Jena

Ikea Kitchen Renovation – The Final Budget Rundown

February 12, 2013 By Jena 39 Comments

I’m going to spoil the ending of this post. Our final cost for the kitchen was just below $8,500.

This was for a complete kitchen remodel that included everything but the floors. Previous owners had installed laminate which we decided to keep for the time being. We replaced everything else – cabinets, counters, appliances, backsplash, and added some custom trim. All was DIY’d!

Ikea Lidingo Cabinets – $2,700

Kashmir White Granite Counters – $1,400

Appliances (range, fridge, dishwasher, hood) – $3,000

Tile Shop Hampton Carrara Marble Backsplash – $300

Restoration Hardware Cabinet Pulls/Knobs – $200

Restoration Hardware Heath Flushmount – $200

Trim – ~$100 (I don’t remember exactly…might be overestimating)

Kingston Brass Faucet – $200

Huuuge 32″ Kraus Sink – $300

GE 0.7 cu ft Microwave that tucks away perfectly in the micro cabinet – $75

Final Rundown:

Ikea Lidingo Cabinets – $2,700
Kashmir White Granite Counters – $1,400
Appliances (range, fridge, dishwasher, hood) – $3,000
Tile Shop Hampton Carrara Marble Backsplash – $300
Restoration Hardware Cabinet Pulls/Knobs – $200
Restoration Hardware Heath Flushmount – $200
Custom Trim – ~$100 (I don’t remember exactly…might be overestimating)
Kingston Brass Faucet – $200
32″ Kraus Sink – $300
GE 0.7 cu ft Microwave – $75

Grand Total – $8,475

Also, I just want to let you guys know I’m now on Twitter and Instagram! Or rather, I’m trying to figure out Twitter and Instagram :). Come over and say hi!

Linking up to: Funky Junk Interiors, Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, The DIY Show Off, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Home Stories A2Z, Thrifty Decor Chick

Filed Under: Decorating, DIY Tagged With: appliances, backsplash, Ikea cabinets, kashmir white, kitchen 39 Comments

Let's Connect!

Hallway Bathroom – Sneak Peek

January 29, 2013 By Jena 2 Comments

We had our tub and tile installed for our hallway bath the other day! So excited. It looks even better than I thought it would, which is always a good feeling.

This bathroom is getting a complete overhaul. Here’s where we started. Old fiberglass surround. Old peel and stick vinyl tile. A little bit of mold (yuck). Baseboards that were only half installed by previous owners. And a vanity that was falling apart.

We are over halfway completed in here thanks to hiring some of the work out. We hired a contractor to install the tub and tile, so now we are working on installing baseboards, painting, and putting in the new vanity.

The tile is Florim Stratos Avorio 12×24 porcelain tile.

The corner shelves are Silestone Lagoon, which are the same as our soon to be installed vanity top.

The tub is a Kohler Archer and the fixtures are all Moen.

Stay tuned for the rest!

Filed Under: Decorating, DIY Tagged With: Hallway Bathroom 2 Comments

Let's Connect!

On Soffits and Crown

November 19, 2012 By Jena 3 Comments

You know that crown molding in the kitchen I’ve been talking about for…well…about a year? It’s finally done. I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again – the finishing touches are sometimes the hardest things to finish because the room looks pretty good, and there are worse spaces in the house that need fixin that end up distracting me.

The crown really finishes off the Ikea Lidingo cabinets and further gives them a more customized look.

I showed previously how we used some of the Ikea trim that went with our Lidingo cabinets to make it appear that the cabinets came to the edge of the soffit. I did this because in all the high end kitchens I’ve seen, the soffit is built to the depth of the cabinet. Since our soffit was already there, and I happen to like the look of soffit above the cabinets, we fit the cabinets to the soffit. If you’re doing a kitchen reno and have an old soffit, consider keeping it and dressing it up! It can end up looking nicer in the end if done right and saves you lots of time (or money) for demo and drywall repair.

The crown wasn’t terribly difficult to put up. We used the miter and caulk method. Some are opposed to this method and say coping is superior, and while that may be true, I’ve been really pleased with how our dining room crown molding turned out. My parents used this method for their crown molding which has been in place for many many years and have yet to have any caulk cracking issues.

One big upgrade to the process this time around was the addition of a compound miter saw and a nail gun. While not required (you can use an inexpensive miter box and hammer), they sure do make it easier and more precise.

