My Current Kitchen & Dining Room Crush

Y'all.  I have found a new favorite kitchen and dining room.    

Many of you know, I have an unhealthy strong obsession with the beach and water and the NEED to live there.  I love where we live now, but my dream is to live on a small, sleepy island with gorgeous blue water and white sand.  Blittle hears it all the time.  Running a bed and breakfast is part of that dream.  He can be a fishing guide and I can run the B&B and the dogs can have free run of the property and greet all the guests (in a perfect world)  I have it all figured out.  :)

I came across the show, Bloodline, several months ago and it is set in the Florida Keys (yes, please) and the family runs a pretty B&B (yes, again).  As usual, I got pulled in by the set.  I can't help but notice the design and furnishings on TV and movie sets.  Of course there are the popular ones and they are all gorgeous...

Filing Cabinet Desk

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  Some of you might even have today off, too.  Blittle does so we are finally going to see Unbroken and get a few chores done around the house.

Over the weekend, I used my new office several times!  It is so nice to have an organized, beautiful space to work in.  Something about it makes me want to work harder.  Silly, I know, but true.  I posted this picture on Instagram yesterday of me using the desk for the first time writing tomorrow's blog post and you got a small sneak peek of the room.

Destinations & Directions Sign

Hi all.  Long time, no post.  I know.  Annoying.  I have consistently been waking up an 1 1/2 later than I usual.  This is not a bad thing because I do need the sleep and I am now waking up at an acceptable time.  Having said that, the 1 1/2 hours I am sleeping through used to be when I would blog and edit photos.  Normally, I wake up between 5 & 5:30, make my coffee, then sit on the couch with the dogs and edit photos and type blog posts.  Now, I don't have that much time in the morning so blogging, once again, has been neglected and put on the back burner.  One day I will figure out how to do it all...or at least that's what I tell myself to stay hopeful.  :)

We have had several home projects going on the past few weeks plus tons of furniture I haven't shared.  Today, I want to show you the destinations and directions signs we made for our yard.

Driftwood Finish End Tables

And its Friday already.  Again.  When I was a teacher, Friday meant I had survived another week and summer vacation was that much closer.  Now, Friday means another week has flown by and somehow vanished before I knew it.

Here is what I have been working on this week.

DIY Coffee Bar

I have an obsession with coffee.  It could also be called an addiction.  An unhealthy dependency. Whatever.  Point is, in the mornings, I love drinking coffee.

Its not just about the need for caffeine by 8:30 am or my head will explode and I become a not so nice person.  Its about my waking up process.  My routine.

The sun is just rising and the house is quiet.  The birds aren't making tons of noise yet.  The water outside is peaceful.  It is my favorite time of day.  Just me on the couch, with my coffee and sometimes a dog or two, mentally prepping for the day and slowly waking up.

We bought a Keurig 3 years ago and I love it.  The only problem is, ours is one of the bigger models and takes up too much counter space in my small kitchen.  I decided to use my grandparents' dresser I refinished as a buffet and coffee bar in our dining area.

It has tons of storage for baking dishes and other pans I don't use often plus our nice utensils and coffee supplies.  The refrigerator is just opposite of the buffet so it is not a far reach to get the creamers out.

Many of you saw it in the dining room reveal  and saw the buffet but I didn't share any details yet.

Photo Credit: Ever & Anon

Navy & Distressed Dresser

I have a quick before and after for you today!  A few weeks ago, I bought a big, brown and ugly dresser set.  I finally have had time to work on them and decided to do the tall boy first.

Before

Dining Room Reveal

January 2016 Update: Visit our new blog www.brianandkaylor.com  


The day is finally here. Eleven months after moving in, I am finally showing you our dining area.

Over the past year, y'all have seen most of the room.  My DIY lantern, DIY dining table and my grandparents' dresser that I now use as a buffet have all been shown in earlier posts.  There have been many sneak peeks in pictures but I have never shown everything.

All of our hard work has paid off and the house has transformed.  The sad, dark, orange-y house we bought a year ago is gone.  It feels bright and airy and comfortable.  We LOVE it!

This is what I started with.

All of these beautiful after shots are the work of Jessica of Ever & Anon Photography.  She did an amazing job!  Thanks again, Jessica.  

And now,  this is what my dining room looks like. 

Photo credit: Ever & Anon Photography

Polishing Brass Tutorial

In yesterday's post, Brass is Back, I showed y'all a few accessories I have inherited recently.  Both are brass pieces and were tarnished.  I cleaned and polished them to the shiny, brass they were meant to be.

Brass is Back

My body is in shock and is protesting this cold weather.  I mean, really.  Did Mother Nature forget it is Spring?  It is mid-April in Southeast Texas and feels like 35 degrees outside.  Yesterday, I sewed curtains all day to be productive and hide from the weather.   Let's just say, it wasn't an overly productive day with the curtains.  I did however, get a few things done around the house and worked on a few little brass treasures I have inherited recently.

These are before pictures.

Coastal Dog Collars

I know this is not furniture but I have tons of friends and followers who are as crazy about their dogs as we are about Sabine and Jaxson.  It makes us feel better to have other coo coo, dog people around us.  It makes us look not so crazy.  :)

Every year we get the dogs new collars for Christmas and like most things, I want to get something different and special.  Getting a collar off the shelf at Petco or PetsMart is ok but I prefer to find something that I am not going to see on every other dog in the area.  If you haven't discovered the shopping world known as Etsy, you need to venture out.  There are some amazing homemade products on there for reasonable prices.  Anything from quilts, shirts, baby bags, pillows, furniture.  You name it.  Even dog collars.  This year I wanted a coastal/nautical theme so the first place I started looking was Etsy and I found some super cute collars.  It was hard to choose but I love the ones I got.

