Kitchen Design Board + Floor Plans

The countdown is on! In about two weeks, we'll be starting our kitchen renovation and I cannot wait. Demo is set to begin in about two weeks - in other words, things will be getting real real fast. (Any advice on living without a kitchen for awhile?)

I basically started planning this kitchen reno the moment we first laid eyes on our house last year and if you've been around the blog for awhile, you might remember that in our "30 day blitz" after closing we took down a wall and did some quick reconfiguring to make it work for us before we could move forward with a true remodeling project.

It went from this (real estate photo):

To this (wall came down, installed a dishwasher and moved the sink to where the fridge used to be):

Since this photo was taken back in the winter, the only thing we've done is install pendant lighting (shown in the design board below) over the peninsula. Though it's been in a state of limbo - for example, our only ceiling light in there right now is a hanging bulb from a ceiling fan we took down, ha! - it's been great to live with the kitchen in this form for awhile to really be able to know what we wanted our new one to be like.

A few months ago, before I took time off from blogging in June and July, I shared my kitchen inspiration, and I'm happy to report I've stayed pretty true to that vision! Light, bright and modern are the key words.

So without further adieu, here's the design board for our new kitchen!

(Please note that some of the following are affiliate links, which means that if you purchase through the link, I may earn a small commission at no cost to you. Thanks for supporting the blog in this way!)

1. IKEA cabinets (VEDDINGE) || 2. quartz countertop (Caesarstone London Grey) || 3. butcher block countertop || 4. refrigerator || 5. range || 6. dishwasher || 7. brass hex knob || 8. brass pull || 9. pendant lights || 10. faucet || 11. sink || 12. floor tile

We decided to go with IKEA for our cabinets, doors and quartz/butcherblock countertops. Their system is amazing (soft close doors, anyone?!) and the prices are hard to beat. Though there's a lot of assembly involved, I'm not too concerned since I'm an avid do-it-yourselfer and I have a contractor father-in-law spearheading the project. :)

I went back and forth for a good while on whether to go with flat panel doors or shaker style and ultimately decided to go with the more modern, flat panel doors. I'm pairing the simple door style with some really fun brushed brass pulls and knobs that take the kitchen to the next level. (By the way, the hardware I chose is super affordable - especially those Target pulls. I went into the store the other day to see them in person and they're a great weight and color, which I wasn't necessarily expecting for a Target find! #targetdoesitagain)

For the countertops, I wanted something that looked like marble, but was more durable, and these London Grey quartz countertops fit the bill. I loved the veining and the grey tone. They'll be everywhere in the kitchen except for a small section that will have butcher block. Those cabinets will imitate a credenza - more on that in the floor plans below.

I haven't nailed down the exact tile for the flooring, but I know it will be a dark gray/charcoal and likely be in a 12"x24" size. We're also pretty sure we're going to install electric radiant heat under the tile since our kitchen is freezing underfoot in the winter. Does anyone have any brands they recommend for that? I'm still researching...

Our sink and faucet were ordered this week. I can't tell you how excited I am to be replacing our cheap double basin, stainless steel sink with a deep, single basin one, and our leaky, low faucet for a sleek, pull down one!

Lastly, appliances. I've been thrilled with our Whirlpool dishwasher (it's silent and cleans really well) and we'll be going with them for our refrigerator, range and microwave/hood as well. I'm not sure exactly which models yet, but the three I linked above are strong contenders.

Now let's take a look at the rough floor plan! If any of you have ever tried out the IKEA kitchen planner, you know it's a bit maddening to use, but it gets the job done for the most part.

Here's the overall view:

The main part of the kitchen will maintain the existing L-shape, but the countertop on the peninsula (where the sink and dishwasher are) will extend out into the dining area so we can have a real bar with stools under it for seating. The new items are the "credenza" (represented as brown in the above floor plan) and the floor-to-ceiling pantries (labeled 10 and 11 above).

(To see our kitchen as it stands now, check out this post.)

Below you can see the pantries on the left side. The cabinetry surrounding the range has basically the same layout as the existing cabinetry. A microwave/hood will go above the range.

And P.S., I have no idea why the knobs aren't parallel with each other - a quirk of the software I guess!

Here's a better look at the "credenza" on the opposite side of the space. It will have exposed legs since a small radiator will be sitting under those cabinets. I'm excited to gain a bit of counter space here too!

Our sink, dishwasher and pull out trash can(!) will be in the peninsula and the bar area will extend out the back.

I think that's it. Phew! That was a long post, but I hope it gives you a better idea of where we're headed. Hopefully the next update will be a real life one where we'll be saying adios! to the old kitchen!


*Psst! Need help with your home? Come on over to Mix & Match Design Company and let's chat!

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And I'm Back!