I’m far from an expert in installing crown molding, and you can Google much better how to guides than I could write, but I’ll give you one tip I haven’t seen illustrated before. Use test pieces! They don’t take long to make and can help save you from wasting huge long runs of molding because you may have gotten your angles mixed up. I bring the test pieces for a particular cut with me when I go to make the cut, so I position it the same as the piece I’m cutting (i.e., flipped over) to make sure the saw is set up properly. I labeled all of them either inside or outside as well as wrote down the angles to set the compound miter saw for the next time I’m cutting crown (saves me from having to look it up)

Back when I compared paint colors that go with the Lidingo finish, I found that Benjamin Moore Simply White was the best match for latex paint, so I got a quart of that in Aura satin finish for the soffit and crown. It’s great paint and goes on really smoothly. It isn’t quite as good as some of the self leveling acrylic trim paints out there right now (although it’s really close), it is probably the best of the regular acrylic latex paints I’ve tried. It is a very shiny satin finish, so if you are considering Aura for any trim projects, I think semi-gloss might be too glossy and show every little imperfection and brush stroke. The satin finish is a good match to the Lidingo finish.

Even though I had tested the Benjamin Moore Simply White on a leftover scrap of the Ikea Lidingo trim, I was still worried it might not match perfectly once it was up. My worries were all for nothing since I can’t tell a bit of difference. The visual line of the trim connecting to the soffit provides just enough break that any difference in color is negligible.

Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: Ikea cabinets, kitchen, painting 3 Comments

Let's Connect!

My Favorite Bathroom Trends

October 23, 2012 By Jena Leave a Comment

I just can’t get enough of looking at bathrooms lately! We’re still getting quotes from contractors to help with some of the plumbing work (and possibly some tiling…we’ll see), so in the meantime I’ve been putting my time to good use and looking at lots of beautiful finished bathrooms.

This one is probably one of my favorites. I really like the medium gray walls, light tile, and natural brown accents. While we most likely won’t be going with marble in this bathroom, we could go with light counters and floors to give a similar look.

Charlie and Co. Design

I love all things Sarah Richardson. She always comes up with interesting and unexpected touches. This bathroom of hers has a nice unique floor pattern.

And this one of Sarah’s has a good combo of glam and rustic.

Sarah Richardson Design

I would love to go with a natural wood vanity like this one designed by Tiek Built Homes, if only we could find one that looked like this in our price range! The beaded mirror and sconces add a nice traditional touch.

Tiek Built Homes

So what bathroom trends have you been loving lately?

Filed Under: Decorating Tagged With: Hallway Bathroom Leave a Comment

Let's Connect!

Have you ever looked at modern art and thought…

September 24, 2012 By Jena 2 Comments

…phsaw, I could totally paint that.

I know I do. Which is why I tried my hand at creating a little artwork for our living room.

I will start this off by saying I don’t really think all modern art is easy. It does take talent, and there are many great modern artists that have amazing skills. But, you know you’ve thought it when looking at some of it.

Awhile back I had printed off some some free prints as filler since I couldn’t figure out what to put in them. Now over a year later I still hadn’t updated them, so off to Michael’s I went for some art supplies.

I picked up a pack of canvases, some cheap brushes, and a pack of small acrylic paints to get me started. The last time I painted anything for the purpose of making art was in 7th grade, so I’m sure any real artists are having a good chuckle at my little attempt at art here.

After trying (and failing) at getting good colors mixed up, a little light bulb went off. I have a hoard of paint samples already mixed into beautiful shades of grays, blues, tans, and greens! Score.

The background for all of these is Sherwin Williams Comfort Gray. I dabbed a little white here and there on two of the canvases, and I used straight horizontal strokes on the other two canvases.

I used a little red from my new pack of acrylic paints on this one.

I used a little golden yellow on this one.

This one is basically just Sherwin Williams Comfort Gray and white.

And on this one I used a little Sherwin Williams Liveable Green for the stripe (kind of hard to see with the reflections…the pitfalls of a bright room!)

I probably won’t quit my day job to become an artist, but I may jazz these up a bit more one of these days to add more of…something. They are a little plain, but for now they add the colors I was going for. I’ve been looking around at art for inspiration (I would never copy, but just getting ideas here and there) to see what more I can do with these. I’m also thinking of getting some larger stand alone canvases to paint and put in other spots around the house.

Filed Under: Decorating, DIY, Tips Tagged With: Living Room, tips 2 Comments

Let's Connect!

Bathroom Renovation – Here We Come!

