Hi friends! Thanks so much for the love on our new kitchen! I'm excited to share our living room and keeping room with you today as those are the two rooms on either side of the kitchen. We planned an open concept main living space, so the living/family room, kitchen, breakfast nook area and keeping room (an old-fashioned term for a hearth room located next to your kitchen) are all basically in one big open area. We've only been in the house for about two months, but this space has become our absolute favorite place in the house to spend time together as a family. And it's been great for hosting large groups!

We vaulted the ceiling of the keeping room (FYI this room sits at an angle off of the back part of our house, almost like an add-on) and added wooden beams along the ceiling line. We actually just built out the beams with stain grade 1x6 pieces of wood which saved a lot of cost (and weight) instead of purchasing real solid wood beams! The walls, as you can see, are all shiplap. And we added French doors on all sides of the room- one set going out to our courtyard area and two sets of French doors going out to our back patio. 

Our living room is pretty simple- with only two walls, we made one a wall of windows looking out over our outdoor living area and the other a wall of built in bookshelves surrounding the fireplace. We don't have a playroom downstairs, so all of the kids toys are now in those shelves. It's working out great for us so far and we love having them playing in our main space so we can keep an eye on them while we cook dinner or hang out on the couch.

I think the star of the show in both rooms are the fireplaces. We designed them to match our simple farmhouse trim work but they've also got a little touch of traditional and a little touch of Craftsman. I. love. them. And for those of you wondering, they are B-vent gas fireplace logs (that I can turn on with the flick of a switch! score!). We actually have been using both fireplaces almost every day. I usually wake up and one of the first things I do is read my Bible with a cup of coffee by the fireplace in the keeping room. And of course we've had the fireplace on in the living room most nights we're in there! And, hello, it was so fun to decorate two mantels for Christmas.

So here's our main space! Hope you like it!

S O U R C E S :

wall paint color- Sherwin Williams Alabaster

trim color (and shiplap color)- custom color to match our cabinets

ceiling fans

beam stain color- Early American by Minwax

brick- Old Georgian Tudor with Savannah White ivory mortar

living room cabinet knobs- Hobby Lobby

living room sconces

The kitchen. Ahhhh, the kitchen. This room is easily way up there in the race for my favorite rooms in the house. I love this room because it's open... lots of walkway space, lots of counter space, lots of seating... and classic- you can't go wrong with a black, white and brass scheme! I feel like I have so much to say about this room... I'm just going to start brain dumping about designing this room. If I miss anything, feel free to leave questions in the comments and I'll update the post!

I always knew I wanted a black and white kitchen (see here!), so it was a pretty easy choice to start with the cabinets. We chose a Shaker style white cabinet (which is eerily similar to SW Alabaster, an off-white) and mixed in glass and solid uppers. We wanted to max out our 9 foot ceilings in terms of design and function, so we added the 12" box cabinet on the top with 36" uppers under the box. Our island cabinets are black (by the way, our island dimensions are: 4' x 8.5'). All cabinets are made by Legacy, happy to share more details about which selection we made if anyone wants (I know some of you out there are shopping cabinets!), just shoot me an email.

Read all about the counter top selection right here.

I took a biiiiiig leap of design faith (way outside my comfort zone!) and mixed a bunch of metals in here. Probably more than is "allowed" (stainless steel! brass! oil rubbed bronze! polished nickel!) but I absolutely love the way it works together. I knew I wanted brass in this room, but I was scared to commit to anything too permanent or expensive, so we went with brass hardware. I took a tip from Studio McGee and chose polished nickel (instead of chrome) as it has warmer undertones and pairs more easily with brass or gold or bronzes. I actually extended this tip throughout my entire home... I love me some polished nickel!

We went simple and classic with miniature white subway tiles for the backsplash. I really wanted this kitchen to be relaxing and didn't feel like I needed a crazy backsplash competing for attention. I left the attention-grabbing to those majorly giant pendant lights I chose over the island ; )

As for appliances, we splurged a bit and bought mostly KitchenAid Pro products. The KitchenAid Pro gas range oven wasn't in our budget, so we chose this Verona dual fuel range and LOVE it so far. We typically bake in the wall oven and cook over the range, but we have also used both ovens at the same time a few times over the past few weeks since we've been here. Game changer. 

Besides being open and classic (and having a giant island), I also always knew I wanted a desk space in our dream kitchen. I have just always pictured putting a desktop computer there and letting the kids do homework while I get supper ready, instead of letting them hole up in their rooms. It's also a great "drop spot" for clutter and mail that somehow doesn't find a place in the mudroom.

Did I mention the giant walk-in pantry? Talk about another game changer! I've got my counter top appliances lined up on some of the bigger shelves... I LOVE having all that space to organize the kitchen clutter and food!

I just realized that I didn't get any up-close photos of our custom shiplap range hood. Bad blogger. I promise I'll devote an entire post soon to that beauty. Also, I will say that since this photo, the shelves have been lined up with the mullions on the windows of the glass uppers... that drove me crazy then and drives me crazy just looking at these photos now!

I think that's most of the major elements, let me know if you have any questions! Sources below : )

pendant lights

cabinet pulls and knobs

kitchen faucet

pot filler

backsplash tile

Hi friends! I've had so much fun sharing the house with y'all so far. I've gotten a ton of questions about sources from the last couple of posts and Instagram... your main questions being sources for flooring, counter tops, tile and lights! Today I'll tackle the first two- our flooring and countertop selections.

