Fall 2020 ORC Week Two: Modern Vintage Kitchen

Fall 2020 ORC Week Two: Modern Vintage Kitchen

It’s only week two of the One Room Challenge and my husband is already wishing his covid-related paid leave from the airlines was over.

He was living his best life this summer…road tripping…vacationing…and then we got home and he became my tile guy. And my electrician. And my plumber. And my carpenter.

Despite being paid in sex, he still thinks he’s grossly underpaid…especially when it comes to dealing with dark grout.

In case you are just joining….The One Room Challenge is a Bi-annual event hosted by Linda from Calling it Home and Better Homes and Gardens (thank you guys!) Designers from around the country/globe have 6 weeks to transform a room…documenting the whole process.

To see our design plans and all the before pictures, see our Week One post here.

Background on Design

I forgot to mention last week - While we own this house, we aren’t planning on staying in it forever, and will probably rent it out in the next few years. Hence, we are trying to update the spaces without ripping everything out, because A) that’s a lot of money & B) the kitchen is brand new…so it seems pretty wasteful.

Update

We got a lot done this week (by we I mean the husband, the tile guy).

The half bath off the kitchen is almost done…..still waiting for some wallpaper to go up in there and I want to paint the faucet, but may not because I’m lazy.

The husband has spent the last week tiling the floors and walls of the bath- he’s just putting the sink and toilet back in place as I type. Fingers crossed the toilet doesn’t leak.

“Whose idea was it to do black grout? I would charge 3 times as much to do this. This is ridiculous.” he complains.

The husband is not a fan of my design asks.

The cutest tile guy in the world right here. He just wants to play with all the sharp tools…he’s never happier than when walking around with something that could dismember him or poke out his eye.

Sooooooo….about those design plans I mentioned the first week? The whole “painting the kitchen cabinets green,” thing? Well, I got a bunch of samples…and while I absolutely loved every shade of green I picked out…I didn’t love it in the space.

Sooooo….I did a 180 degrees and decided to go the yellowish-gold route for the lower kitchen cabinets.

The trick is the floor which has yellow/orange/honey tones in it and I don’t want the cabinets to be an extension of the floor. So I got the wallpaper out, my paint decks and went to town.

And then I picked up 49 yellow paint samples to try to get an idea of which route I wanted to go. I’m pretty sure the paint store people thought I was nuts.

And they wouldn’t be entirely wrong.

I very easily cut 4 of the colors out of the running, and kept two in my kitchen for the last 5 days staring at them morning and night and deciding which I liked better.

After painting the top two contenders on some large cardboard and keeping those in the kitchen, I decided to go with the darker yellow on the right- Benjamin Moore Renaissance Gold.

The yellow on the left is Benjamin Moore Hollywood Gold, and I liked the name of that one better…but alas, I’m not a hollywood girl so it only makes sense.

What are your thoughts? Are you disappointed I didn’t stick with the green?

Stay Tuned next week for week 3 of the One Room Challenge.

Don’t forget to check out all the featured designers and the other guest designers and see some really cool fun stuff!

Modern Vintage Kitchen Makeover: Fall 2020 One Room Challenge

Modern Vintage Kitchen Makeover: Fall 2020 One Room Challenge

It’s here. The Fall One Room Challenge.

Is here.

And as I sit and type, I can’t help but think, “OH MY GOODNESS WHAT AM I DOING SIGNING UP FOR THIS I’M TOO BUSY!”

But, the best way to get something finished is tell a few thousand of your friends you’re gonna do something and then you have to finish it, because if you don’t they’ll throw eggs at you and call you a liar. (okay maybe not the eggs…but you see my point).

If you were around this spring, you’ll know that we just moved into a new house, and we did our living and dining room for the spring ORC. It was my first time ever participating and I had a lot of fun.

And I’ve got a kitchen that needs some flair (and more importantly, some more storage and functionality). So here we are trying to make this very very small kitchen in our very, old, house work for our boisterous family of 5.

Oh, also?

Because I don’t know the definition of “one”, I added on the half bath and the mudroom. So here we are…starting the Three Room Challenge.

Honestly, the kitchen isn’t bad…it was replaced before we moved in due to a kitchen fire, and they could’ve done MUCH MUCH worse.

But it is extremely boring and extremely gray (just like the rest of the house was) and needed help.

So we’ve got some plans…we are gonna tile, built a banquette bench (with storage, yay!), and of course I found a super fun floral wallpaper which will pretty much ensure my husband will never, ever, say the words, “I don’t care what you do to this house” to me again.

Because I’m nice and thoughtful, and sometimes like to give my guests eyes a break from color, the bathroom is going to be plain ol’ black and white.

The worlds tiniest bathroom.

I didn’t really feel like spending a lot of money on the bathroom, so I am re-using leftover black hex tile from a previous project for the floor and some leftover square subway tile for the walls. My big splurge is the wallpaper. (YES! MORE WALLPAPER!)

Last, but not least is this mudroom that is attached to the kitchen. Once I realized I knew the contractors who would be putting in our new windows (we have original 100yo windows), I asked them to take down this barn wood wall (sacrilege, I know), take out the window, and install some floor to ceiling Ikea cabinets.

CAN WE SAY MORE STORAGE??!

Follow along via Instagram and my blog to see how it all pans out and see if the husband does a better job tiling than I did this spring.

To see all 20 featured designers- click here

To see all of the guest designers- Click here

Thank you to Linda of Calling it Home & Better Homes and Gardens for hosting this!

(mostly) Baby/Family Friendly Out West Road Trip

(mostly) Baby/Family Friendly Out West Road Trip

Quick Synopsis for those who don’t like details in the picture below.

For those who do like details, keep reading.

Also…everyone’s definition of ‘baby friendly’ is different. Mine is that no one died (either from dangerous situations or the parents leaving the kids on the side of the road)

MidWest to Mountain West Camping Road Trip Starting In Michigan

I get it.

You think that road trips are for a special kind of people:

• People in reality shows.

• Or people on Instagram who for some reason show everyone every second of their lives (hint: the reason is they make money doing it).

• People who are too stupid to realize it’s not a good idea

• Those sorts of people with a special kind of mental disorder that involves them participating in physical and emotional trying activities all in the name of fun.

(In case you’re wondering, I am the latter two kinds of people)

Covid happened, and the husband was put on a paid leave. His ultimate goal in life is to be a trophy husband, but he is accepting the fact that paid leave due to Covid might be as close as he gets. (unfortunately for him, a few kids get in the way of his dreams…but don’t they always).

So we did what any normal person would do in the midst of a global pandemic and bought a tiny camp trailer and went on a 6 week road trip out west with our 3 children 6 and under (1yo/almost 3yo/6yo)

And because I’m nice, I’m sharing our itinerary & activities with you to save you some time.

For those of you who want even MORE details- keep a look out for the posts coming up that detail specific places. This post was long enough as it was.

Custer State Park, Rapid City, South Dakota (18hr drive)

We left Grand Rapids Michigan at 5pm on a Thursday evening and made it to Rapid City, SD around 11am the next day. We stayed at Custer State Park at the Legion Lake campground (hookups) and hit up Mt Rushmore the Following day.

Devils Tower, Wyoming (2.5Hr)

A few hours away from Rapid City, We stopped at Devil’s Tower and hiked around the tower (only 1-2 miles on a mostly paved trail). There is also an (expensive) KOA at the base of Devils Tower, but we kept going.

Bighorn National FoRest (4Hr Drive)

We kept driving a few more hours until we got into the Bighorn National Forest (see above picture) and camped on National Forest Land (for free!)(rustic). You can pick any Fire road within the Forest and find a spot and camp.

Buffalo Bill State Park (2hr Drive)

We made a reservation to stay at Buffalo Bill State Park(hookups), just west of Cody, Wy….and we got there and decided we would just lose the $40 we paid and kept going west.

I would not advise you to stay here!

It was basically like camping in the middle of a field. A field with 50mph winds hammering you so relentlessly, it makes you think fondly about the times your kid incessantly pokes you on the leg asking for snacks.

Sheffield Creek, Wyoming (Yellowstone)(3hr Drive)

So instead, we drove 3 more hours through Yellowstone (it will always take you longer to drive through than it looks like on map) and found one spot left at Sheffield Creek Campground (rustic). Fair warning, you do have to drive through a small little creek to get to the campsites, but it’s a paved creek and multiple RV’s had made it.

Prismatic Hot Springs in Yellowstone

Bozeman Hot Springs, Bozeman Montana (4hr drive)

We left Sheffield Creek in the morning, drove through Yellowstone (stopping at all the major highlights), and met our friends in Bozeman for dinner. We made a reservation that night for the Bozeman Hot Springs and stayed a night. (Hookups).

Lolo Pass, Montana (4hr Drive)

The original plan was to spend a night camping at Lolo Pass in Montana (lots of campgrounds along the highway), but it was POURING rain and we didn’t feel like dealing with 3 kids and rain and camping. So we kept driving until we made it to Joseph, Oregon where the in-laws lived.

Joseph, Oregon (6hr drive)

My in-laws like us, so we got to stay with them, but if you’re looking for a place to camp, there is a state park at the end of Wallowa Lake.

McCall, Idaho (4.5 hr drive)

After our stay in Joseph, we left and drove the back way to McCall, Idaho. It’s a curvy drive, but so beautiful, with the ability to stop at the Hell’s Canyon Overlook. We camped on our cousins property in McCall, but there is a lot of camping up around the lakes.

Lake Cleveland, Idaho (4-5hr drive)

We left McCall, and after having lunch at my aunt & uncles house in Boise, we drove to Lake Cleveland - this hidden gem campground in South West Idaho. (rustic). It was amazing. (insert pic)

City of Rocks, Idaho (Alto) (45 min drive)

City of Rocks is one of the most amazing places ever. It is magical to drive through all of the rock croppings- it makes you feel like you’re on a different planet. If you are a climber, or want to be a climber- this is a great place. You can camp in the park (rustic)(reserve online for the weekend).

Of course we didn’t plan that far ahead, so we camped on BLM (Bureau of Land Managment) with some friends for free.

Deer Valley/Park City, Utah (5hr Drive)

We camped in the yard of one of my husbands best friend up in the mountains, but there are many campgrounds to choose from.

Arches Nat’l Park, Moab Utah

Moab, Utah (4Hr Drive)

Moab is one of my all time favorite places on the planet (stay tuned for our potential land buy and yurt building), so despite it being 100+ degrees, we decided to camp there for 2 nights. Because of the July heat, we choose to camp in town, so we would have electricity and air conditioning in our trailer.

Best campsites are on the river along the 128 highway.

Wolcott, Colorado (Vail Area)(4 hour drIVE)

We stayed 3 nights along the Colorado River outside of Vail. This is by no means the best campground in the area, but it had cell phone service, which our friend needed since his wife was SUPER pregnant (hence staying at their house in Vail and not camping).

Denver, CO (2hr Drive)

Fair warning, the drive is only that short if there are no accidents or 394 million people on I-70. It took us 3.5, but it used to take us 1.5-2hours back in the good ol’ days. Also, we didn’t camp in Denver…we stayed for 3 nights with our good friends, but you COULD camp outside of Denver if you wanted. (Check out Golden Gate Canyon State Park for not too far camping)

Grand Rapids, MI (18-20HR Drive)

We left Denver in the morning and drove all day and night and finally made it home. I’m not sure I reccomend this method..but it did shorten the misery of driving with 3 kids.

It INTENSIFIED the misery…but also shortened it.

And there you have it folks…the great Swatts & Co Covid Road Trip of 2020 in a recap. As time goes on, we’ll be adding blog posts regarding each specific spot, so stay tuned, or comment below which location you’re most interested in learning about.

Built in Bar or Appliance Garage Hack With Ikea & Semihandmade Kitchen Cabinets

Built in Bar or Appliance Garage Using Ikea & Semihandmade Kitchen Cabinets

Have you seen some really sweet appliance garages on Instagram or Pinterest and you want your own but you don’t have 78 million dollars to make it happen? You are in luck friends of mine.

