Primed and Ready!!!

Good Monday morning to you all! I hope that you had a great weekend. It was HOT this weekend in Houston (109 degrees on Saturday); however, the sun was shining, so I was a happy gal! But what is crazy, Houston's 109 was nothing compared to Vegas, which recorded 127 degrees with sidewalks clocking in at 150 degrees. Yowzers!!! That's-a-one-spicy-meat-a-ball! Things are also heating up at Casa de Mosley - the painters arrived last week and started priming and prepping all the walls and woodwork.  I have been so excited about this major step towards completing our project that I have been running around like a crazy person (a la Paul Revere style) shouting to the rafters and anyone that will listen that "The Painters are Coming! The Painters are Coming!  The Painters Are Coming!!!"





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Last week I showed you the wainscoting that we added throughout the house. And here's the dining room wainscoting all primed and ready to go!

 

I absolutely LOVE how the wainscoting looks primed and how it is all coming together! The painters still have to put a skim coat over the middle panels on the wainscoting to make it them super smooth, but we are definitely heading in the right direction! Here is a closer view of the dining room wainscoting.

And here is a view taken from the front corner of the dining room looking back towards the living room.  As you can see, they also have the crown and baseboards all primed in there too!

Since the primer is up, it was time for Mattey and me to buckle down and make our final decisions on paint colors for the walls and trim throughout the house. And here is what we have come up with so far:

 

The two middle colors are what we are using for the walls downstairs. The second sample board from the right is Ralph Lauren Suede Plaza Blanca, which we are using on the living room, the foyer and the stairwell walls. It is a deep rich cream color, which will give a lot of warmth to the rooms. We chose Ralph Lauren's suede finish (instead of regular flat paint) because the suede paint gives a subtle texture and added depth. I am all about layering textures when decorating, and using a suede paint is a super easy way to add a layer texture to the whole room in one fair swoop.  Our dining room walls will be the second color from the left, which is Ralph Lauren Suede Cordova Cream. Like the walls in the living room, foyer, and stairwell, we also are using a suede finish in the dining room; however, this color is just a bit darker than the Plaza Blanca and will help set-off the dining room from the rest of the downstairs space without screaming "Hey look at me!!! I'm different!!!!!"  Since tans and creams can become a bit boring, we are adding interest by going DARK with the trim (instead of your typical white). We have picked Benjamin Moore's Bronzetone 60 (the far left color on the trim sample board).  It isn't on Benjamin Moore's website, but you can get a sample made at any of their stores.  This is because Bronzetone 60 is actually a commercial color that they sell to manufacturers and is typically used to paint machinery. That might sound a bit strange; however, the color is FABULOUS!  It it super rich with a ton of depth.  We love the look of light walls with dark trim, and previously had this look out in our game room, which you can see below.

 

 

 

The walls in the game room were Ralph Lauren Suede Silver City and the trim was Ralph Lauren Turret Stair.  Although I love this look (and we are using the same color combo in the new game room), I thought it was a bit too dark and too tan for downstairs (I feel like we will be locked into a distinctly tan color pallet if we go this dark).  Instead, I wanted a lighter feel for the downstairs and more flexible pallet. The back room in the picture below is a good example of the look I am going for:

 



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 And here is a good example of how the dining room will look with the dark wainscoting and light walls.



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I think that house is so dreamy and am praying to the paint gods that our house will look as good when we are finished! Like the picture above, we will are using a light cream for the wainscoting on the stairwell.  Although all the other trim downstairs will be dark, I decided not to carry the dark trim up the stairwell. This is because we are painting the walls upstairs in the study and the hallway a greige color (so that it will blend with the Plaza Blanca) and painting the trim a bright crisp white, and I thought that dark wainscoting on the stairwell would be too much contrast with the white wainscoting and woodwork in the upstairs study and hallway, which you can see in the picture below.