August 17, 2012 By Jena 4 Comments

Now that we’re almost done with the kitchen, we’ve been planning out our upstairs hallway bath. We have two full bathrooms in need of renovation – a “master” bathroom and this hallway bath. I put master in quotes because it’s about the smallest full bathroom I’ve ever seen. But it works.

That’s a post for another day, though. Today, let me present you our hallway bath!

Ugh. Yeah. It’s really hard to grasp from pictures just how much this bathroom needs to be renovated. The tub and surround are old, stained fiberglass (I think? Or something plastic). The tub frame is actually cracked around the base on the outside, so it squeaks when you stand in it to shower.

The vanity is circa 1985 and has a sort of peel and stick faux wood veneer. The floors are linoleum. The baseboards were never caulked, and nail holes were not patched. That is one bonus because at least they will be easy to remove when we put in new floors. The light fixture is also screams 80′s. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the 80′s. Just not the decor.

So, needless to say, everything is going to go. Well except the plantation shutter. We put that in and love it (perfect for privacy but still letting light in!). We put in the towel rack too. So the easy to replace things? We’ve got those covered already. Everything else? Not so much.

We’re meeting with contractors right now to get quotes. We know we’re going to use a plumber for the tub installation, but we are undecided on if we are up to the task of installing the tile surround and floors ourselves. It really depends on the cost and if we find someone we are comfortable with.

I’ve been looking at lots of these lately. We may or may not be using some or none of these. I’m not keeping secrets from you guys. I just really have no idea what tile to go with.

All of these samples are from the Tile Shop. We were really happy with the tile we got for our kitchen backsplash, so considering them again for bathroom tile. I really liked that they stock the tile and take returns, and they have a decent selection. I’m looking at some tiles through Home Depot and Lowe’s as well. I haven’t been able to find any other tile stores in our area that stock tile and take returns.

I might sound a bit like a stickler on this only-going-to-tile-stores-that-take-returns thing, but I just really don’t like the idea of having to special order tile after only seeing one or two sample tiles, get it in, then what if we hate it? I’m really bad about buyers remorse, so I need the security blanket of returns! Sorry to all the other tile shops around. I’m a returning kind of girl.

For tubs, we are strongly considering either the Kohler Bancroft:

Or the Kohler Archer:

I like the look of the Archer more, but it only comes with a pop up drain. We’re weighing the pros and cons of different drains. Any experts, feel free to weigh in :)

If you follow me on Pinterest, you might have seen my bathroom board blowing up lately. I have more ideas floating around in my head than I know what to do with. While coming up with the overall design is so fun and exiting, it’s also somewhat stressful. Decisions decisions!

Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: Hallway Bathroom 4 Comments

Let's Connect!

Kitchen Light Fixture

July 30, 2012 By Jena 3 Comments

Hey all! I’ve been on a little blog break, but back in full swing again. I’ve missed you all terribly and glad to be back with a quick post on our kitchen light fixture. You might be thinking, “wait, you’re still working on your kitchen?” Yes, yes we are. The last finishing touches are sometimes the hardest because I have a habit of moving on to other projects before I’m completely done with my old projects. But we’re trying to finish up, really we are. This flush mount light fixture is the newest addition to our kitchen.

Here’s what we were dealing with before. Both of these light fixtures had to go.

The new flush mount light is from Restoration Hardware (scored during their 20% off sale). It was a little tricky to install because it has those four vertical bars, and if you are anything like me you want them squared off to something, and they weren’t…or rather, they aren’t.

I guess I should say this would have been tricky to install if I went back and fixed it so that the vertical bars were squared off to something, and since I didn’t realize until after I got the light up, and I was in a bit of a hurry, I didn’t fix it right away. Right now they are a little crooked if you look straight on at the light when you enter the kitchen. Just add fixing this to my to-do list of 8456 other things :)

We originally wanted to do recessed lighting, but after looking more closely at our ceilings, we realized there is a bunch of duct work running up between our floor joists that would be in the way of the lights. We might have been able to make recessed lighting work, but we didn’t want it that badly, so we took the easier route and just replaced the old fixture.

We debated over going with oil rubbed bronze to match all of our other light fixtures or satin nickel to match all of the stainless and cabinet hardware in the kitchen. There’s no right answer, but we decided on ORB to go with our drum pendant over the kitchen table.

We also moved this smaller fixture that is right in front of the soffit with the help of my dad.

moving a kitchen light fixture

We moved the fixture to be under the soffit and replaced it with a single recessed light. The main reason for doing this was so we can install crown molding around the soffit, but I also just think it looks better in the new spot. It just kind of blends in which is the look we were going for.

