Dining Room/Kitchen Plans... Oh, so much to do!

From the day we moved into our house I have been stalking people's blogs and websites looking for inspiration for our dining room/kitchen.  The space has a strange angled island separating the two as you can see here. (This is not what it looks like now.  When I get around to actually cleaning both areas at the same time, I will take pictures!)

I have decided to take down the cabinets above the island.  I have a pot rack I could hang, but I feel like it would be to cluttery between the spaces.  I am thinking of just leaving it open.  I have measured everything and can rearrange the cabinets we have and build a cabinet for the above the stove microwave for FREE!!  I am so excited to start working on it, but sometimes have to remind myself it isn't a race and Mr. TSL has a job and isn't as excited about undertaking such a huge project on his weekends off.  I can wait til summer.... maybe :) 

I need a new (to me) black stove, over the stove microwave, and dishwasher.  Here are a few pics of my inspiration for these spaces!

I have the hanging scale part, just not the basket....I can make it though!!  With stuff I already have ;)

The next few photos I found in HGTV.com, while searching for an attainable kitchen with minimal moolah. I am not going to lie Layla and Kevin at The Lettered Cottage are awesome!!  I found them with HGTV and have been blog-stalking them since!  She started out and her kitchen looked like this:

Then she magically turned it into this:
I found the herb boxes and now they live at my house too!!

She has since repainted it to a lighter color on bottom and a white cabinet on top.  Which also looks amazing, but I still heart the black cabinets.  Black is slimming ;) and it doesn't show dirty little hand prints as easily!  So we are painting ours black with Rustoleum's Cabinet Transformations you can look at some before and after pics HERE.  I love this system because there is NO SANDING!!!  I hate sanding, unless I am re-staining something....I still despise it then, but have to deal with it because it is what it is.  Some more inspirations for my kitchen/dining room.

The countertop is going to be granite tiles and the island will be marble tiles.  I SCORED these off craigslist for $1 per 12x12 tile.  Total for tile $65 :) CRAZY!!

It looks like this:

I am hoping it comes out as nice as this kitchen:

I painted the walls a light green color called OLIVE 3.  It's okay, but I am thinking of going with a more neutral color that matches the living room.  Ralph Lauren Cobblestone is my go-to color.  I love it! I try others but I just keep coming back.  Ralph and I have a thing, he makes beautiful paint and I paint things with it.  Okay, maybe it's not a 'thing' per say, but I do love me some Ralph Lauren.  

The long wall in the dining room is getting a rustic planked look with free pallet wood from Craigslist...Did I mention I heart Craigslist?  Well, I do!  They have everything!
I hope my planked wall comes out as beautifully as this one over at Mom and Her Drill:

It started out, she was going to imitate Layla @ The Lettered Cottage

Again, Layla is amazing and is a huge inspiration in blogworld! 

She planned to paint hers like Layla did, but she left it more rustic looking.  I would naturally want to paint mine too, but when revealing the stripes in our little bathroom, Mr. TSL said "it's nice, just not my style."  When I asked what his style was, he said more like a log cabin.  I am hoping to get 'er done with the pallet wall in the dining room.  He and I have dreamed of moving to Colorado for years and living in a log cabin!  To tell you the truth, my own style is a miss mash of cottage, old farm house, cabin and beach.  That's right...I am a little scatter brained, but if I could find a Beach-Front Farm Cottage Cabin we would be fine!

Now that my tangent on that is done, back to more inspiration! The door in the dining room leads to the sunporch and there is a ton of light from that, however I have only those 2 little windows in the dining room and NONE in the kitchen :(  So, I am thinking I need a big glass door leading to the sunporch to let in more light.  Like this one

Or this one:

I have a fabulous new table and 6 dining chairs in the garage awaiting a new coat of paint and some fabulous numbers....Oh spring, get here faster!!!!

Last, but not least.  I have already changed the lights in the dining room to my Pottery-Barn knock-off Bellora Chandeliers.  You can see them here .  Now my inspiration for the kitchen lights are these:

Kara over at Kara Pasley Designs made these Mason Jar Pendant Lights!!  Mr. TSL said he would help me with these!!  Oh how, I wish I had a huge window over my sink!

Okay, another last, but not least.  I love big farm sinks... always have always will.  I have been longing for one for-eva.  I found one on, you'll never guess, ...the suspense is killing you I know, wait for it.....CRAIGSLIST for $75.  Some rich snood picked then didn't like it...then I acquired it from said snood!   Woohoo!

