A Dramatic Kitchen Before & After

Guys, sorry to brag but holy moly how much do you love our kitchen?!?!?!?!?! We are so in love. You cannot even imagine the pain + suffering that was involved with this kitchen, but we are ecstatic with the results. My (Casey's) parents bought this house to renovate and we are renting it from them. We were so fortunate to be able to make requests and suggestions instead of having to rent a place as is. My stepfather, Richard, is contractor, so he did all of the remodeling. Obviously, that was a huge cost saver for my parents!

This side by side view really shows the extreme changes. We will eventually be sharing all of our house with you, but we are starting with the one thing that is complete already!
Originally all of these cabinets were going to stay put, but after much consideration we decided that they needed to be ripped out. There were a lot of issues going on behind them.
We knew we wanted wood counter tops and got a great deal on these. At first we thought it wasn't going to be possible due to the care needed for the wood, but my stepdad knew about this wonderful stuff called Waterlox. Its. Amazing. It completely seals the woods, never allowing water to seep through. We've tested it. It's great! We had to be creative with the space in the lower corner. There weren't any cabinets that would allow us to use the space and since custom cabinets were not an option, there is just dead space. We have plenty of storage space elsewhere in the kitchen, so it works.

Also, we realized that there were 2 windows hidden behind the upper cabinets. Blasphemy! The windows were older than dirt, so they had to be replaced. That also meant that we wouldn't have as many cabinets, but we were okay with that sacrifice. 
In the back by that window the previous owner had a washer + dryer. How European of her, but no thank you for these ladies. 
Don't you think a breakfast nook is a much better use of the space? We eat breakfast here every morning and it is so delightful. We relocated the washer + dryer to our studio space which will show you pictures of in the future. There are also new windows here. The window on the left originally had an A/C unit that had dripped over time and rotted the wood under the window. When Richard went to replace the window, the old one literally fell out of the house. SMH. He put up a shelf over the bench and we were initially unsure about it, but it's a great place for plants and knick knacks. He also made the table in the breakfast nook. The top is made from the leftover counter top wood and is sealed the same way.

Richard replaced the door in the kitchen with this one that allows way more light in. Before, there was a solid wood door that was put on wrong and would only stay closed if you locked it. The new door was originally a beige color that did not work in this room, so we painted it bright yellow for a little accent.
This light fixture was one of the first things we purchased for the kitchen. We love it so much and then we wanted to buy everything in copper.
The kitchen opened into this random room. I'm not sure what the previous owner used it for but we thought it would be much better used as a bedroom, so we added a wall here and you will see below what we put in its place. 
Hello pantry + hall tree + shelving! We haven't had an actual pantry in ages. We love this barn door Richard added. It's such a nice touch.
Our curated coffee cup collection. Say that 3 times fast! Whew. We had this in our last house and we knew it would have to come to the new space.
This is the room that is attached to the kitchen and is now Savannah's bedroom. Pictures of of our bedrooms to come in the future. 
This is the new wall that created a room on the other side, rather than a strange kitchen addition space. The bench in the hall tree provides extra storage. 
Total worth having these windows instead of cabinets. What we love most about our new windows is that the window sills are so deep! We are so excited to be able to utilize that space for plants, of course.
Well that's our kitchen! Hope you've enjoyed the tour :)

We are going to try to tell you where we got most of the things in our kitchen, but we may forget/ not remember/ have made it ourselves/ thrifted it. It's been a whirlwind trying to gather everything we needed to pull this off!


*** This post contains some affiliate links***

diy: circular tie-dye mini tapestry

This post is brought to you by iLoveToCreate and Blueprint Social. These opinions are my own.

Well if you have ever met us or spent any time on our website, you know that we tie-dye A LOT. Today we are working with iLoveToCreate on their Tie-Dye Your Summer campaign to show you how easy and fun tie-dying can be, especially when using the Tulip® One-Step Tie-Dye Kit®.
Today we are sharing with you one of our favorite techniques that we use most often. It is very simple! You will need your Tie-Dye Kit and a small piece of fabric. Your fabric can be any size you want. In your kit you will find rubber bands, gloves and a variety of dye colors.
Pinch your fabric in the very center and pull upward.
Gather the fabric together and tie a rubber band around it. This does not need to be perfect. Each piece will always be a little different, but that is the beauty of it! Continue to tie rubber bands down the gathered fabric until desired amount is reached. You do not need many to create the effect we are going for.
Put on a pair of gloves and prepare your dye according to the package instructions. (You just add water and shake.) I first dip my fabric in water so that the dye will seep in quicker. Squeeze your dye onto the fabric. Here I alternated two colors until I had covered the whole piece of fabric. I also turned the fabric over to make sure the underside was covered in dye too.
I ended up letting my fabric sit for about 6 hours, then I removed the rubber bands and rinsed the fabric. We loved how the colors turned out. The fabric was a pale yellow color to begin with so the colors are a little more muted. We hung our tie-dyed fabric as a tapestry and love the fun it adds to a space!

For more tie-dye ideas and projects, follow iLoveToCreate on social media!

xo, Savannah

 photo OhSoPrettyRosesSocialMedia-Facebook_zps7c9373da.jpg  photo OhSoPrettyRosesSocialMedia-Twitter_zpse7edb7c4.jpg  photo OhSoPrettyRosesSocialMedia-Pinterest_zps8c310b31.jpg  photo OhSoPrettyRosesSocialMedia-Instagram_zpsc24b3e2b.jpg  photo OhSoPrettyRosesSocialMedia-YouTube_zps63a217eb.jpg  photo OhSoPrettyRosesSocialMedia-Tumblr_zpsbb0165a3.jpg

diy: block stamped kitchen towel

(This post is brought to you by Plaid and Blueprint Social. The opinions are my own.)

Today we are trying our hand at block stamping with Fabric Creations™! We've been really interested in possibly using this technique on some of our kimonos, so it was really fun to experiment with this kitchen towel. The Fabric Creations Soft Fabric Ink is super soft and it is machine washable. You could even use a paint brush to apply it! Anyway, I wanted to create something more neutral, so it would go with everything, so I stuck with printing in all black.
You will need a 22"x22" square piece of fabric (or a blank kitchen towel), Fabric Creations™ soft fabric ink, Fabric Creations™ block stamps, a foam printing mat and a sponge.
Place the foam printing mat under the fabric to get best results. Application is pretty simple, it just takes a little patience. Sponge the paint onto the stamp lightly. Then press the block down onto the fabric.
I repeated sponging and stamping along one side of the napkin, making sure the ends lined up.
When I got to the end I just turned the fabric and lined up the stamp perpendicular to the last print. If the stamp doesn't end exactly where you want it, I have a solution. I will show you a few steps down.
I switched to a different block and followed the same process stamping it underneath the border I just created.
I went back to the first stamp to create another row underneath the second pattern. I could only fit the block in the area I wanted two times, if I had stamped a third time, I would have stamped onto an already stamped section. To fix this problem, I took a scrap piece of fabric and placed the edge right where I wanted the pattern to stop.
Then I sponged and stamped as usual.
When you remove the fabric, there will be a perfect edge!
I took my second block and stamped it in the very middle of the fabric square.
I took one more block and stamped it all around the center and then serged the edges of my fabric. If you don't have a serger, you could just with a blank kitchen towel. We just had the perfect fabric lying around that we had purchased at Goodwill.
This towel looks great in our kitchen!
And it's perfect for styled shoots! And right now I'm too scared to wipe my hands on it.

xo, Savannah

P.S. For more updates and new ideas on how to utilize these Fabric Creations™ stamps, follow Plaid on social media, and enter in their giveaway!