Next up for the kitchen? Crown!

Linking up to: Funky Junk Interiors, Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, The DIY Show Off, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Home Stories A2Z

Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: kitchen 3 Comments

Let's Connect!

Prettying Up the Patio

June 20, 2012 By Jena 7 Comments

It’s been awhile since I’ve talked about our patio. Here’s the recap: we redid our patio about 2 years ago (full story here), and since then have added furniture, new lights, and a bit of landscaping.

Remember back where we started? Yeah. Yuck.

patio before

In browsing pictures of patios, I found myself drawn to potted evergreens, specifically potted boxwoods. I was pinning pictures of them like crazy for awhile there onto my Exteriors and Outdoors board and finally got myself out to a local garden center a few weeks ago to get some dwarf english boxwoods. The pots are from Lowe’s.

The main motivation for getting these potted evergreens was those azaleas behind them. They are Encore Azaleas, and while they bloom nicely in the spring and again in the fall, they are not, in fact, evergreen like we thought. In reading up about it, it seems like this particular variety of Encore Azalea is evergreen in some climates, and perhaps even just depends on your soil and yard location, but for us they drop most of their leaves in the winter.

They look a bit stalky, even in the summer with all of their leaves. We thought about transplanting them to a less visible spot in the yard, but that’s a whole lot of work. Even though they are only a couple years old, when you dig up the plant and the root ball, it’s heavy and kind of a pain to work with. Plus there is a big risk of killing it since we are far from gardening experts here.

So instead we are strategically placing potted plants. The azaleas will get about 4 feet tall, so eventually will come up behind the potted boxwoods. That’s exactly what we want since the main stalkiness of the azaleas is down around the base.

The view looking out from our living room to the patio is much improved.

While I was at it I picked up some bright pink vincas. The patio gets full sun, so needed a sun loving annual. The vincas we did out front last year did really well, so I went with them again out back. They did so well last year, I had to trim them back a few times to keep them from looking too overgrown. They do trim back nicely, and while you end up cutting off some of the flowers, in about a week they were back in full bloom again.

These ones out back seem to be growing rapidly, so I expect some similar trimming will be in order in a couple months.

We also put a couple over by our hose and storage bin to add a little greenery up against the house. The hose is right behind the plants, so still easy to get to but not as obvious.

A fun surprise for us was the hydrangeas. They are blooming like crazy this year.

We bought them two years ago, so this is the third summer. I really don’t know exactly what we did to make them so happy. We planted them in a mixture of top soil and Leafgro. The second year we put Holly Tone all around the azaleas and hydrangeas. There’s a soaker hose running around the patio that we turn on most days, especially on the hot days, for 15-20 minutes. I didn’t trim them back last year, just left them as is in the fall.

You’ll find me out here a lot on nice days.

It’s definitely one of my favorite “rooms”!

Has anyone else been doing gardening this summer? It’s nice to step away from the indoor renovations and get your hands in some dirt, isn’t it?

Linking up to: Funky Junk Interiors, Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, The DIY Show Off, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Home Stories A2Z

Filed Under: Gardening Tagged With: Patio 7 Comments

Let's Connect!

Eggy Oatmeal

May 24, 2012 By Jena 1 Comment

I’m a big breakfast eater, always have been. First thing I do is make my morning latte (what would I do without my Nespresso machine??) and hop on my computer for a little while. Second thing is make my oatmeal. For many years I have been eating oatmeal with a banana on top as my regular breakfast, but a few months ago I came across this recipe over at Can You Stay for Dinner. I tweaked it a bit so that I could just pop it in the microwave.

This is my new favorite breakfast. I eat this pretty much any day that I’m making breakfast at home, which is most days. It is healthy, filling, easy, and yummy. Good combo right?

You only really need oatmeal, water, and eggs, but I also add a dash of vanilla and cinnamon for flavor.

Grab your bowl, add the eggs, oatmeal, vanilla, and cinnamon (everything but the water).

Stir together until egg is thoroughly mixed with oatmeal.

Add the water and whisk until mixed.

I find that this turns out better if I microwave on a lower power level for a longer time, so I microwave for 5:30 mins at a power level of 6. I like to make sure the egg gets nice and cooked and I feel like the longer time in the microwave helps with this.

