My Grandmother's Kitchen

and my #StoneMountain Kitchen are one in the same. SURPRISE! 

As many of you know, my Grandmother and PapaJack have played an integral part in my life, especially since moving to Atlanta in 2008. Their home has been like my home and I was excited for the opportunity to help them with their kitchen remodel. We talked and dreamed and schemed and planned for this kitchen for a long time. Finally, last fall we decided the time had come to pull the trigger and make this new kitchen a reality.

Their house was built in 1967 by Guy F. Griffith Builders Inc. My Grandmother found the house, fell in love and bought it while my PapaJack was out of town on business. They moved into their home in August of 1967. The house has great bones and the kitchen served my Grandmother well for many years. However, over the past few years certain items stored in certain cabinets became harder and harder for her to get to. My Grandmother enjoys cooking and cooks a lot (she's really, really good at it too!) She is definitely one of those people who really uses their kitchen and up until this year she has been using the same one for 46 years! I didn't want to see her stop cooking on my watch so I knew I needed to design a kitchen that exploded with functionality so everything was accessible and user friendly.

Back in January I posted before pictures of this space, but here are a few reminders of what the "before" looked like.

                  

A few days after these photos were taken demolition began and from there things chugged along at a fast pace.

Demo phase - all cabinetry, flooring, appliances and wallpaper were removed.  

Sheetrock repair and painting came next. We opted to keep the existing paneling and paint it. As you can see from the before pictures, all trim throughout the kitchen was a dark brown stain. There are three sets of French doors in this room as well as a door to the deck. All doors, trim and paneling were painted the same color - Sherwin William's Anew Gray, SW7030 (the new cabinets were painted this color as well). The walls were painted Aesthetic White, SW7035 by Sherwin Williams. Even at the early stages you can see how fresh everything looks painted, the room became so much brighter!

With every layer completed we got more excited. The next step was the installation of the hardwood flooring. This phase of the remodel really took the project to a new level, it went from feeling like a work zone to feeling more and more like a kitchen.

Isn't it beautiful? My Grandparents had always had laminate flooring. The installation of the hardwood really warmed the space up and it contrasts so nicely with the paint colors.

Bright and early on a Monday morning Bell Cabinetry, pulled up and started unloading the new cabinetry! It was a big day.  A day that again took this space to the next level!



 As you can see by the end of the day my Grandmother was one happy camper!

PHEW - I'm exhausted. Because I don't want this post to become a novel I'm going to break this reveal up into two parts. Next, I will unveil the final product and share all kinds of fun details pertaining to this breathtaking remodel. But until then......

I will leave you with this final photo.

 (!!!!!)

 To Be Continued.......................................

 All photos are my own.

30 Under 30

Breaking News...Big News...Huge News.

Last month I was notified that I had been selected by the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) as one of the Top 30 Under 30 in the NATION!! AHH!! I was so shocked. So happy. So honored!

My good friend and co-worker Holly Floyd nominated me earlier this year and I was SO excited flabbergasted to get the call that I had been selected. In April I will be flown out to New Orleans to attend  the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) where I will be participating in multiple events focused on the 30 Under 30 program and KBIS 2013. We will be live blogging, surveying, trend spotting, and might even do some live videos. I'm so excited and honored to have this opportunity and can't wait to meet the other 29 honorees!

KBIS is April 19th - 21st,  yeah, two weeks before my wedding (I'm crazy, I know). So stay tuned - I will be coming at ya from New Orleans with all kinds of design trends, new products and other fun industry happenings. I can't wait!

So......as happy as you might be for me, I can sense you glaring. I know I left ya hanging last week, promising a post showcasing a certain completed #StoneMountain Kitchen, BUT I'm asking for a reprieve. I know what you're thinking, but this is not a stall per say....the truth is we are still putting the finishing touches on the kitchen - hanging pictures, etc... and I wanted to share my big news with you while it was still fresh. So, here comes the dangling carrot again....

STAY TUNED #STONEMOUNTAIN KITCHEN REVEAL IS UP NEXT! Promise.

All photos are from google search.

Everybody's Workin' For The Weekday

I swear this will be my last "my house" post for a few weeks. As many of you know, in addition to remodeling our first house, Brent and I are getting married in May. This weekend was our last full weekend without any parties, showers, trips or other wedding related activities so we were determined to take advantage of it.

We wanted to chip away at several big items on our "to do list", which happened to be DIY (Do It Yourself) face-lift-esque type projects.

The first item on the list was adding a little umph to the dining room. Below is a shot of one of the the dining room walls as it was Saturday morning. We liked the original chair-rail but wanted to jazz it up a bit.

          

After tossing a few ideas around we decided we wanted to add moulding under the chair-rail to create picture frames.  

We measured the walls and decided we would add seven picture frames around the room. So, we got out the tape measure and made marks where each of the frames would start and stop. 

Next, we headed to Home Depot to pick up our moulding. 

And.....TA - DA!!

How spiffy does this space look now? With a little paint and a few more finishing touches this room will be move-in ready! 

With a big check-mark on the dining room (for now) we headed back into the living room to focus on the fireplace and it's stone surround. Below is a "before" picture of the fireplace. It's kind of hard to see from this shot but the tile surround was a shade of peach. Ugh - it had to go. 

I like peach in clothing, in shoes and even in some textiles, but in tile... no, not for me. 

Like every decision, we tossed around several options, but we kept coming back to the fact that the tile met up with the hardwood flooring. Thus, options involving covering the tile with another surface, wouldn't work because it would create an uneven transition, and we didn't want to go through the process of busting up the tile. So we decided to paint the tile White, White Dove (OC-17) that is to match the fireplace and the trim in the room. 

While I'm typically not patient enough for primer, we decided it would be a good idea in this particular painting escapade because it will block stains and odors that may come from using the gas fireplace.

One coat of primer, one coat of White Dove and WHAM! BAM Thank you Brent....

OK, I'm exhausted. In the words of my Dad, I've got to get back to work so I can get some rest! Up next, the #StoneMountain Kitchen reveal, stay tuned you guys are going to flip. 

All photos are my own.