not-really-a-designer-but-I-think-I-know-what-looks-decent brain is in OVER DRIVE PEOPLE. OVER DRIVE. We had Jeff the contractor over this weekend and even if he isn't the cheapest (we're interviewing two more this week), we are 90% sure we are going to go with him because we really liked him. So, Jeff and I have decided to gut the upstairs bathroom with the exception of the bathtub. I really love that tub and now take baths at least twice a week. It's my thing now. I haven't talked much about this bathroom, because I have done ZIPPO to it. It is the only space upstairs that we didn't paint when we moved in and you can tell because it still looks like this:

bath 5 bathroom 2 bath 4 bathroom 1

There are some obvious problems with this space:

Blue linoleum floor (shudder).
The vanity is way too big for this small of a space
Blue patterned tile in shower
Now listen, Nicole Curtis, I also love the original blue tile in this bathroom along the wall. But it is SO blue. And we are going to take this bathroom more down the modern side of the mid-century modern scale.
Storage isn't really an issue since that medicine cabinet is recessed and stores all the things I use everyday. The interesting thing in this space is that behind where I have my hair stuff in that brown basket looking thing, is a rather deep closet. (More on this later).

I also have recognized that I love all of the things. Sinks. Tile. Paints. Beadboards. You name it, I love it. But this space is small and we want it to feel as light and bright and refreshed as possible. This is where y'all come in. I want to hear about your favorites in each category. Leave me a comment and I PROMISE it will be taken into consideration (note: I have tried to link back to the pictures original owners below so if you click on the pic, it will take you to where it came from. Most are from Houzz or Pinterest). Game faces people.

Floor Tile

Really I think I am sold on the marble floor. I just can't pick between Hexagon tiles like these (I also love the sink in this bathroom, but do not love the marble floor on marble wall tile):

Or a Herringbone pattern like this:

Wall/Shower Tile

Since whatever tile we do on the walls will probably be carried over from to the shower area, I am combining these two categories. I get sort of stuck here because I can't yet tell if I think the marble floor will look good with a traditional subway tile on the wall (which I think is sort of over-done these days):

A more modern twist on the subway tile:

Mix up the traditional carry the wall tile over from the shower thing... don't do it and instead try some sort of accent "strip" behind the mirror and sink:

...OR do beadboard? Even now thinking about this, I feel like I might save the beadboard for when we gut LB's bathroom downstairs.

Or just no wall tile at all and just tile the floor and the shower and leave the walls with textured drywall and paint. Always paint.

Sinks!

I am basically convinced that we are going to do a free standing sink instead of a vanity. I mean look at this thing... if got the base/underside in black with the black strip of tile along the top on the walls... hmmmmm.

Another one... might even be the same sink just wider: