a little bit to celebrate

As of today I can finally say the major construction (and dust) is behind us, and we're now able to start focusing on finishing rooms. We have lots and lots of painting left, and then I can start getting in and really decorating the rooms. I can happily say that our living room and kitchen are finally useable, and to celebrate, Charlie brought me home my favorite flowers. Here are two peeks of our living and kitchen:

Of course, I'll be posting full reveals as soon as they're ready!

stylish succulents

I'm a total plant fanatic, and while I've become pretty good at keeping most alive (even the finicky fiddle leaf fig), one thing I just can't seem to get to thrive are succulents. I absolutely adore them, and they are supposedly difficult to kill, but I definitely kill them every. single. time. I'm determined to teach myself how to take care of them, but until then, I'll just stare at these pretties for some inspiration:

via Best Friends for Frosting

via From Etzer With Love

via Jen Lauren Grant

via

Etsy via Sadie and Mac

Remember my pineapple post? Love the idea of this pineapple vase with a succulent inside!

Do you have any special tips for getting succulents to survive? I'd love to hear any advice you have!

on my radar: pineapple decor

I love the idea of using pineapples to bring a bit of summer into your space. 

 via This is Glamorous

 via Mimosa and Monroe

via Ninas Deco

Here are a few of my favorite picks that I've rounded up for you:

1| Black pineapple print by MadeByGirl

2| Rifle Paper Co. for Hygge & West pineapple wallpaper

3| Pineapple Jar from Zara

4| Pineapple planter from Anthropologie

5| KNAPPSAV pineapple pillow from Ikea

project: kitchen

Another mini-update for this week - our kitchen! There wasn't anything particularly wrong with the kitchen when we purchased the house other than a few issues with lighting and the finishes weren't really our style. We're saving up for a total kitchen redo later down the road, so for now we have just made a few changes to make it more "us".

Here is a before shot:

Here it is in progress:

We've updated the lighting with new pendants and recessed LED's. The old lighting was so oddly placed and dim, I'm not quite sure how no one managed to change it in over 40 years! We've also upgraded all of our appliances to stainless steel (wall oven is being installed soon), and modified the cabinets for a new range hood. The cabinets were sanded down and painted Stonington Gray by Benjamin Moore and we replaced the backsplash with subway tiles in a herringbone pattern. 

I still hate that floor, but you don't notice it as much now that everything isn't all beige. We still need to finish tiling the backsplash, install our new island (you can see the layout of this taped on the floor), finish sanding and painting all of the doors and drawers, paint the walls, trim and ceiling white, and update cabinet hardware. 

Just in case you're wondering, our living and dining room are still a complete disaster! I'll be sharing the progress on these areas just as soon as I can get in there. We're now on week two of not having a laundry room, and I think I'm about to have to break down and visit a laundromat soon... say it isn't so!

UPDATE: You can check out our finished kitchen in this post, and see how we updated our cabinets in this post!