Guest Bedroom / Zack's Office

 Our guest bedroom is the most un-used space in our house. We never have guests who sleep over, like ever and Zack has really needed a space to work on his projects so we decided to create an office space for him while leaving the guest bed, just in case. 

I started by painting the walls. I used Farrow and Ball Card Room Green color matched in Valspar Signature. I also replaced the windowsill and framed out the window. 

The final piece was to decorate. I ordered a new bed frame (but re-used the headboard), a desk and chair and a nice bookcase with drawers to store all of Zacks stuff. Then, I added decor I already had, along with some new curtains and a rug. All done!

---Jacqui 

Kitchen Backsplash Reveal

 My number one mission this year was to get the kitchen completed and we just finished with one of the biggest pieces: The backsplash! Here's where we started when we first moved in

then, before Christmas, we changed out the appliances and removed the microwave and replaced it with a vent hood. 

It took me a while to find a backsplash I liked. Originally I thought I'd go with marble but all the samples I got just did not look right. Then, I kept seeing the Cloe tile everywhere and I just fell in love. We have a local Bedrosian so I stopped in to see it in person and it was even more beautiful. I used their online calculator to figure out how much I needed and placed an order. We only needed 3 boxes. 

I got quotes from several companies to install it but they came in really high ($1000-$1500) just for the labor portion so we just decided to tackle it on our own. I've heard alot about the Musselbound mat and that seemed like an easier option. I hung all the full pieces first then Zack rented a tile saw from Home Depot ($51 for 2 days) and we cut the rest. You cannot attach wet tile to the Musselbound so we had to let the cut tiles dry overnight before we hung them but it worked out fine and the mat was much easier and less messy than the alternative. 

After all the tile was hung we grouted using pre-mixed grout from Lowes in a white finish. We tried using the foam float but it was a pain so I ended up using my hands to smush it all into the cracks while Zack wiped the excess. It worked really well. We changed the hardware to a champagne gold and here's how it looks now! 

We still need to add electrical to the pantry so we can move the microwave in there and we will need to build a vent hood cover but then the kitchen will be done done, and I cannot wait for that. 

---Jacqui