Scenes from downstairs

Last week I shared my recent affinity for kitchen spaces. While our kitchen is a very humble version of the others I pine after in blog land it still continues to be one of my favorite spaces to be in our house. I picked up the downstairs and wiped up the counters the other day and thought hey, it's a stay home summer miracle... worth grabbing my camera for. Here are some current pictures of the downstairs kitchen area. 

 My mom bought this sign at Hobby Lobby and it adorned Taylor's play kitchen for a good long while before making it's home in our own kitchen. A Hein family norm is a good kitchen dance party in the evening. Seriously, some of our silliest family moments take place here and it makes me love the space even more. 

 Baking goods and hidden dog treats in the white canister. 

 So many of the accessories around the house were passed on to me by my Oma. This wooden bowl is one of them. It's currently home to our abundance of peaches pouring in from our two backyard peach trees. 

 I'm always playing around with this little nook. I still don't have it quite figured out yet. But I do love this side by side picture of my two favorite baking assistants. Soon enough I'm going to need a tri-fold frame in here. 

 The blue delft plates are another favorite gift from my Oma depicting places from her hometown of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. 

 The kids frequent the bar area so I keep some coloring utensils up there. We use those on the daily. This has become a perfect spot for them to do homework while I cook in the evening or just to sit and keep me company while they color and I clear the dishwasher. 

 Our dining space is really small and we only have this space, no designated dining room in our house. On the plus side everything in our house is very used and very practical. On the negative side, when we have guests over, we don't all fit at the table. For Sunday night dinners, the ladies sit at the table and the boys sit on the barstools. It works. 

 This table is my very most favorite piece of furniture in our home. It was gifted to us by my Mother in Law when we first bought our home. She insisted on us choosing a table from Ethan Allen, a classic one that would last. I fell in love with this farm house table 10 years ago and I still adore it. I felt so grown up picking it out with Dustin as official homeowners for the first time. The table is chipped and the finish needs love. It constantly has crumbs in between the wood planks but it's also home to the one place we all come together for a slowed down moment in the evening on most days. For this reason alone, it's a sacred space for me.  

 And that my friends, is our kitchen. The kitchen is open to our living room space which is actually used quite a bit and then flows into our family room which is where we spend a whole lot of our time at home, too. It's where the tv resides, enough said. 

 These vintage books were a recent gift from my mom's cousin Leesie. I love vintage books, don't you? 

And this last little picture... if there was a name tag designating an official space for each of us in our house, this would be mine. It's where I am sitting right now as I type. I also plant myself here to do my morning devotions. It's a quiet spot that looks out on the backyard and it's sort of my own little happy place. 

So there it is in all of its cleaned up glory. Thanks for stopping by. 

xoxo

Eye Candy- Kitchen Edition

Mommin' is my life, and teaching is my career, but when I retreat to just me time, design is my happy place. I live for gorgeous aesthetics like these pictures below. In my rare moments of quiet time you will probably find me curled up with a hot cup of coffee perusing some of my favorite design blogs like here, here, or here.

And those who know me well, know that this kind of stuff speaks to my soul.  Design imagery fills the creative part of me that I rarely make time for. I feel most at peace when I am tidying up my house, lighting a good smelling candle, and then rearranging things around the house or dreaming up ideas for what I would love to do next. My cute as can be Dad actually found this shirt on Amazon and then sent it to me in Sacramento. True, so true. I always try to channel my inner Jo jo. 

So when summer begins I try to build in a bit more time for this little hobby of mine. One of the things I have been most intrigued with lately is kitchens. I find myself pinning pictures of kitchens all the time on Pinterest even though I have absolutely no plans of doing anything to our own. It's all just part of the pure satisfaction I get from looking at gorgeous design. 

