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.

Grey Skies Clearing Up! Kitchen Happy Face

SO... when you find out bad news what does any anxious new homeowner do???

Spruce up your 1978 kitchen!!!!

With Black Friday come and gone, we decided to take full advantage of some of the deals on appliances.

There is SOOOOO much out there and sooooo many reviews to read and determine what you want. 

We looked at Sears, HH Gregg, Home Depot, and Lowe's. 

After reading about 2 weeks of reviews and examining pieces we decided to start with the back wall of kitchen appliances first and move out from there!

The first appliance we decided to start with was the dishwasher.

I knew I wanted a flat panel dishwasher, (to keep connor's pesky fingers from starting the dishwasher 15 times a day, UGH, haha)  it needed to be a tall tub to accomodate pots and pans, and the silverware holder in the door.
(picky i know)

We love it!
It is Whisper Quiet and we found a great deal on it at Lowe's the week before thanksgiving.

Now that we have an established "name brand" if you will; we went ahead and purchased the Whirlpool Gold over the range microwave.

We do not plan to use the microwave over the range for long. 

We will need to rebuild the cabinet containting the double oven to accomodate this appliance and add in a warming drawer. 

Trying to find cabinet builders who can build what we are needing. 

(if you are local please leave a comment if you have a person so i can contact them)

The next thing we went ahead and selected was a Beverage Refridgerator.

All three of these appliances have been installed and the beverage cooler is loaded up with my pellegrino and la croix waters!!! 

I told this fridge was only for when mommy and daddy's friends come over so they don't go and indulge themselves in my grapefruit waters (ie ruthie get over here for some la croix!)

Okay.... next up is fridge, backsplash and hardware.

Need your help and input...

side by side fridge?

french door fridge? (this is what I think I want)

Cabinet guys (local people)

Thank yall in advance!

Small Kitchen Update

Sooo I kinda have a new furniture obsession. 

Safaviah Home!

Found these chairs on their website and fell in love. 

They match our table and chairs perfectly. 

And they are WAY more comfortable than the chairs from world market.

 Ps. super excited, a good friend is coming soon to help me refinish the kitchen table and seal it properly in the correct finish of ASCP. 

Hope to have that done before christmas...

Up next painting the room!

Then appliances.

Kitchen Table Lighting

Before we purchased our new home we knew we wanted to set some goals for when things would be completed. 

The ONLY updated fixtures in the whole home were a blue fluorescent blade fan In the babies room and a halfway installed fan in the master! 

So...obviously updating lighting was first on the list. 

                        

The day after closing I ran in a neat outlet store and chances upon this. 

The original plan was to order the lantern from Ballard for over the table. 

This one...

Then I found this.

                                

Upon a quick google search I discovered this was a slamming deal!!! 

                                     

It was a nice heavy fixture and I knew it would look great over our new kitchen table!! 

and at $69.99 I knew I was saving a few bones :)

We were able to hang it about the second week we moved in and we love it! 

This is one of the first things you see when walking in the front door and I feel like it really sets the tone for the whole house! 

                                

Next up lighting over the sink and in the back door hallway. 

Once we complete lighting I hope to share the style boards for each room and mix in some kids posts here and there.

Strap in... going to be LOTS of newness this fall... 

I have done a people choose on my instagram account with a thing here and there and I like having people's opinion!! Really!! i do!! I can usually narrow down to a few favorites then it takes me weeks to finally commit to something.

A Kitchen Remodel: The planning phase

The time has come. 

(you may have noticed from my most recent pins what I have been scheming)

If we must stay in this house I am going to make the kitchen what I want and also utilizes every square inch of the 9 ft by 8.5 ft space.

Here are a few of my favorite pinterest inspirations that we are going to use as our guide. 

This first pin is probably the closest representation of what we will be doing with the space.

Source: houzz.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: decorpad.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: vickys-home.blogspot.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: designocd.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: simplebeautifulhome.blogspot.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

And I am on the search for either a vintage china cabinet to transform or considering opening an account with British Traditions and ordering one of their stately reproduction pieces. (more on that later)

Source: home---made.blogspot.ca via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Hope to either be back later today or tomorrow with a style board for the space. 

I am still waiting on a few more quotes to come in from some vendors, but this has and will be an extensive researched product and a great resource for anyone weighting the cost of stock vs. custom, look alike marble or marble or even formica for that matter.

Stay tuned....

An Annie Sloan love affair

Meet my vintage kitchen table I purchased from a local antiques store. 

She was only $100.00 but perfectly matched the Restoration Hardware table I had been dreaming of. 

When we purchased the table it was a muted sage green and I was wanting more of a distressed grey look. 

This table has been with us for about 3 years.  For far far too long it sat with a coat of white, and a very very grainy distressing of glaze that I applied with a dragging brush technique to "distress."

Seen on the left of the table in the pic below. It was ugly!

Didn't take me long to fall in love with Annie Sloan chalk paint. 

I also knew the paint would be an investment so I began to save and scheme what color I would use.

The 

Here is everything painted with the base color except the bottom of the legs.

We went to visit my husband's family in Mobile, Alabama and while there my mother-in-law and I 

discovered we both have been itching to buy AS paint. 

She looked up stores in the area and the sweetest lady at Heron House helped us determine what all we needed and even walked through the steps with us. She was amazing!

Here is the table with the basecoat and beginning to use the dark stain.

Added some more stain as I got more confident. 

In this picture you can see the dark stain on the left and not on the right. 

Had I thought this through more thoroughly I would have stained in the other direction so there are no lines meeting in the middle of the table. 

Oh well. Works for me, and I will know for my next project.

And the iphone pic of the finished result. 

We have been very very pleased with how beautifully it stained.

A Traditional Kitchen Facelift- client, well sort of.

First of all, this is the "client"

I have for the last 26 years of my life called them mom and dad.

This is how their kitchen has looked since they moved in their home almost 17 years ago.

(well slightly, if you can see from the stain on the ceiling there was a massive flourescent up there until right before I took this picture.

And the space above the cabinets was recently restyled)

The 90's were all about white, white is nice but slowly, one at a time they have replaced the appliances. All that was left to replace was the electric cooktop and double wall oven.

you get the idea. 

So after many magazines bought, lots of kitchens examined I encouraged them to replace their countertops, faux the cabinets and get a more natural stone backsplash.

Here we are right after the new granite countertops went in. I told them to pick something not too dark so they will like it for many years to come. It fits their very warm toned home and flows well with the adjoining rooms. 

Here is an upclose.

We had the old backsplash professionally removed and backer board installed.

I encouraged them to go with either soapstone or travertine subway tiles for a more modern look in a traditional pallet.

When I took these the countertops had just been installed and we were in the process of repairing a few cabinets before doing one of the cabinet transformations in a box. 

We added a stipple brush to give a more custom painted look. 

(these pics were taken with my phone yesterday afternoon)

We are having a wedding shower over there this weekend. hope to get some good shots of the kitchen then.