Changesssss

Things around here have been crazy. I feel like we haven't had a moment to breathe. We are trying to get back into the groove of working after our much needed vacay last month and trying to plan and work on projects at the same time. Speaking of projects, lets dive right into it. Right now, we are working on the kitchen, Zacks office and the Living room. Going room by room, lets talk about everything that's going to happen.

Starting with the kitchen, we finally pulled the trigger and we are getting new countertops. We always said we would splurge for granite when the time came but after checking the homes selling in our area we realized no one, and i do mean not a single home has grainte. It seemed to us that granite just isnt suited for our area and we probably wouldnt get our money back. I knew I couldnt live with our current countertops forever so the onnly options we saw were to paint them, which would take forever and not be as clean lined as i wanted, or purchase a different color formica. We chose the latter. Zack was NOT on board. He didnt see the point in changing laminate for laminate but after I showed him these inspiration photos he was on board too.

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We ended up going with the Formica 180fx In Calacatta Marble (with a bullnose edge), the exact same as shown in the inspiration photos. They'll be here in two weeks and I'm so excited. Once the counters are in the painting will finally commence! We're thinking of doing white uppers and grey or green lowers with a white shiplap back splash and black hardware. I hope it turns out the way I'm hoping it will. Here's the mock up to give you a visual.

Moving on to Zack's office. I may have mentioned before that our third bedroom upstairs has been empty since we moved it. Its become sort of a catch all for junk and really served no other purpose, so when I saw Zack sitting at the island cleaning his guns one night it hit me that he really needed a place (other than on my new counters) to clean his guns, work on his radios and model cars etc. I pitched the idea to him and he loved it and started coming up with all these great ideas that I cant wait to work on.

Here's the mood board we created.

And here's what the room looked like when we started...

We are painting the window wall olive green, adding some thicker curtains, a pegboard for his gun collection and a long industrial DIY desk and shelf to hold all his collected items and give him a space to work. We've already crossed most of the to-do's off the list so we should be wrapping this one up in the next couple weeks too.

Finally, we have the living room. If you've been following me for awhile you know that I don't have the best of luck with sofas. These beige ones served me well for about a year before they completely broke down and got worn and pilly. With three dogs I'm not sure many sofas could hold up longer than that except maybe leather, which is the first big change. We found an amazing faux leather sectional at Furniture Row that's being delivered in just a few days. Its going to allow us more room to stretch out and will hold up so much better to wear. We purchased a five year warranty just in case it doesn't! I also want to do something to the fireplace wall but I'm having difficulty pulling the trigger on that. I was thinking, either to leave the fireplace as is and add a wood wall like this...

or maybe plank it white like this....

OR paint the fireplace white and paint the walls dark grey or green like this...

I cant seem to decide but I am leaning more towards option 3. It seems to have the most dramatic impact and still keeps the feel of the room the way I want it. We will also be moving the current coffee table and end table upstairs and building a new, larger, more open one for this space. I've already replaced the leather chair (that went upstairs in the loft) with a cute little beige one so the room looks like this for now.

With all these things going on right now I haven't had a chance to decorate for fall yet, but as soon as these projects come to an end you better believe the pumpkins are coming out! Until next time!

---Jackie