To paint or not to paint...that is the question?

We decided on tongue and groove bead board for the cathederal ceiling in the addition.  Our journey started at Moynihan Lumber.  We decided on the fir "beadboard" planks.  The fir had a more uniform look than the wider pine planks.

Since we're definitely going with white cabinets the question came up, do we paint the ceiling?  What about staining the ceiling?  Here are a few pictures.

I used miniwax whitewash pickling stain on this leftover piece of beadboard. 

Here I used miniwax bombay mohogany polyshade which contains both the the stain and polyurethane for a simple application.

Since painting the wood ceiling seems like such a sin, and the dark stain on the ceiling reminds me of my church going days, I'm leaning towards the whitewash.  What do you think?

So many shades of white.....

After spending every weekend at Home Depot for the last 6 months walking through the kitchen display section, mike thought we already cleared the cabinet hurdle.  HA!  I've decided to go with white cabinets.  Do you know how many different shades of white there are??  We've decided to go the semi-custom route with Kraftmaid cabinets through Home Depot.  I ordered samples on the Kraftmaid website.  Once I order my cabinets they'll apply my sample purchase toward my cabinet order.  Here are the three colors I'm grappling with.  All 3 samples have the finish applied to maple, which is what we're going with.



Canvas



Biscotti

Biscotti with Coconut Glaze

My concern is that the biscotti will look too yellow against the white sink.  Here's a picture without the flash of all three side by side.  I'd really love to hear your thoughts!  Help!

From left to right Biscotti, Biscotti with Coconut Glaze, Canvas

Dreaming of a white Christmas.....or the day after?

So its the day after Christmas and the northeast is getting hit with a blizzard.  At least the storm waited for most of us to visit family, over eat, and drink lots of wine....well some of that has spilled into today.  :)  Anyways I promised to share photos of my new sink, which I love by the way, so here they are.

 Initially I had my eye on a 30 inch sink, but after designing the layout of the kitchen with my Dad the 24 inch sink proved to be a better fit.  This sink weighs roughly 100lbs.  I ordered it from YouRemodel through amazon.com.  While it was packaged extremely well, my only complaint was I couldn't track shipping.  It did arrive within the estimated time frame I was given, but it was left on the back porch with no note or email that it had been delivered.  mike eventually noticed the box, but I'm still not sure how long it had been sitting back there.  Almost time to order the cabinets!

Happy Holidays!

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!  Things have been a bit hectic in the weekend designer household.  We're really making a ton of progress.  Stay tuned!

One Down...

A few weeks ago I mentioned a three-part rehab that was in store for the entrance hallway. One of those items can now be officially checked off the list. The original floors were sanded and re-finished and came out even better than we could have expected.

You might remember what the floors looked like after the tile and linoleum were pulled up.

After scraping up as much of the glue as we could, without damaging the hardwood, we left the rest to the sander. Not only was the glue picked up, but the wood was restored quite nicely.


We applied a few coats of a matte finish, and the floors look good as new. ...maybe even a little better than that.

Shopping for the perfect sink....

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.  Things have been crazy so I apologize for being such a slacker with my posts!  So we're now on month 8 without a properly functioning kitchen, but we're making head way.  I finally ordered our sink today!  Yes, mike we're making progress.  I've had my eye on an white fireclay apron front sink.  Since the sinks are handmade there's a 2% fluctuation in the actual dimensions.  Once the sink is delivered we'll finally be able to order our cabinets.  I'll post a more detailed review including pictures once the sink arrives.  I can't wait!  For now here are a few online pics.

Kitchen part III....sanding floors and painting walls

Our project which began late March, early April, hit a "little" city permit snag.  In case any of you out there are wondering, you need to pull a permit for every home improvement project except "sanding floors and painting walls".  We were not granted final zoning approval until early October.  Needless to say its been full steam ahead to get this thing closed in airtight for the winter.  Maybe in time for the holidays.....then again maybe not.

We added two skylights, and an opening for 5'5 ft by 5 ft window. 

Here's a shot from the front hallway looking towards the kitchen.



Here's the addition from the outside.  The shingles were finally finished a couple weekends ago.



Here's our new back door entrance/exit.



Another back view of the house.

Now how to design this new space.  I really hope you guys will weigh in.  mike & I aren't seeing eye to eye when it comes to designing our new kitchen space.....