DIY your ultimate dream kitchen

I have finally….after like a year of people asking me on Instagram, gotten around to writing down the instructions to build your own Built in Bar or Appliance garage with Ikea or Semihandmade cabinets or doors.

(You can do all Ikea or combine with Semihandmade- it works the exact same).

Built in Bar with doors closed

Below is what the cabinet looks like from afar with the doors closed.

Instructions to DIY Ikea/Semihandmade Built in Bar or Appliance garage

It’s actually really easy for you to do if your handy or for your contractor to do if your not handy (like myself). Your contractor may complain about doing it…but I’ve given this design to many contractors, and they can figure it out.

You need to get special hinges- the ones that we use are from Accuride- they have all different sizes, so it depends on the size of your doors and the depth of the cabinet will dictate which hinges you will need.

Hinges will take up a few inches of room depth wise (there is a diagram with specific dimensions for each size) so if you have a standard 24” depth kitchen cabinet it is VERY IMPORTANT that you do not go with doors wider than 18” or the doors will poke out too far from cabinet when they are recessed and be in the way.

If you have a deeper cabinet, then do whatever you want that fits in with the specs listed on Accuride’s website.

Appliance Garage Sitting On Counter

The above appliance garage was an Ikea/Semihandmade Combo. The interior box is a modified Ikea Wall Cabinet and the exterior panels and doors are Semihandmade.

It is VERY IMPORTANT to note: this appliance garage is only 15” Deep, yet is 36” wide, which means for the doors to not extend further and be in the way, a space was made past the drywall so the doors could recess further.

The pictures above and below show this countertop appliance garage with the doors closed. It is also important to note, that you will lose a few inches for each side for the door pockets, so you don’t want to have a cabinet with a small width or you won’t have any room for items.

For reference, for the flamingo cabinet that was 30” wide, we had about 24-25” of actual storage space. For the below cabinet that is 36” wide, we had about 30” of actual storage space.

Also, in case you were curious- in the below picture, the cabinet that is sitting on top of appliance garage is just a normal wall cabinet and stacked on top.

Let me know if you have any questions about any of this and I’ll answer below or edit the original post!

Extra Information for Ikea DIY Built in Bar Hack

The glass shelves were from Home Depot, and the wine racks were from Wayfar. Countertop is Silestone Pulsar.

To wallpaper bar, unscrew doors from hinges, wallpaper interior of doors (I used spray adhesive on the doors as they were shiny and I didn’t think wallpaper paste would work). On interior MDF cabinet, I used normal wallpaper paste and wrapped wallpaper around edges.

How Hiring an Interior Designer can save you money

How Hiring An Interior Designer Can Save You Money

“WHAT?!” you’re saying.  There is no way that hiring one more person is going to save me anything.  I’m already spending 19 million dollars (we all exaggerate a little bit) on this renovation/new build/decoration project.

How is paying someone thousands of dollars going to SAVE me money?

This mudroom walkthrough would’ve never happened with just the contractor and architects plans.

If you have the budget to do the above project- (whatever it may be), then you have the budget to hire a designer. You’ll get the best bang from your buck if you start the process with a designer in the beginning of the project….and not midway through after a bunch of mistakes have been made and now you need someone to fix it. 

A designer can steer you away from costly mistakes:

Did you go out and buy a bunch of appliances for your kitchen renovation because they were on sale without knowing if they would fit?  Oops.  Now you’ve got to return them all (and usually lose money). 

Forget to make sure there was enough of a walkway to get to your toilet?  That’s okay….you can spent the next twenty years on the loo trying to make yourself fit or pay to fix it.  Oops! No one thought to make sure you could open up your oven all the way.   

What’s more functional? Two shower niche’s that can fit full bottles of shampoo or only one?

Now…this isn’t to say that designers never make mistakes.  But designers have experience that you don’t.  (How did they get that experience?  By making mistakes.) 

