The Game where the Goalpost came down.

Some of our close family friends invited us to join them in Oxford whenever our teams play. 

It's always been a fun tailgate and we knew this time would be no different! 

Then... Game day decided to come. 

Alabama doesn't have the greatest record when gameday shows up. 

We were excited to just be in the stadium watching for once so all was well!!

We had a great time until Kenyan Drake broke his leg. 

We are so thankful our friends asked us to join!! Sad to see my team loose and a key player get hurt but what an exciting time for oxford. 

First 5-0 season since the 60's. 

Then the goal post came down and Oxford got crazy!! 

The whole weekend was one upset after another! 

Did your team win? 

One Room Challenge: The Kitchen

So excited to be back this fall and to participate in the wonderful ORC!!!

For those of you that do not know what that is, Linda from the blog Calling it home is hosts this event in April and October and has 20 design bloggers join her in revamping or renovating a space. 

It give people like me a good opportunity to whip a room into shape!

As you all know I will be transforming our outdated 1979 kitchen and bringing it back to life. 

A few quick things.

1. countertops stay. 

we just replaced BOTH our HVAC so ughh my 12,000 countertops are keeping me cool in the summer and toasty in the winter. 

2.this house is the money pit, 

so it is HIGHLY possible something crazy will pop up. 

this could get way fun!!!

3. I have been dying to do this since we moved in 14 months ago!!!!

Now... lets get started!!

The layout of the space is remaining so here we are.

how hilarious is it that my child is shaking her groove thing while I took this picture. HA

This is the view from the front door entering the house.

I know you are sad this is going!

(cabinets are not in the best of shape so I will begin now filling in the holes and chunking this hardware)

reminding myself of the end......

In late April I had enough of budge matte walls so we went ahead and selected our wall color. We used Farrell Calhoun paint and the color is Bayou Shade by valspar.

(this is probably the truest depiction of the color)

So here we sit! 

Over the next 5 weeks we will conquer:

backsplash

paint all cabinets

add molding throughout the space

refinish the table

make cushions and drapery for the space

build a kitchen island

Create a custom vent hood

Here are a few inspiration pics I keep going back to.

When we DO get around to countertops this is the family we are looking in.

base cabinet inspiration

ventahood inspiration

base cabinets again

and backsplash inspiration

Stay tuned, its going to be fast and furious!

A Den Facelift: a client project

This room had such great bones! 

I had such a great time working with Ashley and I knew we would hit it off from the start! 

Here is where we started:

Things spread too far apart, and blocking the flow into the room. 

We drew several layouts and determined what would work best for the space and same day she had her husband helping her rearrange! 

We still have some styling to do but just drapes, some pillows and new floors can TOTally change a space! 

Take a look and see! 

We grabbed a few of the family's favorite keepsakes to display on the stunning antique Chippendale plate rack! 

Love the detailed and the hardware! 

The rug was a pleasant gambled suprise even I was hesitant on but it totally took the cake! 

Here is a full room shot! 

Stay tuned for the grand finally fully styled!! 

If you would like more information on a room consultation and what all it entails feel free to email me at jbrodden@gmail.com

I am offering special pricing before the holidays and will taking a limited number of clients the month of November. 

Kitchen: Appliances Round Up

Picking out kitchen appliances is such a daunting task.

(horrible picture but this is where we started)

Most people pick a brand and stay with that brand throughout the kitchen.

We somewhat did this last fall during the black friday sales.

We found this dishwasher first and knew that would be our launching point for appliances.

This is the Whirlpool Gold 55-decibel tall tub dish washer. 

It also has the additional rinser for the top rack!

Here is a link to this appliance!

Now that we have had it almost a year I can say I like this dishwasher, I don't love it. 

It does a great job cleaning the dishes but the drying is so so. Not a deal breaker for me, but I have noticed its mainly on plastic items that don't dry thoroughly.

Once we found the dishwasher we went with this microwave.

We are not huge microwave people but for what we need it for, it works great!

Now that we had these two picked out we then shopped for a beverage fridge to replace where the trash compactor had been.

We purchased from atgstores.com. This is an online store owned by Lowe's.

It has worked great and we love keeping pellegrino's and soft drinks in here for when guests come in town or we have people over!

The last appliance was the most overwhelming one!

up until about a month ago we still had this beauty, General Electric 1979 oven.

It sparked when you opened the door,  cooked unevenly and the control buttons wouldn't actually turn the thing off!

Our home warranty was days from expiring so right before our vacation I called and scheduled an appointment. 

Sears was sent out to evaluate and they did a 10 day investigation trying to find parts for this oven instead of just replacing.

I was actually poolside with the lovely Paige and got the phone call they were going to replace the oven!

WOO HOO!!!

However, all they wanted to give us was white or black so we made the decision to pay for the upgrade to stainless.

It seriously changes the whole look of this kitchen! 

NO JOKE!

I have to say I love this oven, now... my standards leading up to this were pretty low but I have been very pleased with the cooking time and sleek design!

Here is the link to the oven!

now we do have 2 appliances left to replace.

The fridge and the cooktop.

The cooktop was a beautiful let down when we discovered there was no way to run the copper down the wall for gas :(((((

So we have been casually shopping the smooth cooktops trying to determine what we like!

and the monster... the fridge.

This is the one I keep telling myself I want but the price is shying me away....

What appliances do you have? 

Anyone just hate their french door?

Here is where we are now.

Monogram Monday: A Monogram Changes Everything

It's funny, a room can look "put together" then BAM add the unique monogram and it looks complete!

Here are several examples!

via

via

via 

Have you had a monogram change a look of a room? Would love to see!

Friday Favorites

Woke up this am and thought.. "hey! let's start a friday favorites on the blog!!" 

Life shattering I know, but nonetheless it excited me so here we are!

1. gold tassels!! hello, necklaces, handbags, keychains you just got fabulous

2. trish wild blueberry candles, I still love you after all these years!

3. freshly picked has soooo many baby mod options that I am having a hard time picking my favorites to buy for baby w!

4. an adorable mommy friend on my facebook started making these precious silhouette bangles. aren't the FAB??? hope to order one soon!

5.Kate bow studs! have these in gold and green and wear them ALL the TIME!

What have been your favorite things lately?

And should we make this a series??

Transformation Thursday

This little chair has seen lots and lots of love over the years.

My parents purchased a set of these chairs at an antique auction years ago.

I recovered this chair in our old house and then my sweet little angel found a black sharpie.

A BLACK SHARPIE on my beautiful Robert Allen fabric.

Then after the sharpie incident it just kept getting beat up. Over and over! 

I just gave up at that point, young toddler C was a force to be recconed with and one I was not willing to battle the art of recovering.

Therefore, we went into waiting mode!

Fast-forward to our move here, I knew I wanted to recover but didn't know what in.

So I shopped for a while until I found this smokey cut velvet wonderfulness!!!

The upholsterer brought her back to life in no time!!

I used my white Annie Sloan, clear wax, then dark wax, then clear wax, then watered down some guilders paste and left an awesome metallic sheen to the chair. LOVE how it turned out!

I love how the dark wax and the guilders paste look layered together!