Kitchen redo: Week three!

HELLO! So are you tired of hearing about the kitchen redo yet? Yes? Too bad. I�m back for more. :)

Thanks to American Express, I am redoing our kitchen using Membership Reward Points � and this week they asked me to use the remainder of the points � 150,000! If you have an Amex and you use the points to shop, you know that�s A LOT of  points.

Still pinching myself. :)

I told you in my last post how I took my first trip to IKEA to get a butcher block countertop that will replace our island counter. I love the look of butcher block and love the idea of changing up the counters just a tad � the different textures and tones will look great! (Um, I HOPE.)

This part of our redo is out of pocket, so I was obviously trying to keep the cost down, and a 73 by 40 inch board from IKEA was $195:

I�ll have to get it cut to size to fit the island, but I couldn�t resist that price! It�s oak (the darkest wood they had), and I�ll be sanding it down a bit and staining it an even darker tone. Not sure what the tone will be, but it will be dark and rich and luscious! :)

While I was at IKEA (twice!), I found a few more items for the kitchen that were must haves.

The little spice jars and racks were too cute to pass up:

I see some apple green in it�s future. :) Still not sure where they are going though. (By the way, I think I got four of those jars for $3 I think? I have spent almost $2 for ONE at Hobby Lobby!)

Because I took down our pot rack above the island (it made the room feel twice as big!!), I was on the lookout for cookware storage:

   

LOVE these!!! I have a little rig up my sleeve for the one on the right to make it even easier to access. I�ll let you know how it goes. :)

This strainer was a lot for IKEA -- $25 � but I loved it!:

Another example of unbelievably inexpensive (I want to say cheap, but that just sounds cheap. But�it�s cheap.) this stuff is � I able lost it when I saw the woven chargers for only $5 each!:

I think the cheapest I�ve seen these is $15 each. Score! Because so many of you told me to check out the �as is� section at IKEA, we strolled in before we checked out and found the green plates and bowls (that I had almost just bought on the floor!) for a buck each! They are in perfect condition, so I have no idea why they were as is? I�ve washed them already and so far so good!

I knew I wanted to bring the white/cream and yellow I�m using in the kitchen onto the table, so I looked online at a place I�ve never ever bought one item � Williams Sonoma.

It�s usually WAY over my head price-wise. But because I could use points, when I saw those lemon napkins above, I was HOOKED. They are adorable! And the price really wasn�t as bad as I thought it would be � $7 a napkin. Usually I spend about that much on four, but it really wasn�t bad.  :)

So I used some points to print out a WS gift certificate, and there I was buying those napkins, and some perfectly perfect matching wash cloths:

I have to tell you it feels incredibly weird to shop at places like Williams Sonoma. Like, �I have money to shop here� kind of places. When I soooo do not have money to shop there.  :)

It�s been a bit surreal. And VERY fun. This is a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity and I�m thoroughly enjoying it. :)

I�ve gone to Pottery Barn for a few accessories as well, and guess what I see online after I get home from buying my cutie little lemon napkins?:

Argh! Those are too cute too!

The white salad plates in the place settings above are from Pottery Barn, and I found these awesome napkin rings there as well:

But I think they�re too much with the chargers so they�re going back. :) They were only $4.50 each, not too shabby! Aren�t they so fun? I bet they would be easy to make � just braid some thick jute rope together!

I showed you the new light from Home Depot here. I got the round rug from Target ($80 I think?) last year:

And have loved it there. For those who have asked, I LOVE having a rug under the table!! I swear clean up is so much easier than the hard floors. My trick is to let food dry a bit and then vacuum it up � no cleaning of the rug (usually) required!

Anyhoo, because the kitchen will have a new color scheme, the rug just won�t work anymore. And it�s not the best quality. It has a kind of haze of fuzz on the top that just doesn�t go away. You don�t notice it at all far away, but it bugs me up close.

Enter a round Pottery Barn rug:

It�s an outdoor rug made to look like jute. I love jute but it�s usually super thick and I knew that would be an issue with our kitchen chairs. I want the chairs to easily be pulled in and out from the table, so this was a perfect option!

I hope. We�ll see when it gets here.  ;) Hopefully it will make our kitchen look something like this:

Complete with a pool. ;)

By the way, Stink Eye Sister, you owe me BIG for all this awesome stuff I�m passing your way for your new house. BIG TIME.

It has been SO EASY to use these Membership Reward Points from Amex! At first I was thinking I would have to wait weeks to get started on anything, waiting for gift cards to be mailed to us.

But I was giddy when I realized they have many options for egift cards:

    

You just order them and an email is sent within about 20 minutes or so. All I have to do is print them out and go! It�s been fantastic!! If you�ve done any size renovation in your house, you know it�s hard to plan when you�ll need to make one more trip to Home Depot. :) This has been great because I�ve been able to print them as I need them � awesome!!

Speaking of Home Depot, did you know they are affiliated with Home Decorators? I had no idea! When I realized that, I picked out this cutie console table for behind the sofa:

But when I went to buy it, I found out you can only use the Home Depot credit card � not a gift card. It was then (at midnight) that I realized I must go back to IKEA to get this one instead:

And I�m SO glad I did!!

I made a change to the Bub�s chalkboard this week and absolutely positively LOVE it:

I used to have it framed out with thin molding I had stained dark, but when I saw Katie�s chunky green frame around her chalkboard, I was in luuurve! So I beefed it up and it is AWESOME.

Cause I like em big. And chunky. (Sorry. I will use that movie quote every time the word chunky is ever used. You�ve been warned.)

I got a new fabric for the window treatments at Joann�s last week that I have fallen in LOVE with:

Ack! It�s gorg! I still have to decide on the type of treatments I�m going to do. I can�t decide between my no sew roman shades:

Or something a bit simpler like cornice, maybe with just a hint of curve to it?:

I can�t decide! I got a bamboo roman shade for the window above the sink at Home Depot today, so I�ll have to get that up before I decide. Hmmm�

So I need your help once more! I�ve been keeping a dirty little secret from you. I painted my beadboard kitchen island. Well, not the whole thing. Just one side. To decide if I like it.

And I do. :) (I did this about three months ago � it�s been sitting like that all this time.) It is going to be a cream color � a bit darker than the new backsplash I think.

My original plan was to paint the island and the base of the kitchen table cream, then stain the tops (butcher block and the kitchen table top) both the same tone:

THIS look is exactly what I had in mind for the island:

But I�m wondering if that�s too much cream and brown, cream and brown. I LOVE at least one black piece in a room to �ground� it. I still really want to do the island in cream, so I�m wondering if I should perhaps paint the base of the table black, then stain the tops the same?

I�ve been worried that a cream base on the table is asking for hives � I can�t even imagine all the scuffs from shoes, etc.

What do you think? Black on the table base? Since the rug will be lighter, I think it will pop off of that and look great.

Or do I match the island and the table and do cream on both bases? Decisions decisions!!

What do you think Oh Brilliant Ones? Please share!! And thanks again in advance!

 

TDC is one of five blogs picked to promote the Amex Membership Rewards program.
I have received reward points to use as I wish to redo a room in our home.

 

Thank you to this week�s sponsor!: