casa good life: house tour the kitchen!

Concluding the house tour of the main floor of our home is our kitchen... I posted pictures of the kitchen a while back when we first completed major renovations on it (like ripping out the old kitchen and starting fresh), so today's photos aren't anything too new (but if you want to see really gross before pictures... then go ahead! (; ).

We did change the paint color (I really wanted an all white main floor, the color is Dove White by Benjamin Moore) and I love the subtle change it made to the room. It took the kitchen from being a little on the masculine side with the dark cabinets to a more bright and neutral space. Beyond the paint color we added the peninsula (I actually call it an "island" but it's not...).  This was a TOTAL last minute decision and was actually one of the renovations that we made that was the smartest so far in this whole house.  It was a total lightbulb moment for my husband and I and now we can't imagine our house without it.  It serves as a breakfast bar for the kids, almost doubles our cabinet storage (I know! Small kitchen problems!) and drastically improves the overall flow of the main floor.

Let's get to the pictures!  In the picture below you can see it in the foreground there with two stools.  This area used to be a very small eating area (seen in this post).  We simply picked up a few new IKEA cabinets to match the ones we already had (which was a complete fiasco, but ended well! whew!), had an electrician move the light fixture to center above the work surface nicely and called the granite company for more granite (which they thankfully had a remnant of hanging around).  It really was quite simple, but there were a few snafu's along the way. So it goes with home renovations!

I took some wifely liberties with the "for like ever" print in the kitchen. But I love it... and I think my husband either ignores it or it's growing on him.  For the most part he and I completely agree on style and design, but sometimes he does say he feels like he just has to trust me, this was one of those moments! I felt like the house was getting a little serious with all the wood and white and black that I wanted something a little whimsical for this wall.  I think this print fits the bill perfectly!

The open shelving is one of the first renovations we made to the kitchen... and it still is one of my favorite features. The glasses rotate with my moods... glassware is one of my favorite things.  People ask if these are really the glasses we use or if they are just for show - um, in a kitchen this small, nothing is for show! We use these glasses everyday (I have pretty much banished any type of plastic cup in my house, even for my kids) and yes they break sometimes (usually by me more than the kids) and then I just keep a few spare in the basement or buy more (usually the cheap stuff from Target).

I have this thing with art that I don't know what I really like so I am wary to invest in it. Instead I often work to find DIY options like below (or like the feathers in my dining room).  One of these is just clip art I printed out and one was me testing paint colors with watercolors.  Someday I may just purchase some amazing art for my kitchen, until then... these will do in my opinion!

Below you can see a shot of how the kitchen sits in relation to the rest of the house and how it flows with the dining/living room area.  It's one big room and we spend all our time here as a family. It's cozy and small (our main floor clocks in at a cool 700 square feet - small for a family of four these days in the 'burbs) but really feels like home these days. (and yes, the peninsula still needs trim - as does the whole main floor... it's all still a work in progress!).

So that's it! My office, the living room & dining room and now the kitchen and that is pretty much our whole main floor (we also have a little powder room that has gotten a face lift in the process, but that is a hard room to photograph)! I hope you enjoyed the tour! 

see you around...

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casa good life: living room and dining room!

I'm back today with some more photos of my home here on the blog!  As I mentioned earlier (see my office tour here), when we remodeled our main floor part of the changes included switching up the floor plan a bit. This entire room used to be considered just the living room but with the room being so long and narrow it was hard to fully take advantage of the space.  We had previously had a very small eating area off of the kitchen but it could only provide room enough for a small round table to seat four. Not exactly enough room for a family or any guests for that matter.  So we split the long and narrow living room into two areas: a living area AND a nice big dining area.

As you can see below the space splits in half with the fireplace and the dining area is to the right while the living area is to the left.  This area used to have carpet and the new wood floors make this open plan  an obvious set up and easy to pull off (plus, I wouldn't have wanted carpet in the dining room, it just wouldn't have worked before).

