Wonderful Wainscoting

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope that you are all having a great week so far.  I can't believe that June is almost over and we are going to celebrate the fourth of July next week! Between being slammed at work and trying to get the house finished, this summer has absolutely flown by.  We are continuing to make progress at the house, and are still aiming for an end-of-July move-in. Woohoo!  But enough about move-in dates...let's dish about my latest crush at the house....our delish wainscoting!  Ever since we bought the house and I started dreaming of renovation ideas, I knew that wainscoting would be incorporated into the mix.  I absolutely LOVE the look of traditional wainscoting and how it can add some glam and class to an otherwise ho-hum room.  Like this beauty...can I say "Hello LOVER!!!!"

Here

I also love how amazing full-wall wainscoting looks when paired with retro dental molding...100% drool-worthy in my book:

Although we did inherit wainscoting when we purchased the house...it wasn't exactly what I had envisioned.  Here is our living room/dining room/entryway in all of its retro 1960's paneling and wallpaper glory:

And here she was after a couple of coats of neutral paint: 

Although she was brought a bit closer to the twenty-first century with some neutral paint...the look still wasn't living up to the wainscoting visions dancing in my head.  But hey, that is what this reno is all about...taking a house whose footprint we loved and making it our own! So without further ado, let's check-out the progress that we have made on my wainscoting dreams.  Here is the dining room after it was extended five feet and the walls were taped and floated:

And here is another view of the dining room after walls were fully primed:

 

Although I think the room looks much better than it did before, it still didn't have a wow factor.  So here is the dining room today with the wainscoting and trim installed:

And here is another view looking towards the front windows:

We continued the wainscoting up the stairs...which I talked about here and here with the staircase reveal.

 

 

 

 

But we didn't stop there.  Remember the long upstairs hallway that connects the stair landing with the bedrooms and guest bath:

Well, not to be left out, she also got a fashionable upgrade with some lovely wainscoting too:

 

 

And last but not least, we updated the wainscoting in the room above the garage....but that wainscoting has a special surprise, so I will show it to you in a second post this week! Seeing all the wainscoting makes me giddy like a school girl!  I can't wait to see what it looks like once it is painted and the walls have some color. What about you guys, does anyone else love them some wainscoting? Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!!!

I am sharing this post on Blackberry Vine, Crafty Confessions, Home Stories A to Z, Today's Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, Elizabeth & Co.

{Trip Report} Ireland & Scotland 2013

Hello everyone and happy Thursday!  Sorry that I have been AWOL for the past two weeks, but we were on vacation ringing in Mattey's BIG 4-0!  We ventured across the pond to Ireland and Scotland, where we drank our weight in Guinness and ate our weight in haggis.....mmmmmmmm, haggis.  We also visited some amazing castles and gardens:

 

Powerscourt Gardens, Ireland

Played some amazing golf Played golf at some amazing courses, including The Old Course at St. Andrews (SCORE!!!!):

 

The Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland

But hands down the best part of the trip - making amazing memories with some of our dearest friends!

St. Andrews, Scotland

Oh, and believe it or not, it only rained for a grand total of 45 minutes the entire 12 days that we were in Ireland and Scotland!!!  How fantastic is that?!?!  It made me jump for joy several times throughout the trip (eeehhhheeemmm....cue obligatory vacation-jumping-photo)

Dunnoottar Castle, Stonehaven, Scotland

I am putting together a full trip report for each of the cities that we visited (Dublin, Aberdeen, St. Andrews and Edinburgh) along with some hotel, restaurant, site-seeing, and insider tips...but wanted to drop in an say hello in the mean time!  Oh, I will also give you some updates on the casa too...but long story short, it still isn't finished and we still are looking at the end of July for our target move-in date.  Fingers crossed! I hope that you have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

Replacing the Staircase from "H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks" with a Heavenly Staircase (Part 2)

Happy Friday world! Another week has flown by; are you guys ready for the weekend?  I sure am!  My weekend is going to be super busy and filled with running all sorts of errands for the house.  I have to pick out door knobs, cabinet pulls, stone for the fire place and light fixtures...but that means I get to go shopping, so needless to say, I am thrilled! Woohoo! Yesterday I brought you up to speed on the staircase remodel.  As I mentioned, here is what the death-trap, break-your-neck-and-your-shoes staircase looked like before the remodel began.

And here is what the new staircase looked like once it was relocated and elongated.

