The Perfect Neutral Area Rug... So Far!

[A little PSA for my blog readers: This year, Amazon Prime Day is on July 11, but they have great deals starting on July 10. Not an Amazon Prime member? You can sign up for a free trial here!]

While we have yet to find the perfect new living room furniture (hence the lack of seating shown in the photos below), I just had to share an update about the area rug we recently got to help define our living area. I wanted a neutral rug that wasn't too light (we have two dogs) but yet not so dark that it blends in with the recently-installed luxury vinyl plank floor.

After much searching online and in a few stores, we finally decided to go with this 7x7 Safavieh Hudson Shag Collection Grey and Ivory Moroccan Ogee Plush Area Rug. I really appreciated their variety of size options in both square and round. It was tempting to go with the ivory color for contrasting with our dark floor, but practicality won out and we opted for grey. 

The rug also had some pretty stellar reviews on Amazon, and now I can see why. It's super soft and plush, and the grey color has just a hint of brown which adds some warmth. The ivory pattern and the ever-so-slight sheen also make it contrast beautifully with our floor.

Main Floor Renovation: The Walls Come Tumbling Down

Where do I even start... Somehow, it's already been more than three months since my last post. But really, is anyone surprised by that? It's kind of been my track record for the past couple years.

By golly though, I'm determined to get this blog caught back up with all our ongoing home remodeling projects. Let's backtrack to something I've skipped over until now, but it's actually been one of the most integral parts of our entire main floor renovation.

It actually started last May. As in, May of 2016. This is when we took down some [non-load-bearing] walls. Actually, my husband and my father-in-law did most of this demo work one weekend while I was out of town (and I was okay with that). 

First, here are a few before pictures of the space with walls. As you can see, our living room and dining room were disjointed and a bit claustrophobic. (Although, we did do our best to improve the situation by creating this window opening when we moved into the house.)

Farmhouse Kitchen Sink Update (Part I)

It's been awhile since I posted last about our kitchen, so I figured an update is long overdue. With that said, my piecemeal blogging efforts lately are pretty representative of how this whole renovation process is going!

While we did get the butcher block countertops installed on one side of our kitchen, the counters for the other side have been on hold until we get the new farmhouse sink in.  And that was on hold until we got a new base cabinet built to hold it. 

Let me rewind, as this tends to get confusing quickly. Here's a look at our old setup with the standard stainless steel sink (say that five times fast!) and the higher countertop. 

So we pretty much torn out the entire thing, with the plan of creating a single-level breakfast bar that extends out beyond the sink toward our open living space. The framework for the new base cabinet was also re-oriented at a different angle in order to line up better with our two new pendant fixtures.

Upgrading Light Fixtures: An Enlightening Experience

The gradual transformation of our house over the past year has included several upgrades to existing light fixtures. Last fall, we were having our entire main floor ceiling refinished anyway (because of some walls we'd removed ― another blog post in itself), so this created the perfect opportunity/excuse to re-work our lighting situation too. Why not cut out a few extra holes and just get it all fixed at the same time?

In fact, at one point it looked like someone had just taken a giant hole punch to our ceiling:

Here, let me try to clarify this picture a bit...

Clear as mud? 

Our Stairwell Makeover: An Evolution over the Years

You may recall that, during the process of all our renovations, I've been gradually painting pretty much all of our woodwork white. Last week, I finally painted the stair ledge, which was one of the few remaining pieces still stained Colonial Maple (i.e. "orange oak"). 

As I was going up and down the stairs for laundry this past weekend, I stopped myself and decided to take a few pictures of our stairwell. The transformation over the years has been pretty major, so I thought it would be fun to share. And also because sometimes I need to remind myself of how far we've come and how much we've accomplished -- especially when it seems like the renovations will never end.

But first... in order to really appreciate the end result, let's start with a look at the stairwell from when we first bought the house. The rest of our walls were a warm gold color, but the hallway/stairwell was a dark reddish color, maybe brick red? I admit that I liked these colors at first, but that was way back in 2008, so it just goes to show how times and tastes have changed.

Wow... warm tone overload!

(You'll notice that some of the woodwork in the hallway and stairs was already white, while the rest of the woodwork throughout the house was Colonial Maple. A precursor to the eventual identity crisis...)

Prepping Our Butcher Block Countertop for the Kitchen

Although most of my previous kitchen makeover posts have been cabinet-related, there's been other progress (slowly) happening as well. Just to quickly recap, we decided to go with butcher block in our modern farmhouse kitchen as it's a very cost-effective option for the amount of counter space we'll have. (Especially considering we're adding a breakfast bar.) 

Old tile countertops.

Getting these layers off was not fun, in case you were wondering.

The new countertops we chose are builder oak from Lumber Liquidators. Although something like walnut would have been beautiful, the oak was much cheaper and still gives us that natural look we're going for. We actually ordered them about three months ago, but they sat in their boxes a good while before we were ready to do anything with them. Finally, a couple weeks ago, we figured we could go ahead and at least get two simple pieces cut for one side of our kitchen. 

Creative Decorating Alternatives to a Fireplace Mantel

I've probably mentioned before (most likely in a Christmas-related post) that we don't have a fireplace in our house. Which makes me feel like I'm really missing out on mantel-decorating opportunities. That's right, I have mantel envy.  I would even go for an electric fireplace just to get that mantel. 

But until that happens, there is still hope for me and others who lack a fireplace. I've done some browsing and gathered these alternative decorating ideas for your inspiration. Some of them involve creating a faux fireplace, and others are unique ways to emulate that coveted mantel-esque focal point! Mantel wannabes, if you will. 

Want to go with the more "loose" aesthetic interpretation of a fireplace mantel?  Some common decor pieces you'll want to keep an eye out for include:

• Old doors
• Chunky shelves
• Architectural salvage pieces
• Old window frames
• Decorative wood corbels
• Shallow buffets/dressers/sideboards/console tables

{ image via indulgy.com }