My Kitchen | Beneath My Heart

Summer Open Shelves in my Kitchen

June 18, 2012 AT 7:00 am 25 Comments

June 18, 2012 By traci 25 Comments

Layla is having a Summer Mantel Party over at her blog, The Lettered Cottage today!

She asked me if I could like up my summer mantel to her party. Problem is, I don’t have a mantel to decorate. I have a fireplace, but no mantel. It DID have a mantel, but it was barely hanging on. Adam pulled on it one day and the whole thing came down! Since I want to paint the fireplace sometime, I haven’t done anything with it yet.

Soooo, I told Layla that I couldn’t participate in her party. And then she said, “Could you decorate your open kitchen shelves?”

Well, yeah, I guess I could! Layla said her party is for any shelf, ledge, mantel, etc!

So I got together some things around my house and decorated some of my shelves!

When I think of summertime, I think of LEMONADE! So I decided to create a lemonade station in the kitchen where the boys can fix themselves a refreshing cup of lemonade at anytime.

I am absolutely in love with these daisy cut mason jar lids! I wanted to find some fancy striped straws for my pictures, but couldn’t find them in time.

For the shelves, I placed a brown basket that holds cloth napkins on top, a green pitcher I got from Marshall’s a few years ago, pewter salt and pepper shakers, and a large white serving tray that was my mom’s in the background.

The green goblets are the ones I got from my Pier One project. For a touch of yellow, I put some real lemons in a glass hurricane. It’s hard to see, but I have some dainty fruit cups that were my mom’s stacked on each side of the hurricane.

For the “FREE Lemonade” sign, I used a piece of our wood flooring left over from our addition and wrote on it with my Chalk Ink pen. I also cut out a chalkboard label on my Silhouette machine and wrote “lemonade mix” on it for my glass jar.

I bought some white daisy flowers from Kroger’s for $3.99 and put them in a tin bucket. They make this space looks so fresh and summery! Why don’t I buy flowers more often?

I’m very pleased with how it turned out, and it definitely brightened up this side of my kitchen!

Now hop on over to Layla’s for more summertime inspiration! I cannot wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Also, the winner of the $50 Home Depot Gift Card giveaway is…

Debra Cheuvront!

Congratulations!

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Filed Under kitchen inspiration, My Kitchen, New Home, open shelves 25 Comments

Our DIY Under the Cabinet Cook Book Holder

April 30, 2012 AT 10:10 am 24 Comments

April 30, 2012 By traci 24 Comments

Last week, I wrote a post called Simple Ways to Store Your Cookbooks.

I shared that post because I knew I would be showing you how we created a DIY Cook Book Holder for our kitchen.

Before I show you my new Cook Book Holder, let’s take a quick look back at what this part of my kitchen looked like about 5 short months ago.

WOW! We’ve come a long way baby! Smile

Notice the soffit above our cabinets. We tore out the soffit and moved our cabinet boxes up to the ceiling.

We also tore out our old pantry to the left of our oven, and created new cabinet space and a new, bigger pantry.

This is what our finished kitchen looked like the day before Christmas…

Much better!

Since we moved our cabinets up to the ceiling, we created some space under our cabinets for additional storage.

I thought this would be a great place to store my cook books and spices.

So I told Cy what I was kind of thinking about doing, and while I was in Utah at the SNAP! Conference, he made me a new shelf for my cook books.

Here is a video he shot of the process while I was gone…

I love this new storage space!

And I cannot wait to make another one like it on the other side of the microwave for my spices!

So if you are thinking about remodeling your kitchen, maybe you could move your existing cabinets up higher to create some under cabinet shelving as well.

If you would like to view the before and after pictures of our kitchen makeover again, just click on the picture below.

Do you have under cabinet shelving in your kitchen?

Do you have a space you would like to add some under cabinet shelving?

See you tonight for my “Best DIY Projects of April” linky Party!

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Filed Under kitchen inspiration, kitchen makeover, My Kitchen, New Home, New Kitchen Makover 24 Comments

Unfinished Project in the Kitchen is Now Complete!

April 16, 2012 AT 10:40 pm 10 Comments

April 16, 2012 By traci 10 Comments

Today’s RED LETTER WORDS feature of the day is the

Hymn and Folk Songs Collection!

All this month, the Hymn and Folk Songs collection is 20% off!!! I love every single one of the prints in this collection. Each one of them makes my heart smile.

But my very favorite print is the How Great Thou Art print because that is one of my very favorite hymns.

You can visit Red Letter Words by clicking on the button below.

Remember, the Hymn and Folk Songs collection is 20% off all month.

