Playroom Shelves

I left off with my last house post talking about the boys' bathroom. It's a hard room to photograph and it's just a normal bathroom, but I still love it. This week I'll keep up upstairs and circle bath to the Bonus Room.

I shared a post about our Bonus Room, and I think I mentioned how that room was not complete. I wasn't yet happy with it. It currently serves as a play room with the majority of the toys. We used existing furniture we had, but it wasn't working. We had some wire shelving that was meant to hold storage cubes. I had cute baskets to hold toys in there, but I didn't like how it looked. It felt cluttered. And when you have lots of toys, it's hard NOT to look cluttered.

I searched for cube storage and just wasn't finding what I liked. And when I can't find something I like, I make something I like!

Mr. JCrew has an amp for his guitar, so I wanted to created something that made it looked built in to the storage area.

It started off as buying wood deep enough for the cubes. They are 13 inches square. If I bought a 12 inch piece of wood, the cube would hang off. And my first idea was to make floating shelves.

I bought the wood, stained it and bought simple brackets. I also searched for brackets I liked, but went with cheap ones I could buy in a big box store instead of a custom order. They were silver and I painted them bronze.

I used a new stain for this wood and fell in love! Best brand! I've stained before and always did a bad job. This stain covers your sins! (ha) I felt like a pro and wanted to find more projects to stain!

Once I got the shelves up, I realized I needed longer brackets to make sure the weight would hold. Even without toys on the shelf, it was already dipping forward.

I then decided to put pieces of wood on the end that I could bracket the front end of the shelf to. It would feel much sturdier. And it did!

I was hesitant to make it look like a piece of furniture when I already have a console under the TV, but it works.

And it cleans up that area much nicer. Looks much more open and less clutter!

One day the shelves won't be full of toys, but we'll turn it into library shelves.

Kitchen

The kitchen was the first part of the house that I designed and built the house out from there. I wanted the kitchen to be the center of the house and it is both figuratively and literally. The last picture I shared of the kitchen, it was dirty and not finished completely.

When guests gather, the kitchen is where we stay. My attempts to relocate us to another room always fail.

This room is still coming together. The appliances are from our old house. The buyer offered them to keep and we gladly took them. I eventually might change the color, but I can wait until these die. I loved my gas slide-in range and was happy to keep it. Same with my fridge. At the time we got it, it was the largest in cubic feet.

Because we will eventually have to replace our appliances and will entertain changing the colors, we bought a cheap microwave to match the black. It was so cheap, that the plastic on the buttons has bubbled up. This happened within a month. A scratch came first and I scratched it some more thinking it was a protective layer we accidentally left on. NOPE. That is the beautiful finish.

The dishwasher was going to be black no matter what, since the island is a dark color and I wanted the dishwasher to "disappear." I don't know if I ever shared the struggle with the new dishwasher at the old house, but it was a nightmare and scared us. It had cool features and was soooo quiet. But it broke within the one year warranty and at the time when we were selling the house. After more than ten service calls and blame being put on everyone but themselves, we finally got a new dishwasher. Picking out a dishwasher for the new house took some time, but I will say after a year of almost daily use, it is awesome.

We mixed up the hardware on the drawers and doors of the cabinets and that threw the cabinet installer for a loop. After a couple mistakes, I ended up putting the hardware on myself. I admit I was picky about the hardware, but I am happy with it. It has held up and is worth it.

Behind the kitchen is a hallway. It may not be "efficient" for a mass-production home builder as it is "wasted space," but that was what I was drawn to about older homes. You don't just walk into a room when you enter a home. That hallway is a buffer. It leads to the garage and our side entry porch. Guests come in that way and we don't have to have blinds because you don't see straight into the house!

