Our Kitchen: The Before (Decorated)

The official count down to granite is..... 3 DAYS!! Since this granite deal is about to get real, I wanted to share The Before (Decorated) pictures of our kitchen. 

This is our kitchen looking it's Sunday best.

Literally, I spent Sunday morning cleaning and making our kitchen look spotless and in tact as it would be if we were having company. I realized that the only "current' pictures I have of our kitchen were from Christmas time - and as it should be no surprise, there was Christmas decor everywhere - so I wanted pictures just a normal, June day with no holiday/seasonal decor to be seen. 

  

Of course, you probably noticed that Lime Green and Mackenzie-Childs are "my thing". Aside from all of the cute green and checker decor, let me introduce you to 1995. Light woodwork, white counter-tops, formerly brass hardware and florescent lighting.

In reality, I don't think our kitchen is THAT bad. We just can't wait to get rid of the white, 'stains easy', 'see every crumb', 'hard to keep white' counter-tops and back-splash.  

And see this cute little corner nook with the lamp? It will also be getting 'granitized' - thanks to my Mom for the great idea!  

I heard that our granite installer was cutting our granite today... in preparation for Thursday's install!

Count down to granite: 3 DAYS!!! Eeeeek!

Hand-painted Wooden Monogram

 

 

Over a year ago, I pinned this painted wooden monogram to my “Wishing & Daydreaming” board on Pinterest.

 

Fast forward to last fall when I was first introduced to the Groopdealz website; my first purchase was this 18” unfinished wooden monogram. I was so excited to check-off one of my wishes from the Pinterest board. (I’ve actually purchased 5 unfinished wooden monograms to give as Christmas, birthday and even bridal shower gifts – and they’ve been a hit!)

 

I didn’t know what color I wanted to paint it immediately, so I put it away in my craft closet until I decided on a color. After a few months, I thought painting it gold would be a good neutral option. Maybe it was my spray paint selection, but the gold was off-par and not at all what I had in mind - so, back to the craft closet the monogram went. It sat in the craft closet awaiting a new paint job for a another month or two until one Saturday afternoon, I felt the urge to paint. 

 

Inspired by a few pieces of my personal, Mackenzie-Childs, Green Flower Market Collection – I was excited to take on a personal challenge to paint a floral design on something that was not just a flat canvas.  

 

 

 

 

I was ‘in the zone’ painting, until I was rudely interrupted by storms and a power outage.

 

Sunday, I resumed painting until another round of storms came. That night, Edmond was hit with a tornado just 2 miles from our house. Also, the towns of Shawnee, OK and Little Axe, OK were hit by F4 tornadoes.

 

The next day, was Monday, May 20th the day an F5 tornado went through Moore, OK Which inspired me to paint for Oklahoma. The #prayforoklahoma painting can be seen here. 

 

This past weekend, I finally was able to focus some time to finish the monogram. With some input from miss Dixie Belle, there was still some detail work to be done before it was complete.

 

Using Mackenzie-Childs ribbon, our McDaniel Monogram now hangs on our mantel! I'm so pleased how it turned out and hope we get to enjoy it in our home.

 

 

 

 

 

Said "Yes" to a Granite Slab

If you follow me on Instagram (@McSwann) you may have seen Saturday's exciting news that I finally said “Yes” to a Granite slab!

 

 

Brandon hit this situation dead-on…. picking out a slab of granite is like picking out a wedding gown. You’re stuck with the decision for life; it’s a non-returnable, customized, expensive investment and someday, someone else will look at pictures and judge your selection. No pressure.

 

So, after 4 weeks of looking at and “trying on” a dozen different slabs with our cabinet door, we made a choice. We ended up with Santa Cecilia Classic (you can see some of the other color options in my last post).

 

 

Knowing that B and I were going Granite "shopping" on Saturday, I called Thursday morning to check current stock of the different colors I liked at both Granite Suppliers (GS #1 & GS #2). GS #1 had Santa Cecilia Classic in stock but in order to guarantee that we could see it Saturday was to place it on hold. So, I did. On Saturday, we went to GS#2 first; walked around, saw a slab of Napoli that we liked but it was already spoken for… so we left empty handed. Then we made our way to GS #1 and I was nervous; nervous we wouldn’t find anything or I would hate the slabs that were on hold in my name.

 

Turned out, GS #1 had a few options I liked… but I liked the slabs with my name already on them best. It must have been meant to be. This particular cut of SCC had hints of brown in addition to black, which is what I wanted. Some SCC slabs had black only and seemed to look too green.

 

 

Because I’m not the best decision maker, I had to walk up and down and look at all the granite selections again. And came right back to the slab with my name. At that point, B took a step back from the slab, looked at me studying the slab and said…. Are you ready to say “Yes” to this slab? And I said, “Yes”.

 

From there, we knocked out the rest of the “to be picked out” list in about 15 minutes. I already knew what I wanted by this point. 

 

Edge cut for the granite? Straight. Done. 

 

 

Back-splash? Ivory, tumbled Travertine 3x6 subway tiles. Done.

 

Sink? 60/40 Granite Composite in Cafe Brown.  Done.

 

Then to Lowe’s to pick out a faucet....

 

 

 

Done.

 

Now we wait for the install …. which in just 10 days we will be saying goodbye to 1995 and hello to 2013. The updated kitchen we've wanted since 2009. EEK! (this also, makes me nervous. The indecisive me, sure hopes I’m good with those decisions. And hopes it all turns out well!)