Did you miss me? I feel like I have a lot to catch y'all up on, so I'll divide this post up into three sections: where I've been, what's happening now, and what's coming up.

Where I've been:

The reason I took a little break (ok, maybe 6 weeks isn't exactly short...) from blogging was because my husband and I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help run a series of summer programs on Martha's Vineyard! Never in my life did I think that we would have the chance to leave our normal lives behind for awhile to work together on a property that hosts week-long programs for middle and high school students on an island in Massachusetts. Crazy, right? "Real adults" don't do this sort of thing, do they?

Well, we did!

With my husband finishing graduate school in May and me deciding to leave my career in healthcare to pursue Mix & Match Design Company full time, we created a gap of time this summer that freed us up to do this crazy thing. Our primary responsibility was to work behind-the-scenes to ensure that the programs ran smoothly from week to week. I nicknamed the two of us "the great communicators" because a lot of what we did involved collecting and disseminating info between the summer-long staff (kitchen, office and facilities folks) and the week-long staff/volunteers so that everything would go according to plan from day to day and week to week. We were also in charge of developing community among the college-aged summer-long staff and running weekly Bible studies for them. We had such a great group and I already miss them!

While we were on the Vineyard, we also managed to have a lot of fun in our off time. I feel like I should put together some kind of guide for all the fun things you can do there - we had a blast exploring beaches and cute little towns, hiking, catching sunsets, fishing, eating lobster, etc. I put together a little collage of some of the photos I snapped with my iPhone, which doesn't do our adventures justice, but it gives you a flavor!

What's happening now?

As of this past Monday, I'm a full-time entrepreneur! I've turned my attention to running and growing Mix & Match Design Company.

I'm excited slash a little bit terrified. Running your own business is no joke! Transitioning from a job where pretty much every minute was planned out for me to a job where I'm the boss and it's up to me to run this thing is quite an adjustment. I'm definitely up for the challenge though, and I'm pumped to finally be able to put all my energy toward my passion of offering folks affordable and approachable interior design services! With that being said, if you or anyone you know is in need of help in their homes, send them my way! You can find out more info through the website (linked above) or contact me via chaney@mixandmatchdesign.com.

What's coming up?

So many things! I've got two Mix & Match projects in the works right now that I hope to share photos of soon. I shared the plan for one of them before I went on sabbatical - the Philadelphia suburbs master bedroom. In case you missed it, here it is:

We tweaked a few of the items along the way, but this is the general gist! It's going to be beautiful and I can't wait to see it in person soon.

The second project is an industrial farmhouse style dining room. I'm still working with that client to finalize a few things and I hope to share more about it in the coming weeks!

The last big thing that's coming up is that in a couple of weeks we start our big kitchen renovation. Yippee! We're ripping everything out and starting from scratch. It's time to say goodbye to cracked, mismatched floor tiles, the makeshift "bar," old appliances, a leaky faucet and oh so much more... This may be one of the last times you see it like this, so get a good look now!

I shared my kitchen ideas and inspiration awhile back and now plans are firming up, which is exciting. My father-in-law and I will be taking this project on in August and y'all will get the full scoop as we get going. The #phillyrowhousereno is back for round two!

I think I'll wrap things up for today, but it's good to be back in action here on the ole blog. More to come!

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Kitchen Renovation Inspiration

{Sugar & Cloth}

That's right, a kitchen renovation! Though it's not going to happen until later this summer, it's never too early to start planning and dreaming, right? I'm also hoping that y'all will chime in with your two cents on kitchen renos. I'm all ears!

Nothing is set in stone yet, but let's start with a few facts about the direction we're headed and then I'll get to the pretty stuff. :)

We're planning:

• Modern white cabinets (who's surprised there?)
• Marble-like quartz countertops
• Brass hardware
• Dark floors
• Stainless steel appliances

We'll pretty much be starting from scratch while basically keeping the same layout. The one lone survivor in the demo phase will be the dishwasher (we bought it when we moved in since the house didn't have one). For cabinets, we're 90% sure we'll be using IKEA Sektion system with VEDDINGE fronts, so lots of cabinet building will be happening over here! I can't wait to get started. 

Here are a few kitchens I've found that I love that echo the style/look we're going for:

{Annabode via Design Sponge}

{Sita Montgomery Interiors via Style Me Pretty}

{Francois et Moi}

{Oh Happy Day}

{Nicole Davis Interiors}

{Burke Decor}

{House Updated}

Get the idea? ;)

Of course I'll be sharing all the nitty gritty details from the planning phase all the way through to the reveal, so get ready for lots of kitchen happenings soon!

For reference, here's what our kitchen looks like now:

I can't wait to get rid of the green laminate countertops and that seen-better-days stainless sink!

