Faux Shiplap: Want to Pet My Walls?

Eh ma gawd, is it seriously 2016? Happy, happy New year! 

I'm excited to announce we gave birth............. 

to a big........

and beautiful........................................

new wall!

We seriously squeezed this baby in right before the end of 2015!

I've been bat ship for ship lap for awhile now. Yes, I just created a new term there.

And then Chip and JoJo entered my life, and the infatuation only continued to grow.

As soon as we wrapped up the walls in the playroom project last May,  I knew textured walls were the way I wanted to go in other areas of our home. I seriously love the character they add to a space! We have a large, boring wall in our kitchen dine-in area and I immediately knew it would be the perfect place to add this yummy PLANKINESS.

Here's an in-progress shot.....of the wall....and of Little Tarzan eating his way through our pantry.

It still needs one last coat of paint before I can officially confirm it complete but I'm already madly, deeply in love with it! I'll be sharing more details and pictures of it in a few weeks (or you could just follow me over on Instagram where I always share A LOT more of our home and DIY projects!)

One thing I've never been good at here on the blog is of sharing our in-progress projects. I have a bad habit of just posting the end results. I find I often enjoy when other bloggers share the messy part in between...the part of the project where you want to scream "Who's fricken idea was this anyways?!" Which is exactly what I was thinking when I was sanding down each and every one of those planks! Or when we couldn't get the cut around the outlet "just right", or when I realized we used the wrong paint finish on the wall. So yeah......despite what the final reveal may look like the DIY life ain't all sunshine and unicorns!

Has anyone else started new projects yet? Has anyone else lost twenty pounds for met yet? Hello?!

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Dear Pinterest, Is this a Crime?

Dear Pinterest,

Hey lover. We need to talk. We've been together for awhile so I hope you don't take this the wrong way BUT would it be a crime for you to share anything other than white kitchens for inspiration? I mean you share 22,989 pictures of ways to make cheese fries (total guesstimate) and then another 2, 456, 799 ways to lose the fat gained from said cheese fries (another total guesstimate) but non-white kitchens? No bueno. Even a search of the term "non white kitchens" brings up....you guessed it! MORE White kitchens. Womp, womp. I get it, I really do. White kitchens are purrrty. They're all the rage right now BUT some of us live with tiny humans who run around licking kitchen cabinets with grimy-slobbery-cottage-cheese-infested tongues. Some of us (not naming names) miss the hole in our face from time to time when we eat our cheese fries. With that being said, are white kitchens even practical? I, myself, had been converted while house hunting. I use to be a white kitchen snob too but now I'm open minded and accept kitchens of all colors.  See...that means there is still hope for you to do the same! Ironically, only one out of a hundred of the houses we looked at (another total guesstimate. Did I mention I'm bad at math?) had a white kitchen. Which convinces me even more that the world would keep turning if Pinterest actually had non-white kitchens pinned to their site. I need to know that I can trust you when I come to you looking for ideas on what type of kitchen table I should use in my new non-white kitchen? Is that too much to ask?  If this continues we may need to break up. Don't make me go back to tearing out pages of a magazine and thumb tacking them to the wall. I swear I'll do it! Empty threats. 

Sincerely,
Jennifer

P.S. Are we still on for tonight?

P.P.S. I want cheese fries.

P.P.P.S. Below is a pic of the kitchen in our new house. Well, actually this was before we moved in and we destroyed it with dozens of box forts. This picture really doesn't do this room justice (the back splash which looks like just a painted wall  in the image below is so lovely!) I'm currently brainstorming up a list of to-do's (mostly DIY to-dos) for our new home and hope to share the progress with you all over the upcoming year (years? decades?) Right now I'm on the hunt for kitchen table ideas. Our hope is to attempt to make one ourselves...yes, me with power tools, scary, I know.

I'm madly, deeply in love with the table and chairs from Veronika's kitchen over at Veronika's Blushing

Actually, her whole kitchen is to die for....and LOOK MA, IT'S NOT WHITE.

In other words I would be very happy in there eating my cheese fries.

Her table is from Restoration  Hardware but I'm sure with just a little Googling we could find some tutorials on how to make something similar.

So there's a brief, brief glimpse into my thoughts these days.

Hope everyone is having a lovely week. I hope to be back soon with Part 2 of the Dog Theme First Birthday we threw Baby B. In the mean time, if you missed Part 1 you can check it out here.

Curious to know though, what color are your kitchen cabinets? 

Do you love or loathe the whole white kitchen craze?

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Free Kitchen Art Printable

Happy Friday! Boy do I have a yummy new freebie for y'all! Last month I shared this fun kitchen art printable over at Uncommon Designs and perhaps you missed it.
I'm not sure where you've been!

I'm not much of a baker so the only reasonable explanation I had for last month's theme was that I was 38 weeks pregnant and was craving some ooey-gooey, warm, chocolate brownies!

And since I know a lot of people out there do like to bake I was hoping to use the freebie as a bribe to get them to drop off some baked goodies at my house. Surprisingly, there were no takers. Apparently people like to make pregnant women starve.

I created the free printable in four different fun colors.

Head on over to Uncommon Designs to get your own kitchen art. Just download and print.

Frame your art and hang in your kitchen or better yet give it as a gift

to the favorite baker in your life!

Enjoy!

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How to Reupholster Kitchen Chairs

Our kitchen table and stools were one of the first things we purchased when we bought our house a few years ago.  I’m not sure what the heck I was thinking when I picked out a table set that included chairs with white cushions! Apparently, my husband and I eat like three year olds cause those bad boys weren’t white for very long {Sorry, honey! I know I’m really the messy eater but I believe in marriage we should share everything; including taking the blame for my childlike manners}.  My attempts to remove the stains were useless so I decided to give a go at reupholstering the chairs myself with some fresh, colorful fabric. Now I actually completed this DIY project before the word “blog” even existed in my vocabulary so excuse the lack of pictures. However, Google is your friend and if you search “DIY reupholstering” you’re bound to find tons of tutorials with photos.

Materials:

Screw Driver

Staple Gone

Staple Remover

Fabric

Scissors

Step 1: Take your screwdriver and remove the seat of the chair from its base.

Step 2: With your staple remover remove the fabric from the cushioned seat along with all the staples. 

Step 3: Use the old fabric as a template to measure and cut your new fabric.

Step 4: Lay your new fabric pattern faced down and place the seat also face down on top of it.  Start pulling the fabric tightly over the seat cushion and staple it along the edge of the seat.

So you see that window seat behind the kitchen table? Yep, that’s a thorn in my side! The hubby can’t comprehend cushions and pillows in the kitchen.  He also didn't seem to like my other idea either; to place a life-like statue of me there.  So I’ve been pondering for three years {yes, three years!} how the heck to decorate a window seat when you don’t plan on using it as a window seat. Right now I just throw random crap there to fill the space.  Any ideas? I’d love to hear some suggestions!

Linking here:
http://www.tipjunkie.com/
http://todayscreativeblog.net/
http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/

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