:: a lake house renovation - the kitchen

{ Driftwood Cottage }

Now that all of our renovations are over the dust has cleared & we've christened it with fun weekends with friends & family... I'm finally ready to document all the changes we made to our vacation home on the lake. Welcome to { Driftwood Cottage } our little slice of lake life.

Of all the spaces in the lake house, the Kitchen is my absolute favorite. I love how everything turned out. I love the newly painted white cabinets with their new bronze hardware. I adore all of the new lighting, and I'm especially in love with my new bookcase/banquette... it was the perfect solution to hide the fridge at the end of the cabinets.  I had to share the after first because I think it's just so much prettier than where we began.  The kitchen wasn't so bad to begin with, the cabinets were relatively new as well as the tile backsplash and granite countertops... so they stayed and the cabinets got a paint job and new hardware. I'm happy enough with the granite countertops, if I changed anything it would be the tile backsplash, but it works and doesn't bother me...not worth the money to change it. The major changes in the kitchen & throughout the house are the ceilings and the flooring. We had all of the popcorn ceilings removed throughout & also had bamboo flooring installed through the whole house. We went with bamboo because of the durability & the fact that it plays well with water... that's pretty important on a lake & when you have a basement. 

Here is the kitchen before we purchased the house. That's vinyl flooring not tile & though it's not horrible & was in good shape, we wanted a cohesive look throughout the house.

Here it is with the ceilings stripped & paint swatches on the walls, 

it took me forever and about a zillion paint pots to decide on a color.

We decided to keep the appliances because they were all in good working order, 

In fact the black ties in nicely with the bronze hardware I chose.

Here are the cabinets with their first coat of primer, looking better already.

Cabinet doors & shelves being painted in the basement, all that nasty carpet has to go anyway.

Looking a bit less stark with the new paint color, also blends a bit better.

At this point I also contemplated leaving some of the cabinet doors off.

I decided for practical and visual reasons to put them back on. 

The bookcase ended up being all the open shelving we needed.

Woo Hoo the flooring was going in...what a huge difference!

The new bookcase wall is up to mask the fridge,  and the new lighting has been installed.  

The fixture above the sink is Bristow by Allen Roth from Lowe's, and the lovely Twig Orb is from Shades of Light I ordered the Large.  I just adore it & I think it adds the perfect rustic touch. 

Then came the best part of all, the built in bookshelf & banquette. 

This is my absolute favorite part of our whole renovation... it absolutely makes the kitchen,

now it's so much more functional and quaint. We also now have a much better view from the living room not looking into the side of a refrigerator. It took a little bit of research to figure out the whole banquette thing. I had never had one before & I've never designed one until now ;). I wanted it to be deep enough for lounging {in fact it's large enough to sleep on...my kids have done it ha! ha! } but easy enough to get in and out of, and oh there are so many different opinions on the depth of a banquette seat on the web. I decided by sitting in a comfortable wicker chair that I loved measuring the depth then adding an additional few inches for throw pillows in the back.  I also chose to leave the seating open underneath so feet could swing under comfortably. It looks a bit low to the ground in these photos & it is, but I had to account for the 4" of foam cushion that would be the seat.

Here we have our beadboard back in place & our new coat of White Dove,

and she's all ready for some cushions, a table & some goodies for the shelves.

Starting the decorating process my favorite part. 

We have uncovered foam, a few throw pillows, vintage books and baskets. 

It was and still is such fun looking for treasures to add to { Driftwood Cottage }

Lots of vintage and used books for relaxed weekend and summer reading.

I found a great stash of vintage Reader's Digests all with the great printed covers,

I love the pops of color they add to the space, and they are great for weekend reading.

Here it is again in all it's finished splendor {so you don't have to scroll back up}

I absolutely love this space.  It's where we all gather for morning coffee & conversation,

where we read, craft & even play on our computers.  This is truly the perfect spot for lounging & laughing with family & friends, and we are so blessed to have it and share it.

Oh & here she is our little { Driftwood Cottage }

{ lake side }

{ street side }

Just wait till you see the changes we've made outside...

more photos coming soon!!

{ peace, love & a hug }

Carrie

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:: a lake house renovation - the kitchen

{ Driftwood Cottage }

Now that all of our renovations are over the dust has cleared & we've christened it with fun weekends with friends & family... I'm finally ready to document all the changes we made to our vacation home on the lake. Welcome to { Driftwood Cottage } our little slice of lake life.

Of all the spaces in the lake house, the Kitchen is my absolute favorite. I love how everything turned out. I love the newly painted white cabinets with their new bronze hardware. I adore all of the new lighting, and I'm especially in love with my new bookcase/banquette... it was the perfect solution to hide the fridge at the end of the cabinets.  I had to share the after first because I think it's just so much prettier than where we began.  The kitchen wasn't so bad to begin with, the cabinets were relatively new as well as the tile backsplash and granite countertops... so they stayed and the cabinets got a paint job and new hardware. I'm happy enough with the granite countertops, if I changed anything it would be the tile backsplash, but it works and doesn't bother me...not worth the money to change it. The major changes in the kitchen & throughout the house are the ceilings and the flooring. We had all of the popcorn ceilings removed throughout & also had bamboo flooring installed through the whole house. We went with bamboo because of the durability & the fact that it plays well with water... that's pretty important on a lake & when you have a basement. 