This kitchen reveal was particularly inspiring. So many beautiful nooks with a neutral color palette and gorgeous fresh greens and flowers. I am crazy about the black paned windows and natural wood accents. It's all so good!

  link

And this post from Studio McGee that inspired me to think of all of the accessories that adorn a beautiful kitchen. Everything that Shea McGee and her team designs is pure gold in my eyes. Gold! 

link

So while I have no need to redesign anything in our own kitchen. It functions well and is the central hub of our small downstairs. I could definitely do some Marie Kondo magic on some of the drawers and cabinets...otherwise, my heart is very content in that space. But that's not to say that it couldn't use a bit of freshening up of some of the accessories that adorn the counters. 

I love so many of the affordable items from the Hearth and Hand by Magnolia line at Target. If I had money to burn I would add many of these things to my little red cart. But thanks to my sweet Momma who entered a little World Market contest during Teacher Appreciation Week and WON, I received a very unexpected gift card in the mail! How's that for lucky? Time to shop!

So here are a few of the items I picked up this week when they had their 20% off sale with free shipping. Thanks again Momma for the wonderful surprise!  

And one last thing I have been looking at lately is cookbooks. I pinned these to my wish list this week. I love how practical and useful cookbooks are but how pretty they are, too! 

 

So good, right? I can't wait to add these new things to the kitchen to freshen up the space a bit. I am also hoping to plant some fresh herbs this week too. I do it every summer and it's always short lived.  I can never get them to last. But it does add so much to the space while we're home using it every day over vacation. 

Cheers to a wonderful week doing more of what makes you, you!

xoxo

Donovan's Room

And just like that, our big eight year old now has his very own room. 

 We went back and forth about what type of bed to get for his new space. He really wanted a bunk bed and at first we were right on board with that. But after a little convincing, we all decided that a full size bed offered a bit more longevity for the space.  

 We chose not to theme his room up big time, but it didn't take long for baseball to make a steady appearance. I love this framed picture of his baseball besties waiting out a storm between innings. Emmerson helped me accessorize the space. (I swear she is my mini Joanna Gaines in the making) She found this old autographed baseball from Grampie. 

 After we finally bought his mattress last week, Donovan and Emmerson accompanied me on a trip to Target where Donovan picked out his bedding and pillows. (I may have had a little bit of a say in the decision too). I loved this bedding and pillows from the Hearth and Hand line at Target.  Donovan picked out the red striped pillow and at first I said no, because there was no other red in the room and I thought the stripe on stripe might be a bit much. But I love the little color that it adds. Well played, D. 

 Most of the things we hung up on his wall, were items he already had. This cork map was a present given to him on his fifth birthday. 

 Emmerson chose these books to put on display on Taylor's old book shelves. 

The closet is open for now. It's the easiest way to access all of the clothes items he keeps in the little bins on the bottom shelves. I'm sure this will evolve as he gets older. But for now, it suits him perfectly. I spy Molly in this picture, can you? 

The Girls' Room

Well, our little ladies have officially joined forces. The second that summer vacation arrived, the room switch was on. 

I get so excited at the thought of these precious girl sharing this space together. I never had a sister so it's so much fun for me watching their little relationship evolve. Everyone always says that sisters become so, so close. I know sharing such a small space together will lead to many sister squabbles, but I also hope it's a space that holds precious memories, sister secrets, and an immeasurable sisterly bond. 

 Welcome to the girl room. 

 These Urban Wall decals added some much needed color to an otherwise very blank space. 

 Dustin helped me hang all of this stuff up last weekend. We already had these frames and things from their original nurseries. It made my heart happy to repurpose some of my favorite things from Emmerson's nursery. Obviously still some blank frames to fill. I just ordered some of Emmerson's favorite prints from our Tennessee trip last summer. 

 The matching bedding was an after Christmas sale steal from Anthropologie that's just been waiting to be used. I love the color and texture it adds to their space. 

Currently reading Little Blue Truck and Goodnight Moon on repeat. 

And of course, this lovely accessory. Insert eye roll emoji here. :) 

Taylor has transitioned really well. Aside from a horrible first nap in which there was no nap and a whole lot of scream. But the nights have been pretty good so far. Emmerson has been falling asleep first and we can hear Taylor talking to herself and singing Twinkle Twinkle very loudly until she finally dozes off. 