Because of the open floorplan, the flooring choice for the kitchen was simple. Yet, even though I knew my only option was wood, it made me nervous as you hear about flooding in the kitchen. And we had our share of that! When we got our fridge back from the old house, the new owner had taken it completely apart. Since I did not have a manual and I didn't watch the disassembly, I had to play the guessing game when putting it back together. I finally figured out where everything went. We were good. Except if you wanted a glass of water from the door dispenser. The ice dispenser worked fine, but when you tried to get water, nothing came out and your toe would get wet. I investigated and the tube that ran from the fridge to the door was cut in half. I researched and there was a connector missing. I ordered one that was wrong and finally ordered the correct connector, but in the meantime I had to warn people not to get water. People would forget, and I put up a sign . I was constantly having to pull out the fridge and mop up the water. Glad we caught it and it was fixed!

When the cabinets were installed, the microwave and the cabinet above it were hung too low.

They were suppose to be slightly higher. The height was fixed, but it left holes in my drywall. I never got it fixed because I knew I would eventually tile a backsplash that would cover it. Hard part = picking a tile for that backsplash. I finally picked something and installed it on New Years Eve. A new post on that will be coming.

The faucet in my kitchen was a splurge, but so worth it. I wanted a bridge faucet and was specific on the design. I found it and that was it.

The single basin apron-front sink is also perfect. I went back and forth on whether it needed to be divided or one big bowl, but the single bowl is perfect. I can wash very large dishes/pots with ease.

A baby also fits in there!

The kitchen is a work in progress. I was head-strong about nothing being above the cabinets (no baskets or plants) but it started to look plain. I found a pallet board at Michael's and thought it might be the right size for the fake cabinet above the microwave. Turns out, it was. I painted "JW Homestead" on the pallet and hung it up. JW Homestead was the name we gave the house while we were designing it. Because we were combining two households, the JW stood for Jenson-Wilkinson. I knew I wanted to display the name somewhere in or outside the house, and this spot turned out perfect.

I liked how the color of the signed pulled the color of the floors up with it. And I never thought putting more things up there would make the room feel taller, but it did. It drew your eyes up. So I went to find more warm wood tones that I could display up high. I used a cutting board, a tray and woven chargers.

I don't think the space with the chargers is complete, but it hasn't hit me yet how to finish it.

Once I looked at these pictures and created this post, I knew I wanted to change the set up above the fridge. I was browsing at Hobby Lobby and found a cute shelf. I was hopeful it would work.

The sides are natural wood tone, so that ties it to the chargers. And I put a succulant up there in it to add some color.

I like the design of our barstools, but don't like the quality. The screws are constantly falling out and they are wobbly. Even using Locktite, the screws are found on the floor. Hopefully I will always find them before the baby does.

Eventually I would like to add more trim pieces to the ends of the island to make it look more like a piece of furniture, and that will come.

The island is 10 feet long and it is great. There is plenty of room to work and get messy in the kitchen. It is definitely a favorite spot. I sometimes have the kids do projects or homework on the island.

The kitchen really is one of my favorite spots. The view I have from the bedroom is wonderful.

I wouldn't mind laying in bed all day to stare.

Sources:

Wall Cabinet Color: Benjamin Moore - Stone Harbor 2111-50
Island Cabinet Color: Benjamin Moore - Iron Mountain 2134-30
Kitchen Wall Color: Benjamin Moore - Barren Plain 2111-60
Barstools: Target - Industrial
Faucet:  Rohl Perrin and Rowe

Cabinets

Wow! Cabinets are known to be the things that holds up a closing date. I have never heard of cabinets being on time.

I thought I was going to be a lucky one. I had everything picked out and was trying to find a maker. Finding one was not hard, but finding one for the right price was. My builder had a cabinet guy that could do awesome work at a great price. I had been warned that he took a LONG time and held up jobs, but I knew that I could get him to perform. However, getting him to meet me was a challenge. He stood me up three times! Literally stood me up, where we agreed on a date/time and I show up and he doesn’t. Twice, he just wouldn’t take my calls and once he answered but said he just couldn’t leave the shop. I moved on… actually, I ran. That was already off to a bad start. 

