Touch ups always take me forever!  I swear, painting a straight line with that tan wall paint took almost as long as installing the trim in the first place, but now there’s a nice sharp line between the cabinets and the walls on the left and right side of the kitchen.

After I finished all the touch ups and washed out my paintbrush, I stepped back and decided the kitchen was looking awfully white-washed.

Several months ago, we wrote a post about what we would change in our kitchen if we had the chance. One of the items on that list was adding a small open shelf somewhere so we could put pretty kitchen things and cookbooks on display. I can’t believe it took nearly four years of living in this house to realize it, but all we needed to do to create a cookbook shelf was take the doors off that cabinet above the sink!

You can see I couldn’t wait to “stage” our little shelf. I tried out the cookbooks with the doors open at first and, when we both liked the result, I got out the power drill and took down the doors.

Of course that meant getting the trim paint back out after patching and sanding over the hinge holes, but it was worth the effort!

Now it’s as if those doors never existed!

We were careful not to close the cabinet doors on either side of this shelf before the paint was fully cured.

Once it was dry, though, we happily shut the doors and admired the change. Is it silly that something as simple as a cookbook shelf can make me so happy?

As a little reminder, here’s where we left off last time…

And a few tweaks later, here’s our kitchen now!

Do you think the shelf was an improvement? We saved the cabinet doors in case we ever want to put them back on (or if we decide the kitchen needs more cabinet space when we sell our house), but I think the shelf draws the eye up and adds some fun color in our kitchen.

We’re getting closer to the end of the month, which means closer to new floors in this room!  We still want to replace the countertops and backsplash, but the kitchen is (happily) a far cry from how it looked the day we bought our house.

Quite the change, right?

Our inspiration came from photos like the ones below.  I love kitchens where the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling, so we decided to try to “fake it” with moulding and paint.

The first step was installing the crown moulding.  Stephen started by sketching out the corners and measuring the angles we’d need to cut with the miter saw.

We used a borrowed nail gun and air compressor to install the first board.

It turned out to be easiest to install the pieces facing out (towards our dining room) first and to then cut the side pieces to fit.

Using a miter saw made this process so much easier than our previous trim projects – remember that time I cut all the trim for Cara’s dining room by hand?  What was I thinking?!

Stephen did a great job for his first time installing crown moulding, and I filled in the gaps with caulk.

We installed crown along the ceiling and a small piece of trim just above the cabinets to hide a few gaps.

Next, it was time to paint!  It’s really ridiculous how many cans of paint it took just to add a little trim to our cabinets!

The first can of paint we opened was primer for the soffit.

Just painting the soffit with primer made such a difference in giving the illusion of height in our kitchen.

I added a few coats of cabinet paint over the next couple days.  Do you think the cabinets are looking taller?

Quite the difference from before, isn’t it?

Of course there’s still touch-up painting to do and we have a few other ideas we might try to improve the look of the kitchen even more, but we’re loving the change so far!

So did you guess we’d be using the crown moulding in our kitchen?

We’ll be back soon to share a few more tweaks we’re making and the total cost of this project.  Thanks for reading!

This is the type of math we’ve been doing!

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As anybody who has installed trim before knows, the angles and measurements can get kind of complicated.  Try that on a piece of trim that doesn’t lay flat against the wall (like crown molding), and you’ll be glad your miter saw has presets to make the math easier!

We’re not installing crown molding in the typical fashion, but we should have some photos to share with you very soon!  Any guesses where it’s going?

P.S. Happy Valentines Day everybody! I hope you enjoy your day – and remember, nothing says love like a little home improvement project!

And by huge, I mean 1800 sq ft huge.  We’re getting wood floors!

Katrina actually guessed our news after Monday’s post.  We’ve been talking about installing new flooring in our home since the day we bought it. Nearly four years later, a few things have happened to finally allow us to do it: 1) A better income 2) Paying off our second car 3) Deciding we didn’t have to do it ourselves.

Stephen and I stopped by our local Carpet One store on Friday to see what they had to offer.  We’ve been stalking the flooring in Lowe’s and Home Depot for years but had never been to a specialty flooring store (mostly because we didn’t want the sales pitch).

