Kitchen Nook: Adding Some Love

Posted in DIY Renovation, House Tour, Kitchen by Tanisha

Happy Monday. Hope you all had a nice weekend and Mother’s Day! Here on the East Coast, it finally felt like May- 75 degrees and sunny!! The warm weather inspired me to add a bit a life into a spot of our home that gets a lot of use but hasn’t gotten my full attention: our Kitchen Nook.

I’ve been toying with what to do with this space for a while but couldn’t decide what to do. Before we redid the walls, the eat-in space was clearly defined with the vertical molding on the wall. We hated the molding, but it did serve a purpose.

We smoothed the walls out to give the room a seamless look. However, as cleaner as the room looked after we renovated, we lost the separation that screamed: “You are now in our eat-in kitchen!!!”

My first attempt at creating definition was by adding a console table flush against the couch to “partition” the room.

This helped, but we were still missing a focal point behind the table.

So this weekend, I decided to dress up the wall. Here’s how it looks now!

I love it! I think it’s so sweet and keeps the space nice and airy while creating interest. And the best part…everything came from Target! It was super inexpensive but makes a big impact.

And now for some detail shots 🙂

So what do you guys think??? Any other tips on how to create definition in an open space?

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Family Room: Updates!!!

Posted in Family Room, House Tour by Tanisha

More family room updates are finally here and I’m so excited to share the space with you! (To see how we’ve gotten to this point, click here for our family room archive.)

Here is a reminder of what the space looked like when we first looked at the house:

When we first moved in:

And without further ado, the space today. Enjoy the tour!

This vintage railroad trunk is my latest thrift shop find. It serves perfectly as our coffee table.

Cooper loves looking out the window. He’s always on the lookout for the deer that frequent our yard.

These bar stools are beautiful and are a fun splash of color.

Here’s a peek into our kitchen:

How I feel about Mr. H…

Ahh… now it feels like home sweet home 🙂

15Aug2013

We are officially homeowners!!!

Posted in Family Room, House Tour by Tanisha

I am so excited to let you all know that we’ve bought our first house!! (Which is also why I’ve been MIA for the past few weeks…whoops!) So far we’ve been here for two weeks and could not have been happier with our home. I am also excited that I can now start getting my hands dirty with all the design ideas I’ve been pinning for the last year! Most of the house is still empty as we now have many more rooms to fill than we did in our 1 bedroom apartment, but I still wanted to share a few photos of our new digs.

For today’s post, I’ll share the Family Room/Kitchen area. By no means is this room done (we have several projects ahead of us including new floors, paint, window treatments, new sofa…etc), but this is the room that we spend most of our time in by far.

When we started house hunting, we knew we wanted a place that we could entertain. We love to have our closest friends and family over and wanted a home that would allow everyone to mingle and converse easily. We LOVE how this open floor plan allows us to do just that!

This rooms get sooo much light– it’s amazing. Cooper loves lounging here too!

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The breakfast bar is perfect for additional seating and for grabbing a quick bite in the morning. Plus it allows me to still feel a part of the action while I’m cooking!

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Next to the kitchen are 3 additional spaces: the Laundry Room (left), the Powder Room (straight) and the Garage (right). Hanging in the right corner, you’ll see my monogrammed Key Holder I made when we first got married. Placing it right next to the garage is both attractive and convenient as we are able to hang our keys right when we get home. I also love that the previous owners added a buffet for additional storage. It’s a great place to set up a bar during parties!

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To the left of the buffet are our sliding glass doors leading out to our back yard. (More on the yard in another post.) These curtains were the first thing I purchased for this room. I wanted something to soften the doors, but still allow light to shine through. These finds were from Bed Bath and Beyond and are the perfect addition to the space. I LOVE them!

The gas burning fireplace and mantle were hand crafted by the original owners. I love how its rustic lines play against some of the more modern elements in the room. And with fall just around the corner, I can’t wait to snuggle up next to this baby!

We’ve definitely got a list of things to do in the space to really make it our own, but with a few photos on the wall and some of our familiar pieces, it’s already starting to feel like home!