During the early stages of building, lots of contractors leave their business cards around. I found one for cabinets and laughed out loud. But after being stood up, I gave them a call. They were so nice and professional and strived to give me what I wanted. I didn’t want to appear too picky, but he made me at ease. The price was great and I was good to go. I signed a contract and paid a 50% deposit on May 1^st.  On May 19^th, I was already getting invitations to browse at an online photo album of my cabinets as they were being built. 

So much progress had been made, that I knew we were going to be ahead of schedule. They said six weeks, which set us at June 18^th. However, we were not ready. Trim had delayed paint, and we really wanted paint before cabinets. I really wanted flooring before cabinets, but I needed to get cabinets in, so we had them set the cabinets and we would tile up to them.

On May 22^nd, the rep at the cabinet store informed me he was leaving the company and I would be in good hands with his replacement. I was hopeful, but that’s where it went downhill. By June 9^th all cabinet boxes were built. They started painting them on June 18^th. I had picked out a door style for the cabinets back when I signed the contract, but on June 22nd I was asked to pick out a door. That was not a good sign. This meant my doors had not been ordered, let alone built and painted.

I picked out the door based on a picture only. I never saw the door in person. This made me nervous but I had confidence it would turn out okay.

On July 9^th, the cabinet installers wanted to install the white cabinets. I again, was not ready and held them off. However, in hind-site I wish I would have. I thought if I waited, they would have everything ready and deliver at once. That was not the case.

Delivery was then set for July 20^th. They were a no show. When I checked in, they said they were waiting on a crown piece and they wanted to paint it first. I was semi-okay with that. The white cabinets were delivered July 23^rd. No crown came with that delivery, so their excuse was bologna!

I was still excited to see it all. I have a lot of white cabinets, so that was a lot.

After meeting the actual cabinet maker, I started contacting him directly and avoiding the middle man. Bad idea, as this upset the owner big time. I called the cabinet guy to check on the door delivery. He said they were coming Monday and he’d paint them and be back out. When I called that Tuesday, he was still waiting on doors. I pushed him a little to say I wanted the job complete by July 31^st. He couldn’t commit. But said he could be completely done by August 4^th. 

On Friday the 31^st, the remaining cabinets were delivered. The green cabinets are in the boys’ bathroom. 

And the kitchen cabinets were delivered. I was so excited to see them! I saw the doors on the island and was instantly relieved. I loved them!

The boys loved playing in the cabinets.

That weekend, I put the appliances in. 

The electrician and plumber still had to hook them up. I used all the old appliances. They are black and they actually aren't bad. All we had to do was buy a dishwasher.

I was still waiting on doors and drawers, but they were finally delivered on August 12^th. 

We were still missing Mom’s bathroom cabinets. We needed them so that the countertop people could take their measurements. 

But those came on August 12^th as well. Just at night. 

The cabinets are everything I could want. I had the hardware picked out a long time ago too, because I was warned that they would charge me for a separate trip to install them if I did not have them ready. I was limited by their choices, so I picked my own and didn’t go through the cabinet maker. 

The hardware really finishes it. I am so happy!

But the cabinet guy messed some holes up! (see picture above). He took the drawer fronts off to the five drawers that were messed up and patched them. You can't even tell now.

Our cabinets did end up being the long-lead item. I had all the boxes in, but it was difficult for me to get them back out to finish the job. They needed to do things like adjusting doors and adding hardware. My mom ended up doing the hardware. They were very disorganized. Things were piece-milled and it's not how I think it would have been most efficient.

The cabinets were not officially complete until September 14th! We had seven doors left to install. Four of those doors had wire inserts. Again, I picked these based off a photo. I took a chance, and they are so pretty!

I think we could have closed with those doors still missing, but I'm just glad we finally can say we are through! YAY! This has been the longest "Six Weeks." Felt more like 18.