As I mentioned yesterday, after wading through all the options (glass, metal, wood, wire, none), I decided to use metal balusters with wooden newel posts.  I chose the metal balusters because I like the fact that they bring a bit of a rustic feel to our otherwise traditional living room (we have wainscoting all over the place, including the stairwell) and are somewhat masculine for my husband.  However, just because the stairs would be a bit rustic and masculine, I still wanted to infuse some glam and pretty for me.  So chose I chose a mixture of the large double-S balusters, double twist balusters and single twist balusters, and came up with this design:

Soooooo, after the wainscoting was complete and the balusters and newel posts were installed, we ended up with this as our finished product:

AND I L-O-V-E IT!!!! I am so excited with how our new staircase turned out! The wainscoting and large wooden newel posts satisfy my traditional side, while the metal balusters make the rustic-glam loving gal in me giddy like a school girl. I was busting out some hardcore Carlton, Roger Rabbit, Running Man and every other happy dance you can possibly imagine when I finally saw the finished product!  Progress and pretty...happy days oh happy days! Here is the view looking up the staircase towards the second story landing.

And here is what the staircase and banister look like from the second story. 

 

I love the fact that the double-S balusters are feminine and sexy.  I can't wait to see what everything looks like once it is painted...although we still have to figure out what colors everything will be.

 

So the progress keeps coming slowly, slowy, slowy.  Now onto the next projects, which are granite and tile installation. I will update you on that fun stuff next week! Wish me luck with my shopping extravaganza this weekend. And I hope that you have a wonderful weekend too!  Thanks for stopping by!!!

 

 

Replacing the Staircase from "H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks" with a Heavenly Staircase

Happy Wednesday everyone! We are half-way through the week and I hope that it has been a great one for you so far! Today we are going to check out the progress on the stair case.  Back in December, I told you that one of the big motivating factors for the remodel was to fix the killer staircase that lived in our house. Basically, the staircase was super steep because the stairs were extremely narrow (each step was only about 7 inches long) and extremely steep (each step was a different height). And, unfortunately, when you combined the fact that my closet was upstairs with my weakness for 5 inch heels and my propensity for being late...you ended up with this scene playing out in our house on a weekly basis:

 

And on a complete side note, although I am 5' 9.5" (can't forget that 1/2 inch), I belong to the school of thought that heels make your legs look pretty. To me, the taller the heel the better! This is a view of the death-trap stairs from our dining room before we started the remodel.

 

And here is a close-up of the steep little buggers pre-renovation. Not good I tell ya, not good at all!

 

 

To resolve the steepness factor, we moved the staircase against the front wall of the house, which allowed us to make the staircase much longer and install regulation stairs.  Here is our original floor plan that shows the location of the stairs before the renovation started (they are highlighted in yellow). 

 

And this is our new floor plan that show where the stairs have been relocated.

 



 

An added bonus of moving the stairs was that it completely opened the space between the entryway and the living room so that the living room became one large space instead of a decent sized living room and an awkward "foyer".  You can see really see the difference in the space in this picture of the new staircase that was taken from the dining room once the drywall was in.

 

Here is another view of the new staircase after the wood floors were installed.

A couple weeks ago the trim carpenters came out and installed the wooden treads and started on the wainscoting.

This is what the stairs looked like after the treads were installed. So pretty!

 

After the treads were installed, I got to pick out the balusters and newel posts.  This seems like a simple task, but there as so many different options to choose from, it can be a bit overwhelming.  First, you can have metal railings with glass walls like the staircase in Apple's Paris store:





Although I think this is super cool...this look is too modern for our house.  A second option is metal poles and wires. 

Here

Again, a bit too modern for the look that we are going for. Also, since we are planing on adding kiddos to the mix at some point, I am afraid that the wires would scare the living daylights out of me once the little ones became mobile.  A third option are wooden balusters and newel posts, like this beauty:

 



Here



I love everything about this picture.  The dark floors, the dark treads on the stairs, the wainscoting and the large craftsman newel post.  In my book, this is a stunning example of traditional architecture and design.  Although I love this look, another option is metal balusters, like this: 

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Again...this baby is 100% drool-worthy to me! What I really love about this look is that it combines traditional furniture, wainscoting and columns with a rustic (yet super glamorous) metal banister.  The only problem here is the price tag that this bad boy comes with.  I don't know for sure how much the banister costs, but I can pretty much assure you just by looking at it that it is well beyond our budget.  So that leaves us with the least expensive option around...











Here

Just saying "for-get-about-it!" to the newel post and balusters all together and opting for a floating staircase! How amazingly cool is that?!?!  But, going back to the child fear factor issue (and my own safety considering I have issues walking down stairs in 5" heels), these guys aren't going to cut it either.  So, Matt and I ultimately decided that we loved the mixture of traditional wainscoting with rustic metal balusters.  However, in order to keep the pretty factor that metal banister above has, I decided to start with this swirly beauty as my base:   





I then went online and found a website with a "design-your-own-staircase" application and created this layout for our staircase...which is a mixture of the double "S" balusters, single twist balusters and double twist balusters (because I thought that all "S" balusters would be too much and by spreading them apart, it makes the "S's" really pop).

I will report back tomorrow with the finished product! What about you guys, what type of staircase would you like in your home?  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fantastic Thursday!
 