 

 

The far left color board is Sherwin Williams Fleur De Sel and is the color that we chose for the walls in the upstairs hallway and the study. I wanted upstairs to be a grey and white pallet, but needed to choose a grey that would blend well with the Plaza Blanca since you will see the stairwell walls and the hallway/study walls when you are upstairs. This turned out to be a far more difficult task than I originally anticipated because the Plaza Blanca is a warm color and most greys out there are cool.  So in order for the two not to clash, I had to find a grey with some tan undertones. After trying about 15 different greys (greys are so freak'n difficult), I lucked upon Fleur De Sel. It is a pretty light grey with a hint of beige undertones and blends great with the Plaza Blanca. SCORE!!! For the trim and wainscoting, we are using Benjamin Moore's Chantilly Lace, which is the middle white on the trim sample board.  This is a super bright white and pops like crazy against the Fleur De Sel. I love it because it will make the upstairs hallway bright and airy (and this is super important to me since there are no windows in the hallway and the space could easily turn into a cave if the paint is too dark).  The color on the far right of trim sample board is Sherwin Williams Snowbound and is what we have picked for the ceiling color.  We chose this color because we needed something that will blend with both the Plaza Blanca and the Fleur De Sel...and Snowbound is a rock star chameleon that looks great with both colors.  And finally, the color block on the far right is Benjamin Moors Pure White.  We are using this color on the walls in the upstairs guest bathroom and the Laundry Room.  Although it is called Pure White, it is a lovely cool grey and works really well with the Carrara Marble counter tops that we have in the laundry room and guest bathroom. For the trim in those rooms, we are going with Chantilly Lace again to Keep Pop'n you proud Popper!  I am counting down the days till the paint is up so I can see how it all comes together!  I hope that you have enjoyed seeing some of our paint choices!!!  I'll keep you posted as the progress continues.  Have a wonderful week everyone, and if we don't talk before, have a very HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!  Thanks for stopping by!

Shopping for Granite and Carrara Marble

This weekend Matt and I did some of shopping and selected our granite and carrara marble slabs for the Guest Bath, the Master Bath, the Game Room Bar and the Living Room Built-In next to the fire place.  All of the cabinets for these rooms are stained a dark java color.  Here are a few of the cabinets for our Master Bathroom vanity post-delivery but pre-installation. 

 

All of the cabinets in our house are from Starmark Cabinetry that we ordered from a store called Factory Builders Store in Houston.  This is the same brand of cabinets that we used in our kitchen and absolutely adore the quality, finish, and detail that these cabinets provide.  (Oh and P.S., I have not been paid by either of these stores, but if anyone that works there is interested, please don't hesitate to contact me :-) ).  In the Master Bath, Living Room, and Game Room, we are going for more of a rustic look, so we chose the Rustic Cherry wood for the cabinets.  Rustic Cherry wood is different than plain Cherry wood because it shows natural holes and wear in the wood. 

 





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This is the same finish that we used for our kitchen cabinets.  However, we chose the Java stain for the Master Bath, Game Room and Living Room built-in, which is a bit darker than the sample cabinet above.  Java is effectively a super dark brown stain that looks nearly black, but still gives you the richness and warmth of a deep brown cabinet.  Also, it allows you to see the wood grain, which we would loose if we painted the cabinets black.

 







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Here is a closer look at our Master Bath vanity cabinets.

Since we are going for more of "elegant-rustic" look in the Master Bathroom, Living Room and Game Room, we were hunting for a creamy piece of granite with some dark accents throughout.  We found first found this piece of Delicatus Granite that we feel in love with.

The two pieces of tile in front are samples of the travertine tile and accent tile that we are using in the Master Bathroom.  The colors don't match that well in this picture, but in person they are spot on.  Unfortunately, however, this slab is only big enough for our Master Bath Vanity (it's 10 foot long).  They had another piece, but we didn't like it as much.  Although that was a bit frustrating at first, we quickly realized that we were excited about the idea of having different styles of granite throughout the house.  So we decided to keep hunting to see if we could find something similar but different.  After a bit of searching, we found this slab of Genesis Granite, which has the creams and brown tones that we need to match the built-in cabinets in the Living Room and Game Room, but is distinctly different than Master Bathroom slab. 

