The Dining room was a troublesome color to pick... we have further plans with this room, but not until later. So, I picked a color that Ryan HATED... 
that is until he saw it on the wall. Now he loves it!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
The Dining Room
The Dining room was a troublesome color to pick... we have further plans with this room, but not until later. So, I picked a color that Ryan HATED... that is until he saw it on the wall. Now he loves it!
The Breakfast Nook
Oooohhhh, the Breakfast Nook... the little room next to the kitchen that we had no clue what we would do with at first. There was this terrible little built-in in the corner of the room... it was bad. 
I do have a before picture, but I don't have it ready for upload at the moment. Anyways, here we decided to extend the blue from the kitchen to bring the two rooms together, and we also liked it because it gave a very fun black white and blue modern french bistro feel, so we're going to run with that! 
Here's the color we decided to go with in the hallway, not as bold as the kitchen or the dining room... (those are posted below) but a great golden neutral that will be a good buffer between all of the colors in the different rooms of the house.
I do have a before picture, but I don't have it ready for upload at the moment. Anyways, here we decided to extend the blue from the kitchen to bring the two rooms together, and we also liked it because it gave a very fun black white and blue modern french bistro feel, so we're going to run with that! Here's the color we decided to go with in the hallway, not as bold as the kitchen or the dining room... (those are posted below) but a great golden neutral that will be a good buffer between all of the colors in the different rooms of the house.
Picking back up!
Well, posting is going to be shoddy until my new Uverse is installed. Ryan and I decided to tell Comcast to go pound sand after only two weeks. So, I'm updating my blog at the local cafe... they have free wireless :) On with the show!
So, the kitchen floor was quite the task. We went back and forth with ceramic, porcelain and natural stone... We really wanted something that would reflect or enhance the greyness of the kitchen... the kitchen has a very cool look, we decided to not go with warm tones, but to keep it a little more modern with the brushed nickel and brushed stainless accents. We FINALLY decided to go with slate. After searching the city of Houston for three days, I found a store called Floor & Decor that sells nothing but flooring. It was awesome. I walked in, and 30 min. later I walked out with 200 Sq Ft of Virginia Blue Slate. So, the floor came up...
So, the kitchen floor was quite the task. We went back and forth with ceramic, porcelain and natural stone... We really wanted something that would reflect or enhance the greyness of the kitchen... the kitchen has a very cool look, we decided to not go with warm tones, but to keep it a little more modern with the brushed nickel and brushed stainless accents. We FINALLY decided to go with slate. After searching the city of Houston for three days, I found a store called Floor & Decor that sells nothing but flooring. It was awesome. I walked in, and 30 min. later I walked out with 200 Sq Ft of Virginia Blue Slate. So, the floor came up...
Christmas came, and we were still working on the placements of tile, (I discovered that my fiance is a master renovator, that should come in handy in the future!) then we decided to just start laying it down...
In the meantime, our Christmas was very fun, although pretty solitude... but we got great gifts from our family, so after we finished the tile we went shopping and bought some final touches for the kitchen! 
Monday, December 15, 2008
Renovations Underway - The Kitchen
SO, we started with the kitchen. Most people would say that that's pretty ambitious... I can tell you that it is. As of today we're not nearly finished with it. Our goals in doing these projects are to never take out any loans as the interest just puts us further behind on our amount invested. So, little by little and paycheck by paycheck, the transformation commences. 
As you can see, the kitchen started out looking bleak to say the least. The cabinets are custom built for this specific kitchen, so I certainly didn't want to loose them. Initially, I thought that I would just sand and paint the framework and re-face them and it would solve all of my problems. So, off we went to the Home Depot, or as we like to call it these days, Home. And we bought all of our needed tools; an electrical sander, a cordless drill, a circular saw and more sandpaper than you can shake a stick at. Then off we went...
I should mention that we started this project with no concrete goals in sight. Ryan has a very modern, straight-edge kind of style... think B&B Italia meets black concrete floors... yeah. I'm more of a contemporary cottage style. I like white linens, silver accents, dark and weathered woods, painted woods and very muted colors.
So, When the sanding was through, my fiance thought that it would be a good idea to open up a three-door cabinet on the left of the sink. I think it turned out to be a brilliant idea.
