11.28.

Christmas Wall Decor: Reindeer String Art Tutorial

Hope everyone is recovering nicely from their big ole’ Thanksgiving meal!  We had a great time visiting with friends and family in our hometown.

I have a little confession to make.  Since I knew that we would be going out of town for Thanksgiving, I wanted to make sure we wouldn’t be so overwhelmed with getting all the decorations out and putting up the tree and doing the outdoor lights and …….. well, you get the idea.

So!  I decided to start decorating a week or so in advance.  Before you go, “girl is crazy!”……

Don’t worry!  I only started messing around with the inside.  😉

Since this was a new house and I wasn’t sure where I wanted everything, I wanted to take my time and figure it out.  Also, don’t forget the most important part of me being able to change up the theme this year.  Only took me 5 years to convince the hubster, but still, finally got my way this year.

I really wanted some wall art for the house, but I couldn’t find what I really wanted and I knew that it was also going to cost me a bit because I had so much room to fill over the breakfast nook.  Remember how big Penelope and Bessie are?

They are 36 x 36 and I love how they fill the space without making the wall look too cluttered with pictures.

I am going with more of a Rustic Theme this year and I have really been drawn to reindeers for some reason.  I started looking everywhere, but I just couldn’t find what I really wanted.

So, I knew I was going to have to make it.  LORD, HELP ME!

First things first.

I sort of had in my head what I wanted the background to look like.  I wanted it to look rustic and I thought I was going to have to stain the wood to look that way, but the hubster and I happened to go by Home Depot and found these boards already made to have the appearance of EXACTLY what I was going to do to the unfinished wood I planned on using.

The boards were originally 1 x 6 x 8 ft. so we had to cut them down to the size I wanted.  Since the pictures I was replacing were 36×36, I wanted the Christmas ones to be as close as possible to them.  In the end, I ended up getting 3 projects out of all the boards we purchased.  P.S. Look for a video tutorial to follow on the second String Art project we did to go with this one.

We purchased 7 of the Shiplap Boards, total.  Then, we cut the pieces down to 33.75 in. each.  Now lets do some math:  we took each board, cut it down and got 2 boards in 33.75in. length with scrap left over of 27.5in.  So, in the end, I am getting wall projects for the breakfast nook and 1 project for the outside because I just can’ t let that “scrap” go to waste.

The boards are tongue and groove so when we assembled them next to each other, they fit nicely and tight.

Might I add that the back of the wood has a pretty interesting finish to it?  It almost looks like water droplets coming down, so if you were looking to be more artistic with it, that is something to think about.  Using the back instead of the front.

We also purchased (2) 1 x 3 x 8ft. pieces of plain white wood for the back supports seen here.

After placing all the boards side by side and into the tongue and groove area, we placed the white boards, which we cut down to 32 in. each to fit the space and laid them across the shiplap boards.   Each 8ft space gave us 3 boards, with no left over scrap.  This means that when I go to make my third piece, I will have to buy another 8ft. piece of wood.  No worries though, because each 8ft. piece was only $ 1.48 !!!!  That’s right!  Cheap, y’all!

One more thing I wanted to mention before moving forward is this.  Each piece of the shiplap board is tongue and groove, like I mentioned before.  So, naturally, at some point, you are going to have an end piece that has an extra piece of wood sticking out.  Now, you can either keep that, which would look just fine OR you can rip it down and get rid of it.  We happened to have the tools to do this, but a great thing that your local home improvement store offers if cutting your boards for you!

That’s right, y’all!

They will cut them for you.  I believe it is a small fee, if any and that way, you don’t have to say you can’t do a project like this because you don’t happen to have these tools at the house.  With the company that we have, we just happened to have what we needed.  Otherwise, I would have completely used that service at the store.

So, back to ripping the board down.

Z was feeling very helpful that day and offered to do it for me so I wouldn’t lose my thumbs, or fingers, or arm or……….

Back to attaching the boards.  To make sure they were secure, we hammered a finishing nail into each board .

I just left the tags on the back of the shiplap because, well, that’s just how I roll.  Yup.  That’s it.