Here is the kitchen before we purchased the house. That's vinyl flooring not tile & though it's not horrible & was in good shape, we wanted a cohesive look throughout the house.

Here it is with the ceilings stripped & paint swatches on the walls, 

it took me forever and about a zillion paint pots to decide on a color.

We decided to keep the appliances because they were all in good working order, 

In fact the black ties in nicely with the bronze hardware I chose.

Here are the cabinets with their first coat of primer, looking better already.

Cabinet doors & shelves being painted in the basement, all that nasty carpet has to go anyway.

Looking a bit less stark with the new paint color, also blends a bit better.

At this point I also contemplated leaving some of the cabinet doors off.

I decided for practical and visual reasons to put them back on. 

The bookcase ended up being all the open shelving we needed.

Woo Hoo the flooring was going in...what a huge difference!

The new bookcase wall is up to mask the fridge,  and the new lighting has been installed.  

The fixture above the sink is Bristow by Allen Roth from Lowe's, and the lovely Twig Orb is from Shades of Light I ordered the Large.  I just adore it & I think it adds the perfect rustic touch. 

Then came the best part of all, the built in bookshelf & banquette. 

This is my absolute favorite part of our whole renovation... it absolutely makes the kitchen,

now it's so much more functional and quaint. We also now have a much better view from the living room not looking into the side of a refrigerator. It took a little bit of research to figure out the whole banquette thing. I had never had one before & I've never designed one until now ;). I wanted it to be deep enough for lounging {in fact it's large enough to sleep on...my kids have done it ha! ha! } but easy enough to get in and out of, and oh there are so many different opinions on the depth of a banquette seat on the web. I decided by sitting in a comfortable wicker chair that I loved measuring the depth then adding an additional few inches for throw pillows in the back.  I also chose to leave the seating open underneath so feet could swing under comfortably. It looks a bit low to the ground in these photos & it is, but I had to account for the 4" of foam cushion that would be the seat.

Here we have our beadboard back in place & our new coat of White Dove,

and she's all ready for some cushions, a table & some goodies for the shelves.

Starting the decorating process my favorite part. 

We have uncovered foam, a few throw pillows, vintage books and baskets. 

It was and still is such fun looking for treasures to add to { Driftwood Cottage }

Lots of vintage and used books for relaxed weekend and summer reading.

I found a great stash of vintage Reader's Digests all with the great printed covers,

I love the pops of color they add to the space, and they are great for weekend reading.

Here it is again in all it's finished splendor {so you don't have to scroll back up}

I absolutely love this space.  It's where we all gather for morning coffee & conversation,

where we read, craft & even play on our computers.  This is truly the perfect spot for lounging & laughing with family & friends, and we are so blessed to have it and share it.

Oh & here she is our little { Driftwood Cottage }

{ lake side }

{ street side }

Just wait till you see the changes we've made outside...

more photos coming soon!!

{ peace, love & a hug }

Carrie

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:: little chairs & a bookcase update

Okay, Okay,

so if I had to tell you what my favorite find from the Country Living Fair 2011 is....

I think it would be my collection of vintage children's chairs.

I think they are especially adorable.

My original plan was to mount them above my table in the keeping room

and use them as 3D artwork & little shelves.

Well, with the addition of some other items in my spaces

I decided it would be too much 3D stuff.

Honestly I also didn't want to have to put any holes in the chairs in order to hang them.

SOOOOOooooo,

I decided to display them on top of the bookcase instead.

This is the built in desk in our Keeping Room off of the kitchen.

My collection of butterflies I cross stitched used to reside up top,

but I did a little switcheroo and put them on the desktop to hide cords & 

ridiculously placed power outlets....seriously....

don't even get me started on that subject.

Okay....who puts a power outlet and a phone jack at the very top of a desk?,

shouldn't they be down low where you can hide them with your things more easily.

Okay, sorry rant over...but this is a serious pet peeve of mine....builders need to consult women.

My goal has been to really simplify things in my house,

I could possibly be a closet hoarder....I seriously can see the usefulness in too many things.

I simply turned all of my vintage books around to show their paper patina and vintagey goodness.

I really wanted to pull in some of the aqua color I'm loving,

so I pulled out some vintage aqua ball jars,

and some old electric insulators as well.

Okay, so I'm not going to tell you about every little thing up there,

but I will say this....there are only two things up there that didn't come from a thrift store or yard sale.

Here's a shot of pretty much what it looked like before.

Lot's of color huh and a little busy too.

I tell ya, bookshelves aren't easy.

I've messed & messed with this thing over the years,

but finally I'm pretty happy with it.

I think it's the simplicity that I love.

Another shot at some point in time.

See the mess, this spot is nearly impossible to keep clean.

It is the dumping ground for everyone's everything.....UGGH.

Do you have a catch all space like this?

Or do you have a bookcase that gives you a fit?

Well thank goodness I've finally gotten this one under control.

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

P.S.  I just want to say a big HELLO to any new friends and followers.

I try to find time to respond to all comments, but I'm really not very good at it.

I really do appreciate the time you take to leave them for me,

and know that I'm trying to get better ; ).

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