If you see something else at Red Letter Words that you would like to purchase,

just enter the code myheart15 to receive a 15% discount (excluding custom prints).

Dee has graciously agreed to give 50% of the profits of all purchases by my readers to help sponsor my trip to SNAP! Read more about it here.

Now to my post!

If you were following my blog before Christmas, you probably got to the see the madness of our unplanned Kitchen Makeover!

Though I didn’t think we were going to make it through that renovation at times, we finally made it! Literally just a few days before Christmas.

If you want to see the before and after pictures of our kitchen renovation click HERE and HERE, or click on the picture.

When we got finished right before Christmas, we didn’t have any energy left to do anything else! We were wiped out!

One of the little things we left undone was putting the shelves back in the cabinets by our microwave.

I just put a few things in each cabinet and called it a day. As you can see, I have never really decorated the space above the microwave since Christmas either.

Part of the reason I didn’t fool with putting the shelves back in is because I couldn’t find them! I thought maybe Cy thought they were scrap wood and threw them away in all the chaos of our renovation.

I went to Lowe’s and bought some wood to make new shelves for the cabinets. Then I thought I would check in the “basement” of our guest house (where we were storing the other cabinets that we took down in our kitchen) and see if there were some shelves I could borrow from them.

To my surprise, I found the four missing shelves for these two cabinets! We had never taken them down to our house in the first place!

All I had to do was prime the shelves with Kilz Spray Primer and then paint them with white spray paint!

It feels so good to get these shelves finally in place and to have some extra storage.

Why did it take me so long to get this done?

Do you have any “little” projects left undone in your home? What are they? What’s stopping you from doing them?

(besides time, money, energy) hee.hee. Smile

MY NEXT PROJECT: We still have to make little open shelves below these two cabinets to hold my cookbooks and spices. I am hoping to get that finished when I get back from SNAP!

I am also hoping to finish my sister’s laundry room. I’ve been waiting for her to buy some more paint, but she keeps forgetting or something! That stinker! Smile

Why don’t you go visit my sister’s blog and give her hard time. Tell her to get busy and go get me some paint!

Maybe I can have an update for ya next week?!

BTW, many of you have been asking me about Jonathan’s performance at the Ky Opry this past Saturday.

Well, he did a great job and is advancing to the semi-finals!!! I am hoping to share the video with you soon, but I am waiting for them to upload it to youtube.

It was a wonderful evening, and I took a bunch of pics to share with you. Smile

Have a blessed day!

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Filed Under My Kitchen, New Home, New Kitchen Makover 10 Comments

Fireclay Farmhouse Sinks {Durability and Quality}

January 19, 2012 AT 1:51 pm 23 Comments

January 19, 2012 By traci 23 Comments

Well, I said I wasn’t going to talk about my kitchen anymore.

Oops.

But I’m not really talking about my kitchen, just my kitchen sink!

I’ve had many of you ask about the durability and quality of my sink, so I thought I would share with you a few of the things that I found out. (After I made my purchase.) Smile

I will be honest that I often choose form over function.

Here are the two things I considered when looking for my sink online:

1. I wanted a pretty farmhouse sink.

2. I wanted an inexpensive, pretty farmhouse sink.

That’s it.

Here’s what I didn’t know before I started looking for a farmhouse sink:

Farmhouse sinks are NOT cheap!

Sheesh!

I about died when I started searching the web for a farmhouse sink! The prices are steep!

The best deal I found was the farmhouse sink from IKEA. It was only $313!

I bought it, brought it home, and it didn’t fit in our cabinets. By like half an inch! UGH!!

If our dishwasher wasn’t right beside our sink, Cy may have tried to rebuild some cabinets to make it fit. But he wasn’t able to do it with out some major changes to our lower cabinets, which would have ended up taking a lot of time and more money. Not good.

After looking online for hours, it seemed the cheapest farmhouse sinks were $600, and then they go WAY up from there.

I found my farmhouse sink at Signature Hardware. You can purchase items online or at their store. We needed our sink quickly, so I picked it up at the store since it was located in Northern Kentucky.

I LOVE my farmhouse sink! It is was the most expensive part of the budget for our kitchen makeover, but it was worth it.

Since buying our sink, I’ve done a little research online to find out more about fireclay sinks.

I wanted to share with you what I found out.

First of all, What is Fireclay?

Widely used in London, England, for their durability and style in the late 1800s, fireclay sinks finally have made a design comeback. Fireclay sinks are forged at extremely high temperatures, which cause the clay and glaze to unite. The result is a sink that is not only extremely durable, but also will look shiny and new for many years to come. (source)

source

How durable is fireclay?