The sofa is a KIVIK from IKEA and previously was split into a love seat and a chaise, but for this floor plan we put them together along the wall. (that is the awesome thing about the KIVIK, it can be added on to or taken apart like legos!).  No one can ever believe that we have a white sofa, but I absolutely love it. Yes, the kids (and me!) get it dirty, but it wipes clean easily or the covers can go in the wash.  And I have to admit that I am guilty of buying new white covers from time to time too (they are super cheap!).  My husband is always bugging me to get darker covers from IKEA but I just don't think it would work in this room. (the throw pillows are Home Goods, the shearling throw is IKEA and the plaid blanket is from Old Navy, the coffee table is a craigslist find).

Another change we made to the living area was to put the tv above the fireplace. We had an electrician put a cable/power outlet above the fireplace and then I did a few magic tricks to get the cords to disappear!  The power strip is plugged in and placed on top of the mounting bracket behind the tv and the cable and apple tv boxes are stuck with 3M strips to the wall just behind the tv so that the remotes still work, but so you can't see them. Brilliant!  The mantle is simply an IKEA Lack shelf.

Here the bar cart & pillows are from Target, the animal head is from Home Goods, the chairs are IKEA and again this coffee table (one of my favorite pieces) is a craigslist find.  I do EVERYTHING at home on a budget knowing that my family will be "living" in the space and that is what my budget allows. 

I was like a kid in a candy store when I realized we could get a BIG table for the living room area.  This table is from World Market (watch the sales, I think I got this one for only $400).  I love that it can seat six or more because I really love to entertain. So far this table has stood up to the kids' use and spills etc.  It's one of my favorite pieces!

The chairs are overstock.com, the light is West Elm, the rug is IKEA.  The framed feathers always get a lot of comments. My kids found them at the park a few summers ago with their sitter, I instantly wanted to frame them! They are so huge and cool looking. I later found out they are wild turkey feathers, which we have a lot of in this area. So they aren't exactly rare, but they sure are cool! Plus, they are basically free art!

The chest below is an antique store purchase, the wooden bowl is from Home Goods, the chalkboard is a curbside find - I found the frame and DIY'd the chalkboard and the racoon head I found on clearance at Anthropologie awhile back.

Really the only NEW things we bought for this space was the light fixture, the table, a few more chairs (I already had four at my old table) and the bar cart.  It's amazing what a little white paint and new floors can do to dramatically change the look and feel of my home.  It made all the furniture I already owned look and feel new!

I hope you enjoyed this peek into my home!

see you around...

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casa good life: my office!

One of the things that you gals have said over and over is that you want to see some pictures of my home now that we have done some major renovations.  And I hope to deliver that to you over the coming weeks! Starting today with my office!

If you follow me on Instagram (user: JillGG) you know that we have done a lot of work to our main floor this past fall.  We painted the entire main floor white (!!!) and then ripped out the old carpet and laminate floors that were peeling and gross and replaced them with hardwoods and then added a little island/peninsula in our kitchen which reconfigured the floor plan of our open plan home.

In the process, my office (which is a front room/bonus room) got a complete makeover as well.  Previously my office just never worked for me, no matter what layout or furniture I chose (most of which was hand-me-downs - now I see why) it was never inspiring or organized.  And since I spend every morning in here I really wanted something that not only was practical and efficient, but it also needs to hold my kids art supplies and few toys seeing as when they are around they want to be in here with me.  But mostly I wanted something that was simple and GORGEOUS!  I wanted to be inspired when I came in here to work.

I didn't have a huge budget nor did I really want to spend a lot of money.  The desk is actually a dining room table from IKEA and having it floating opened up the wall behind it for (almost) wall to wall IKEA bookcases.  I have TONS of books that I love to see displayed and then office supplies like staplers and paperclips are stored in baskets.  Family photos and our growing collection of National Geographic magazines are also stored neatly away.  At some point I would like to really style and have some fun with these shelves but I want to live with them for a while too. I find living in a space for a while inspires me about how to use it best.  Organization comes with experience.

