Board and batten kitchen island

Well peeps, it had been FOREVA since I had done a DIY project and man, I missed it. :) While working on this one I was in my zone, and it felt good! I have been planning this project for the longest time, but was just trying to figure out one little detail before I got started.

This one is in the kitchen and involves…can you guess?? I’m sure you’ll be shocked.

The kitchen island:

This was how the island looked up until last week. I think I will go down in a world record book for most changes to a kitchen island, for real. FOR REAL.

It was that time again though. For the six months or so, I’ve wanted to do a little change up. I kept seeing islands in pictures that were covered in beadboard, like mine, but also with a little board and batten trim as well.

I had been leisurely looking for just the right material to use for a while now, but couldn't’ find anything thin enough. I didn’t want it too thick because our butcher block island top doesn’t hang over a ton. I wanted something with a low profile.

So on a Home Depot trip the other day, I found just what I had been looking for. It was a really thin two by four foot piece of mdf. And at only $6 a piece, it was a smokin’ deal. I only needed two, so I had them cut down at HD to 3 1/2 inch strips – plenty for what I needed.

I started the redo by taking the trim off the island:

  

You could keep the baseboards on, but I wanted a very simple look so I went without.

Then I just cut my 3 1/2 inch boards down to the lengths I needed and nailed them in with my nail gun:

There was one spot in particular I needed to figure out – that toe kick on the cabinet side:

It wasn’t going to work with my simple squares, so I came up with a way to make it work. I took the board all the way to the floor:

And along the front part (under the cabinet doors), I filled in the empty space with scrap wood:

I glued them in there so they won’t shift, then just nailed the mdf board along the bottom in front of them. Confused? Show you in a minute. :)

Then it was time to paint – this time I decided to try something different. When we had our kitchen put back together last fall, the guys used Sherwin Williams paint and I couldn’t believe how well it covered the bare beadboard wood.

In my cheapness thriftiness, I’ve never spent the extra on “fancy” paint. But I wanted to try it out. I got my own, and it happened to be on sale – even cheaper than Home Depot or Lowe’s!

BOOyah.

I wanted something lighter that would work with the colors in the rugs and window treatments in the kitchen. It’s called Jubilee and it’s a beautiful gray blue color:

I LOVE the color and oh my gah, I LOVED this paint! It went on like butter. I used a paint brush for the whole thing – not one roller. I’ve never ever done that to paint, well, pretty much anything.

I am hooked, fo sho.

Here’s the little toe kick area at the bottom now:

You can see the line where the mdf board doesn’t meet up perfectly on this side, but you’re standing you don’t see it at all:

Which is fine with me because really, who will look at it from the floor? NO ONE.

I absolutely love how it turned out:

I had planned on changing out the chairs eventually, but when I put them back I was pleasantly surprised at how the green and the blue gray looked together.

They are the exact colors in the window drapes:

And I adore the contrast between the butcher block and the island color:

You can actually see the detail of the island now – the beadboard and the board and batten. When it was black, the beadboard definitely got lost in the darkness.

I especially loved how smooth the paint was on the cabinets – this was easiest paint job ever:

 

And I love the new hardware! It’s Martha Stewart from Home Depot. No, it doesn’t match the other cabinet hardware. No, I don’t care. :)

I went ahead and knocked one off my list – sanded down the counter and put two more coats of Tung oil on it:

 

The board and batten was pretty simple, just big boxes all around:

And as always, caulk was my BFF. :) There are many DIY sins you can hide with that goodness.

And I actually decided to not reinstall the corbels I had on there before. I like the simpler look:

Did I mention I love it?? It was a quick and easy install, but the whole project took me a week. Surprised? No? :)

First I did the board and batten, then the toe kick spots, the quarter round, painting one coat, another and then installing the hardware.

I may put a poly or wax over it to protect it, but I’ll just wait to see how it holds up.

I love looking back to see how areas in our house have changed over the years! I’ll spare you all of the kitchen island transformations, but here’s how it looked for years:

And how it looks now:

I swear this is the last you’ll see it change…at least for a year or so. ;)

Obviously the island is my go-to for an easy change up in the kitchen. This latest change has really transformed the room – it is SO bright and has more of a presence for sure.

I’m trying to add more COLOR to this space and this was one step in the right direction!

Wall Decor Giveaway

*This giveaway is now closed. Congrats to winner Tina Matteson -- singin(at)compuserve(dot)com. (Tina, email me at simplehomeinteriordesign(at)gmail(dot)com to get your gift card!)