Styling a bookcase

Happy Monday!  I am not sure how it is Monday already!  The past week has been so busy and just flew by without me realizing it.

Today I am going to update you on my bookcase.

Does anyone else have a bookcase with no books?  Sounds silly but I know I am not the only one.  I love to read but I have had a Kindle for 5 years now so "real" books do not happen at our house.  We have our wedding album and a few other photo albums from trips but that is it for anything in book form.  So when I found my really cool bookcase I knew it would not be displaying books.  I wanted it to display things that are special to us and represents our lifestyle.

There are tons of tutorials and tips on how to style a bookcase.  These suggestions apply for displaying books and non books.  Here are my favorites:

Coastal Fabrics

Happy Monday!  Today I want to tell you about some beautiful fabrics and fabric websites I have discovered.

Over the past few months I have been on the hunt for great fabrics.  This is never an easy task.  There are not many fabric stores anymore.  Everyone knows about Joann Fabric, Hancock and if you're lucky, a Calico Corner is in your area.  Problem is, they all carry what I call generic fabrics.  Some of them are good quality and have pretty patterns but you see them everywhere.  I am always looking for different.  My goal was to find fabrics that coordinated but were not too match-matchy and were coastal but not too beachy. Blue, which happens to be both mine and Blittle's favorite color,  plays a huge part in our decor.  If you have ever been to the Caribbean or other tropical island you know that the shades of blue are endless.  It is amazing how many colors the ocean can be.  I have decided to focus on teal/turquiose and navy for our main living areas.  Pinterest played a huge part in my research but I also have been ripping out magazine pages with new fabric websites to check out.  I spent hours on the internet searching for the perfect patterns and colors.

 Here are some of the fabrics I have found and are considering for curtains, pillows, and cushion covers.

Coastal Love

I will start off by saying there is not a furniture transformation in this post.  This yucky weather has slowed my productivity and is depressing which makes me want to run away to the beach.  I LOVE the beach and the coast.  Love doesn't even really describe what it is...maybe an obsession?   I will live on the water one day, hopefully soon.  My husband isn't as obsessed with the beach as much as I am but he is obsessed with fly fishing and being on the water. Lucky for me, where there is pretty beach, there is fly fishing for bonefish so getting him to take me to the Caribbean isn't that hard. :)  Here are a few pictures from some of our trips.

Tropic of Cancer Beach,  Little Exuma, The Bahamas

Us on some beach in Little Exuma, The Bahamas

Long Island, The Bahamas 

Shallow flats for as far as the eye can see.  Amazing.
Somewhere off of Long Island, The Bahamas

5-prong and 6-prong starfish

Great Guana Cay, The Bahamas

Great Guana Cay, The Bahamas

Treasure Cay, The Bahamas

Grace Bay Beach, Turks & Caicos

The Caribbean really is one of the most beautiful places ever. From all of our trips, I have had tons of inspiration for decor in our home.  In the past few months I have had several clients and customers comment and ask about some of our decorations so I thought I would let y'all know more about them.   I have collected and inherited several items over the years.  For us, we want our home to reflect things that we love, be filled with memories of our trips, and reminders of our family.

Lets start with the entry.

I have my grandparent's dresser that I refinished as the main focal point.  

The "Wind", "Water", "Waves" signs I found a long time ago.  I have only seen them at that one store, which is now closed, and I instantly fell in love.  My mother bought them for me as a wedding shower present and I was so excited.  

The latern and vase are Pottery Barn.

The metal bonefish was made by a local New Orleans artist.  I can not find his info right now but when I do, I will add it.  He has a booth at the Art Market and does some amazing work.

The canvas on the left has cocktail napkins purchased in Great Exuma that I glued to a white canvas I bought at Michael's.  I stained the bright white canvas with coffee to give it a little bit of an aged look.  The map is a map of the Caribbean I bought on one of our trips and I modge podged it to a blank canvas.  The picture in the middle is a picture I took and had it put on canvas through Canvas on Demand.  I have another picture in my bathroom over my tub that was put on canvas by them.  It is a lot bigger as you can see!

We have a strange niche in our entry so I decided to make a subway art with our trip destinations on it.  Now I need to update it since our last trip but this is an easy and inexpensive project.  I got the idea and followed the instructions from this blog post.  

Our living room has a lot of art and pictures.

  All the beach photos were taken by the same photographer, Gwynemark Photography, during our Destin vacation a few years ago.

We bought this redfish painting at Winnie Trade Days (a once a month market in Winnie, TX) from an artist named Brooksie.  He is not there all the time but we lucked out one weekend and saw him there and loved his work.  This painting is on an old piece of paneling.

This sailboat was a model my paternal grandfather had.  He loved model boats and trains.  It is discolored but I don't care.  I love it and it fits perfectly in our home.

Mr. Pelican was bought at Molly's across from Central Mall in Nederland, Texas.

The huge tarpon over our double set of french doors was custom made for us by an artist that works here in New Orleans.  We originally saw his work at Avenue Art and Framing in Lakeview.  The owner of the shop called the artist to give our preferred measurements and a week later, we had our fish.

These shutters were in my parents home but they had to tear down the house after Hurricane Rita. I took the shutters to use as decoration. They are a great backdrop for another vacation photo.  

I am hoping to post a furniture before and after tomorrow but it really depends on the yucky humid weather.  It is making dry times super slow.  On a positive note, Brian and I are headed to south Texas this weekend for a little getaway for his birthday.  I am super excited!