My splurge for the room was the cow skin rug (also from IKEA) - not that it was that expensive ($199, I think) but that it's a little indulgent looking, no? So far it has proved easy to vacuum and it holds up well to the kids tramping all over it.  Besides those three major things (desk/table, bookcases, rug) the other items in the room I already owned and pulled from other rooms or they were no longer being used and were temporarily in the basement.

The campaign dresser was a $50 Craigslist find several years ago.  It was previously in the living room with the tv above it, but when we moved the tv above the fireplace this beauty needed a new home.  It holds TONS of kids toys, art supplies, entertaining supplies and office needs in it's huge drawers and I find that the more beat up it becomes the better I like it.  I would love to get a mirror top for it - someday!

The lamps used to be in our bedroom and this past summer I got new ones there so these guys needed a new home. I love them to pieces, they just didn't work in our bedroom.  The lamps were a Home Goods find several years ago.  The art work was a diy I did a few years ago and used to be in our bedroom but no longer fit there when we got our new bed last winter so I saved it in the basement and was so happy to pull it out again.  I'm not a great diy-er, but I do love this piece.

It's a quite simple room, I would love to add a new chair at some point (this one is second hand from Room & Board) - but I want to wait until I find the perfect one that I can't live without!  In the meantime, this chair I borrowed from my kids' desk/work area in the basement and it fits in perfect. Again, sometimes you really have to live in a space to get a feel for what the space needs.  The antlers and milk glass jar are both antique finds. 

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my home! I hope to feature more of our renovations soon!

casa good life: my (updated) closet!

Waaaay back when I did a post on my closet and how I organized it.  You guys loved this post and to this day I still think it is in the top 3 posts ever for this blog.  But then my closet got really full, really messy and I was completely frustrated with it.  I researched a million options, searched Pinterest for hours on end for ideas (of which there seemed to be very few for a small walk in closet) and in the end settled on a pretty inexpensive (I think I paid $350 or less on supplies/furniture) and MUCH needed renovation plan.

I will also say my husband and I did this in about 24 hours - not recommended, but we did it.  I wanted to share my closet again on the blog for a lot of reasons.  The first being when I went to find inspiration I had a hard time finding it... so here is yours and the second being that this blog has always shown the evolution of my style and it makes sense to have it feature the evolution of my closet too, right? Also I know that the internets are nosey (heck, so am I!) so I think you gals will like this post! Here is the final product... click through below to get all the details!

home tour Saturday... updating my desk!

My office area of the house is in limbo right now... it used to look like this with double desks for the kids and I.  We are also working on our basement family room and those double desks went downstairs for now.  We have had an old, old Marshall Fields & Co roll top secretary hanging around forever. My parents were going to get rid of it  many years ago, so I snagged it. It's really really big so we have always had a hard time with where in the house to put it but I am working on incorporating it into my office because I could use the desk space and because it's all that's left for me to use!

It really is gorgeous but being very old it's a little worn down.  The drawers were a mess (literally and literally) after years of use and after I just threw my stuff in here quickly a few weeks back.

At Target this week I found this great herringbone wrapping paper on clearance for $2.50 and I knew instantly it would make a great lining for the drawers on the desk.

I will feature more pictures of the full desk once this space comes together better... but here is a before and after and DIY on a simple way to update the drawers in your desk!

I simply measured the drawers and used a straight edge to cut the paper to size.  It feels like a new desk when I open the drawers (which I used to dread doing for fear of what was inside!).  I think I may do this with my dresser drawers too as I am using a vintage dresser right now.  It's so simple!

home tour saturday...

We have been working on our little abode tirelessly for the past 13 months.  And I don't blog about it much, but our home is finally becoming what we always dreamed it would be.  My husband and I are the perfect team as he does all the heavy lifting (read: work) and I do all the planning and fluffing (read: next to nothing).

Last winter it was the kitchen (you can see that here)... then this past spring we did the kids' bathroom.  Yes, that was like 9 months ago.  Right now we are working on the master bath which should be done in just a few weeks.  In the meantime I thought I would bring you the kids' bath before and after!