So, we were torn on what to do with the cabinets... Ryan at one point said he was going to tear them all out and go get new ones put in. That would have been way more expensive than we had budgeted for, so I talked him back from the ledge and we continued. I still had this wonderful vision of my sister Angie's (you'll hear about her a lot) house in Los Feliz (a suburb of Los Angeles). She had a fantastically talented painter who painted all of her kitchen cabinets an antique white and it made the kitchen so serene and lovely. Now, I don't have nearly the same size kitchen. She had enough room to put a sofa, a full size dining table and a dresser to house the television equipment in hers; so, serenity per-se does not have to be my end goal here. The crisp, clean look however, is something I had to find a way to capture. So, we threw caution to the wind and painted the cabinets, doors and all an oil-based antique white. Although I do LOVE the simplicity of latex paint on ceilings and walls, cabinets and casegoods I feel should always be done in an oil. Oil retains a shiny luster that latex simply does not have. It doesn't keep fingerprints and it self levels as it is applied. It is a pain to work with, for sure... but well worth it. So, I went back to the Depot and found some very modern, cylinder shaped handles that were 4 for $20, (a pretty good price) and we applied them.
Now the question was the paint color. I chose a muted cocoa with red tones, but Ryan wanted to go more bold. We had already decided to go with red as the accent color in the kitchen due to the begining of a red Le Creuset pot collection Angie started for me; not to mention it's Ryan's favorite color. So, after some deliberation Ryan had the idea to go with a blue to off-set the red. We looked at a couple we liked, and decided on Russian ice by Behr. We are only using Behr on the whole house because their color selections and quality fit our styles perfectly.
As you can see, the kitchen started out looking bleak to say the least. The cabinets are custom built for this specific kitchen, so I certainly didn't want to loose them. Initially, I thought that I would just sand and paint the framework and re-face them and it would solve all of my problems. So, off we went to the Home Depot, or as we like to call it these days, Home. And we bought all of our needed tools; an electrical sander, a cordless drill, a circular saw and more sandpaper than you can shake a stick at. Then off we went...
I should mention that we started this project with no concrete goals in sight. Ryan has a very modern, straight-edge kind of style... think B&B Italia meets black concrete floors... yeah. I'm more of a contemporary cottage style. I like white linens, silver accents, dark and weathered woods, painted woods and very muted colors.
So, When the sanding was through, my fiance thought that it would be a good idea to open up a three-door cabinet on the left of the sink. I think it turned out to be a brilliant idea.
So, we were torn on what to do with the cabinets... Ryan at one point said he was going to tear them all out and go get new ones put in. That would have been way more expensive than we had budgeted for, so I talked him back from the ledge and we continued. I still had this wonderful vision of my sister Angie's (you'll hear about her a lot) house in Los Feliz (a suburb of Los Angeles). She had a fantastically talented painter who painted all of her kitchen cabinets an antique white and it made the kitchen so serene and lovely. Now, I don't have nearly the same size kitchen. She had enough room to put a sofa, a full size dining table and a dresser to house the television equipment in hers; so, serenity per-se does not have to be my end goal here. The crisp, clean look however, is something I had to find a way to capture. So, we threw caution to the wind and painted the cabinets, doors and all an oil-based antique white. Although I do LOVE the simplicity of latex paint on ceilings and walls, cabinets and casegoods I feel should always be done in an oil. Oil retains a shiny luster that latex simply does not have. It doesn't keep fingerprints and it self levels as it is applied. It is a pain to work with, for sure... but well worth it. So, I went back to the Depot and found some very modern, cylinder shaped handles that were 4 for $20, (a pretty good price) and we applied them.
Now the question was the paint color. I chose a muted cocoa with red tones, but Ryan wanted to go more bold. We had already decided to go with red as the accent color in the kitchen due to the begining of a red Le Creuset pot collection Angie started for me; not to mention it's Ryan's favorite color. So, after some deliberation Ryan had the idea to go with a blue to off-set the red. We looked at a couple we liked, and decided on Russian ice by Behr. We are only using Behr on the whole house because their color selections and quality fit our styles perfectly.We brought the paint home and started it yesterday morning. By last night the kitchen was a whole new room. We haven't yet tackled the new appliances or the countertop or floors, but the cabinets are change enough for this week. 
The House Search
When I first moved to Houston I did so because my boyfriend's job had re-located him and this was the lucky spot. Very soon after I arrived however, we became engaged. So, buying a house was the logical next step. This was a very intimidating decision for me initially, seeing as I had just moved from a place where a one bed - one bath condo was $250,000. In Southern California, renting is the way to go. Houston is exactly oppositte I learned. It is FAR cheaper here to buy a house than to rent an apartment. Already I could feel the fear slipping away. So, Ryan and I (that's my soon to be husband, whose name I have already adopted) decided it was a perfect time to take advantage of the recent real estate quicksand and and swoop in on a foreclosure home. So, now we live in a 2,000 sq ft colonial ranch in a nice, old subdivision in North Houston; but we do have our work cut out for us... 
Introduction
Hello family and friends. This is my first blog and hopefully will serve as a great piece of memorabilia down the road; allowing me to fondly reflect upon and laugh at the kind of culture shock that comes from a migration from Los Angeles to Houston, Texas. My goal is to document my new marriage, new city and the renovations of our flip home...which will hopefully be extensive!
-LM
-LM
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
