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