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"State of the Dining Room" Update

Hello friends! I hope you're having great weeks so far. Work has been keeping me quite busy lately and I'm ready for things to slow down a little bit! I'm popping in today to share a little update on our dining room. Though it's far from what I'd call "done," I'm ok with that and I figured y'all would like to see some of the progress and hear about the process. After all, real life makeovers don't happen overnight!

The last time you saw a full shot of our dining room, it looked like this:

Our petite, but lovely farm table (a family piece) lived here, and we were using a secretary for storage. We knew we wanted a larger dining table to host folks for the elaborate dinner parties we're planning - I kid, but seriously, we wanted to be able to have more than two people over at a time - and better storage for serving pieces, barware and china.

I hit the jackpot with a thrifted china hutch I found at my favorite local Philly spot, Uhuru, back in January, and that piece has become a workhorse. I wrote about it in this post if you want more details about it and the little DIY magic I worked on it. You'll see it a little later in this post.

Then, after months of hunting Craigslist for the perfect dining room table that my husband and I could both agree on, the Dylan table from CB2 popped up for nearly half off the retail price. It was the perfect mix between traditional farm table, mid-century modern and industrial, and we love it. Enough chit chat though, let's get to to the photos!

Can I just tell you how pretty this table is? It has a thick, solid wood top and iron hairpin-like legs. And yes, it does weigh approximately a thousand pounds (I'm exaggerating, but not by much). Like true city-dwellers who don't have a large car to pick up giant Craigslist finds, we called an UberXL to pick it up and bring it home. The driver was so awesome - he even helped us carry it into the house. It was quite a hilarious scene.

It fits six to eight people, and clearly we are in need of more seating! We're contemplating doing four chairs and a bench - do y'all have thoughts on a bench? I think it would look less crowded visually than having six chairs since our space isn't huge, but I worry a little bit about comfort for the folks sitting at a bench for long periods of time.

I can't get over how thick and beautiful the table top is.

If you're paying very close attention, you might notice that the china hutch swapped walls and I added some large-scale art to the wall where that piece used to be.

I'll share a little more about that art in another post, but I will let you in on a little secret: it was a DIY I put together with some acrylic craft paint and some Modern Masters Pale Gold from the Metallic Paint Collection. They're super simple and add a nice graphic focal point to the room.

I'd say the dining room is coming right along!

What's left to do in here? A few things:

• Change out that unfortunate shiny brass chandelier for something awesome. Jury's out on what that will be, but I talked about some recent favorites last week in this post.
• Figure out the seating. I'd like to get four of these white Eiffel style dining chairs (*affiliate link) and a bench. My husband isn't sold on those chairs though.
• Paint the radiator white.
• Maybe add a rug? 

So that's the "State of the Dining Room" update. Do y'all like these "in-process" posts?

Like I said above, I'll be sharing more about that DIY art in another post!

*Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a FREE e-design package if you're in the Philly or DC areas. All the info on how to enter is here.

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Small Bathroom Makeover {The Full Before & After}

Last week I shared a little bit of the makeover I gave our small bathroom and I'm back to give you the full details of what I did - all the way from the beginning. I feel like you need to see the true before photos to really appreciate how it looks now. :)

In case you haven't been around since we started renovating out little row house in Philadelphia back in the fall, let me show you where we started with this bathroom beginning with a real estate listing photo:

Helloooo purple! Two shades of purple, in fact. This was the actual photo the real estate agent put in the listing (crooked, poorly lit and just so much stuff). They certainly weren't doing the house any favors here, but thankfully we were able to see past all that and realize that the bones were good - it just needed some serious help in the paint and decluttering department.

Let's move on to how it looked once all the previous owner's stuff was gone:

Please forgive the crazy lighting here and the other junk. This was taken before I figured out how to shoot this tiny, windowless room and right before I was about to paint! :)

The first step in this bathroom makeover was getting rid of all that purple. I gave it all a coat of Kilz primer then two coats of regular paint: Behr Ultra Pure White on the beadboard and Benjamin Moore Winter White on the walls. I also took down the glass shelf by the mirror, the small accordion vanity mirror and the two towel rings on the linen closet doors. I felt like all of those things were making an already small room feel cluttered.

Again, the lighting in this photo is terrible! Oh well - can't worry about that now that it's in the past. Even with the terrible lighting, it was looking so much better already.

The next step was to paint the boring white medicine cabinet mirror a beautiful matte metallic brass from Modern Masters. I talked all about that in last week's post, so head over there if you'd like more details.

This mirror just blended right into the wall when it was white...

Then boom. Brass. Now it's a focal point!

After the mirror was done, it was time to really make that wall a showstopper with some pattern. I talked a lot about wanting to use wallpaper in here, but in the end, I realized I could get the look I wanted for a fraction of the price using paint. Plus, with paint there's no need to worry about humidity issues that can sometimes be a problem with wallpaper in bathrooms.