After looking at dozens of floor samples and talking about what we liked (me: medium tones, dark grain, wide planks; Stephen: gray tones, fainter grains, wide planks), our flooring guy, Kevin, introduced us to the [invincible.] line of engineered hardwood floors.

The key factor that made this brand the right choice for us?  They have a 50 year finish warranty!  That means that Miss Molly can play with her tennis ball inside the house as much as she wants and these floors are guaranteed not to scratch!

That fact alone was enough to sell us on the brand, so we brought some samples home to see how they looked in our house.  The decision once we saw them in our living room was easy – the one on the right!

We went with this medium brown tone (that wasn’t too red) instead of something darker because we hear it’s better for hiding dust and dirt.  It’s Caldwell Oak flooring in Antler Brown.  Lucky for us, that color was on sale (40% off) and since we’ll be covering more than 1000 sq ft, we got the 5″ planks for the same price per square foot as the 3″ ones.

Ready for a preview of how it’ll look in our house?  I was like a kid in a candy store hauling this sample all over Heardmont and taking pictures.  Here it is in our living room…

Under our dining room table… I love how the dark dining room furniture pulls out the dark knots and grain of the wood.

I even mocked up the sample with a bit of baseboard in our hallway.  I think I’m almost as excited about having all white trim in our house as I am about the new floors.

But the fun doesn’t end there.  While we were at Carpet One, we figured, what the heck, why not look at carpet samples while we’re at it?

Just take a look at how plush the carpet sample we brought home was compared to our shaggy living room turf.  We knew when we moved in that the “new” carpet in our house was the least expensive stuff on the market, but I hadn’t realized how badly worn our carpet was until I compared it to this sample.

I couldn’t even dig my fingers down to the backing on the new stuff!  It has a 25 year texture warranty, which means that it won’t get thinner in high traffic areas and is guaranteed to spring back even after being smushed under a heavy piece of furniture for years.

We had Kevin give us a rough quote on the cost of just the hardwoods and then one with the carpet added in.  Since we’ll be spending a big chunk on the wood, he was able to give us their highest quality carpet (Lee’s) for our master bedroom and guest room at the advertised price per square foot and included the top quality pad and installation for free.  Kind of a no-brainer at that point!

We chose the lightest colored carpet sample (on the right in the photo below) because we wanted the carpet to read as a neutral element in the bedrooms.

I still can’t believe that four years later, we are finally going to have cohesive flooring in this place.  It’s going to feel like a completely different house!

The best part about the process was that once we decided to do it, we found out that the timeline for installation is very short.  We officially ordered our flooring Monday, and if all goes according to plan, the wood will be delivered to our house today and installation will start on Monday.

It should take 3-4 days for the crew to finish the wood floors, and by that time, the carpet will have arrived and will be installed a week from today.  By this time next week we could (should) have all new floors.

Cross your fingers that all goes well between now and then.  I can’t wait to share all the details along the way and final before and after photos when it’s all done!  Eeek!

Update: We just found out that the wood floors are back-ordered at the warehouse until the end of the month. :-/  I guess now we can purchase and paint all new baseboards at our leisure instead of trying to get them done this weekend, right?  We’ll be sure to update as the floor project progresses!

The mid-century credenza we found for the entryway looked great, but as you saw a few days ago, that piece just made its way into our living room as well.

So why does every piece of entryway furniture end up in our living room?

Turns out that both of these pieces were a little too deep for this space, where the front door essentially opens to a wall.  In theory either console should have been fine, but neither gave quite enough clearance for greeting or saying goodbye to guests comfortably at our front door.  (Or even for entering with a backpack or bag of groceries!)

So now the question becomes, what do we put on our entryway wall?  And how do we choose a piece that won’t get relegated to another part of the house in the near future?

I think the key is to find a piece that is less than 16″ deep.  It should probably be leggy (to give a sense of open space) and have drawers or a shelf for a bit of storage.  Since it’s the first thing people will see when they walk into our house, we’re hoping to find something that says “Hi, we’re the Heards and THIS is our style” the minute you walk through our front door.

Any of the above tables could work – with or without a coat of paint.  A couple of them are actually build-it-yourself projects, so what we choose will depend a little bit on how brave we feel about tackling actual woodworking.  I’m not necessarily sold on any of them, but we’re getting closer to finding the perfect piece.