The modern fireclay apron sinks are commonly covered with a thick layer or glaze which is irrefutably acid, alkali, chip, scratches and impact resistant. (source)

I love the look of fireclay farmhouse sinks because they are classic, elegant, and a great focal point for you kitchen.

Fireclay sinks do not rust, discolor, or fade. Yay!!

(source for the two pictures above)

How is Fireclay different from Cast Iron?

(cast iron sink – source)

A cast iron sink is beautiful as well, but here is the difference…

Cast iron is fired at a much less temperature than fireclay, and not as durable. The glaze is softer than the glaze on fireclay. Cast iron also chips easily, and when it does, rust appears under the glaze. Plus customers are specifically asked not to use abrasives or harsh cleaners. (source)

We had a cast iron sink in our last home, and I loved the look. But I accidentally chipped part of the white glaze off when a pot slip out of my hand. Sad smile

Cast iron sinks are usually more expensive than fireclay sinks, but some believe they are more durable. Here is a great link that discusses the pros and cons of fireclay vs. cast iron sinks: http://www.ehow.com/about_6672827_fireclay-vs_-cast-iron-sinks.html

As you can tell by what I found out about fireclay sinks, I am very happy with our purchase!

And after living with this sink for almost two months, I can honestly say that I am VERY pleased with our fireclay farmhouse sink.

It cleans up so easily and truly makes cleaning the kitchen more fun. I’m not kidding! Smile

So I hope that helps you out if you are looking to buy a farmhouse sink in the near future.

What is your favorite type of sink?

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Filed Under kitchen inspiration, kitchen makeover, My Kitchen, New Home, New Kitchen Makover 23 Comments

Budget Breakdown of the Kitchen Makeover

January 12, 2012 AT 11:59 pm 71 Comments

January 12, 2012 By traci 71 Comments

Happy Friday, friends!

I am still trying to answer the many questions about our kitchen makeover.

One of the main questions I keep getting asked is: “How much did this cost ya?”

Well, we paid approximately $3,300 for our floor to ceiling kitchen renovation.

That sounds like a lot of money!

But when you remember what it used to look like…

And compare it to what it looks like now…

I think it was DEFINITELY worth the money, don’t you?

Let’s be honest. If we had hired out all of this work, from floor to ceiling, it would have cost us about $11-12,000!

However, we did 100% of the labor ourselves, so this renovation was a third of what it would have cost us otherwise.

That’s pretty darn good.

So here is the (approximate) breakdown of what it cost:

(click on the pictures to see the post about each project)

375 square feet of Southern Yellow Pine (Lumber Liquidators)

(3/4 inch by 5 inch) – $1.25 sq foot = $465

Flooring supplies (oil-based stain, semi-gloss polyurethane,

wood conditioner, floor sander rental, sand paper) : $200

Baseboard and Crown Molding: $175

Paint for cabinets and walls: $120

Cabinet hardware (Lowe’s): $50

Wood plank ceiling (Lowe’s): $240

Pantry doors (Lowe’s): $300

Recessed lighting: $40

White Subway Tile (plus adhesive and un-sanded, pre-mixed grout) from Lowe’s: $175

Open Shelving (3/4 inch MDF cut at Lowe’s) and Corbels (Home Depot) and Trim: $240

IKEA butcher block countertops (stain and poly): $525

Farmhouse Sink (Signature Hardware) $600

Faucet (Home Depot): $100

Supplies for making extra lower cabinet: $40

And that’s it!

I’m sure there were a few more miscellaneous expenses that I forgot about.

Like maybe the 128 times we went out to eat because I had no kitchen in which to cook.

Or a table to eat on…

Oh, those were the good ole days!

But we made it through!

And I’m so glad we did!

(I promise this is my LAST kitchen renovation post for a while!)

Now it’s time to get (back) started on our addition!

So, do you think all of our hard work was worth the $8-9,000 savings?

Did you think our renovation would have cost more or less than what we spent?

(Please say more, please say more, please say more…)

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Filed Under husband's handiwork, kitchen makeover, makeover, makeovers, My Kitchen, New Home, New Kitchen Makover 71 Comments

A Light for my Kitchen Sink

January 5, 2012 AT 9:12 pm 57 Comments

January 5, 2012 By traci 57 Comments

I cannot write this post without first thanking you for the over 200 amazing comments on yesterday’s post.

I read every single one! I read them to my husband. I forwarded some to my sister. My dad and I were talking about them today. (He read every single one too.) Honestly, if you need encouragement, you may want to go read them too. They were amazing!

Your comments were heart-felt, loving, humbling, praise worthy, gracious, kind, heart-breaking, joyous, compassionate, empathetic, encouraging, and I could go on and on.