Well hey! Hope you have some super fun stuff planned for the weekend! Like watching movies, laying around, painting your toenails – you know, the fun stuff. ;)

I’m back with another AWESOME giveaway this weekend – EvgieNev has been a long time advertiser of mine and I was thrilled when they wanted to another giveaway! Their stuff is TOO stinking CUTE.

EvgieNev is a shop that carries some of the (seriously) cutest wall decal art for any space in your home. Their designs are so bright, so colorful, so unique, I know you’ll be just as smitten with them as I am.

First, I’ll share some of my favorites! (You can click on the pics to get to each item.)

This forest nursery design is just adorable:

See the little bear? The fawn? See. ADORABLE. (Ack. And the sweet little mushroom?)

I’ve talked about this one before, because I am in LOVE with the bright colors and sweet fairy design:

It looks absolutely fantastic against a dark wall color, doesn't it?

I was so excited when I saw this one because I feel like it’s so hard to find really well done boy designs:

The attention to detail is amazing. The little alien dude on the planet is killing me. :)

I love this “under the sea” design that could work for either a boy or a girl, and would be super cute in a bathroom:

The birdhouse growth chart could be placed on a piece of wood so you can take it with you:

And they didn’t forget about the adults – they have a great selection of contemporary designs that would fit in to just about any home. (Although I’m kind of tempted to put that fairy tree in my bedroom. Hubs probably wouldn’t be nuts about that.)

I love the dandelions blowing in the wind:

And trees are all the rage and I don’t think they’re going away any time soon:

You could skip the birds for a simpler design! But I think they are cauuute.

See? Adorable people! Don’t they make you want to paint your walls a deep, rich color? Did I say cute and adorable enough? ;)

The folks at EvgieNev have an awesome gift for one of you -- $100 to spend as you wish at their site! I love it!! (If you’d like to go ahead and purchase something, don’t forget you can get 10 percent off your order with the code “simplehomeinteriordesign.”)

Here’s how to enter to win $100 towards your own decal at EvgieNev:
1. Leave a comment here. What are you up to this weekend? It’s going to be chilly around here.

2. Visit the EvgieNev site here. Check out their beautiful decals and find one you love. Come back here to let us know which one it is.

3. Visit their Facebook page and “like” it here. Come back and let us know you did in another comment.

* You can enter one, two or three times – it’s up to you! All three options are not mandatory to win.

* Remember if you comment anonymously or you have a private blog, please include your email address in each entry, and spell it out with “at” and “dot” to avoid any spammy emails coming your way.

This giveaway is open to ALL! A Canadian or US winner will get their items shipped for free, other locals will have to pay for shipping if they win. It will be open till this Monday, April 30 at noon EST.

Dressing up the patio

Hey there! How was your weekend? We had lots of baseball activities and I did get my DIY project half done. Now onto painting…my favorite part.

Yay. Whoo. Hold me back.

You wouldn’t know it from the past few days, but the weather around here has been just unbelievably beautiful. I held off of buying most of our outdoor flowers though, because…well. They are just SO DANG EXPENSIVE.

Seriously, every year I’m totally taken aback at how much it all costs. For. real. You think I’d be used to it by now, but no.

Now that we have our patio, we have a few more places to add flowers (I took a couple of my regular spots away on the deck). So last week I finally started gathering some flowers for the back:

On a quick side note – I am thoroughly enjoying having a potting bench!! It has been a joy and it’s SO nice to have a dedicated space to spread everything out.

If you remember, my Dad and I built it last year, and I asked your advice on if I should paint or stain it. I ultimately decided to do neither, and let it patina naturally:

Now it’s a beautiful grey color and I really love it. (That black bucket is supposed to be for fire ashes, but I use it for my potting soil. Tricky.)

So anyway, we have two big urns on each side of the outdoor fireplace that I got at Garden Ridge last year. They were $20 each and I got them buy one get one half off. They are plastic but have held up really well, and (I think) they look like stone from far away.

Anyway, I wanted something dramatic to flank the fireplace. It’s an awesome spot and I just couldn’t find anything BIG enough that I liked. I tried flowers, they were too wimpy. I was going to try a variety of plants and flowers, but couldn’t find a combo I liked that worked with the sun back there. Then the idea hit me…I would do something evergreen.

This solved a couple problems – one being the cost factor. It would be an investment up front, but from what I read online, they can live two to three years (or more?) in planters, and then you can just plant them elsewhere. AND they stay alive all year round.