Here are the finishing nails we used for the back and also for the front for the string art.  1 box did it for this one, but I will probably have to purchase another for the second piece just to make sure I have enough.  (It is a little more detailed)

This is all three pieces of white wood attached.

Love how it turned out.

I found a reindeer silhouette that I really liked, but there was no way for me to enlarge it on my own computer to the size I needed, so I had Fedex enlarge it for me.  I ended up going with a size of 18x24in. print.

I trimmed the piece and centered it the best I could.

Next,

I secured it with a small piece of tape and started nailing away.  You hammer the finishing nails in by tracing the outline of the silhouette.

Try to keep them spaced as evenly as possible.  I started to angle the ones that were in the corners so that when I applied the string, I could create softer edges for the face.

Almost done.  I have to admit that this can be a little time consuming.  However, things go much faster when you have two people hammering.  🙂

Nails are all in!

And here is a closeup.

Remove tape and pull paper silhouette off.  It should come off pretty easily, but may leave behind a few small papers around the nail heads.  If this happens, you can simply remove with tweezers.

I had this jute twine already, but you can pick this up at your local craft store for about $5.00. *Use your 50% off coupon and get it for less!

You really can’t mess it up, but one thing I will suggest is to do something I didn’t, especially when doing the antlers because when you are looking at a bunch of nails, you can forget the pattern.  When doing my second project, I will definitely outline the picture FIRST with the twine!  I went back afterwards and did it so it would stick out more, but that made it more difficult during the process.  I saved the original image of the silhouette and just looked at that on my laptop for guidance, but if I did it to begin with, which is probably the way you are SUPPOSED TO DO String Art, it would have been easier.  LOL!  Oh well!

Getting there!

Now, you could simply let the reindeer be a reindeer, but since I was doing this for Christmas, my reindeer couldn’t just be any reindeer.  No sir.

Mine had to be the one with the red nose……. The sparkly red nose in this case.

We attached these large picture hangers to the back for extra support because this big boy is quite heavy.

This was what the originally finished project looked like and

there really isn’t anything wrong with it.

BUT!

The more I looked at it, the more I felt like it started to look more like a “reindeer MUMMY” instead of a “rudolph, the red nosed reindeer”.

SO, my OCD made me go back over it and smooth out the lines a little more.

I like this version a lot more.

In fact, I like it so much, that I decided to do another one.  But different. Not a reindeer.  But Christmas.  ANYWAY!

Really quickly, here is the price breakdown in case you want to try this for yourself:

Remember though, I made more than one project out of this!  If you are only making the one, I will do my best to adjust:

• 1 x 6 x 8 shiplap boards from Home Depot:  $ 11.97 per board  (Need 7 Boards total to make more than one project. However, if only making one project, you would only need 4 Boards!)
• 1 x 3 x 8 white wood strips for back supports $ 1.48 ea.
• 1 1/4in. box of finishing nails (Shiny ones) $ 3.47
• Enlarged Reindeer head Silhouette  $ 2.25
• Jute twine $ 5.99 (*Use 50% off coupon at AC Moore or Michaels to make $ 2.99)
• Picture Hangers  $ 2.39

*All wood material was purchased from Home Depot for reference, including picture hangers.

Stay tuned!  and

Season’s Greetings, y’all!

XOXO,

Esther

Tags: Christmas Wall Decor, DIY, Easy, Home Depot, Reindeer, Reindeer Silhouette, Rudolph String Art, Rustic Christmas, Shiplap, String Art

11.22.

House Tour: Kitchen and Butler’s Pantry

Do you remember on the MTV Cribs show where they would come to the Master Bedroom part of the tour…… and they always say, “And this is where all the magic happens!”   insert:  Gross puke face .

I always get grossed out at that part and if one of the people they are showing chooses not to say that part, I instantly like them much more.

Well, for me, I would have to say that about my Kitchen.  Sorry, husband.

It’s true!  I think my kitchen is by far the favorite spot in the house for me.  Lets be honest ladies, we practically  live there and have thought at one point or another about how hard it might be to incorporate some kind of sleeping area into the design.