I’ve started gathering inspiration for the overall feel of our entryway on Pinterest.  There are a few styles that definitely jump out at us: these next few images all fall into the “graphic” category.

I love the patterned walls and rugs and overall black and white color schemes.  The entry is an area where I’ve struggled to bring in color, so one solution would be to embrace the grays and bring in contrast instead of color.

But there’s still the painted and colorful option for our entry table.  I have loved the green dresser in the first image below since the minute I saw it, but any of the colors used on the pieces below would work with the color scheme in the adjoining rooms.

Do you have a favorite piece or style of furniture from the images above?  Any suggestions for unique entry pieces I could find locally or online?  I’m hitting up Craigslist pretty regularly looking for just the right piece, but no luck so far.  Cross your fingers we’ll find the right piece soon!

(First four photos above are mine; click on any other to be taken to its source!)

Stephen and I had a crazy week (classes and contracts for me and a mid-week trip to Little Rock for him), so it was nice to have a weekend to relax.  I figured it was a great opportunity to snap some living room photos to share how our house is looking after all the recent furniture moving

For awhile, the leather couch that had been in Stephen’s office was just chillin’ at the back of our living room…

… and the window area where our loveseat had been was looking a little spare with just a chair and end table.

As a temporary solution, we decided to try the leather couch by the windows instead.  If we decide to keep the couch around for awhile, we might consider a white or cream slipcover to keep this side of the room light.

Another new addition to the room?  The console table from our entryway.  The area behind our couch was a little empty, but adding this piece has turned out to be a really functional solution.  Another plus, it’s the perfect dimensions for behind our couch (it was always a little too deep for the entryway).

Here’s the view looking over the console towards our backyard.  The addition of the bookcases and console have turned the back half of our living room into our own little library area.

You’ll remember this corner of the living room from when I made that new springy pillow cover.  I found this rectangular pillow cover (Pier 1) in my craft closet the other day and realized it would look great on this chair.  What do you think?

Here’s a close-up shot of the top of our console.  I found these brass cranes at a thrift store a couple years ago.  Ever since then, I’ve been seeing them everywhere.  The principal on Glee has these exact cranes in his office!

After a bit more tweaking, I decided to add the lamps from our entryway back on top of the console.  They don’t actually turn on yet (gotta figure out the power cord situation), but they just look cute up there!  The couch is long enough that a pair of chairs fit on either side of the console as well.

So that’s the latest on how our living room is looking these days.  Stay tuned though… Stephen and I made a huge decision this weekend that is going to mean great things for our living room AND the rest of our house!  I can’t wait!  Yippee!

A few weeks ago, Stefanie from Brooklyn Limestone asked us to participate in her Conquered Closets series.  We’re #2 in the lineup, and I can already tell this is a series you won’t want to miss!

Click on over to Brooklyn Limestone (one of my long-time favorites) to see our master closet make its Big Apple debut.

If you’re new to our slice of blogland, WELCOME!!  You can check out many of our other house projects by clicking on the room titles on the right side bar or by clicking on the House Tour tab above.  We’re glad you’re here!

A huge thanks to Stefanie for asking us to participate in this series.  Now go check out all the closet inspiration at Brooklyn Limestone!

Ever since Stephen started working from home, we’ve slowly been tidying up and rearranging furniture in his office. This is probably the least-photographed room in our home, so I figured a trip down memory lane was in order.

The first time you saw this room, we were calling it the Man Room.  The walls were off-white just like the rest of our house and Stephen had just ripped out the carpet to make rolling his music equipment in and out much easier.

You might remember the huge yard sale we had and how we used the proceeds to buy new laminate flooring for the space.  The leather couch you see in the photo below was a BEAST to move to this room at the very end of our very long hallway.

We added a coat of paint and started working on the trim.  At that time, playing music and song-writing were the most popular activities in this room, so we started calling it The Studio.

I remember how excited we were to share this photo (even though the quality is awful) because we’d finally finished installing the new trim and painting it glossy black.

It took me over a year to find the right fabric for window treatments in this room (from Ikea).  Stephen requested roman shades, so after a lot of online tutorial-reading, I got to work.

Over the past couple years, the Man Room became a Studio, which slowly became an Office, but it was really just a catch-all space for stuff.