First off, let me say that I jumped in and sourced most of the interior finishings for our house myself (instead of going through the companies our contractor recommended). It was quite the bear of a task, but in the end, I'm really happy we did it- we were able to buy what we wanted at a better price and saved some big money. I plan to write a separate post about the process of sourcing everything myself, though, so stay tuned!

C O U N T E R    T O P S :

In our kitchen, we chose a quartz material. We love the look of marble but it's such a porous stone that I was really worried about staining, chipping, etc. So we chose a quartz that looks a lot like marble. From what I understand, quartz is one of the stronger natural stone counter materials, and I can vouch- ours has already withstood the (accidental) tests of blue food coloring and red wine just fine! The brand is LG Viatera Minuet. We absolutely love it!

Our downstairs bathrooms (including the powder bathroom and our guest bathroom) have furniture type sinks, so those came with their own tops. But upstairs in the kids baths and our master bathroom, we went with an engineered polar white marble. It was a really inexpensive material that basically gave us a pretty, faux marble blank slate. We chose painted vanities in all the baths and really wanted those colors to shine, instead of the counter tops. And while the engineered marble is really pretty, it definitely doesn't try to compete with the cabinets, which is just what we wanted!

H A R D W O O D    F L O O R S :

We chose to do hardwood floors in our entire downstairs (except for the guest bedroom) and in our upstairs hallway. I. am. in. love. with. our. floors. Seriously, guys. One of my favorite things in the house. I am a big fan of gorgeous dark hardwood floors, but I knew that I wanted a) something easier to keep clean (dark hardwoods would show Tucker hair like woah!) and b) something a bit more rustic/farmhouse style. We wanted a wider plank and chose to go with engineered floors as they fit our budget the best. In the end, Mohawk's Woodside Hickory in Harvest Hickory (WEC89-65) was our choice. It's a hand-scraped hickory wood, so it's extremely hard and stands up to scratches and dents. But it's also already got a few nicks and dings in it which give it character... and also helps to hide any new scratches or dents! And I love the variation in the tone of the wood- lots of lighter spots with some golden areas and even some dark knotty spots. It just has so much character! We literally have loved this floor every single minute we've had it. 

For our stairs, we had red oak treads that the paint crew stained to match the hardwood floors (I have no clue the color!). It's amazing how great they look together, especially with that Craftsman-esque chunky bannister!

Later this week, I plan to share more about our kitchen, especially since I gave you some sneak peeks today! What items do you want me to source next? Lights? Tile? Let me know!

Hi! Hope you're ready for more photos of the new house. Today I'm headed inside for a tour of our mudroom and powder bathroom. Remember, these photos are of the empty house, right before we moved in, so you won't see any furniture or pretty styling yet : )

When you walk in through the garage of our house, you immediately empty into the mudroom. After years of having no proper place for our junk to go at the end of every day (coats, shoes, school and work bags, mail, the random assortment of JUNK that seems to come home with every member of my family every day...!), one of the first things I prioritized to design in our new house was the mudroom. I needed a one stop shop to organize, or at least corral, all of the junk. Our carpenters were able to build in six cubbies, which is great for our family of four plus guests. We also have a coat rack for extra guest space. I used the space of the room and simply decided to put as many shelves as I could, where I could. I went ahead and took each cubby up to the ceiling just to maximize functional space. Not sure if we'll ever get a basket up there on the top, but it's nice to know we have the option! Then we've got shoe storage under each cubby and the corner is open for things like gym bags and tall boots. Of course, we've added hooks to each cubby since these photos were taken. I absolutely love that our carpenters used some extra shiplap left over from the keeping room to dress up this space.

We also had the carpenters add a "drop desk" right next to the door into the garage for keys and mail. Tucker now has his dog bowl and a basket of his doggy items underneath that space. Everyone's got a place for their stuff now! (high five) The good stuff is in the details, and I love those little transom windows we added above the doorway into the hallway as you walk from the mudroom into the butler's pantry/kitchen/dining room ahead! Gives this new house that old school character.

Next to the mudroom space is our powder bathroom. If you remember waaaaay back when, I created a design board here of my dream powder bathroom. Well, this is my attempt at making that space come to life! Black walls with glossy white trim, a vintage looking leggy porcelain sink and gold fixtures. Nailed it! And of course, I've got a vintage red rug in there now just tying that mood board up with a big bow : ) The powder bathroom is realllly hard to photograph (no windows!) but it might be one of my favorite rooms in the whole house. It's just so fun to see a vision I've had for so long finally come to fruition!

Once you walk through the mudroom and past the powder bath, you're in the hallway between the dining room and the kitchen. We added a little butler's pantry there with some open shelving. It's the perfect place to store entertaining items we don't use all the time. And I hope to make this a drink station when we're hosting large groups.

mudroom built ins paint color- custom color very similar to Sherwin Williams Alabaster
wall color in mudroom and butler's pantry- Sherwin Williams Alabaster
stain color in mudroom- Minwax Weathered Oak
paint color in powder bath- Sherwin Williams Black Magic
powder bathroom sink with polished nickel legs
powder bathroom faucet in polished nickel
powder bath gold sconces
powder bath mirror

For more on our new home, check out:
exterior tour
the house building process