On a side note, one time in my morning stupor I was reaching to take the bowl out of the microwave and accidentally stuck my hand in the oatmeal. HOT! I ended up somehow flinging a bunch of oatmeal clear across the kitchen all over the cabinets. Good thing our cabinets wipe down easily :)

When you take it out of the microwave, mix it up. It should resemble regular oatmeal but fluffier. I add a dash of milk to give it a bit of creaminess. I forgot to snap a picture before the milk, so this is after milk.

Add in your favorite oatmeal toppings. I used banana, strawberry, and blueberries for this go round. Getting a bite with banana, strawberry, and blueberry is about the most perfect fruit combo I can imagine.

It reminds me a little bit of the rice pudding my mom makes on occasion. The egg isn’t overwhelming but adds just a little something extra that I really miss when I make plain oatmeal now. This recipe also cuts in half nicely if you aren’t quite as hearty of a breakfast eater :).

Ingredients:

1/2 cup quick oats (if using steel cut you may need to adjust your cooking times)
2 eggs
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
dash cinnamon
1 cup water

Directions:

Add eggs, oatmeal, vanilla, and cinnamon to bowl (everything but the water). Mix so egg is thoroughly mixed with oatmeal. Add water and stir until combined. Add a little less than 1 cup water for a thicker oatmeal. I like to add a dash of milk when serving so I make mine on the thicker side. Microwave at 60% power for 5-6 minutes. Microwaves vary, so I would suggest checking half way through.

Other mix ins I’ve tried that are good:

1 tablespoon of canned pumpkin and a good sprinkle of pumpkin pie seasoning – mix in during preparation and cook as normal
Dash of maple syrup for flavor and sweetness
Raisins and/or dates

Linking up to: Funky Junk Interiors, Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, The DIY Show Off, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Home Stories A2Z

Filed Under: Recipes 1 Comment

Let's Connect!

Making the Peninsula Trim – Part 2 (All Finished!)

May 8, 2012 By Jena 15 Comments

Check out Making the Peninsula Trim – Part 1 for the beginning of this here story.

Here’s where we left off. We had finished the rails and stiles.

custom trim for ikea lidingo cabinets

Next up was laying out where they would go. This was actually kind of hard because our floors are not anywhere close to level. Since the counters are level and the floors are not level, it took a little bit of trial and error to figure out how to hide this. Are we the only ones who spend half of our renovating energy just trying to hide imperfections? Yes? No?

Anyway, we decided that we’d make the trim square to the counter, then the shoe molding around the floor could cover up the gap. It was about an inch difference in height between the wall and the end of the peninsula.

We used one of the large panels from Ikea for the back of the panel then screwed the rails and stiles in from behind.

We attached the baseboard to this too, but forgot to take a pic pre-spray paint. I’m blaming our wonderfully unlevel existing floors from the previous owners for making me forget.

So once we had the rails, stiles, and baseboards screwed onto the panel, we spray painted with Rustoleum Primer then Rustoleum Blossom White (see my previous post about white paints to match Ikea cabinets).

We spray painted and attached the corbels after painting the panel, then attached the whole panel to the cabinets by screwing through the cabinets into the panel from behind.

I would have preferred to use white shoe molding, but previous owners had used pre-finished oak all around the rest of the baseboards, so we stuck with that to be consistent.

We tried to make the molding look consistent style wise with the Ikea Lidingo doors. The router bit we used was not an exact match, but giving it some detail rather than leaving the edges square made it coordinate a lot better.

I think it really dresses up the kitchen and gives a much more custom look. It’s the first thing you see when you come through our front door.

I’m not sure I’ve ever shown our layout like this, but when you walk in the front door you can see part of our kitchen, and I really like that this part is what you see.

And by the way, see that blue clock? It’s hiding a huge ugly silver phone jack. And it was not in fact 8:35 when I took these pictures, but really I’m just too, er, lazy to change the battery. We have the stove, microwave, and hood with digital clocks. This one is purely there to hide the phone jack :). One day maybe we’ll get some art for that wall.

I found the corbels from Architectural Depot. They were a little more than I wanted to spend at about $23 a pop, but the detail was exactly what I was looking for. They are actually made from Urethane, which according to them is about the density of pine. I had to shave off about 1/8 inch from the back of the corbels to keep them from sticking out past the counters. I did this using our compound miter saw and it cut very cleanly. No picture (bad blogger). Part 1 my dad did most of the work, so I was picture snappy. This part, part 2, I did most of it myself, and I still blame my floors for making me forget pictures :)