Kitchen Trends: Rustic Elegance

I love a classic white kitchen, but I noticed a trend toward neutral colors like taupe and gray a few years ago. Now, I'm seeing natural woods in lighter finishes in either cabinetry or ceiling beams, too. I'm happy to see kitchens that are still light and bright, but a bit warmer.

This is one of my favorites. I love the gray wood that is balanced by light walls and counters. The subway tile is an updated version of the classic white we are so used to seeing. It gives this room just the right amount of sparkle.

 

 

 

I am completely in love with this herringbone backsplash.

This kitchen is still classic and white. The beams give it just enough warmth.

 

 

The styles of these kitchens are all so different, but every one of them are warm and inviting. I still love a good classic white kitchen, but I have added warmer wood tones through my decor the past year.

 

 

 

It's an easy way to switch things up without a full kitchen remodel. What do you think of these warmer toned kitchens?





 

My First House

It's funny how I fondly remember our first house that we affectionately call "the old green house" in our family. When I look back at pictures I get a good laugh at my first attempts at decorating, but I'm not going to by too hard on myself because it was 1999. I don't think there was anything good going on then! I also remember disliking the same things then that I would change today. The difference is back then I was scared to DIY anything, and now I'll attack anything that doesn't look right with a drill or paint brush.

My husband and I moved back to Houston from Orlando about a year after he finished school. Our first thought was to move into the city since we were young and didn't have any kids, but we both found jobs in the suburbs near where our parents lived. We thought we'd rent an apartment for a year and then eventually buy a house, but I noticed a cute Victorian for sale five houses down from my parents.

I made an appointment to look at it and was horrified by the inside. All of the woodwork was golden oak. The walls were painted peach. The flooring was probably the worst. It had a psychedelic 70s tile in the entry and shag carpet that was probably 20 years old...and the owners had pets. I could see the potential, but knew it would cost a fortune to fix up. We looked around at other houses in our price range and were even more disappointed. We considered moving into an apartment, but I kept thinking about how great the Victorian could be so we ended up buying it.

In this picture we had already trimmed the oak tree so you could actually see the house, landscaped the yard, replaced the mailbox, and added a white picket fence to the side. I had eventually planned on replacing the front porch, removing the starburst from the garage window, and painting the house yellow. We never got that far before moving, but we definitely left it in better condition than when we bought it!

The front door was a scratched up mess from the previous owner's dogs. I can't tell you how many times I put scratch cover over it, as well as all the woodwork on the inside. Don't you love the lacy curtains? You would think an 80 year old lady lives here!

And, the railing in the entry! It separates the entry from the dining room and was seriously the single thing I hated most about this house. I used to walk by and kick it sometimes. I would have no problem taking a sledgehammer to it now. :)

FYI-You're going to see a lot of family pics in this post. I rarely took pictures of my house without people in it...for good reason.

It really wasn't all bad. I loved the woodwork around the doors and windows.

Don't judge the mom jeans!

The best part of the house was definitely the breakfast room. Those blue and green stained glass windows sold me. The beadboard was real wood and unlike anything I've ever seen. The cabinets also had beadboard fronts and were custom made. You don't see that in many homes these days. This was my spot to drink coffee and read home magazines. My mom would walk down the street and join me most weekends.

This is probably one of the only times you will see angled furniture in my house. It's such a pet peeve of mine. I think I only had it this way for a week or two before I moved the sofa back against the wall across from the windows.

Once my son came along and started solids I turned this back into a breakfast room. The dining room had new carpet, which was not a good place to feed a baby peas. It was a tight fit with this big World Market table, but I fell in love with it and decided I would make it work. A close friend of mine has this table in her kitchen now. It's holding up great 12 years later. You can see I replaced the metal blinds with 2" wood blinds and the vinyl floor was replaced with new tile.



I also decorated my first nursery in this house. I went with white furniture and yellow walls so it would be gender neutral if I had a girl next. I should have just decorated for a boy because that's all I ever ended up having!

 

Someone in our family gave us this hutch and I repainted it, added beadboard to the back, and replaced the knobs. I can't say I ever liked it, but it was free.