When we found out Stephen might be working from home, it was time to officially make this room an office he could use 5 days a week.  We decided to get rid of everything that wasn’t working in the space.  I took these photos when we started clearing the room to move furniture.  It wasn’t really this messy, but messy rooms make for great before-and-afters, right?

Stephen’s dad bought him the black bookcase below when he moved off campus and into his first apartment six years ago.  It was time to get rid of the bookcase, but I think six years is a very respectable lifespan for a cheapie college bookcase!

When we shared that Couch City photo last week, Stephen had just moved the huge leather couch out of his Office to make room for the smaller leather loveseat.  I couldn’t believe he moved that couch all by himself and didn’t make any huge dents in the walls during the process.

After a lot of cleaning, donating, and moving, here’s a glimpse at the Office as it looks today.  What a huge difference, right?

The room is still very much a work in progress, but for now at least it functions much better than it did before.  Stephen found his desk chair, a Herman Miller Aeron Chair (which retails for over $1000), on Craigslist for $75!!  The small folding table will probably be replaced with another desk component down the line, but it works as a blueprint station for now.

Beyond the desk area is a small sitting area.  The scale of our leather loveseat is much better in this room, and we moved the mid-mod leather chair and ottoman from our living room into this space.  We actually just spent several hours listing to records on this side of the room last night.

It’s been fun sharing the metamorphosis in this room.  There’s still furniture to be painted, a popcorn ceiling to be scraped, and a new rug to buy, but we’re inching closer and closer to a home office Mr. Heard will love!

What do you think of our changes so far?

We’ve been fiddling around with our new Ikea bookshelves lately and wanted to show you the results so far.  Once the bookcases were built and we’d determined the shelf spacing we wanted, we brought out all our books and accessories and started filling them up.  Here are a few shots of the process (excuse the poor night-time lighting!).

This stage took a lot of trial and error to see what looked best on which shelf.  I was totally shocked to see how much shelf space we had leftover after bring out stacks and stacks of books.

I originally wanted to display our globe on the top of the shelves, but after seeing it in place it just looked awkward.  Maybe someday we’ll have a globe collection on top of those shelves, but not today!

We worked and swapped and fiddled until we came up with this arrangement.  Since the shelves have stayed like this for a few days, I think we’re both happy with this setup for now.  Later down the line, I’d like to add some baskets and natural textures to break up all that color.

The shelves are filled with a mix of novels, non-fiction books, textbooks, art, photographs, and accessories.  Since we don’t have enough books to fill every shelf, it was nice to get to add some personality and height-variation with the accessories.

This is probably my favorite shelf: a piece of art handmade by Mr. Heard, three new design books (The Domino Book of Decorating is AMAZING, by the way) and a cute white ceramic vase.

The right-hand bookcase is the one I think of as Stephen’s bookcase, since it was where most of the books from his office ended up.  I love how the colors came together in this section with the yellows, greens, and reds.  The line of neutral books on that third shelf was a nice break from the primary colors, too.

Instead of showing all the spines of our Chronicles of Narnia series, I turned the box so the image on the side was showing.  It’s easy for bookshelves to start to look busy, so this was one way to break things up a bit.

These are the shelves that may still see some tweaking.  I’m thinking about turning the really mis-matched books 180 degrees so just the pages are showing.  That might give us another break from the color overload going on here.  Can bookshelves get too colorful? I think ours are getting there.

Once the shelves were somewhat organized, we were left with a gap on the end of the wall by our sliding glass door.

Luckily we had a chair to fill the spot.  I’m thinking a small floor lamp or hanging pendant over this chair would create a cute little reading nook.

So that’s where were are with the bookshelves.  I definitely have a greater appreciation now for designers who can make bookshelves look completely effortless and organic. Believe it or not, it takes a lot of work!

Have you tried staging shelves before?  Was it harder than it looked?

In between studying and working, we’ve been doing a little furniture moving.  Here’s a place I like to call Couch City (formerly known as our living room) that we visited a few days ago.

Lots happening in this photo – a preview of our new bookshelves, evidence that I really am working on math-y stuff, and couches getting moved from one room to another (and possibly back again).  I know it’s not our typical “look at this pretty thing we made” post, but this is sometimes how our real life looks.

Here’s to a relaxing weekend, spending time with friends, and great things in the week to come!  Happy Friday and thanks for reading.