Vintage Sports Themed Art Prints

So I like to give away nursery art prints as gifts to close friends and family who have a baby.  Sometimes it takes me a while... my nephew was born nearly 2 years ago and I just finished the art prints I had planned on doing a long time ago (having a baby myself during that time was a large reason).  Anyway, I decided to start them the week before leaving to our family reunion, which wasn't exactly a great idea, but it got me motivated and was pleasantly surprised I finished in time.  

She wanted her boys' room to have a sports theme - and pinned some images she liked, which I did my best to replicate what she wanted.  Here is the result.  Each is on 20 x 20 canvas and painted in acrylic paint. 

And all together on her wall: 

Kitchen remodel

Well it's been over 2 years, I guess it's time to record pictures of our biggest home remodel project to date: the KITCHEN.

When we bought our new house in Colorado, there were so many things I liked about it:
the ceilings were gigantic, the amount of natural light was incredible, the windows were huge.

One thing I didn't like about it - the entire house was painted in shades of orange, YELLOW, rust red and brown. I've spent the past 2 years doing everything I could to tone those colors down. The hubs wouldn't let me repaint the entire house but I've done several sections.

The kitchen functionally was fine. Except the dishwasher was broken and had some water damage around it. I did not like the layout of the island at all and I can't stand walking on tile. Between the honey oak builder grade cabinets and the hunter green corian (!?) (serious design mistake),  I convinced the hubs to make this our first (biggest) home improvement project. 

Before pictures: (from our walk-through)

 

 So much tile.... everywhere....

So the first step - removing all the tile (which was NOT an easy task with the glue, cement, nails... it was a mess) 

Don't you love the yellow???!! Ew.

And another DURING: 

So we took the oak cabinets and converted the garage into my husband's work area. 

I don't mind seeing honey oak in the garage and they work great for storage. 

So we ended up gutting the entire room. We put in American walnut hardwood floors - unstained, so it shows the beautiful natural wood.  I love love love the walnut, but it is quite soft. Dropping pretty much anything will ding them, but after 2 years of wear and tear, they still look beautiful. 

And here is the end result: 

We went with cherry cabinets from Home Depot - in the Java stain.  Duston really wanted to go with the darker wood and with all the natural light in the kitchen, it worked really well.   

Finding granite to match was like finding a needle in a haystack.  I went to about a hundred stone stores.  I loved the look of marble, but I knew my family needed something stronger and more durable.  I finally found this granite in a small granite shop - the name of it is Vintage Classico. It is beautiful and the specks of burgundy and chocolate brown really highlight the cabinetry.  

The wall color is Sherwin Williams Popular grey.  It's hard to tell in the light, but it's a very mild neutral color. 

And the view from the other side.  We went with Bosch appliances - cooktop, double oven and microwave.  We opted for the LG fridge because the ice/water dispenser in the door is constantly used by all of us and this one got the highest reviews.  I have enjoyed all of them.  The dishwasher is so quiet I don't even know if it's on most of the time.  The fridge is great but so far 3 shelves have broken, so I can't recommend it to anyone.  

I love my sink - which is stainless and square. However, because it is so large and flat, the disposal does not work so well - I have to shove the food in to get it to work (and I read up on reviews and got a good disposal). I still love the size and shape of it though.  My hand sprayer is on it's own water line and is super powerful. It's one of my favorite things in my kitchen. 

The island is so nice and large and the whole family can fit around it - we eat most of our meals there.  It's also great for cooking large meals and doing homework and projects. 

Even though I couldn't get marble countertops, I was able to get a marble backsplash and I LOVE it. It is small subway tile pattern and the accent marble is raised with the bullnose surrounding it.   The pot filler is really handy, I use it regularly. 

It's so nice to have this project done! We spend a big portion of the day in this room, and it just makes me happy every time I walk into it.