 



 

 

We did spend a lot of money on this house in places you don't see. We realized after the first big thunderstorm we had a massive drainage issue in the backyard. Water was almost coming in the back door because the yard slopes towards the house. Thanks, home inspector. We added French drains to solve that problem and put in an extended stone patio so we could finally enjoy the backyard. Don't be jealous of my plastic furniture. There wasn't much of a budget after paying for the repairs and patio.

 

This house holds so many good memories of our oldest son. We moved when he was 16 months old, but we got to experience so many of his firsts here.

He fell asleep before the first trick-or-treater, but it's the costume that counts.

My little big turkey at Thanksgiving.

First Christmas...with a broken tree. On Christmas Eve I woke up to my brother and husband dying laughing. My brother tripped and fell on the tree. My husband said it reminded him of when Will Ferrell jumped on the Christmas tree in the movie Elf. They drove around trying to find a tree lot open to replace it, but of course they were all closed on Christmas Eve. We just held the tree up while taking pictures next to it on Christmas Day. I obviously forgot about it in this picture, which I am now thankful for lol.

My oldest son's first birthday. He obviously thinned out when he started walking!

I can't believe he's 12 now!

If I could do anything different, I would go with my first instinct when walking through the house for the first time. I would put in wood floors and paint all of that scratched woodwork white. It goes without saying my décor choices would be completely different, but I can't say they are all that bad given the era and budget constraints. Whether it's home decor or clothing, go timeless. Your future self will thank you. There's a reason you only see two pictures of me in this post. Denim overalls is all I have to say about that!

This post was inspired by the real estate guide, Compass. It's a great resource if you are looking to rent, buy, or find an agent in the NYC or DC area. Check out their neighborhood guide for in-depth and current information here. I particularly enjoyed reading about Chelsea since I have family that recently moved there. Now, I can't wait to go visit!

No Sew French Pleated Drapes

I love the look of pleated drapes with their pretty tailoring and perfect folds. Because I don't want to pay for custom drapes I've tried to fake a pleat by pinching the fabric from behind and securing it with a clip. It was better, but it still wasn't quite right. I was frustrated with my messy ready made drapes and just took them down for a while in a few rooms. I decided to check out the pleating tape at the fabric store a few weeks ago to see if I could figure out how to DIY them without having to take a sewing class. I immediately realized after seeing the tape it did not have to be sewn on the drape. I have no idea why it didn't occur to me before, but it can easily be applied to the top of a ready made curtain with fabric tape. Stitch Witchery and Heat n' Bond are common brands. I've used both on fabric projects before and they work great. This one is no exception!

Here are the ZGallerie drapes you may have seen in my bedroom, now triple pleated. I just love the way they hang so nicely now.

I can't wait to show you all the changes I've made in here recently!

The only downside to pleating the drapes is they are a couple of inches too short now, but lowering the rod will solve that problem. I like my drapes to just touch the floor.

Here is how I did it and what I used.

Pleating Tape

I bought mine off Amazon since the one at the fabric store could only be bought by the yard and I had no idea how much I needed. I decided to check Amazon and it was a great deal for an entire roll.

When you lay it out at the top of the drape, the single yellow line goes at the top and the double yellow line goes at the bottom. The vertical white lines are the pockets for the drapery hooks. I don't have them pictured, but you can find them online or in the store. Mine are four pronged with the exception of the single prongs you use at each end of the drape.

Fabric tape



I've bought this everywhere. Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Joann's all has it for just a few dollars a roll. I used less than a roll for two drapes.

I only had a regular hold tape so I decided to use three rows of tape to make sure it would hold.

You'll want to lay out your pleating tape so the pockets at the ends are at equal distance from the edges before you cut it to fit the drape.

Then iron the pleating tape with the bonding tape underneath until it sticks together.

Now, you're ready for the prongs. The single prongs go on the first pocket at each end of the drape. The four prongs can go in the next pocket. After that, I chose to skip two pockets between each prong.

Single prong at the end of the drape

You can see the two pockets I skipped between prongs in this picture.

I attached the round clips I already had to each prong to hang them on the rod.

And, here are both of them finished. I have these pushed further to the sides in this picture. My husband spent too much time and energy on that wood trim to cover it up.



A closer look. They might be a bit wrinkled from being pushed together.

