It is on the calendar. Our contractor will start work next week bringing down the wall between the kitchen and the living room. It is a weight-bearing wall, so he will be putting in new support beams and posts and we will probably need to bring our paint guys back in to tidy things up afterward. Could be a long process. Ben and I are exiting stage left but Scott will be here, and will get a chance to do some projects he has been kept from while on baby and pregnant wife duty.

So what wall am I talking about? This one, here on the right:

There’s nothing on it, so we won’t be losing storage at all. We are turning that peninsula into an island, and turning it so that people sitting at the breakfast bar will be facing into the kitchen,as is typical. The entire wall will be gone, everything that is now blue, completely open to the living room. We are ripping out all the floors and will be installing wood laminate flooring throughout (with the exception of the bathrooms and laundry, and the bedrooms that we just recarpeted). Currently, we have a beautiful brand new dishwasher sitting in our garage because this yellow bamboo flooring was installed around the appliances, essentially locking them in place. So those have to come out before we can replace that or the stove. So the sooner the better!

Here is a sample of the floors we are putting down. This one gives you a good idea of the color up close. Nice and warm and matches our granite nicely.

But here you can see that it actually looks pretty modern and dark when it’s down on the floor. Depends on the lighting.

And this will hopefully give you an idea of the texture. It has that rippled thing goin on, plus a little fake distressing and “grain” for less slippy toddler feet. Plus I didn’t want it to be too shiny and formal looking. Lived in family home is more where I’m headed.

Kitchen hardware is sloooowly going up. I actually found these at Walmart while picking up some household stuff one day. The brand is Alison. The ones we originally ordered looked too small.

We hung some things on the walls before a big BBQ we had with friends about a week and a half ago. It was a race to accomplish something and make everything look a bit more lived in before company came:

This is to the side in the dining room, above a buffet that we have there… temporarily? We’ll see.

I kind of butchered a tip I found on Pinterest for hanging frames. Basically you are supposed to give each frame it’s own piece of paper, poke through the places where a nail will be, and then assemble the collage on the wall. Then you hammer nails into the holes, remove the paper, and hang your frames. Well, I didn’t have enough scrap paper… or patience for that matter, so I assembled a sort of catalogue collage. It worked well enough but I think most of that was luck.

Whatever. It’s on the wall! Hahaha. Done is done.

Due to prego nausea, you are getting all these photos straight off the camera. I apologize for it but again, done is done! Still need to fill some empty frames but I love the way it looks when the entry light is on. I matched the spray paint to a few other projects I threw together:

A little table I found (short, light, Ben can tip it but it’s not heavy and dangerous) only $35. Wish I had found it at Goodwill for $5! But it’s great and does the trick. We needed some more surfaces in the living room and I wanted them to be easy to move around. That key got sprayed white but I haven’t decided where to hang it yet.

Here’s the finished table:

Besides the frames, I also sprayed a little clock that we have had forever, and put it on the other side of the room. Still need to get to those chair legs someday. Unless it turns out that they go nicely with the floors.

So since I will be away from my computer next week, the next thing you will see is a wall-free “after” post! Excited? I am! I am making sure to take lots of before photos, so that you can really take in the effect. It won’t be touched up yet, but it will definitely give you that wide-open, “for goodness sake you’ll have to keep a clean kitchen” feel. Then there will come some glass doors for a couple of cabinets and etcetera etcetera. I also desperately need a butter dish and some dish towels. Working on that currently. Hope you locals are enjoying the summer weather!