Even though, with our house, we had to choose the same cabinets throughout the house, I was determined to inject character and texture into the space.

I really love to cook and I have collected a fair amount of cookbooks over the years.  This picture doesn’t actually truly reflect the amount of cookbooks I have.  I am slowly going through our storage unit and haven’t brought them all into the house yet, but I really wanted a space that was solely for them.

I initially got the idea to add something like this when I became a fan of Last Man Standing starring Tim Allen.  In the show, they have something like this on the end of their kitchen island that looks like it was built with the island to begin with.

I didn’t have the luxury of extending the island counter top over the cookbook unit, but I really like how it turned out in the end.

I called who else but my local go to craftsman, Steve Egloff from The Wandering Woodshop and together, we came up with the idea of using reclaimed wood.  I told him what I wanted it used for and he designed the perfect piece.  He actually surprised me with the finish by taking the same color we used on our accent wall in the living room (Benjamin Moore’s Labrador Blue) and watered it down to create the wash he used over the wood.

The end result was perfect!

Some areas of the unit come through bluer than others and it’s awesome!

As you can see, the height is just a step down from the top of the counter top.  Look at how pretty the knots of the wood come through!  I heart reclaimed wood!  Can you tell?  😉

Moving on to the barstools.  Or should I say, counter stools?  The reason I say this is because when looking for chairs, it’s important to know this.  I literally almost made the mistake of ordering barstool height as opposed to the counter height stools.  I was so used to just getting bar height in the past, that I never stopped to think about it.

Since we decided to go with the island top being all one level and not staggered, it made the height of the counters, well counter height.  So, keep this in mind when shopping for stools.  I purchased these from Target.  I have been very happy so far.  The only gripe is with 3 messy eating kids, I have to use the attachment of the vacuum that allows me to get small crumbs out of the nooks and crannies of the rattan instead of just wiping it off.

Love the texture it lends to the area.

I’ve posted about some of the hardware I chose to go with before in other parts of the house, but I decided to go with this again in the kitchen.  I mixed and matched knobs so that nothing was too matchy matchy.  I have been asked in the past how to make a space looked lived in and cozy from the start.  I feel like this is one of the best secrets to doing this.  Nothing should match to much.  You should try to mix and match finishes, colors, textures that compliment each other.  With the hardware I chose, the finishes match.  However, the styles do not.  It creates the same effect.

I went with a glass knob for the upper cabinets and a chrome look for lower cabinets, mixing circular knobs and squared off knobs.

I also used different sizes of the same bar style hardware pulls that I purchased from The Home Depot.

I didn’t realize that the fridge area would have a cabinet surround at first and I am happy that I decided to wait before purchasing the fridge for the space.  It would have looked funny if we hadn’t purchased a counter depth fridge instead of a standard one.  The standard one would have stuck out way too far and looked too large for the space.  The counter depth was perfect!

We purchased ours from Home Depot and at first, I wanted a Frigidaire that had the bar bell handles like the hardware I chose for the cabinets and that stinkin fridge was almost $3000!!!!!!!  Girlfriend, say WHAT????

I just figured I couldn’t get it until I was surfing the internet and found a Maytag version for significantly less, which sidebar:  Aren’t they a Frigidaire company?  Y’all ain’t fullin anyone!  (See mom?  Private school really DID pay off!)

Well, I ended up paying 1/2 that price for the one we got and it looks just like the one I originally saw!  Yeahhh doggie!  SCORE!

I probably should mention another thing.  I meant to write a blog post about the kitchen WAY before it got close to decorating for Christmas.  Oops!

This hopefully explains why you see a lot of red and perhaps a christmas tree or wreath.  LOL!  There will be much more to follow that in the coming days.  I finally got my way this year and I get to change up the decor a little.  For the longest time, we have had a Grinch Who Stole Christmas type of theme.  I finally get to do my Rustic Cabin Christmas theme this year!  Look for a tutorial on wall decor, coming soon.