 

I am sharing this post on Pinworthy Project, The Blackberry Vine, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Crafty Confessions, Home Stories A to Z, Today's Creative Blog, Elizabeth and Co., Coastal Charm, Hope Studios and Inspire Me Please Projects



Vintage Bathroom Remodel - Part Two

 

Happy Monday everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend and were able to enjoy a lot of QT with your mama's and babies!  Matt and had a great weekend and had fun on our "Tour O Mom's" yesterday.  It was wonderful to spend time with everyone...and in honor of Mother's Day, here is one of my all time favorite pictures of my Mama and me from our last pilgrimage to the mother land - AKA Disney World - enjoying hot cocoa and cookies at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

 

 

We are both HUGE Disney nuts and this picture pretty much sums us up perfectly when we are there...100% kids 100% of the time.  I mean, what's better than sporting your ears, stepping back into childhood and leaving the real world behind at the Happiest Place On Earth?  Not too much in my book!

 

 

After looking at these pics, I am geared up for another trip to Disney World!  It doesn't take much I tell ya! So now, let's venture from the Happy Place on Earth, to "Jennifer's-Soon-To-Be-Happiest-Place-On-Earth-At-Some-Point-In-The-Near-Future-Please-Dear-Lord".  Today we are heading back upstairs to the Guest Bathroom.  So much progress has been happening over the past few weeks, it's amazing!  I get super giddy just thinking about it!  Last week I showed you where the Guest Bathroom started before the remodel kicked off and the beginning of demoing the old gal.  And here is what she looked liked once demo was complete, all the 1960's wall paper, tile and drywall was removed and she was down to her bare bones.   

 

 

Don't worry, she's not modest! Once we got her down to the studs, we repositioned a few walls to create the new and improved Guest Bathroom with a Shower Room and a Vanity/Storage Room, which you can see highlighted in yellow in the blueprint below.

 

 

Here is the Vanity/Storage Room after the plumbing was relocated, the new window installed, the dry wall was up and fully taped and floated.

 

In this room, we are going for a retro 1920's feel with white subway tiles, basket weave carrara marble floors, medicine cabinets, dark vanities and hotel style linens.  Here is my inspiration board for the room.

 

 

The first things that have arrived are the vanity and linen cabinets.  My plan was to install a double vanity against the outside wall under the window so that two people could get ready simultaneously and there would be plenty of natural light in the space.  However, my goal was to make it look like an old piece of furniture that had been converted into a vanity, like the Restoration Hardware vanity above on my inspiration board...however, without the Restoration Hardware price.  Here is the design drawing that I put together for the cabinet makers.

 

 

 

The vanity is two 36" sink bases connected with three 12" wide drawers in-between.  I chose this layout because I think it will provide lots of storage space under the sinks, along with drawers for items like tooth brushes, hair brush and hair dryers, etc.  And here is the vanity after it was installed (minus the feet and counter tops).

 

 

We picked dark java cabinets for the vanity...but unlike the Master Bathroom cabinets which are Rustic Cherry, these cabinets have a classic smooth finish.  We felt that this would help contribute to the retro feel that we are trying to create.  We also chose the java stain instead of black paint because we wanted to see the pretty grain in the wood.  Also, although the vanity will provide lots of storage, I wanted to add additional storage in the room for linens and other bathroom necessities (because one of my big goals with this remodel is to become organized, and for me to be organized, I need lots of storage so that there can be a place for everything and everything can be in it's place).  To create the additional storage, I decided to put two large floor to ceiling linen cabinets on the wall opposite of the vanity.  Here is my design for the vanity cabinets:

 



Because the bathroom is somewhat narrow (it's 8 feet deep), I needed to conserve space with the linen cabinets so that the room didn't feel cramped once they were installed (especially since the linen cabinets are also stained java).  To make this happen, the linen cabinets are only 12" deep.  However, as you can see in the picture below, 12" is plenty of space and will provide lots of storage - WOOHOO!

 

 And here is her twin on the opposite side of the door.  They still need their doors and crown molding, but this at least this lets you see how the cabinets will fit in the space.

 

 

I am telling you, these bad boys are going to send me to storage heaven! I absolutely cannot wait until I get to start filling them up the linens for the upstairs bedrooms and all sorts of fun bathroom goodies for our guests.  One things for sure, I will be spending lots of time over at I Heart Organizing to get plenty of ideas and inspiration on how I can organize this space and make it pretty! So here's to visions of loverly baskets and Martha Stewart Labels dancing in my head!!!  So how about y'all...do you have any good bathroom organization ideas or tips that you can share with me, because I need all the help I can get and would love to hear them!  Thanks you so much for stopping by and I hope that you have a wonderful week!!!



 

I am linking this project to The Blackberry Vine, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Crafty Confessions, Home Stories A to Z, Today's Creative Blog, Elizabeth and Co., Coastal Charm, Hope Studios