She looks like this:

another pic

Of course mine isn't in quite yet, she is sitting in the garage with a towel saving the enamel from the radiator on top of her.


Make your life beautiful!
-Kari

The numbered dresser

I have seen some super cute ideas of dressers with numbers, like these:
This one is at Anthropologie :

Or this one that Layla at The Lettered Cottage redid:

So, I blatantly copied used their ideas for inspiration!

Audrey's dresser before:

Audrey's dresser after!

All done for FREE!! F-R-E-E that spells free, credit report dot com ba-by...sorry, now I bet that's in your head!

Make you life beautiful!

-Kari

Weird wall in the living room and a little raffia!

Our living room is very strangely shaped, which makes it more difficult to decorate. As you can see from this picture, there is a weird bump out from the HVAC unit that currently is a gigantic freakin eye sore!!! lives on the porch.

I originally put this up, just to have something there:

Then mom and I with the help of my dad to move the heavy stuff (Mr. TSL was gone to the store) rearranged the living room.  Now I look at the bump out more, so I went to Dollar General  and bought some frames($6-not bad for a matted 11x14) for my FAVORITE pictures!  Now it looks like this and I love it!

Those are my girls in daddy's hands at the hospital right after they were born! 

Next project!

I found this & at Hobby Lobby for $2.50!  Not a fan of the gold, so I wrapped her in raffia!

Before

After

Love it!!

Make your life beautiful!
-Kari

Stair Makeover Part 1

Our stairs and part of the wall next to the steps was covered in brown carpet....yuck!  I decided to pull it off with a little help on Monday.  I am not a fan of carpeted steps, although I am kind of nervous with the kids now hurting themselves on them. 

I hope for them to look like this when I get around to it:

These are over at Thrifty Decor Chick

These are my favorite, but with 3 kids, a dog, and a huge extended family (I love to entertain!).  I think they would be too much upkeep for me.  They are amazing though! Donna at Funky Junk Interiors

Mine looked like this before:

And now nekked :)

Not too bad, but it will be a while before I get to them!


-Make your life beautiful!
Kari

I HAVE BEEN FEATURED!!! Things that make me smile :)

If it seems as if I am yelling out of excitement you are right!!!  I am so excited :)  I was featured on Mary Berry Boutique! I am going to try to do this correctly, this is my first attempt at adding a link or adding a button!
http://maryberryboutique.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

Love it!!

Another project complete!
Our TV, DVD, and Wii wouldn't all fit on the entertainment center.  I could have put them in the entertainment center....but then the remote wouldn't work. So, I took an old school desk that was in the garage when we moved in (there are 3 hanging around here) turned it into my solution.

I cut it's legs off and the weird support piece with a hand saw...the saws-all was right below the hand saw.  Didn't notice it...oops!  Then I spray painted it black (only color I had) and drilled a hole for the cord to go through! Now it looks like this:

It's a little dusty, but it does the job and it was FREE!

Now a few things that make me smile:
This is one of the one billion many statues that was left for us by the previous owner.
I have named her Fran the sexy frog!

One more thing, I picked some laundry up off the floor and knocked over the space heater and this was peaking at me....oh, yes it's a smiley face in the carpet!

Make your life beautiful!
-Kari

Pair of Chairs Redo :)

I have to start out by saying I am in love with these chairs:

They are the cat's meow!!  I have longed for these for 4 years now and I can't commit to buying them because they are so highly priced!  I keep hoping someone stumbles upon them and hates them...sells them in their garage sale, and they come to live a long, well-loved life with me :)

Until then, you use what you have.  So, I took a pair of these chairs:

and turned them into this:

This will have to do until my dream chairs make their way to my home!


This weekend we were blessed with fantastic weather and a skid-steer!  Our huge garage is getting a much-needed concrete floor.  The workers asked if they could leave the skid-steer at our house over the weekend.  Mr. TSL said sure can you leave the keys.  (He knows how to drive one because he is a manly man, who knows how to work all things with a motor!!)  So our back yard area went from looking like this:

You can't tell, but the ground is completely uneven and had a drainage problem before and a strange row of dead trees and brush.  There were also 5 huge tractor tires filled with sand and random plants. I want to tell you all this, with love, TIRES ARE NOT A CLASSY PLANTER FOR ANY YARD!! I have big dreams for the sunporch, but for now this is the roof on it.  More to come on the sunporch ideas.
Now it looks like this:

Looks like mud and dirt, but I see what it will look like ;) 
 
Make your life beautiful
-Kari