This was the horrible before (I didn't snap the photos before my husband took the doors off, so it's really more of a during)... that is actually really embarrassing!

We definitely bought this house for it's location and potential. The bathroom had literally started falling apart, the water on the shower would only go hot (not safe for little kids!), the sink faucet would rotate (even thought it wasn't meant to be that way) and when we pulled out the toilet we found that it had been slowly leaking (not much, but still, not good).

My plan for the bathroom was punchy but sub-dued. I wanted it to seem youthful and vibrant for the kids, but also something that fit the vibe of our whole house and something that I didn't mind looking at myself (the kids bathroom is at the top of the stairs and basically the first thing you see when you walk up the stairs).  The room is not staged or overly fluffed for photos, we use it everyday and I just snapped these photos with my iPhone. So this is more of a "real life" home tour! Here is the finished product!

The walls are "Phlox" by Martha Stewart. Since this room has no natural light the color is a bit off in the photos, I would say it is a lighter and dustier lavender than shown. It certainly doesn't scream "purple" when you walk in.

The farmhouse sink I had my eye on from the start, it was a steal ($299 I think?) from a local discount warehouse.

The white carrara marble floors were a risk but at only $3 (I think) a square foot from Home Depot the price was right and they are GORGEOUS! They clean up great and so far no stains or problems at all, which in my book is success with the kids using this bathroom.

The toilet I am in love with... who knew a toilet could be so 'cute'.  It's compact and simple and perfect for a small bathroom (plus it doesn't go all the way to the wall, which makes cleaning around it easier).  I believe that is Delta too... from Home Depot.

The faucets and towel bars are Delta from amazon.com (this one).

The artwork is from amazon.com also (similar ), I wanted something in here for art that was fun and colorful but also meaningful (I have this weird obsession with meaningful art).  This print of Chicago is perfect not because it used to be my hometown, but because I think it perfectly captures an idea of a fun summer as well (and who doesn't love summer?).

The shower curtain is Target, as are the small square (loved they were square) bath mats and the bins underneath the sink for toiletries and towels are Container Store.

The mirror is Martha Stewart from Home Depot.

My hope is still to get a small floating shelf for above the toilet for a small plant, but I haven't found the perfect one yet (I'm SUPER indecisive about home decor - something actually has to literally SPEAK to me before I can justify buying it - I'm near impossible.)

My goal budget for the whole thing was $1500. I think we were closer to $1800 but I absolutely love it!  We obviously saved tons of money by having my husband do all the work (he is seriously such a trooper!) so for that I am so thankful.

How to organize your closet (in a meaningful way!)!!!

One of the most popular posts to date here on good life has been the post from about a year and a half ago featuring my closet.  You can find the post here - and in it you will find (amongst blurry pictures) lots of tips and tricks on how I organize my closet.

This past weekend my husband (yes, you read that right) helped me purge my closet.  First of all, let me  say it wasn't planned or even on my radar of things to do.  But I feel about a million times lighter this morning after it is all done and over.  While the previous closet post was mainly geared towards how to organize a closet... this post is going to be about the process of purging or "making under" (as Jess would say) your closet.  This post is about how to organize your closet to bring it back to a place where it completely reflects you and your life.  And let me tell you - this is an amazing feeling!

This whole closet over haul started with a dare from my husband to get rid of (donate) three pairs of shoes.  I needed to take the existing shelf out of my closet, the one holding all the shoes, and put two smaller shelves in it's place.  My husband was helping me move furniture and we quickly realized that the new shelves in the closet would make the closet appear bigger, but would actually serve as less storage space.  I resented it and found three pairs of shoes to get rid of.  Then I realized how good that felt - why was I holding on to those shoes that didn't fit me great, didn't fit my lifestyle, or that I didn't even really like any more?  Seriously? Why? I couldn't answer that question.  I think some of it had to do with the fact that as a "style blogger" I was nervous that my closet wasn't GOOD enough.  (Or that, gasp, even I wasn't good enough)  So I thought - if I have plenty of shoes (and clothes and purses and belts)... well... that makes me something. Right?  Wrong.

