Floating Shelves

The shelves have been complete for a few weeks, but today I decided to go ahead and photograph them. I've been trying to find the perfect framed artwork for the top shelves, but I pulled some prints I had framed out of storage and put them on the top shelves.  (It is not like those prints are going to be hanging on a wall anytime soon anyway.)  I really wanted floating shelves and was pretty determined that we could build them. 

The trick was the blocking we installed a long time ago before the walls were finished.  After a long morning at home depot we found the brackets. 

Britton built a hollow box and then slid the box on the bracket...ta da!

Like It Was Always There

I loved reading this article in the April issue of Southern Living.  Jessica Thurston did an amazing job with this renovation.  As someone who has the opportunity to work on houses that are over fifty years old, I understand what a compliment it was to Jessica when someone complimented her kitchen by saying, "It looks like it has always been this way."  What a compliment!  Many people struggle with having modern amenities or the character of an older home.  This kitchen has the best of both worlds. 

And notice the chairs around the table in the dining room beyond.  I like the modern and the traditional mix of furniture.  CB2 makes a chair similar fittingly called the vapor chair.

Images via Southern Living  by Annie Schlechter.

Kitchen Progress

As I have promised, here are pictures of the kitchen to date.  There are quite a few details to complete before it is finished, but we are so close.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Obviously we have not installed the new flooring, finished all the touch-up painting, built the island, installed the shelves, or finished installing the vent hood, but from the photo below we have come a long way!

What's for Dinner?

Tonight I did something I have not done since the end of May last year;  I cooked dinner at our house.

I got the recipe for Pan-Grilled Halibut with Chimichurri from Cooking Light.  I have a stack of Cooking Light magazines I collected while the kitchen was under construction and I cannot wait to try all the recipes out!

Today the plumber installed the range.

Last weekend Britton and I installed the refrigerator.  It was quite a task.

I love the French doors and the freezer drawer.

Would you believe that the bottom was bolted  to the wood platform?  We had to turn the refrigerator over on its back to unscrew the bolts.  The instructions clearly said to do this, but we pulled and pulled on the platform and it would not budge before reading the instructions.

This is the kitchen with the refrigerator installed from Angie's point of view.

A similar view as this picture taken back in July by my Britton's sister Ashley. 

Back to School

It took us a while to settle on pendant fixtures for over the island in the kitchen.  Knowing my husband I knew he would want to be able to us the screw in fluorescent bulbs in the pendants to save energy.  For me that meant I wanted a pendant where you would not be able to see the bulb.  I love the school house fixture.  It is so simple and classic.  

This house featured in House Beautiful sold me on the school house fixture.

 I ended up deciding on this fixture from Savoy House.

Backsplash Tile

To celebrate New Year's Day we started a new project in the kitchen - tiling!  We started out with a blank canvas.

We were grateful to have some help.  Whitney and Boston stayed with us and helped us tile the backsplash.  We truly appreciated their help and were so glad they came to visit! 

We ate some good luck for the New Year!

There was way to much tiling fun to fit into one day so on January 2nd we tiled some more and watched the Ole Miss Rebels win the Cotton Bowl!

 

I was so happy to put the last piece of tile in its place.

And we finally grouted the tile.

New Year's Day Project

Britton and I have a big project we will be working on New Year' Day!  Can you tell what it is??

I hope our finished product turns out just as good as these inspiration photos!  Happy Tiling!

Decorating for Christmas and Loading Cabinets

We finally decorated our Christmas tree on Friday night. We we watched one of my favorite Chirstmas Movies, Christmas Vacation, while we decorated the tree and worked on the kitchen.

Angie was intrigued by the movie. Lately we have noticed that Angie will turn her head to watch the TV at night. She is so CUTE! I enjoyed moving all the dishes, pots and pans, and small appliances from our living room cabinets to the new kitchen cabinets.
The doors are not yet installed on the upper cabinets, but we are so close!

Kitchen Cabinets Installed

When I came home from catching up with my college girlfriends over Labor Day weekend in Cape Cod, Britton had installed the kitchen cabinets! Not only was I surprised by the kitchen, but he had also left flowers all over the house for me. I have the best husband!