Island Makeover

When we bought our home, the island was this dinky little thing in the middle of the kitchen. It was entirely too small and too close to the stove and cupboards. We decided right off the bat that we would move it about 6 inches into the dining area, and build it up to make it more functional. 

We bought this super cheap kitchen cabinet at Home Depot and beefed it up. WARNING: This is a cheap, flimsy, poorly made cabinet. My husband had to enforce it like no other, and we will also be replacing the drawer glides. 

We needed the island in place to finish our flooring, so we lived with our island and half a countertop for about a month. My kids kept climbing down into the cabinet and driving me crazy. 

We put the cabinet side by side, and moved it back 6 inches. Then my husband proceeded to build a box around the whole structure to strengthen it. 

We lined it with a plank board from Home Depot, and added 1x6's along the bottom and 1x4's up the side to give it some moulding character. 

I bought some corbels on Amazon and laughed out loud when they came. They are adorable and perfect, but my husband could have build them for .50 cents. Oh well. I painted the island a fabulous green color that I have been eyeing for about a year.

We also splurged and got granite! During all of the home projects we have done, we haven't tackled countertops because we couldn't afford to. In this house the countertops were WHITE laminate, stained like crazy, and awful all around. We knew we wanted to replace them and decided to go with granite. It looks amazing!

My next step is to add hardware to my cabinets. 

New House- New Demo

Well, we have moved again and it is into another fixer upper. One of our first projects was to take out this dividing wall between the kitchen and the living area. We are in a small town, and have discovered that this wall wasn't originally there. One of the previous owners added it in. I'm not sure why, it really closed up the space. So the day that we signed on the dotted line, we smashed out the wall. Cousins were even there to help us, and boy did we make a gigantic mess. We took out the wall around the stairwell, the dividing wall, and also the fireplace. 

View from in the kitchen/dining room

This is the dining area, notice the carpet. That came right out as well! The half wall is for the stairway, and we ripped that out as well. 

Goodbye fireplace

And awkward wall. 

Demo started and I started to second guess my decision. It makes a huge mes and its not that fun to clean up. 

We are in the middle of this massive project, stay tuned for updates! 

Tissue Paper Pom Pom's

I know you have seen these pictures but I wanted to do a quick post. See those tissue paper pom poms? They are the easiest thing EVER and a great way to add color to a room. I originally made several pom poms and it was easy. Super quick, anyone can do it, not a big deal. I used a tutorial on YouTube and was happy with the results. I hang them with fishing line and clear push pins. 

When I was ready to decorate the nursery I needed olive green tissue paper and my local craft store didn't carry any. Or Walmart. I went online to search for some and found a party store that sells the pom poms pre cut for around $1 a piece. I was sold. I mean, I could have saved a few dollars overall if I bought the tissue paper myself and made them, but at that price it's nearly what you pay for the tissue paper alone. So I bombed out and bought them. Mind you, you still have to fluff them out and hang them, but when debating between olive green paper and olive green paper that's already cut, I chose the pre cut. 

This is the site I used. I'm sure there are many reputable fabulous ones to choose from. 

https://www.justartifacts.net/12tipompo.html

I love these above a crib because hello, in case of an earthquake nothing is going to happen when those fall on you. Also, besides the amazing pop of color you can quickly add, I really love the shape and dimension of them. Something hanging from the ceiling is much different than something hanging on the wall. 

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