After the shoes we moved on to clothes (which I had already recently purged, but found I needed to do again), to scarves, to jewelry/accessories, to belts and to handbags.  In the end I probably emptied over half of what was in my closet.  I bagged it up and sent it all to the Salvation Army.

My husband was seriously my guide in this project (because I do think you need accountability when doing an overhaul to this extent).  He asked me some really great questions and I got down to the nitty gritty with asking myself questions too.  And my answers were kind of lame.

• When was the last time you wore that? (um, I can't remember)
• When is the next time you will wear that? (uh, I don't know!)
• Does that fit you? (kinda?!)
• Does that piece make you feel good? (not recently)
• Does that piece fit your lifestyle? (I was keeping old suits from when I worked outside of the home - no!)
• Is this piece a part of your future or your past? (whoa! good one! A lot of pieces I realized had nothing to do with the current direction of my life)
• Would you re-buy this piece today? (errrr, no)

As I look to start my fall shopping (and shopping for the rest of my life)... it is my goal to make wise investments on clothing pieces that I know I will love and cherish and that hopefully in 6-12 months from now I will look back on and say "Yes, I would buy that again!" or "Yes, that was worth the money!" or "Yes, that piece made me look and feel great this year!"

My husband also had one really great point at the end of the whole project... after I had vacuumed and dusted and cleaned and put everything back in the closet just so - he said: "Now think of how great this closet looks now... when you go shopping ask yourself: 'Is this piece worthy of entering this beautiful and inspired place I have created for myself?' " - Whoa, right!? (he's a keeper!)  So I technically consider the closet pictures from the previous post as my "before" and these photos below as the "after".

In the end... there is still plenty of shoes, purses and clothes in my closet. I didn't "sacrifice" anything that I loved.  This over haul has given me permission to invest in new pieces that I love in seasons to come that follow the direction of my life.  It gives me permission to replace things that I once loved that are worn out (there was quite a few instances of this with worn out shoes).  And even better it gives me a pure view of my wardrobe.  The items I loved were being overwhelmed by the items I didn't love giving me a "I don't have anything to wear" problem every time I walked into my closet.  Now I walk in and feel inspired and invigorated by my clothing choices.  I don't feel guilty looking at pieces I haven't worn in a while or at shoes that are falling apart. I just feel freedom to look and feel my best!

casa good life: my new kitchen!

As promised I am finally bringing you all pictures of our newly remodeled kitchen!  This was our BIG 2012 project and it's been really fun to see the progress of the whole project and our dreams of a new kitchen finally come true.

When we bought this house 5 years ago we loved the location, but the interior left much to be desired.  The house is fairly new (built in 1997) but the finishes were straight from 1980.  They were cheap and in many instances falling apart.  So fixing them was ultimately for cosmetic reasons, but the longer we lived here it turned more into a necessity as well.

I really have to hand it to my husband who single handedly (alright, I may have leant a helping hand once or twice) completed this entire project.  (except for the granite - that is the one thing we hired out)  He stayed up late, came home from work early, googled plumbing issues and basically did whatever he had to do to get the old kitchen out and the new kitchen up and running asap.

Here are quick and dirty before (shield your eyes on the befores... it's BAD!) and afters... and if you are the house-nerd type that likes WAY to many details (like me) follow after the jump for more pictures and details and my thoughts on living (well! very well!) in a very small kitchen!

ugghhh! (I don't even like showing these pictures!)

Ta da... 

Okay... click "read more" for lots more details!

you're never fully dressed without a bauble!

I think I have shown you my little "bauble station" here on the blog before.  Basically it's just the top of my dresser in my bedroom.  Here I display all my current/favorite baubles and finishing touches (watches, perfume, nail polish as color inspiration)... but recently it had gotten completely out of hand. Everything was piled on top of each other and was getting dusty and buried. I'll let the photos speak for themselves... it was a mess!  There were so many great pieces... but they were completely impossible to see much less be inspired by...

So I stripped everything off the dresser and dusted everything...

Click through to see it all finished!