I cried as I read the comments too.

I wish I could write every single one of you back. I really, sincerely do. But I just don’t know if time will allow it. Please know that if I could, I would hug each of you. I would invite you to meet me at Panera, and we would talk for hours over soup and salad about life and blogs and everything in between! Wouldn’t that be the best thing ever?!

That post was hard for me to write. I cried as I wrote it. And it took me almost two hours to write.

But I am so glad I did.

God is using YOU and this blog to continue to grow beauty in my broken places.

I praise HIM!

Now let’s talk “kitchen”, want to? Smile

Many of you asked about the lighting in my kitchen.

Truth be told, there’s not much of it.

We have installed recess lighting above the shelves, but that is all the light we have in that room right now.

I do not want to hang lights in the middle of the room or above the table right now, because I am not sure how I want the room to look yet.

We may be creating a new space for the table, and I may or may not be putting an island in the center of the kitchen. Until I make those decisions, I do not want to install anymore lighting.

But I do want a light for above the kitchen sink. Doesn’t the window look bare without my Christmas wreath?

I took the wreath down to try and figure out what type of light I want to put there.

Of course, I could always put in a light above the sink like the one below. I call those “school house” lights, and they are very characteristic of older homes. (I like that island too, don’t you?)

source

Here are some more “school house” lights…

source

I also thought about putting a mini chandelier above the sink to give the kitchen a little “bling.” Isn’t this one gorgeous?…

Source

Here is the look of a lantern above the sink. I like it too!

source

These are probably my favorite. I would only want one over my sink, but oh my goodness! Aren’t they gorgeous?! I would love to wash dishes under those beauties!!

Source

And I love these mercury glass pendant lights! I found this picture on a site where it is just a list of emails talking about a subject, so I couldn’t find a source. Someone called this pendant light an Argento pendant light. I googled it, and these babies are hundreds of dollars!

But I think it would look AMAZING over my kitchen sink!! I’m wondering if I could find a cheaper version somewhere else?

This last picture is just a glass pendant light. It is simple and beautiful, so maybe I should go with something like this?

source

Decisions, decisions!

What type of light do you think

I should put above my kitchen sink?

(Inspiration pictures in the comments are welcome!)

Smile

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Filed Under kitchen inspiration, kitchen makeover, laundry room, lighting, makeovers, My Kitchen, New Home, New Kitchen Makover 57 Comments

Decorating Open Shelves

January 3, 2012 AT 1:43 pm 40 Comments

January 3, 2012 By traci 40 Comments

I will be honest that when I began putting items on my open shelves in the kitchen, I was a little nervous.

Mainly because I have seen so many pictures of beautiful open shelves in blogland, that I knew mine would never look that good.

source

http://jonesdesigncompany.com/decorate/our-kitchen-2/

But two days before Christmas, I went to work putting items that I already had on my shelves.

And to my surprise, it wasn’t as hard as I thought.

Now, they may not be arrange perfectly (as far as a “designer” may be concerned.) But for me, they work!

Most of the things on my shelves are hand-me-downs or Goodwill finds. The only “expensive” dishes I have are my Willow House dishes. (Most of which I got free for hosting parties or I bought them when they were severely on sale.)

I wanted a wreath for my window, so Cy went to Lowe’s on Christmas Eve day and picked up this real one on clearance. It was a little dry, but it was just what I wanted!

I just added some ribbon that I already had to hang it in front of the window.

The only part of the shelving that I did not like was above the microwave. It was Christmas Eve, I was tired, and I just threw what I had left up there.

I tried to space the pops of red and green dishes throughout my shelves.

Like I said, I know that someone else could probably do a better job styling my shelves (like my buddy, Layla), but for me, I love the way it looks.

Some of you (like my sister) said you would not like open shelves because you would always worry about it not looking “right”. Or it would stress you out when things were out of place.

I totally get that. I mean I REALLY get that.

I worry about that too sometimes.

But it was so easy putting this dishes out, that I think I will be okay.

I will let you know how I like my shelves throughout the year. It’s going to be fun to “grow” with this kitchen.

Do you worry about styling open shelves?

Also, winners of the

Jeanne Oliver Designs Ecourse are:

1. kelly (cooperkelly4)

I would love to win this!!! I need all the crafting help I can get. =0) Your Winner

2. Misti (sabinecreek)

This sounds wonderful!

3. Kim (ckaasa)
This looks so fun and like a great way to start the new year!! Happy New Year to you!! :)

4. Connie Wuske

This would be AWESOME! Thanks!

