Adding life through plants: Succulents

Lately I've been trying to add more greenery to the house. Plants add such life to design! Perusing house photos on blogs and Pinterest shows how dramatically plants can change a room. That being said, I have absolutely no green thumb. Poor things probably quake in their pots at the thought of coming home with me when I'm browsing the plant section. Everything will seem fine and dandy one minute, then next thing I know my plants are wilted, brown, and dropping leaves as fast as Millie runs after any flying object. My plants have been hinting that perhaps I'd do better with plants that require very little maintenance and don't need a lot of light. I need hardy greenery that can stand being forgotten every once in awhile. Thank goodness for the succulent craze. Succulents seem to thrive when neglected-perfect.

I've had a brass colored vase in my entry way (Nate Berkus from Target-clearance of course) that I love filling with fresh flowers and greenery. However, fresh doesn't stay fresh very long and certainly doesn't come cheap (though I've found fresh flowers at Trader Joes to be very well priced).

I decided I would use the vase as a planter for tiny succulents. I got mine from Home Depot. We filled the vase with gravel, added the succulents, then covered with more gravel.

We did end up changing around the hanging baskets because the little guys didn't show up too well in front of the green basket we had hanging originally.

latest finds

Inevitably if my sister and I have a day off together we say, hmm what should we do today? meaning, which thrift stores should we go to? Off to Norfolk we went. Today wasn't a day of steals, but I love what I came home with.

I've been wanting some taller items to fill the top shelves of the living room bookshelves so the basket pair will work beautifully. The basket on the left will serve as my sewing basket. The painting was a splurge for me. I couldn't resist the curious little deer (caribou? elk?) painting. It's sizable too at 28 inches square.

See, I rationalize to myself. One really should go thrifting weekly.

Enjoy your weekend.

Master bedroom

We've made a few changes in the master since last seen on the blog. Our furniture is not quite as much of a hodge podge as it used to be (however, more changes are coming!). Here are some current pictures.

We have a sizable to-do list to work on, such as getting a new bed frame (one with height), hanging art, adding a bench to the foot of the bed, and adding some plants to liven things up. I'm thinking a beautiful fiddle leaf fig would look darling in the corner, provided he lives of course. Ahh, yes, and I almost forgot one of the biggest eyesores that needs attention: the light fixture. The current fixture will get a couple of coats of glossy white paint and a new home in the guest room.

Here is our room at its last appearance.

The long awaited partial Ikea kitchen reveal

So the last update on our kitchen was this post when we had just purchased our cabinets from IKEA. Over the course of several months we turned this vision...

into this reality...

 

Remember the kitchen before the total reno?

In fact you can still see the remnants of the old kitchen on our ceiling (umm, imagine a sheepish grin). So yes, the kitchen has been mostly functional for a year now but we still have to decide how we're redoing the lighting and the ceiling. Ripping out the old cabinets left some not so pretty and not so easily covered marks so we're debating whether to hire somebody to refinish the ceiling with some ugly texture or maybe hide all the imperfections with tin tiles or planks. Hmm, you'll probably see the conclusion in a year or so.

I'll be posting more in depth on the kitchen renovation including how we customized our Ikea kitchen to our space.

Anyway, so what went into this renovation and what do we have left to do?

• Demo (cabinets, tile, counter top, floor)
• Install hardwood floors (to include the den)
• Assemble and install cabinets
• Install appliances
• Install back splash
• Put up open shelves
• Trim (crown molding, baseboards, etc.)
• Paint
• Window treatments
• Fix ceiling
• Install light fixtures
• Accessorize (to include a message boards, possible gallery wall, trash/recycling)

Aww, this makes it look like we have more to do than I thought. 

Snow Day

Umm, so does absence make the heart grow fonder? Nothing much has changed during the year and three month blogging break...sad I know. We've changed around a few rooms and have almost finished the kitchen. I will slowly (one thing you can count on) update you on the changes. For now, enjoy a snow day!

Calm before the storm

And then the black furry bundle of energy is released

  

Winter is her season.

Kitchen plans...finally some progress

So guess who finally bought their IKEA kitchen? Huh? Whose that? No, no. It is US! WE DID! After the 3rd time of driving up to IKEA to buy our cabinets we finally bit the bullet. Here is a reminder of what our kitchen looks like now.

