Vintage Pecan

Monday, January 11, 2016

Kitchen Refresh in the Bird Nest

Happy Monday!! I hope you all had a great weekend. We spent the weekend finishing up our kitchen refresh. This post is a part of our "Home Improvement Series," which I will lovingly be calling The Bird Nest.

When we first looked at the house we really liked the kitchen cabinets and the counter tops. The previous owners had updated the kitchen in 2007. The cabinets are KraftMaid and the granite counter tops are from Lowes, but I can't determine the name of the color, they don't have a match currently. I highly recommend the cabinets, they are of the highest quality and they have the soft close feature! No slamming drawers when Will makes me mad! :) Inside the cabinets is the best feature, full size pull out shelves that neatly organize our pots/pans, Tupperware, Pyrex and baking sheets/pans. My favorite feature is the built in silverware organizer that is two levels! When I saw this, I was pretty much sold on the house!
Deluxe Dovetail Roll-out TrayWood Tiered Drawer Storage

We were so lucky that the previous owners had invested in the custom cabinetry and granite/back splash installation when they updated. I will have to say, I wasn't a fan of the back splash at first, I had even thought about tearing it out, covering it up or even painting it, but that leads me to my next point! What a difference paint can make! The kitchen was originally a pale pale sky blue, which is beautiful in a bedroom or bathroom, however, in a kitchen it left a lot to be desired and washed out the room. We knew we wanted gray, however, have you ever tried to pick out grey paint? There are WAY more than 50 shades!

We finally settled on Sherwin Williams Functional Gray. I had them mix the color in at 50%, and it was the exactly color of the swatch. This is a painting tip for any color, but especially darker colors. The paint changed the entire vibe of the room! Not only is it refreshed, but the cabinets pop and the grey and brown tones in the back splash stand out! I went from hating the back splash to really liking it!

We also updated the appliances. The original appliances were white and when the owners updated they only updated the oven/range, so of course they bought a new white slide in. It was a very nice oven, however, the white did not go (in my opinion) with the cabinets or counter tops. The owner also took with them the refrigerator, so we had to buy that. Since we were shopping for appliances around black Friday we actually got an excellent deal on an entire suite of new appliances at Lowes. We liked stainless, but now GE makes a matte stainless called Slate. It doesn't show finger prints and it isn't quite as shiny. We decided on a french door fridge with a freezer drawer, the slide in convection oven/range, a vented microwave and a high efficiency dishwasher. These are by far the nicest appliances I've ever owned and I'm SO excited to use them!

Our kitchen that started with great potential has turned out to be more than I imagined! It feels like a gourmet kitchen out of a magazine! We couldn't have done it without the help of my dad who gave us a tutorial in painting 101. Needless to say, I think we'll be painting the other rooms in the house that need an update! We are using the kitchen furniture I had in my house, which were previously my parents', that we've had since the early 90s. I love them, and they look even better in this house with the cabinets! I organized a few of our dishes and platters on the hutch but can't wait to get everything settled after the wedding.

Without further a do, I give you the before and after of The Bird Nest Kitchen:






I hope everyone has a great week and GO TIGERS!!


Friday, January 1, 2016

Five on Friday! Welcome 2016!

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Welcome 2016!! I love all the potential a new year holds. For me I'm praying it's a sweet sixteen! March 19th is going to be a pretty sweet day of 2016! But I know that the Lord has so many other surprises and opportunities in store for me/us this year!

I thought I'd start the new year with a few items that I'm loving right now/Christmas recap for 5 on Friday link up with April over at A. Liz Adventures!


First, I can't help but say that I'm loving that the Clemson Tigers are headed to the National Championship!! GO TIGERS!! What a season it has been! Although I did not attend Clemson, I've been raised a Tiger, as my mom is an alumni. I'm so excited that such a great team led by a fantastic coach are rewarded for all their hard work this season with a chance to be National Champions! GO TIGERS!!
Born to be a Tiger


I'm LOVING my new laptop! I got an HP Chromebook for Christmas from Will and it was SO needed! I have been borrowing his laptop since the spring when mine decided to literally drop dead! I have to admit, I kind of picked out my own present on this one... We were in Walmart one night back in the early fall and I saw this laptop and loved it, because it was TEAL!! I really didn't know anything about Chromebooks, but so far I'm liking it for blogging since Blogger is linked through Google. However, I'm not an expert Google Docs person, so that is taking some getting used to! Also, my blog is currently connected to one email and after I get married I need it to be connected to another, so I'm having some difficulty figuring that out. Any help from tech savvy people would be appreciated!
We had somewhat of a tech Christmas by adding Apple TV to our collection! We cut our cable a little over 2 years ago and never looked back! We have basic cable, you know the 9-15 channels you get of the major networks and such, but we also have Netflix, Hulu, & Amazone Prime and we have managed just fine with those! We were using Will's laptop with an HDMI cord connected in the bedroom and his Playstation to access those services in the living room. Well NOW with Apple TV we are able to more easily access them with a remote instead of a mouse on the bedroom tv! I can't say enough good things about Apple TV from what we've experienced so far! I love being able to watch the Vloggers that I follow on Youtube on a big screen and it's just so nice to have a more user friendly interface to access our accounts for Netflix etc. We purchased Apple TV from Target on black Friday with a portion of a giftcard and it was on a crazy sale! We had looked at it a week or so prior at Best Buy and really fell in love with it, so we were super excited to get it on such a great sale! If you are interested in cutting your cable and finding alternative ways to watch tv, this is the way to go!
Another Christmas gift that I'm loving so so much is my new MK purse that Will got me! I had totally forgotten that I had even pointed it out when we were at the mall back in the fall. It's blush pink, the same color of the bridesmaids dresses, so of course I had to have it! He tracked it down all the way in Chicago! I can't wait to carry it to all the upcoming wedding festivities!!
Michael-Kors-Cynthia-Medium-Saffiano-Leather-Satchel-Blush-Spring-2015-8.jpg (1280×900)
Cynthia Medium Saffiano Leather Satchel in Blush-Spring 2015
Finally, I have always loved that with the start of a new year you get a new calendar! I love to organize and plan so getting the tools to do just that makes me so happy! I normally get the Mary Engelbreit wall calendar, however, this year I just wasn't in love with the theme and the picture didn't match the month. On Amazon I saw the illustrated Bible verses calendar, but couldn't see pictures of the individual months. I went to Books A Million and they had it and I got the very. last. one. It is BEAUTIFUL! I'm so happy with my choice and can't wait to hang it up tomorrow and be reminded of God's love and plan for me on a daily basis! 
amazon.com
Thank you all so much for reading and following along in our journey down the aisle! We can't wait for all this year has in store for us! I hope each of you had a safe and happy New Years Eve and I wish you all the best in 2016!