New Ikea Frames

I'm loving these new KVILL frames from Ikea.

I was actually just looking for some small ornate frames like this but nothing I found came close to beating the price on these: $4.99 each.

Sucker for Chevron

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for all things chevron.

I'm also a sucker for vintage chairs (although my husband has informed me that I'm cut off from buying any more). So I thought I'd jump on the chevron bandwagon and combine my two great loves by, wait for it, covering one of my mid-century chairs with chevron fabric. Cuhrazy. This gray Danish number I bought off Craigslist a couple years ago will be my victim (uh, excuse the cat toys in the background).

I bought the chevron fabric from fabric.com (for $12.48 per yard—I bought three).

I can't wait to cover it, but I have a little confession to make: I have no idea how to sew. I tend to buy these great vintage chairs with not-so-great fabrics and tell myself, "Well, I'll just reupholster it." It sounds so easy but other than some tutorials I've kind of breezed over online, I'm not quite sure how to begin. Luckily, I have some people in my life who are pretty handy with a needle so I may be calling in some favors...Either way, I'll get that fabric on there somehow!

Something's On the Way...

A new addition to our office is on the way (via a little order from Overstock). If you remember this post from awhile ago, I've been wanting to change things up in our office. Well, we finally sold our previous desk and pulled the trigger on this guy:

I'd been wanting a nice white parsons desk in there and was pretty pleased to find one at the right price. For $135, it bears a striking resemblance to some far more pricier options—like this West Elm parsons desk for $299:

The next thing is just finding the right wall color to give the room a little lift...

Sans Kitchen: Month 4

The end of this month will mark four full months of life without a functioning kitchen. So I thought I would, eh, reflect on our little exercise in making the best of it.

For the first three months, there was absolutely zilch in our kitchen—no cabinets, counter tops, sink, or dishwasher. Luckily, we were able to plug in our fridge and our oven (the fridge was plugged into a living room wall and we just wrapped the oven cord around a corner into the kitchen outlet). Here's a picture from when we first set up our makeshift cucina:

(Now that we've been able to move the fridge and oven into their rightful places—and put away dishes and food—our makeshift kitchen now fits on one single Ikea bookshelf. Hurray!)

Since we were dropping so much dough on the renovation, Robert and I really wanted to resist spending money on eating out all the time. At first I had grand ambitions of making great home-cooked meals in the crockpot and the oven, but we ended up resorting to a lot of frozen food. And not because it was such a pain to cook—it really wasn't—but because it was such a pain to clean dirty pots/pans. We switched between using the hall bathroom sink and the hall bathroom bathtub in the effort to keep either one from getting too clogged. Ew. We also found that outdoor hoses make pretty good rinsers as well.

As far as what we consumed during this time, these were go-tos for us:

1. instant oatmeal
2. hard boiled eggs ('cause they need almost zero cleanup)
3. BBQ chicken or pork (cooked on the grill)
4. salad mix
5. Valley Fresh frozen vegetable steamers
6. frozen pizza
7. Bertolli frozen meals (I can't tell you how many of these we ate. I think I'm done with them for life.)

For lunch, Robert had his usual peanut butter and jelly and I tried to eat leftovers or sometimes Amy's frozen meals.

I'm so looking forward to actually cooking good, fresh food again—and to not using paper plates anymore (sorry, Mother Nature, I really do feel badly about that). But maybe we helped out the planet a little by not using as much electricity? At least half the outlets in and around our house don't work right now—a product of updating our electrical panels and moving around outlets to accommodate our new layout.

Well, I hope this little post was insightful. I actually did a rudimentary internet search for cooking/food tips from kitchen-less renovators when we first started this thing, but I didn't find much that was useful. One woman, I think it was in Elle or something, said she was looking forward to roasting a whole duck in her open brick fireplace during her kitchen renovation. Uummm....no.

Master Bedroom Mini Makeover

I've been working over the past few weeks to make our bedroom a little more cozy and a little more ooh la la. When we first moved in over two years ago, we cleaned, painted, and set down the bedroom furniture we had in our old apartment. We added small things here and there, but the look of the room hadn't really evolved much.

So going on the momentum of our kitchen renovation and generally trying to make things a little more sophisticated and polished around here, I decided to take action.

I was feeling like all the dark furniture and accessories were kind of bringing the whole room down, so I infused more white with some curtains, the syroco mirror that I spray painted, and a stencil on the wall behind the bed.

The wall on the right side of the bed was looking a bit bare and stark and that small picture just wasn't the right proportion for the space.

So I hung up the syroco mirror and added some softness with Ikea curtains.

I'd also been wanting to do a stencil somewhere in the house, so I thought the wall behind the bed would make a good "focus" wall. I framed the stencil with a couple of pieces of vertical molding from Home Depot that I painted white (my momma helped me cut the molding and nail it up—thanks, mom!). The stencil was kind of a pain in the butt to apply to the wall, but I'm pretty happy with the end product.

I spray painted the frames hanging above the bed white so they'd be more cohesive with the stencil (go spray paint!)

Eventually we'd like to get a new duvet cover (we've had this one since our apartment days and it's getting a little dingy) but the master is looking pretty spiffy at the moment.

"Pin" Me

Hey, guys! You can now see what I'm up to on Pinterest. I know you're excited.

I've only been on it for a few days but I've found it pretty nifty and extremely easy to use. It's great if you're working on a creative project (like designing a space) or event (like a wedding). Now you don't have to constantly ask yourself, "Now where was that cool picture of the gray room with the turquoise chevron rug and syroco mirrors that I saw a week ago?" (pssst, it's on your Pinterest).

Cabinet Peek

Last week was a big week as far as kitchen progress goes. Ladies and gentlemen, we have cabinets. Here's a little peek.

The installation was scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of last week but the whole thing was completed by Wednesday afternoon. I was going to give a little daily play-by-play of the installation but, gosh darn, it happened so fast that I did get around to it.

The best thing was being able to put some of our dishes and food away.

The next thing on the list is the counter installation. Then we'll really be in business.

Stool Steal

So we'll soon have a little bar in our kitchen area that will need some bar stool friends. But which bar stools will make the match? Well, I'd been perusing Craigslist/Overstock/etc. when the newest Crate and Barrel catalog came to our door. I flipped through it, not really looking for stools (our dining room table is from the Crate but I generally find their furniture overpriced), but laid my eyes on this guy and felt a connection:

Then I looked at the Crate and Barrel price tag and kind of got sad: 

$149 for a bar stool is just a little too rich for me. But I figured I could find a knock-off of this design somewhere else. I started searching the net and indeed found some very similar designs (a lot even looked like the exact chair—just from different distributors). The lowest I could find for a similar-ish chair was about $100—definitely better but not fantastic. 

Then, yesterday, I thought I'd take a look at the Target website and, wouldn't you know, I found this!

So similar and $70 cheaper than the C&B chair at that (it also comes in the 30"H seat, which is what we'll need). I'm still keeping an open mind and looking around, but I suspect this will be the guy that we'll push up to our bar.