Master Bedroom/Bathroom Reveal

You! GUYS! I feel like I have been saying I'd post pictures of the bathroom in every post over the course of the last month... but the shower doors were finally installed yesterday and I can officially say that this project is complete! 

Although we've been living with this project 95% completed for about 6 weeks now, it still feels so new to us. Dustin and I now call this space the retreat. And it does feel that way, like we're staying in someone else's space. It's hard to believe that this is ours.

After all, this is what we'd been living with/in for the past 8 years. If you want to see the space in all of it's glorious carpet filled beginnings, begin your venture by clicking here. 

And now for a little tour of the space. Let's start here (again) at the door to our bedroom. One of the biggest wow factor changes we made was removing the horribly stained carpet and replacing it with the same wood laminate that runs up the stairs and in the landing. It now continues on through the master bedroom and in our master closet. I am SO glad we made the extra investment here. The floors made a huge difference and it totally completed the transformation. 

We also decided to paint the walls of both the bedroom and bathroom this bright white. Before the room was a light blue, which I never hated, but this white was a game changer. It makes the room so much lighter and brighter. 

The bedroom furniture remained the same. This set has seen better days. We purchased it off of Craigslist before we were married so it's been with us for ten years now. I painted the cherry colored wood black at the time and it really has served us well. While I began to lust after some upholstered headboards or rustic wood beds and furniture to match, I had to reign myself in. What we have is good for us for now. And so it stays. I did replace our bedding with a duvet we already had from our old guest room. I made it feel new to us by recovering some of our decorative pillows and purchasing new Euro sham covers on Overstock. I also swapped out the pictures in the frames above the headboard with a few pictures from our recent trip to Lake Tahoe. 

The rug was a new edition from Rugs USA. I feel like it was a score. It's an 8x10 that was about $150 during their Fourth of July sale. I like the neutral tones and how beachy it makes the room feel. 

Our little desk niche got a bit of updating, too. I took down the huge chalkboard and bulletin board and streamlined the space with these two simple pictures that used to hang on the wall directly across from this space.  

  

Oh man, this faux fiddle leaf tree. I know it's wrong to love things. But I can't help myself. I have wanted a real fiddle leaf for longer than I can remember. I eye them each and every time I make a trip to HD or Lowes but I just couldn't bring myself to pay for such an expensive plant knowing how finicky they can be. But the faux trees... they can do no wrong. Except for the price tag. Some of these babies can cost hundreds and I mean hundreds of dollars. I finally gave in and purchased this one from World Market and I LOVE it! It's super tall and adds so much needed green to this all white space. So my friends, if loving a faux fiddle leaf tree is wrong... I don't want to be right. 

And now the bathroom...

This could possibly be my favorite space in the entire house. The floor tile is obviously the boldest move we did here and I have no regrets about it. We not only love the pattern, but it's so soft on the feet, too. It cleans easily and to me, gives the look of expensive concrete tile at a very small fraction of the cost. I'm so happy with how it turned out. 

The subway tile with the pewter gray grout is also a win for me. It seems so much easier to clean than the light grout we used on the downstairs bathroom. The floating wood shelf here is from West Elm and the little side table tucked in next to the bath was found in our neighbors trash. Ha! No shame in my trash digging game.

This little potty nook is even a happier space now. 

And the big, moldy fiber-glass insert shower has not been missed one bit. 

The vanity was built by our contractor. I like that it adds a bit of natural wood color, like the floors in our bedroom and closet. He also cut down the large mirror into two smaller mirrors and framed them out with stained wood like the vanity. We chose to install tongue and groove boards behind the mirrors to give the space a little more character. 

Instead of purchasing new lighting, we spray painted the brushed nickel lighting we already had. 

And that my friends, is the end of a long, crazy, but so worth it project. We always kid that adding a new baby to the family was a piece of cake... but undergoing a double bathroom renovation just about did us in. (I will have to post pics of the kids bathroom in a post to follow) All in all... we have very few regrets. Now it's time to enjoy it. Can you believe I am yet to try the tub? That will be happening... soon! 

If anyone has any questions about the process, what we learned along the way, or wants links to products I can happily help with that. Let me know.