 



However, what makes this slab extra perfect is that it has some tiny specs of Maroon throughout...and for my die-hard Aggie husband, that was all he needed to be sold on the piece.  Next on our list was the Carrara Marble for the Guest Bathroom. We are going for an classic late 1900's early 20th century look for this room.  Here is my inspiration board that I showed y'all when I first revealed the Guest Bathroom plans.

 

As you can see, this bathroom is all about Carrara Marble.  We are going to use it on top of the cabinets and on the floor tile.  After wander through the warehouse, I quickly realized that all Carrara Marble is not created equal and the texture and color of the gray veining throughout the slabs can vary greatly.  It took some searching, however, we were eventually able to find a piece that matched our Bianco Carrara Marble floor tiles perfectly.

 

The slab was absolutely HUMONGOUS though!  As such, we only need about half of the slab for the guest bathroom vanity.  Since the granite store makes you buy the whole slab, however, we decided that we would use the remaining portion of the slab in the Laundry Room.  As I mentioned last week, I know its kinda crazy to use Carrara Marble in the laundry room...but since we would otherwise loose the remainder of this beautiful slab, we decided to throw caution to the wind and put it in the laundry room.  We are going to try and be careful with it, but I am just going to embrace the scratches or dings that will inevitably show up over time.  But hey, it will mean that it has been well loved and used. Well, that is all for our granite and carrara marble shopping trip.  I hope that you enjoyed it!  Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you have a great Monday!

 

 

 

Laundry Room Love Affair

 

Happy Friday everyone! Are you ready for the weekend? I sure am! Matt managed to score tickets to the Rockets game tonight, so look for us on TV (we'll be the ones in red and cheering for the Rockets...so super easy to spot right?).  Today I am here to tell you about an exciting new romance in my life...and no, it's not another man, but a room full wonder, excitement, and mystique that I have fallen head-over-heals, blow-me-away, going absolute gaga, in love with...our new laundry room!  I pretty much turn into Tom every time I walk by the little beauty. 

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To help you understand why I am so excited about my loverly laundry room, I have to take you back and show you what our old garage "laundry room" looked like before the renovation started.  Here she is...try not to be too jealous:

 

 

Yeap...it was effectively a washer and dryer in the garage (oh, and the cute little shelf that Matt DIY'ed so that we would have a space to put the detergent and hangers).  So in other words, we had no laundry room. At first I didn't think that it would bother me too much since the garage is attached to the house and it wouldn't be difficult to get to (Matt, on the other hand, would tell you that is because I don't do laundry...but I do, just not as often as I should...and maybe I have been known to go to to the store to buy new socks and skivvies instead of taking the time to wash clothes...but hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, and isn't shopping so much more entertaining than laundry?).



  

However, after just one load of laundry where everything could not go in the dryer and had to be air dried, I realized we were in trouble because every possible hanging location in the house was covered with drying laundry and this is what the inside of our house effectively turned into on laundry day:

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...which, on certain days, felt like you had just stepped behind-the-scene onto a Victoria Secrets photo shoot...quite the conversation starter when company unexpected turned up.  Good times!  So, long story longer, we quickly realized that we were in desperate need of an actual laundry room inside our house.  A few months ago I explained how we were able to create space for the laundry room, but just to remind you, the laundry room will live on the second floor between the landing and the game room.  You can see it highlighted in yellow on the floor plan below.
 