I picked up a sample pot of paint at Lowe's in Valspar's Gotham Gray. Depending on the light, it looks like a charcoal gray with some blue in it or nearly black. I love love the color.

I sketched out some patterns on a piece of poster board and ended up with a simple repeating hash pattern (is that what you'd call it?). It's almost like a basketweave. I decided to throw caution to the wind and freehanded it all the way across the wall. It took a couple of afternoons to finish, but was surprisingly therapeutic. Here it is in progress:

And here's a finished section:

Now let's get to the good stuff and see the whole thing!

I'm thrilled with how well the pattern plays with the brass mirror. In an all white room, this was just the pop it needed!

The other small change I made had to do with the sconces. They're not my favorite, but purchasing new ones wasn't on my list for now, so I decided to get creative. Here's a closeup of one of them pre-update:

I realized that I could swap out the glass shades since they were a standard size, so I snagged two of these more modern ones from Lowe's while I was picking up my sample pot of paint. (The online photo does not do them justice - I'm glad I saw them in person first!) When I got home, I flipped the sconces upside down and put the new glass shades on. I like them so much more now!

These small details can make all the difference, can't they?

So that's full story behind our sub-$50 bathroom makeover. I'm thrilled with how it looks and it makes me so happy to go in there now. Three cheers for the power of paint and a little creative thinking!

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Small Bathroom Makeover: Before & After with Modern Masters Paint

{Note: Modern Masters provided the lovely matte metallic brass paint for this project, but as always, opinions are 100% mine.}

Oh, how far we've come! 

When we purchased this house, its only bathroom was painted not one, but two shades of purple (yikes). It had good bones though, so I knew all it needed was a little paint to freshen it up. In December, I got rid of the purple, but was at a bit of a loss for what to do next. Here's where we stood once the walls and beadboard got a few coats of Benjamin Moore Winter White and Behr Ultra Pure White, respectively.

A little bland, but much better than purple!

Then, in January, I got an email from Regina at Modern Masters asking if I was interested in reviewing a couple of their paint products. Of course! I said immediately :). I had heard about Modern Masters several times through reading posts from other bloggers, so I was excited to try some of their paint myself. Though I had several projects in mind, I ended up zeroing in on the bathroom - this paint was just what I needed to start tackling this space!

I requested some of their Matte Metallic paint in Brass and boy, is this stuff awesome. I decided to paint the bathroom medicine cabinet mirror to make it the focal point of this small bathroom. I'm really loving mixed metal finishes in spaces like kitchens and bathrooms, so introducing a brass mirror to a bathroom with chrome fixtures was a great opportunity to add that idea to our home.

The mirror can't be detached from the medicine cabinet so I painted it in place. After a light sanding, I used a regular angled paint brush (this one from Purdy* is my favorite) to paint three coats onto the white mirror (I followed the directions on the container regarding drying time between coats).

Here it is after one coat...

Two coats...

And three coats...

This paint goes on like butter and after three coats, it looked like a solid brass mirror - no one would know it's actually dinky plastic under there (shh!). I was really amazed at the coverage and that there were no visible brushstrokes. Thin, even coats are the way to go. I'm also a huge fan of the matte finish. It's timeless and won't ever be mistaken for bad shiny lacquered brass from the '80s. ;)

Here's the finished product!

You might have noticed that I got a bit of paint on parts of the mirror as I went along, but not to worry - that was easily remedied after it dried. I just scraped it off with my fingernail or a flat piece of plastic like a credit card.

I am thoroughly impressed with this paint and can't wait to use it on some other projects! I want to #mattebrasseverything. We can make that hashtag a thing, right?

Here's a wider shot of the whole bathroom. It might be pretty tiny, but it's becoming quite mighty!

Once I finished painting the mirror, I was thrilled with how much that changed the whole look of the bathroom, but I knew I could take it up another notch. As you saw from the photo at the beginning of this post, the upper part of the wall didn't stay plain ole Winter White - I brought in some more paint and made one other small change to the sconces. These updates, plus the newly brassed-out mirror have absolutely transformed this bathroom, but I'll save the details of that for later this week. For now, I'll leave you with a teaser photo!

A couple more note notes on the Modern Masters paints before I sign off for today: the kind folks over there also sent me a container of Pale Gold from the Metallic Paint Collection that I didn't use with this project, but did in another that I can't wait to show you soon. Thank you, Modern Masters!

If you'd like to try some of the Brass Matte Metallics Paint (that I've now fallen in love with) or any of their other products, head over their website where you can look up retailers in your area or order online. You can also find them on social media to check out other projects folks have done using their paint. Here are the links to their Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram accounts for starters.

Have a great start to your week, y'all!


*affiliate link (That means I get a tiny cut of the price of the item if you buy the product using my link. I appreciate your support of this little blog!)

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