Speaking of Rustic Christmas decor’.  Have you seen Target’s dollar spot this year? They have a fantastic selection of christmas stuff this year.  Especially if you are swaying towards the same type of theme that I am.

I picked these kitchen towels up there the other day for only $3.  I love the plaid!

Another thing we did in the kitchen to give it some character was paint the vent hood.  All the cabinets were the same color originally.  A sort of off white/cream white.  I asked Steve to add the two wood trim pieces that are coming down the center.  He did that by simply gluing them in place.  Then, we went back in and painted the hood the same color as the island. (*Benjamin Moore’s Fieldstone Gray)

I used the same color in my previous home on the bottom cabinets.  Here is the blog post I wrote about painting the kitchen cabinets in that home.

Another way to add character and insert your own style is by changing out your light fixtures.  We decided to go with the cheapest lighting package the builder offered because we knew we were going to change them out anyway over time.  I bought these from Lowes and are from their Allen and Roth line. I had saw a pair of light fixtures that Joanna Gaines used in a home she did on Fixer Upper and I absolutely loved them……. until the cheapest pair I could find were over $200 each.  Since we were having to do a lot of different projects to the house and I knew that buying two that price would eat up my budget, I decided to go with these instead.  To be honest, they reminded me a lot of the ones I loved and I wasn’t the least bit sad that I chose to go with them.

They have a blown glass look and go perfect with the craftsman detail in the house.

I also wanted to share something with you that makes me smile every single day!  I love this part of the house.  You guessed it, the Butler’s pantry.  I have always wanted one of these.  I mean, like, ALWAYS!!!!!!!

Over the years, I have kept a running list of things I would want in my dream home and this was at the top of the list.

It is a small room off the kitchen that connects to the dining room.  It’s the perfect spot to store things that you use frequently, but do not want to necessarily have out all the time.  I keep our things like our coffee pot in here and my mixer.

There is a built in area for wine bottles.  We store canned items above that and we keep things like wine glasses and coffee mugs in the center area.

I carried the look of the same hardware into this area too.  I love these, if you can’t tell.  🙂

On the other wall of the Butler’s Pantry is the regular pantry (which I am going to go more into detail at a later date.  You will see why. 🙂  )

Another thing on this wall is our magnet board.

Steve made this for me as well as a few more for the kids rooms.

I keep important reminders as well as school craft papers the kiddos bring home.  I also keep a weekly calendar there as well and pretty much anything that might have ended up on the fridge, ends up here instead.

Back in the kitchen, another detail we added was the same type of wood work we used throughout the wall detail in the house.  It is the simple squared off look that we used before.  Afterwards, we went back and painted it the same color as the hood. (*Benjamin Moore’s Fieldstone Gray).  I think it makes the island look more like a piece of furniture.

One more thing I wanted to mention is the counter tops.  Since we went with a nation wide builder, we only had a few choices when it came to the granite.  We decided to go with this color.  The color is called Santa Cecelia.  I must have Pinterest searched this color a million different ways so that I could see it with every possible color combo for the cabinets (etc.).

I am really happy with our choice.

Well folks, that’s all for today.  I hope you enjoyed walking through my kitchen with me.  I am so happy that you chose to spend a little time with me today.  If you have any questions regarding any of the items you have seen in this post, please comment below and I will make sure to answer them.

Please make sure to check back regularly for more posts on our new home.  It’s Christmas time, so I will be sharing decorating ideas and diy projects very soon!

XOXO,

Esther 

 

 

Tags: Benjamin Moore, Butler's Pantry, Cookbooks, Craftsman Style, Fieldstone Gray, Granite, Hood, House Tour, Kitchen, Last Man Standing, Lowe's, Magnet Board, Painting Cabinets, Pendant Lighting, Reclaimed Wood, Santa Cecelia, Storage

10.24.

House Tour: His and Hers Shared Office

Have I ever told you about my lovely obsession with all things Ikea?  I would seriously buy the entire store if it weren’t for my partner of reason, aka…… The Hubster.

I have had to pull him back a few times on things, but mostly, it is him doing the tugging.