There are some mistakes that even all the experience in the world can’t fix….patterns, textures, surfaces, colors- this is something that some people don’t learn or can’t learn.  And it would be terrible to pick all these expensive items out for your bathroom renovation and then realize they look horrible together! (this is why it’s important to hire a designer with a good eye AND good taste)

Help you pick and vet contractors/architects: 

A designer can help you with the questions you ask a contractor to make sure they are reliable and know what they’re doing and not ripping you off while they’re doing it.  Businesses practices in this industry can be very opaque (to put it politely) and a designer can raise a red flag if someone is promising too much for too cheap or trying to charge you $300/sqf for laminate countertops.  They can also let you know which contractors might have a history of very bad work…like installing a dryer without venting it to the outside. 

Reuse & Recycle Interior Decor:

Did you think you were going to have to throw away all your furniture? A designer has the eye to see which items can be refinished or reupholstered and still used in your project.  It’s usually cheaper for you, and better for the environment!

This couch was a beat up 100 year old couch that we reupholstered and re-foamed to get a brand new look .

Interior Designers Have Better Prices

Designers usually have a relationship with a vendor and receive better pricing on items.  Depending on their business model, sometimes they will extend some of that discount to their clients.   Our company shares our trade discounts with our clients- we want our clients to get the best bang for their buck, so clients will get a cheaper price than MSRP (which makes them happy), and we also are making money (which makes us happy).

Designers Can Make Your Money Go Further:

Any designer worth his/her salt,  (I’m not exactly sure how much salt is worth, so maybe take that statement with a grain of the above mentioned entity) will be able to tell you when you should splurge and when you can save.  You don’t always need the most expensive item to still have an amazing space.  Sometimes Ikea & Target mixed with a ridiculously expensive rug make a better pair than everything expensive.

This is a Target chair (on left) mixed with an original Adrian Pearsall MCM chair that has been reupholstered.

Maximize Your Investment:

If you’re ever planning on selling your house, a designer can help you figure out the best way to maximize your money to get the best result when you sell.  Boring doesn’t always sell quicker or better. 

Save On Therapy Costs After A Renovation:  

Trust us…if you’re working full time and then coming home and trying to design a house in your spare time, you’re gonna need some therapy at some point because of the stress and mental breakdown.  (we’ve worked full time and designed a house in our after hours, so we know this one).  Therapy is expensive and takes up a lot of time, so it’s easier just to hire someone else from the get go. 

One Room Challenge Reveal!!!

Swatts & Co Living and Dining Room: ORC Reveal!!

Finally. Wow. Not gonna lie, I didn’t really think finishing one (or two) rooms in 6-8 weeks was going to be a challenge. And I suppose it wouldn’t be if I didn’t have a job, or kids, or hadn’t just moved into a new house, etc. But therein lies the challenge.

Thank you to Linda Weinstein and Better Homes and Garden for Hosting sponsoring this event every year!!

Because of Covid and not being able to have any trades in the house, I learned a lot during this time period: how to tile, how to wallpaper over surfaces that shouldn’t be wallpapered, and that sometimes you don’t know what you want until you get it.

Remember the ‘before’ pictures? Do you remember the ‘before’ story? How this was our Plan E house, and we ended up here because of the pandemic and we weren’t going to stay very long because it was a bit smaller than we wanted(and I have to share a bathroom with my 3 children)?

It’s amazing how finishing just two rooms of your house makes you rethink all of that. I’m now in love with the house, the size, and the neighborhood and don’t plan to leave anytime soon.

When I started this I didn’t really have a plan except I knew I wanted to be able to re-use as much of our furniture and décor as possible, use red & blue as the main colors, and I wanted it to be the opposite of minimalism.

Those arched bookshelves were my starting point.  I found that pink/red palm wallpaper and immediately knew were I was going to put it.  Pretty much everything else was judged by the ‘will it work with the wallpaper?’ question because there was no way I wasn’t using it.