And here are our final plans for our new kitchen.

Top View

We're going to switch our dining room and family room so the dining room will now be part of the kitchen. Our old dining room will become a cozy sunroom.

Front View

We'll put an island in front of the low window that will serve as extra counterspace and a casual eating area. It also helps expand our kitchen more than what it really should be.

Sink Wall View

Now our dishwasher will be in the kitchen and right by the sink! We'll hang open shelves in that blank area for our everyday dishes.

Pantry Wall View

Our pantry will quadruple in size! It will have pull out shelves so we can get to things in the back.

Here is a sample of what we bought.

1. Ramsjo Cabinets in White
2. Faglavik Handle in Chrome
3. Stenstorp Kitchen Island
4. Elverdam Faucet
5. Domsjo Sink
6. Ramsjo High Cabinet

Here are some possibilities for backsplashes and countertops that we haven't purchased yet:

Backsplash


Option #1. White ceramic octogon tiles- I love the vintage look they have!

Option #2. White ceramic subway tiles in a herringbone pattern. I get a little too excited over herringbone! LOVE it!

Countertop

Option #1. This is the countertop I want: IKEA's Numerar counter in oak (inexpensive and so warm looking!)



Option #2. Here is the countertop Brandon wants: black quartz (I think it might be called galaxy black at IKEA-this picture shows a sample over the white Ramsjo door)

For our floors we'll use 2 1/4" gunstock red oak prefinished hardwood to blend with the rest of our house. We chose prefinished both for convenience and durability. 

Appliances we have yet to purchase, but we're going to go with stainless steel, and the fridge will be counter-depth. We're hoping to snag a good deal for Black Friday.

As for lighting, we haven't decided on that at all.

Anyway, that's the latest with our kitchen plans! We're hoping to start installation in December because our cabinets are being delivered November 28th. Until then we need to demo our current kitchen and install the floor. Exciting, right?

Master Bedroom Closet

Remember this list 2 posts ago?

 

"Today: Prep and paint the trim in the master bedroom, edge wall color
Tuesday: Paint the master bedroom; Finish priming the bed frame; work the nightshift
Wednesday: Sleep, then work again
Thursday: Sleep, then install the new fixings for our closet
Friday: Finish up whatever I didn't get done during the week
Saturday: Finish painting the bed frame, and our dining table; work the nightshift
Sunday: Sleep, then work again..."

 

Well now it looks more like this:

 

Today: Prep and paint the trim in the master bedroom, edge wall color
Tuesday: Paint the master bedroom; Finish priming the bed frame; work the nightshift
Wednesday: Sleep, then work again
Thursday: Sleep, then install the new fixings for our closet
Friday: Finish up whatever I didn't get done during the week
Saturday: Finish painting the bed frame, and our dining table; work the nightshift
Sunday: Sleep, then work again...

 

Yeah, almost done! (Saturday's list is actually being finished today...2+ weeks late...but whatever...we got everything else done on schedule!)

 

Here is the first post showing off that list's results...our master bedroom closet!

 

I had been wanting to rethink our closet for awhile because it just seemed inefficient and a waste of space. And it is rather small for a walk-in closet, so every inch needed to be used. And there's also the fact that I wanted to store more in the closet so we could get rid of Brandon's dresser. Hmm, tall order. Here is the inefficient-waste-of-closet-space before picture (nevermind the edges-we stitched pictures together for a wide-angle view)

So we took everything out...

...took out the closet bars and the top shelf (which revealed that the closet used to be painted lilac which forced us to paint the walls which made us think we might as well paint the trim too...)

...we raised the top closet bar, added another bar underneath to take advantage of every inch, and assembled a tall shelf for folded items...

...finally we added a peg board for accessories, covered all the remaining shelves with paper, and bought bins for seasonal clothes...voila!

 

Double closet bars, yellow and gray shelf paper, peg board for accessories
pull out pants rack, pull out wire basket for exercise clothes, plastic bins for seasonal gear

Don't you love organization? Have you completed any organization projects lately or have an organizational project in mind?