It was no different for our office.  In our past home, I was the only one “operating” out of the office area, so I made it 100% girly!  I take care of the office portion of our company so it was pretty much my say in how we decorated the space before.

I’m talking hot pink chair meets aqua blue walls …….  you get the picture.  😉

Since then, things have morphed into the hubster spending more time in the office with me, so I knew that in the new space, it was going to have to be gender friendly, which I knew was going to totally cramp my style.  I mean, how dare he make me feel like I have to get rid of my pink chair???  LOL!

First, I’d like to start with the desk.  When the hubster and I work together, we usually are having to brainstorm with each other on projects and such so I knew that facing away from each other was not going to work for us.  We needed a  desk that we could both use and would allow us to gaze into one another’s eyes and think deeply about ……………….  painting estimates.  😉

I purchased two of these beauties from Ikea from their Alex line.

We placed them back to back with each other and hired our awesome contractor, Steve Egloff to make us a table top.  I really liked the feel of a modern look for the space so I asked him to do an industrial feel for the legs.  After looking for the material and figuring out that the legs were going to cost more than we wanted to spend, Steve had a great idea to use closet rods for the area.

Absolutely GENIUS!!!!  It allowed us to still have the look we wanted without the cost.

Not only cool, but anything that saves me money is a SUPER PLUS!  …………..  HOLLA!

For the top, we went with a nice soft gray stain at Sherwin Williams.  Now, I love being able to just say what the name of a color is, but for this stain, it wasn’t that easy.  They have an area that has basic stains and since I didn’t want to wait for stain that I chose due to us having to order it, I chose, instead, to go with a clear stain that they added gray to until we got it the shade I wanted.

I wish I could have had an exact color to reference, but to be honest, it is kind of fun experimenting with the colors and knowing that you came up with the shade on your own, so if you are looking to choose a gray stain color, go to your local paint store and ask them to do the clear stain and then find a shade of gray you like in a paint color and ask them to make it as close to that color as possible and HAVE FUN!

Here is a close up of the color and natural wood peeking through from underneath.

If you haven’t figured out by now, I am really into the look and feel of invoking a coastal meets rustic meets industrial meets farm style in my house…………  not complicated at all, right?  Otherwise known as, tastefully eclectic.  Or at least, I hope tastefully.

We knew we wanted to do a focal point in the room with an accent wall.  I am a HUGE Fixer Upper fan.  (*WHO ISN’T????)

I love the look of Shiplap and I wanted to bring that look into my own home, so I called on Steve, once again to install tongue and groove on the wall next to our desk.

He started out with an unfinished wood because we weren’t sure if we were going to stain it or white wash it.

Well,

it looks like white washing won out in the end.

P.S. PLEASE do NOT tell Steve.  He would have a HEART ATTACK if he knew we white washed his beautiful unfinished wood. (*Conversation I had with Steve during the install:    Steve:  So what do you think you will do to the accent wall?  Are you going to leave it as is?  I think it looks great the way it is now.  Me:  Not sure yet?  Maybe stain it, maybe white wash it?   Steve:  Oh NO!  You never white wash perfectly beautiful unfinished oak planks.)

Ummmmmmmm,  yeah…………  So, please don’t tell him.  It can be our secret.

We wanted to make it look weathered and not too perfectly white washed, so we tried to make it not as uniformed.

I absolutely love love love it.  Sometimes our company can stress both of us out and this space is just so relaxing.

In order to get the color of the white wash, we took a small amount of paint and thinned it out significantly with water until we got it to the color we wanted.

Then finished it off with a sweet picture I picked up from Homegoods.  I like to say it is more on my side so technically, I am more “like a boss” than him, but who is counting……………..  😉

On the opposite wall, we placed the filing cabinet/shelving unit I had been eyeing for months and months.  It finally went on sale at Pottery Barn and I pounced.  I ended up saving almost $500!!!!  From what I have seen, they usually keep it in stock.  It is part of their modular Bedford line.

I am not disappointed at all.  It is very sturdy and seems to be very well made.  I have not regretted any purchase I have made from Pottery Barn so far.  The only thing is, I have to really plan and save for the items I purchase due to their prices, but it is worth it.