I kept mums in these planters since last fall, but they were brown and crispy. ;) These will stay green. I hope.

And they definitely gave me the drama I was looking for. At first I was looking into regular boxwood plants, but I wanted the option to add seasonal flowers around the base.

Then I saw the PERFECT one – similar to this:

How FUN! Ack. I loved them.

I planted them and then added wave petunias around the base:

The wave version rock my world – pretty soon these will spill down the sides of the planter and be all lovely.

Drama at the top, drama at the bottom. Me likey. Not to be confused with business up front, party in the back. Something entirely different.

I love how they look on each side of the fireplace!:

OK, when I went to take photos I realized these may be a bit anticlimactic. ;) With the green behind you can’t really see them well, but I promise you they are way cool in person.

My goal is to go for an “English garden” type of feel in the backyard, around the patio. These are one step in the right direction!:

My PeeGee Hydrangea trees are directly behind them on both sides, so hopefully when they start blooming (crossing fingers), the spirals will show up even more.

I like that you can see them from both the front and the back:

On another side note, our landscaper friend (who did all the work out here last summer) didn’t think the tree rose I got on major clearance would come back, but look at her now! I don’t remember what variety it is, but I hope it gets just a bit taller. I cannot WAIT to see blooms!

I will show you more of the landscaping we already have and more of the plans for around the patio soon. I’m so very excited about the possibilities for this space.

So far we just have flowers on the table and the petunias in the planters. I would love to add more to the patio, but I’m trying to keep the cost factor under control:

A few planter boxes along the wall here and there would be nice, wouldn’t they? My wallet doesn’t think so. ;)

Are you planting flowers yet this year? When do you usually start? Wave petunias are my favorite go-to annual – what is yours? I hope to get our front window boxes planted this week, and that will be it for now. I hate the cost up front, but if I can keep them alive, their color and beauty make them SO worth it!

(Your) Beautiful Kitchens

Hey hey! How are you? Any fun plans for the weekend? I was supposed to be on my way to the SNAP Conference to speak on Saturday, but the Bub’s first big baseball event is this weekend and I just could not miss it. So we’ll be doing lots of baseball and I’m hoping to sneak in a little DIY project.

It’s in the kitchen, so it’s fitting that I’m highlighting some of the ahhhhmazing kitchens you all linked up at last month’s Show Us Your House party. Wowsers – this was probably my favorite party yet!

I’m been drooling over Megan’s beautiful kitchen since the first time I saw it:

I love that so many details were thought out, in addition to it just being plain pretty. :) I really love that dark wood island with the marble top too. Told you…drool.

The links were FULL of before and afters, and Christy’s is one of my favorites – here’s the before:

And the after – she even painted the tile!:

That is a fearless woman and I love her for that.

There were a BUNCH of white kitchens, and I gotta say I’m on that train now. They are timeless and I love looking at them…gorgeous.

I love that Holly’s space shows that a white kitchen doesn’t mean a stark kitchen:

The fun color is a perfect backdrop to the bright cabinets. How FUN.

Michelle’s redo was pretty spectacular too – and they went two-toned:

I love the black on the bases and white above!

Not everybody goes white of course (nor should they!). Jenny’s makeover is FANTASTIC – from the before:

To a totally sleek and modern after:

Those are the same cabinets -- yet another example of the power of paint! (I love that they added another tier to the peninsula for more seating.)

I think I’ve highlighted Julie’s kitchen before, but I am again because I love it so:

There was an awful lot of wood going on before, so they painted the cabinets black, and added some major character by adding the ceiling beams as well. And I DIE over those windows over the sink.

Most of these kitchens took a lot of paint to get to where they are now. But I loved some of the quicker, less expensive updates you made too.

I love love love the colors in Amy’s tile backsplash:

I think they’re a stone, light green, grey and blue? Actually I think it’s black, not blue. But anyway, I think it’s totally fun and added the pop they were looking for in their kitchen! (And I want those little pear vases!)

Brittany did something I don’t think I’ve seen before – she took what was an awkward spot above her kitchen sink and turned it into her “Happy Wall”:

Oh. my. goodness. I love this. Love the colors, love the art, the photos, everything. What a sweet idea!!

Well that was fun. :) I hope you were inspired by these kitchens and the 230 linked up over at last month’s party! I so wish I could highlight every single one – they were all awesome.

Now I’m inspired to work on my little project this weekend. Crossing fingers it works. You never know…

Have a GREAT one!