This week, I finally tackled the butler’s pantry!  I don’t know what took me so long and it’s hard to believe it lasted as long as it did without being painted, but I do think my patience has improved with age and experience.  I also painted a lot of cabinetry when I first moved in and I needed time to think about this space and how exactly I wanted to finish it.  I finally could see it in my mind’s eye, so I bought the paint and materials and went for it. The main thing I wanted for the butler’s pantry (which sounds fancy, but it’s really just some cabinets between the kitchen eating area and the dining room) was to make it look like a piece of furniture, instead of just cabinets. I also wanted it to fit in better with my design aesthetic.  Painting it all white would’ve been

When I initially painted the walls and island of my kitchen, I knew that I might change them once we had white countertops installed.  I didn’t know how long that would take, though, so I wanted to use colors that were neutral and worked with the dark granite.  If I had known we’d have our new Hanstone Quartz counters within a year, I might not have worried about my choices working with the granite, but I’m glad I worked with what was there at the time.  It gave me a kitchen that looked nice during the wait. When we got the new counters and backsplash installed, though, the warmth of the wall color became more obvious and the pale gray island was just reading as white.  It was all a little too one-note and, though it might not have looked like it to the casual observer, it didn’t look like

One of the questions I’m asked most when I share my kitchen on social media is, “Where did you get the rug?” The answer is, it’s a braided jute I purchased from Joss & Main a few years ago.  It has worn really well and has even been hosed down a couple of times to remove stains and an unfortunate “stomach bug incident”. It did finally start to unravel along the edge, though, creating a loop that we all kept tripping over.  Jeff finally took a pair of scissors to the offending loop and then, well…it looked like this…   So, it was about time to get a new rug.  It was one of those things that hung out on my mental shopping list for a while, but I was never compelled enough to actually buy one.  It just wasn’t a big priority. When I was in Raleigh visiting Jeff’s

Well, we were home for less than two days and I already started painting the kitchen walls.  I had the paint (purchased for the hall and foyer), so it was easy to impulsively start painting.  It began as an oh-I’ll-just-paint-a-test-swatch and turned into painting half of the kitchen and eating area. The color really needed to be changed.  It was bugging me all the way on the east coast! So, here it is… The new color is a half-tint of Stonington Gray by Benjamin Moore.  As a reference, the door is the same color mixed at full strength.  It looks worlds better with the tile and counter. Here is the color before… It was Pearly White by Sherwin Williams.  I chose it, because I used it in the living and dining rooms of my last house and I always loved it.  It was a cooler off-white that worked well with

If you missed the reveal of my new kitchen counters, you can see them HERE.  In this post, I’m following up with some details about the backsplash. I thought it might take a few weeks to have it done, but I was referred to a local “tile guy” who was able to fit our project in around larger jobs.  I had considered doing it myself, but after installing the tile backsplash in my last house, I decided tile work was something that was best left to the professionals.  The end result looked nice, but let’s just say that grout covered a multitude of errors! I selected venatino marble subway tiles from Lowe’s.  It had just the right amount of gray in it, so it would add some texture and color, but would still be neutral.  I decided to have it installed in a 1/3 running bond pattern, with 1/16″ grout