Master Bedroom

I've been having one of THOSE weeks. Two small reasons are: 1) I'm a new blogger and one post can, and probably will, take hours. Which means that dinner is snack crackers and juice boxes. 2) It's still 100+ degrees here in AZ. Which means I don't feel like cooking or eating, so dinner is snack crackers and juice boxes. But enough about me and my woes, let's talk about me and my bedroom! I am so excited about this series of link parties. This is a group of bloggers I admire and follow and it's an unbelievable opportunity to be part of their blogs. I joined late but am determined to finish strong!

I lived in Japan for five years and it's had a big influence on my decor. The kimono is from an antique store in Japan. It's been hanging there for over ten years. I used to have a bed with a lower headboard and the kimono fit just above it. When I bought this bed and moved it into the room, I planned on taking the kimono down. That was four years ago.

The bed is so beastly that when we added wood floors we just worked around it.

Have to add the sinks because they are, technically, in the room. No door-just a doorway.

This is a dining room hutch filled with books.

   

Thanks for the advise.

Thanks to everyone who commented and emailed with advise on what is appropriate for children to wear to a memorial or funeral. We attended my beloved uncle's memorial and it was so comforting and uplifting to be amongst all those who loved him. My son's attire was such a success he got a mention in the San Diego Union Tribune. *I edited last names for their privacy.* It was held at the beautiful San Diego Humane Society, a place my uncle played a big part in supporting and publicizing their fundraising events.

The tie was red and blue, but who cares about the details. Also, as you can see in the picture above, when Rogan was "astride" the bronze dog it was AFTER the memorial had ended and it was only family and very close friends left. You can see in the photo that nobody else is there. I wouldn't have let him do this while the memorial was in full swing. We can behave... sometimes.

A Closet or a Nursery?

A tiny post about a tiny room! I saw this idea in a magazine and the article was about a couple living in New York where every square foot counts. I made this happen at our vacation house where we didn't need to use a walk-in closet and I loved it.

I had to take the crib apart to get it through the skinny door.

Stored the wooden dowels behind the door so it would appear less closety. My baby is now 7 and my closet is back to a closet, but it was a fun project!

Post created for the Roomspiration link party at a' la mode.

Desert Kitchen B4 and After

So, I spent a long time in my closet yesterday (that's where my scanner is stashed) to get my old kitchen pictures onto my computer. I agonize over decisions so this kitchen re-do did not happen quickly. Everything was DIY except I had a pro paint the stove and fridge, and granite guys did the granite-although I did wonder what kind of saw we'd have to buy to do our own granite. Once I get going I get a little scary. Here's the changes blow by blow. Thanks for visiting! I'm a new blogger and sometimes, because of technical difficulties, like spelling, these posts take me hours to get up! One more thing I've noticed is that it looks like my husband does ALL the work. Not true!! He just never has the camera.

Before and after.

Original stock kitchen.

 

Painting the cabinets was a huge leap of faith because everyone {without vision :)}was against it. I also popped out the cheapo center insert and added glass cut to size from the Home Depot.

Removed counter-top and lived like this for a few weeks. A slow torture that gives one a great appreciation for running water.  Also during this time the stove and old fridge got painted black. Ended up taking the black painted fridge up to our mountain house kitchen (here) and bought a delightfully shallow counter-depth fridge.

A pot rack made out of pipe from Home Depot. They will cut and thread it for you.

We did a subway tile backsplash and lowered the electrical outlets so they aren't visible behind small appliances. The plug used to be directly over the toaster and taunted me with it's corded ugliness. I have a small issue with electric cords and trying to hide them as though everything is just powered wirelessly!

Painted the old kitchen cart. You can see more of that here.

                                                                  Here she is today:

                                           

Just waiting for something on that micro-stove-oven combo to break so I can justify getting new ones. I continued the tile backsplash behind it, so I'm anxious prepared for its demise. Fingers crossed! It's from 1986! I swear! Curses GE, for making appliances that last!

                                      

DIY Kitchen Island

This was a kitchen with zero counter space and nothing really dividing it from the living room except for a table and chairs. I'm a big lover of kitchen islands and thought that would be the perfect thing to add counter space and visually separate the kitchen from the living room. Here's what we did. Once we got the ball rolling the whole thing was done in about a week. But it took seven years to get the ball rolling.

Started with Lowes unstained, off the shelf, cabinets.

Fitting together two tiny cabinets and a medium one. The edges are not straight so this takes some sanding and wood filler for the gaps. Cabinets are screwed together from the inside.

Fast forward two months (just kidding) and here it is, all four cabinets are one unit.  Sanded and shimmed to rest on the tile without wobbling.

Added panels and framing to the particle board sides and back.

This piece on top is just a scrap piece of MDF that we temporarily put there. It was removed when the walnut top arrived.

Ordered a John Boos walnut top online. I was not going to go with something this extravagant. I was going to stain a slab of less expensive wood. I know, I know, you cannot prepare or cut food on toxic stain. But I was fine with that. After my husband invested so much sweat and time into the base he wanted to top it with "quality." This walnut is oiled and unsealed. Safe for food prep.

Adding more framing to cover the seams of the panels.

Home Depot brackets.

Afterthought to add more trim to the inside of the framing.

Finishing up and looking at a green stain sample.

Staining green.

 Needs one more coat of stain and some knobs.

I bought the chairs online at Walmart's Canopy line. Now we've moved on to the kitchen counters, stove, and backsplash.

The progress so far. I have to glue and grout the tiles still. They're just resting there until I get the pattern right.  You can see more of the progress here.

**Update** finished backsplash. You can see a tutorial here, Here is the kitchen now.