It is a pretty big room and we decided that it would function best to have the washer and dryer and a floor to ceiling cabinet on one wall. I also wanted space to dry clothes above the washer and dryer..so came up with this layout:

On the other wall, I wanted to have lower cabinets with a sink, upper cabinets and open shelves. Here is a mock-up of my design for this wall...just imagine that there a is a sink in the middle base cabinet:

We decided to install shelves between the two upper cabinets instead of an actual cabinet to allow for more room to hand wash big ticket items in the sink like duvet covers. Also, although I played around with the idea of lantern tiles and some fun floral tile, I have ultimately decided to go with classic beveled subway tiles.  I love the clean look they give...and since this room has no windows, I thought they would help keep the space bright and airy. Here is what the tiles will looked like when they are installed:

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 And here is the faucet that we have picked out for the space.

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I love the fact that the high goose neck will give me additional space when washing items in the sink. The spayer will also help wash away any soap on the garments.  We are also using carrara marble for the counter top, so we picked the polished chrome faucet like the picture (and I know most of you probably think that I am nuts for putting carrara marble in the laundry room, be we are using carrara marble in our guest bath and had a lot left over on the slab...so instead of letting it go to waste, we decided to use it in the laundry room...scratches be dammed!). And this is the sink that we chose. 


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It is a Blanco sink and is actually made of pulverized granite. This means that it will never scratch (like how cast iron sinks can get scratch up). It is also super deep...which, if you are seeing a pattern, will also help with hand washing garments.  We even have the cabinets installed now (happy dance)...here are the upper cabinets after they were delivered:

 

And here is the sink cabinet and the floor-to-ceiling cabinet that will go next to the washer and dryer:

 

And now for the big reveal. This is the sink-side of the laundry room....love!!!

 

 

 And this is washer and dryer side of the laundry room with the shelf in place that will sit above the washer and dryer.

 

 

 Oh I am so freak'n excited with how the room is turning out! And I ain't going to lie...I have spent way too much time doing the Carlton in this space:

 

 

So let's take one last look at the before and after of our laundry room before we go!

 

Next up, granite, tile and paint.  I can't wait to see how she turns out when we are complete!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!!!

 

 

I am sharing this post on Pinworth Projects, Design and Diapers and the Inspire Me Please Link Party

Houston We Have Drywall (& a LaCantina Door)!

Hello everyone!  I hope that you have all been fantastic over the past few weeks.  Sorry about being awol for so long, but Matt and I were in Florence for a week for his work's annual meeting and then I have been going 150% at my job since getting back with a big project that has a tight deadline.  However, I had to share with you the exciting progress happening at the house.  The two biggest things are that we now have drywall and exterior doors! Holla!!!!  So let's take a tour of the casa to see how she looks with walls and doors shall we?

 

First I have to show you the super cool La Cantina door that we added that I first talked about here.  This door separates the living room from the back of the house and looks like a wall of french doors.

 

 

 

However, with the flick of a few locks and tiny bit of pushing....the doors completely fold-up to bring the outside in. Can I getta "TAH-DAD"?!?!?!

I am here to tell you that these bad boys are AWESOME!!! I love them because they literally double the size of the our living room when they are open. We are going to have some serious entertaining happening with these guys during the 8 months out of the year that we have good weather in Houston.  Here is a video of them in action. My commentary does not do justice my super cool happy dance that was happening behind the camera.

 

So now that you have seen the doors in action, I want to take you on a tour of the house with drywall.  Here is the floor plan of the downstairs, so that you can see the placement of the rooms.

 

 



Here is the view into the living room from the back patio.  The wine room is on the right under the stairs, the dining room is on the left of the door, and the entrance to the kitchen is in the left corner of the picture.

This is a view standing with my back to the wine room and looking towards the backyard.  Please excuse the disastrous landscaping (or complete lack there of) because all that will be addressed once we get finished with the remodel.

 

This picture is taken from the middle of the living room so that you can see the dining room.  It is crazy how much bigger everything looks in person once dry wall is up!  I guess it is difficult to judge the size of a room when you only have the studs.  You can also see our front door.  It is all wrapped up for safe keeping...but when the plastic is gone, it is beautiful.  As you can see, it is a similar style to a lot of the door I liked here. I love all the natural light that the windows and sidelights bring into the house.  And it will be even brighter once the protective film is removed from the windows.  Oh I can't wait!!!