In the corner, I placed a wall file holder I had in our last home that I also picked up from Ikea.  Paint color on wall is the main color in our house:  Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter, which is a “graige”.  Gray/Beige.

I love that it stays on the wall and does not take up any counter space.

On the wall by the door, is our planning center for the upcoming projects that we are doing and our current projects we are working on.

These magnetic boards are also from Ikea and have white magnets that you can purchase separately there for it.  I chose to use my label maker and do categories for the planning board that helps me stay on top of everything.  (*I removed a lot to protect information on the projects, but you get the idea.)

I literally planned this entire room around this light fixture.  Like I mentioned before, I knew I wanted that industrial feel in here and this was the only light fixture I could picture in here.  Since the desk is more to the side and the light fixture is centered in the room, we swagged it over with a ceiling hook to have it centered over the desk.  The best thing about the light fixture is the price.  For a light fixture like this, you would probably pay a lot!  Not at Ikea!  Here is a link to the fixture from their Hektar line.  We paid only $69 for this huge monster!

I really wanted to be able to walk in to the room and feel that it had a female presence as well as a male so I decided to go with these two chairs they sell at Costco.  I purchased one white for me and……

one black for him.  I am so glad that I did.  He has a tendency to show up splattered in paint or some foreign matter from time to time, so the black helps to hide that.  😉  *LOVE YOU, BABE!  

And last but certainly not least, here is my disorganized closet.  Can I just tell how much I love having a closet in my office?  I know it seems so simple.  A little closet in a room.  However, I did not have this in my last office and it REALLY makes a difference.  I can hide stuff in there like a printer!  Mine always became an eyesore and even though I needed it, I didn’t like the junky look it had.  Now, I can just close the door and forget about it.  It is wireless, so it isn’t necessary to attach to my computer and I just sneak the extension power cord under the door and plug it in right next to my desk.  Problem solved!

Well, my lovely friends, thank you thank you thank you for spending more time with me and taking another peak into this crazy thing I call a home.

I hope you have enjoyed another installment of the new house tour.

That fall time air is really calling my name and I hope to share a new recipe with you next time as well as a post about the true heart of our home……… THE KITCHEN!  

Until next time,

XOXO,

ESTHER 

 

 

Tags: Benjamin Moore, Costco, Fixer Upper, Gray, Hektar Light Fixture, His and Hers, IKEA, Ikea Alex Drawer Base, Industrial Style, New House Tour, Planked Walls, Revere Pewter, Shared Office, Sherwin Williams, Shiplap, Stain, Tongue and Groove, White and Black Design, White Washed

10.17.

House Tour: Living Room and Planning Center

You know, there is just something about a comfortable, plop down on the couch, furry rug…… living room!  Don’tcha think?

Well, I do!

Folks, I can’t think of a more comfy space than the living room in my house.  I really wanted it to be this place that was easy to keep clean but also a place where you could do just that……  PLOP!  Just come in and sit right down.  Kick up your feet and stay a while.  Well, not too long, I suppose!  LOL!

In order to do that, I knew I was going to have to put things that were easy to wash, were soft, but could also take the abuse that my family would give it.

Yes, I jumped on the white slipped cover “band wagon” .  We went to IKEA right before we moved in and bought these couches.  BEST DECISION EVA!

I really love how the white is so versatile, yet can be washed if it were to get dirty.  When I bought these, I chose to get a second set that was a darker gray.  My idea is to switch them out every few months.  Hopefully, this will help with the longevity of the slip covers.  If not, the good thing is they are not expensive to replace and who doesn’t like a good excuse to go to IKEA, right?  😉

My last couch was a wrap around and we literally had it until it began to dry rot.  I am not one who likes to buy a really expensive nice couch when I know my kiddos are probably going to spill something on it , or,  like my little man, use it as a trampoline or a base jump spot to dive off of.  *What is it going to take to make that KID stop!  AHHHHHH!   That one is definitely going to be my ER baby!