5. Cindy Burke

What a perfect giveaway for the beginning of a new year!! I would love to participate ..what a blessing! thanks, cindy

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Filed Under makeover, makeovers, My Kitchen, New Home, New Kitchen Makover, open shelves 40 Comments

IKEA Butcher Block Countertop {Answers to your questions}

January 2, 2012 AT 4:08 pm 40 Comments

January 2, 2012 By traci 40 Comments

Happy 2012!!

I am so excited about this New Year! And I am so excited to share it with you.

The holiday rush is now over, and I am in the mood to get things in order. Are you?

One of the things I wanted to do is try to share a few posts with some more details about my kitchen. I had a lot of you ask questions about the specifics of our makeover like paint colors, stain color, etc.

So I am going to try and answer those questions. (Hope you are not getting sick of my kitchen. Smile )

Here is some information that I wanted to share about our IKEA butcher block counter tops:

Here is the link to the exact butcher block that we purchased…http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20057397/#/60057395

They come in different types of wood, lengths, and depths.

Cy cut the pieces of butcher block so that there would be a seam right under the faucet, and two 45 degree seams in each corner.

Cy wanted me to make sure that I told you that he used PL Adhesive to adhere the seams together.

This stuff is the bomb! When it dries, it is actually stronger than the wood that it is holding together. By using this adhesive, it eliminates the chance of the seams splitting or shifting over time.

He also attached a 1×2 underneath the seams with screws for extra strength.

After the butcher block was attached to the cabinets, we needed to fill in any gaps in the seams with wood filler.

Here is a little trick:

When sawing the butcher block, be sure to save some of the saw dust from the floor.

Then mix some of the saw dust with the wood filler before filling the seams.

This will help the wood filler blend more evenly with the wood and help the seam to accept the stain the same as the rest of the countertop.

Next, just press the wood filler mixture into the seam with your finger.

Once the filler is dry, you can sand it smooth with a sander.

Once the seams were all filled, Cy then sanded the whole countertop really well and then applied ONE coat of this stain…

You can see that the stain gave the wood just a little bit of a deeper color.

Then we applied 4 coats of Satin Polyurethane, sanding lightly between each coat.

Perfection! I love the way it turned out!

In the video below, you can see how Cy made the rounded corners in the wood around the sink. We applied a bead of caulk between the wood and the sink to keep the moisture out.

I’ve had my countertops finished for a couple of weeks now, and I can honestly say that I am thrilled with them. They are extremely durable and easy to clean.

Here is a little video I made of some footage of Cy working on the counters.

If I didn’t answer one of your questions in this post, please let me know in the comments, and I will get back to you. Smile

Have a blessed day!

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Filed Under husband's handiwork, kitchen makeover, makeover, makeovers, My Kitchen, New Home, New Kitchen Makover 40 Comments

Before and After Pictures of our Kitchen Makeover {without mouse over effect!}

December 28, 2011 AT 2:30 pm 65 Comments

December 28, 2011 By traci 65 Comments

I know these pictures are a repeat, but I wanted to share the before and after pictures of our kitchen for those of you who cannot use the mouse over effect on your computer.

It was just too many pictures to put in yesterday’s post.

So here they are!

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After…

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We have a few more things left to do, and I will share those with you soon.

I will also answer a bunch of your questions about our counters, lighting, floors, etc. in a future post too.

THANK YOU so much for all of your sweet comments! Sharing this kitchen renovation with you made it so much more bearable during the difficult days.

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Filed Under kitchen makeover, makeover, makeovers, My Kitchen, New Home, New Kitchen Makover 65 Comments

Before And After Kitchen Makeover Pictures {mouse over effect}

December 27, 2011 AT 7:24 pm 89 Comments

December 27, 2011 By traci 89 Comments

Happy Week After Christmas!!!

Are ya hangin’ in there?

My boys are having a blast playing with their Christmas goodies, and I am getting the itch to get things organized around here. Are you feelin’ the itch?

Before I show you the pictures of our kitchen, I wanted to ask you to check to see if my blog feed is working in your readers. Some people have told me that my feed isn’t working. It isn’t working for me in my Google Reader either. The last post shown is from the middle of December, which means some of you may have not seen my last TEN posts! Yikes! I posted a lot of great stuff these past weeks, so be sure to check it out.

I am having so much fun sharing with you “before and after” pictures of our kitchen.

I can hardly believe our kitchen ever looked like the “befores!”

The following EIGHT pictures have the “mouse over effect” on them.

Just move your cursor back and forth over the pictures to see the “before and afters.”

*You will not be able to see this effect in your email or readers, you MUST click on the post title and view this post on my blog page. So come on over!