I painted the bookshelves and cabinet doors the same color/sheen as the walls (Regatta by SW) to make it blend in better. I contemplated painting the wood trim blue as well, but didn’t because:

1. I am very very lazy and I hate painting trim.

2. Painting original wood trim in a hundred year old house is a very serious polarizing issue somewhat akin to discussing politics and religion and I just didn’t want to go there.

3. See number 1

My absolute favorite part of this room is everything to do with the fireplace and these wall sconces.

I knew I was going to paint the fireplace, but I wanted to do something different, and no ‘normal’ colors seemed like a good choice. I remembered that I had a can of silver metallic paint left over from a project 6 years ago, which brought me back to the “use what I already” have goal. I painted that fireplace silver and never looked back.

If I’m honest, I’ll say that I was a little nervous about this fireplace. When you can’t find any inspo pics online there’s 1 of 2 reasons for that.

1. No one else has done it and taken pictures

2. It’s not a good idea and it hasn’t been done and photographed because it’s gonna look awful

But the biggest rewards come from the risks and that little nervous feeling in your stomach.

The tile was my very first tile job ever and I should admit I’ve been patting myself on the back ever since(humbleness is not a fault of mine…). My husband, the perfectionist, couldn’t even find many things to critique, so we know we’ve got a winner.

We did pretty well using what we had for this room.

• Couch: prior LR

• Eames Chair: prior reading area

• White chair: from master bedroom

• Rug: from prior master bedroom

• Bar Cart: From prior dining room

• Lucite shelving: from girls bedroom

• Black/White end table: from prior reading area.

So all we needed was some paint, light fixtures, curtains, end tables, art and a fireplace makeover.

No big deal, right? So much of a “no big deal” I decided I also needed to do the dining room at the same time. So much of a “no big deal” I almost didn’t finish either room in time, and was literally finishing finishing and hanging the art an hour before the photographer came.

Our table from the old house was too big to fit into this space, so we put it in the basement and I found this table on FB marketplace for $40 and spent about 17 hours sanding it and 17 minutes painting it.(I exaggerate, but you get the point.)

The large blue art is a cyanotype (a process using a photo negative, chemicals, and the sun to create the print) and I picked up the blue and red lady from a street artist in Greece last year. The artist told me she is a “Greek Mary Poppins”.

The tiled buffet is something I designed for our last house and is an Ikea hack that used to house my kids toys, and now houses our bar glasses and booze(I do believe the buffet is happier now, if not a little more tipsy).

I repainted the legs BM Snow Cone Green, for a fun pop of non-traditional color. This color was our old front door color and I’ve committed to using it in some way or another in every home we live in.

And the curtains…..ahhh, the curtains. They’re from Pierre Frey and I made them myself (once again, covid). Probably the only Pierre Frey curtains to be put together with hemming tape.

Because art is the frosting of design, I left that for last. So yummy and so very necessary.

If you follow my Ig stories, you’ll know I painted the black & white modern piece myself. George and his horse was inspired by an amazing piece of art I came across earlier this year that had Napoleon on a red horse with some other graffiti.

Despite how important I think art is, $6k for one piece wasn’t really in our budget, so I found an $88 portrait of GW online and went to town with paint and and my kids crayons(and maybe a little Snow Cone Green on the paintings edges because I couldn’t stop myself).

Also, you can never go wrong with flamingos, so I added some, because, why not? Can you find them?

Thank you so much for following along on this journey with me. There were times when I was really tired and I totally wanted to quit and just finish it later. But I am SO happy I kept on going and finished it, because when we get home from our 6 week road trip, I’m going to be returning to a somewhat finished house.

If you want to learn more about me and Swatts & Co, click here.

Thank you to Linda Weinstein and Better Homes and Gardens for sponsoring this event. It was really fun to be able to participate for the first (and hopefully the amnesia will kick in, so it won’t be the last) time.

Also, thank you to Dionel Fisher of The Mittentog for taking all of these great pictures!

If you guys are looking for more design inspiration, head to the One Room Challenge Blog and prepare to get lost in Design Wonderland.

To see the progress on this room click below:

Week One I Week Two I Week Three I Week Four I Week Five & Six I Week Seven