I yell and yell at my whole family and tell them that we will not be eating or drinking on this AT ALL, but let’s be honest.  That is like saying the same thing about a new car.  You have really good intentions initially, and then that one day comes where you make the exception and suddenly it goes from looking like this:

to looking like THIS:

Well, hopefully not this bad.  I mean, we don’t smoke so we shouldn’t have the cigarette packs and all.  😉

When we first moved in, we only had our fireplace on the wall here.  I knew that I wanted to do built ins, so I called Steve Egloff from The Wandering Woodshop who did all the carpentry work in our house and together we came up with plan.  He custom designed the built ins to work for my space.

If you notice, the thermostat was put on the wall very close to where I wanted the built ins to go, so made sure the design would work with the position of the thermostat and still look good and symmetrical for the space.

I think he did a fantastic job!

We went with a  backing that has an unfinished horizontal boarding.  At first, my plan was to white wash the backing, but after looking at for a day, I noticed that the backing was really picking up some of the yellow and tan accents I had in that space so I decided to keep it and I am so happy that I did.  It also, to me, has a beach feel and since I have coastal accents in my house, I LOVE IT!

*Reference Purposes:  The color of the blue paint that is used on the accent wall is Benjamin Moore’s Labrador Blue.  Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter is the main color on the wall.

I really love the contrast of the honey tones on the back of the space work so well with the greens and silver.

We went with some of the same hardware that we have used in the kitchen and the baths throughout the house.  They are from The Martha Stewart line at Home Depot.  They are usually in the store and also in stock.

We went with a lot of the same squared off craftsman style cuts we have used on other detail projects in the house.

It’s really believe it is all in the details,  and Steve really takes the time to do that.

On to the thing that was probably one of the biggest reasons we chose this house.  For as long as I can remember, I have tried to create a “command center” or area that we can utilize for the kids things or things for the home that require planning.  Papers always overflow if they do not have a home.  Homework always ends up on the dinner table.  I could go on and on……….

BEHOLD!!!!!!

THE PLANNING CENTER!

I am so happy we have this space.  It is out of the way at the base of our stairs and holds all the homework items, important papers, and crafting items that one could need.

Everything is nice and hidden behind the cabinet doors and the countertop stays open for the kids to spread their homework out.

I made sure when we were adding electrical outlets, that I added plenty in this space for purposes of charging any phones, tablets, laptops etc.  While we are using the cubby areas currently for scratch paper for homework or construction paper for projects and headphones,  and staplers……. the first thought we had for the space was “WOW!  We that space would be perfect for the tablets and ipods!  The ideas are endless !

I decided to put a photo holder in the space for fun memories and and also put an IKEA organizing bar in the corner too.  The extra hooks are there to hold up to two more buckets as the need grows to have them.

Even though the light above the space is casting a yellow glow, the granite is actually not that yellow.  The color for reference purposes is Santa Cecilia.

Hardware for the space is a mix of Martha Stewart silver knobs and square cup pulls  (Special Order) from Home Depot on the lower cabinet area and a glass knobs for the upper cabinets.  I couldn’t find them online, but they are always in stock at either Home Depot or Lowes for about $3.50 each.

Probably the best thing about this area of the house is this.  You can’t see the mess that might be made behind the wall that it resides behind.

• We have had the Z Marquee Light for a little while now and got this from our good friends at Vintage Marquee Lights.  They are awesome!

Well, my dear friends, that is all for today!  Thank you so much for spending more time with me as I shared the living room space and planning center area with you today.  I hope you were able to get some great ideas that may help you with your own decorating journeys.

If you have some great tips to share, or if you have any questions, please feel free to do so in the comments!  I would love to hear from you.

Please check back next week where I share how I turned what might have been a girly office into a shared office space for the hubster and myself!  😉

XOXO,

Esther 

 

Tags: Built Ins, Comfy, Crafts, Craftsman Style, Ektorp Couches, Furry Rug, Granite, Home Depot, Homework, House Tour, IKEA, Living Room, Lowe's, Martha Stewart Hardware, Organization, Planning Center, Santa Cecelia, Slip Covers, Vintage Marquee Lights