Besides, being very inexpensive it's just a cut and iron project. It took approximately 30 minutes to finish two drapes. The best part is I didn't have to pay an exorbitant price for custom made drapes. You might have noticed I've moved on to my dining room drapes (the gray silk ones pictured above). I'll never have messy drapes again!

Boys Varsity Room Reveal

'Tis the month for room reveals! Last week I showed you the completed mudroom and now it's time for my oldest son's room. I will also be showing you my two younger boys' rooms and a small master bedroom update soon. These rooms have been so close to being finished for a while now, but I was dragging my feet on the last few DIY projects that needed to be done. Most of it was just finishing the trim paint, which is one of my least favorite things to do. I finally hired someone to caulk and paint the trim in all four bedrooms, finish the mudroom floor, and paint my older son's room. I can't believe how much cleaner all the bedrooms feel! I should know because when I was an apartment manager I saw the grossest apartments transformed with just paint and new flooring. Sometimes we needed 100 trash bags and a really good pest control person too, but you really don't want to hear about that. In case you're wondering I have held many different types of jobs for being so young. ;) Surprisingly, being a mom and an apartment manager has been far more challenging and icky than being a nurse. I won't go into details, but let's just say after my son's stomach bug this week I am so very glad I opted for laminate floors instead of carpet upstairs. 'Nuff said! Are you ready to see Pukey McPukerson's room?

 

My son is 12 and all about sports right now, especially football. I threw in some baseball décor because he played for so many years and still loves watching the Astros. I bought him furniture several months ago when Pottery Barn Kids was having a sale and opted for a darker, rustic finish. I kept his headboard because I still like it, and it was one less thing to buy. I found the Eddie Bauer duvet for a great price on Overstock to pick up the red headboard. I decided against logo bedding now that he's getting older. The brown bedskirt was $7 at Target online! I love brown and red together so I was happy to be able to pull these colors together despite shopping at so many different places.

Almost all of the wall décor is from Hobby Lobby. That is definitely the best place for affordable kids' art and wall storage. My son asked to incorporate his Texans and Astros pendants, too.

The bookcase works so much better for him than a nightstand. He loves collecting books. Now, if he would just read them!



He really wanted a desk for his room and he does use it all the time. I noticed a full size pinboard with a nice frame was pricey. To avoid a DIY project I decided to buy two smaller frameless ones at Target and break it up with décor from Hobby Lobby.



 

 

My son has no idea how stylish he is with the gold trend in his room.

 

 

 

If a cool new sports bedroom and desk weren't awesome enough, look at the view from his bedroom. I wish I were my kid.

 

 

 

 

I like the new dresser, but it is on the small side. I had to go with this one because his room wouldn't fit any of the larger ones.

 

 

 

Tight squeeze! This room is narrow at only 11ft wide. If we just had one or two more feet it would make a world of difference. I would like to put the tv over the dresser to have more room in front of the bed, but we need to add a tv outlet behind the dresser for that to happen. It was much cheaper to buy this $99 stand from Ikea than to add an outlet. My son doesn't seem to mind the narrow walkway. I'm sure that will change as he gets older and bigger. He's only 2 inches shorter than me and I swear he grows everyday.

 

 

 

This sign is the only thing he picked out for his room. I had to bribe him with the promise of food to get him to the store. I always have hooks in the kids rooms because there is no way they are going to hang up their sweatshirts and jackets in the closet. I like them to be able to see their hats also since the one they need for baseball or golf is always missing.

 

There's no better place for hooks then right by the door.

 

My husband installed the baseboards and the trim around the doors and windows. I'm so glad I didn't have to caulk and paint this! The wall color is Nantucket Dune by SW. I chose a color that's a little bit lighter than before because his room is very dark most of the day, which is why the pictures look a little funny. I had to brighten them up as much as possible. My son loves the cave look when he's playing video games so this dark room works for him.

We also replaced the brass closet pulls with oil rubbed bronze ones to match the doorknobs.

The most important thing about this room is my son loves it. I initially wanted to go more trendy, but he gave me the "Are you crazy?" look. He loves the dark wood furniture, plaids, and sports memorabilia. I had the hardest time getting him to agree to even look at decor for his room so I decided to just work on it without any more input from him. Once I was all done with it he told me it looked cool. Thank goodness!