dallas market design trends

Last week I took a trip to Dallas Market to check out this year's design trends, and I found just what I was hoping for: whites, neutrals, pastels, and a favorite from last year, indigo (sorry, Marsala). It was also all about layers of texture. Linen, natural and reclaimed wood, faux fur, and nubby knits to name a few. Here are a few of my favorite things:

Nicole and I having fun in the Studio A | Global Views showroom.

Give me that cobalt velvet sofa! A favorite at the Codarus Showroom.

These pastel chandeliers by Ro Sham Beaux were my favorite Market find.

I'm thinking the top right chandelier needs to find its new home in our dining room!

More wood, more texture!

The only bit of marsala I could find at my favorite spot in the Feizy showroom.

kitchen cabinet organization

The cabinets in our house are the originals from 1970. They were totally open on the inside which was an organizational nightmare. Everything just sort of had to be piled in, and when you wanted something in the back, you had to move everything out of the cabinets to get to what you needed. Getting new cabinets was not an option because we didn't want to over-renovate for the neighborhood, and there is no way we'd make back the cost of a completely new kitchen when we move in a few years. I'm pretty OCD when it comes to organization, so I set out on a search for an affordable solution to make the cabinets more livable. I found a bunch of options online and at the hardware stores, but the ones I found to work the best for me were the Elfa Easy-Glider Drawers. 

I loved that they were white mesh so I could see what was in them, but they still kept everything looking clean and organized. Most other systems I found were metal or wood, which would look messy or wouldn't match the newly painted white interiors of the cabinets.

This was before we had finished putting on our cabinet doors and after I had just unpacked. They're even more organized and functional now!

The Container Store is currently having their annual Elfa sale, so right now these drawers are a great deal. I wish I could have waited for this to purchase mine, but I was desperate to have functional cabinets!

To see our completed kitchen remodel, check out this post!

how we updated our kitchen cabinets

I've had a lot of questions about how we updated our kitchen cabinets, so I figured I would share in a blog post!

The truth is, I actually sat on it for awhile before figuring out what I wanted to do. I knew I didn't want to sand down and paint the cabinets as they were. The detailing on the front made them look dated and heavy, and they were going to be a nightmare to sand. I looked into possibly getting new doors, but quickly ruled that out due to cost - We're only staying in this house for a few years, so I didn't want to invest that kind of money on something where we wouldn't see a return. After thinking about it for a few weeks, it occurred to me that the detail was probably only an attached panel and not actually carved into the wood, so I had Charlie try to pry one off, and it worked!

At this point I thought they would be a breeze to sand since they were now flat and I only had to get around the edges, but I was so very wrong. They were painted with multiple coats of oil based paint, and since oil paint dries so hard, the sander wasn't making much of a dent. At this point I was pretty bummed because I try to avoid using paint stripper whenever possible. It smells, it's not very safe, and it's a mess to use. I checked out my options at Home Depot and found Citristrip, which was supposed to be a safer alternative to paint stripper, and decided to give it a try. 

I still used gloves during the application, but even when I accidentally got it on my skin it didn't burn. We were also excited that we didn't have to wear masks like we would if using other toxic strippers. We painted on a pretty think coat (I would describe it as the consistency of icing), and let it sit for about 30 minutes until it looked bubbly.

Going with the grain, use a paint scraper and most of it should come off in one swipe. If it doesn't come off easily, paint on another thick coat, let it sit, and then try again. The key is putting on a thick coat, and not letting it sit too long. We found if it sat too long it dried out too much and flaked off making it difficult to remove.

After removing most of the paint we still had a lot of residue, so we used odorless mineral spirits to clean it up, gave it a good sanding, and then it was ready for primer and paint. This was definitely a time consuming and messy process, but we were able to complete it in about 3 days. It will take a long time before you can convince me to do it again, but we saved thousands of dollars by refinishing the cabinets ourselves and not hiring the job out.

Here are a few tools that we found very useful in the process:

>> orbital sander <<

>> paint scraper <<

>> tack cloth <<

>> odorless mineral spirits <<

>> stripping gel <<

If you want to see our full kitchen update, make sure to check out yesterday's post!

project update: kitchen remodel

I last updated you on our kitchen back in June when it was still a hot mess. We are mostly finished with the first round of kitchen renovations, so I figured it was time to share some pictures!

After two months of waiting, our pantry door finally arrived. You can see how we updated and organized our pantry in this post.

I still need to paint underneath the cabinets where we removed some fluorescent lighting. I've been avoiding this because it is caked in grout from the tile we removed!

Our first DIY plumbing project was installing this faucet. I'm happy to report it was a success!

Still on our to-do list:

- update flooring

- new windows

- paint underside of cabinets where we removed lighting

- remove stick-on toe kick, replace with wood, paint to match cabinets

- remove blinds above sink window and replace with roman shade

- hanging plants in window above sink

- baseboards in pantry

- built-in island when we replace flooring

- create breakfast nook (post on this coming soon!)

1 >> delaney hardware cira polished chrome lever <<

2 >> cb2 bell white flush mount lamp <<

3 >> garden barstool in blue <<

4 >> ranarp pendant <<

5 >> danze amalfi faucet with spray in chrome <<

And just in case you need a reminder... this is where we started with this project! 

I'll be back later this week talking about the specific updates we made and how we did them on a fairly small budget!