 

This next picture shows our master bedroom.  It was a little difficult to photograph with my Canon Elf, but at least you can get a general idea of the room's shape.

 

 

Now onto the master bathroom (A.K.A. Jenn's happy place).  This is a view into the master bath from the master bedroom.  Here you can see the closet is in the back and the walk-in shower on the right. The tub will live to the right of the shower and our vanities will live on the left wall opposite of the shower.

 

This is a picture of the inside of the master closet.  You can't tell much from the photo, but it is 13' long by 10' wide.  I will show you my master plan for the master closet in a later post.

Here is another view of the back wall of the master bathroom. As you can see, the shower will be on the left side of the wall and the claw foot tub will be on the right under the window. We have his and her shower heads and body sprays, along with a rain shower overhead.  Matt gave me so much flack about having a "his-and-her" shower...but I think he will love it once it is all said and done.

Here is a close-up of the shower layout.  Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!!  This makes me giddy like a school girl!

This is a close-up of the wine room under the stairs.  We are going to have wine shelves in the recessed space on the right and on the back wall. I will show all the details in a later post.

Now we are going to head upstairs.  Here is the floor plan for the second floor so that you can get your bearings.

 



The first thing you see when you head up the stairs is the study.  We will have built-in cabinets and a desk along the back wall.

Next we head into the revised game room.  It's amazing how far it has come since we blew out the front wall.  This is a view from the back corner of the room looking towards the study, which you can see through the door.

Here is another view of the game room from the front side of the house.  We are going to add a built-in bar in the nook on the left.  And through the door, you can see the entrance to the laundry room.  I showed you some of my ideas for the laundry room here.

This is a view of the hallway leading to the back of the house.  To my left is the study and to my right are the stairs, game room and laundry room.  As you walk down the hall, the first door on the left is the entrance to the guest bathroom, the first door on the right is my wrapping room (which is not labeled in this picture), the second door on the right is Bedroom 3 (A.K.A. the "Blue Room"), and the final door in the middle is the entrance to the new bedroom above our master (Bedroom 4).

Here is a picture of Bedroom 4. It is directly above our master bedroom, so is basically identical.

 

 

When you turn around and leave Bedroom 4, you are back in the hall heading towards the study and Bedroom 2 (A.K.A. the "Teepee Room"). As you head down the hall, the first door to my left is the entrance to the Blue Room (which you can't see in this photo) and the second door to the left is my wrapping closet.  I talked about my initial plans for the layout of the wrapping closet here and here.  The first door on the right is the guest bathroom, followed by the study and the Teepee Room.

 

 

Here is a pitiful little picture of part of the guest bathroom. We will have two vanities on either side of the window and to the right are the shower and toilette. I need to invest in a super wide lens so that I can get better pictures for everyone!

 

 

After you exit the guest bathroom and enter the study facing the Teepee Room, this is the view you will see.  To my left are the stairs and to my right is the study.  Directly in front of me is the entrance to the Teepee Room.  Two closets flank the entry into the Teepee Room.

Here is what the Teepee Room loooks like on the inside.  It is a long (23') and narrow (11') room with an arched roof.  This will likely become our kiddo's game room with all sorts of fun murals.  It just feels like a place you want to play when you go in.  I also added built-in storage into the eaves...cause hey, if there is a possible open space, I will use it!  Our builder makes so much fun of me for that - but trust me, we will love all the additional storage at some point down the road, I just know it!  We will have doors on the front of the opening that will look like wainscoting so they won't be so obtrusive. 

  

So that finishes up the tour of the casa with dry wall.  Also, thank you so much for stopping by, I hope that you liked seeing the progress!  Have a wonderful day!!!