Boxing it up

Remember how we tore the kitchen apart?

It is starting to come back together again.  Cabinet boxes are going in.  

These will soon be white Shaker cabinets.

Desk area

Ceiling Transformation; My Dream Beam

I love ceiling beams.  I dream of beams.  When we started our home projects, one of the first things I wanted to know about was if we could add some sort of ceiling beam detail.   After a lot of discussion, we decided to go for it!

Before

After demolition

Beams are framed

Sheet rock back on the ceiling

Ceiling is texturized, rough beams are wrapped in wood, and crown is added

Another view before painting

Beams are sprayed a glossy white (It is still wet in this photo)

Another view of the newly white beams

The ceiling is painted Sherwin Williams Ice Cube (The walls will be the same color soon.)

Beautiful Beams!  Try to imagine it without red and yellow walls.  

Fresh paint, bright outlook

Some of the painting of the first floor has begun as well as a bit of tile work in the master bath.  Here are a few of the new changes:

On the left is the new white that all of the trim is being painted.  On the Right is the old cream color.  The white is really a bright, crisp and clean and I love how much newer the house looks with it.  We are using Sherwin Williams untinted.  There were so many whites to choose from, but I knew I wanted the whitest and most crisp, so I asked to have no tint added.  So far, I love it. 

This is the master bedroom.  When I walked in and saw this, I have to say that I got pretty nervous.  The blue is so bold and seeing it on the ceiling was a little bit scary.

When I saw the completed room, I was very happy.  Imagining how it will look with our furniture makes me even more excited.  This color is Sherwin Williams Soar (SW 6799).  The blue against the white really makes the crown pop. 

So, a blue ceiling, would you love it or hate it in your space?

Had to include a pict of my helpers.  They just LOVE tape measures!

This room is technically the office, but it will be our playroom while the boys are still little.  The paint is Sherwin William Ice Cube (SW 6252).  (The fellas are checking out the view, which is wonderful from this room.  I am thinking about not putting the blinds back up.)

Same room, different view.  I love the soft hint of blue/gray in the color.

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Master Bath

The tile work in the master bath has begun.

This is the master shower.  On the left you see cinder blocks.  That is the beginning of what will be a shower seat.  On the walls, we chose a 12x24 Olympia Tropical Grass in True White.  The tile is rectified so it could be placed with a small joint.  I believe this is 1/16.  We are placing it at 50% (subway layout).

A bit closer. 

 (Sorry for the dark circular shadow on all my photos.  I tried to clean the lens on my phone, but it won't come off.)

The Excitement is Mounting

We are getting to a point with the house where it is getting very exciting to see all the daily changes that are happening.  (Not gonna lie, I didn't find the plumbing and electrical work all that exciting.)  We are now starting to see all the pretty things that were the reasons behind the renovation.  Here are a few little things that are about to be pretty things in the near future.

Guest bath with wallpaper.  I actually didn't entirely hate this wallpaper for some reason, but it just isn't the direction we are moving in.

I spent a few hours in there with a steamer and now...

Guest bathroom without wallpaper.  It will be texturized and painted, color TBD.  (Little One was home sick with a fever, but look at that cutie cheesing it up!) 

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Some painting has begun upstairs and the rest of the house is almost done being prepped, so we should see more soon.  They are repainting EVERYTHING...the ceilings, the trim, the doors, the walls, you name it!  It looks so bright and clean right now.  We chose a very light gray with blue undertones.  The house is going to feel really bright and our furnishings are going to pop. The wall color is Sherwin Williams Ice Cube (SW6252).

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New columns wraps will be coming soon.  They will be square shaker stule white columns.  Here is Little Two playing with the cement pillar.

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I am not even going to begin to pretend that I know what is going on here (remember, tend to only like the pretty things), but this will soon be the master bathroom again.  Tile choices below:

Black is the new black

Black grout.  People told us it would look bad.  Many people advised against it.  Entire discussions on Houzz suggested light grout with dark wood look tile.  We decided to go with our gut and use black anyhow and I LOVE the results!  

These are all iPhone photos, so they are not the best quality, but you can get the idea.

When we originally saw the color choices for grouts, we knew we probably wanted black, but we also asked to see a sample grouted with brown, just in case we might prefer that.  

These were the two colors we saw.  When we saw the sample, we knew we wanted black.  Once the grouting started, the installer immediately noticed a problem with the black.  The color was not consistent as it was being spread.  It was suggested that we use an epoxy rather than sanded grout.  This was a more expensive option, but the color turned out beautifully dark and consistent.

Epoxy

Tile here is American Hertitage by Marazzi in the color Spice.





**UPDATE:  Based on the popularity of this post, I am adding some updated additional information on a new post called Black is the new black…the sequel.  Hope this helps any of you out there deciding on wood look tile.**