Sunday, April 17, 2016

French Inspired Kitchen Makeover, French Stone Sink, Carrara Marble Counters and Subway Tile, Lacanche Range, Oak Herringbone Floor


Hello,
I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday.
I wanted to share a few more images of our kitchen makeover.
I will share some before images in my next post.
The sink is a stone sink from France.


We kept the same layout of the old kitchen.
The wood planks are the original wood planks we found under the drywall.
The tile is Carrara Marble subway tile we purchased from Emser Tile
and installed ourselves.  
The countertops are Carrara Marble counters.
We purchased our slabs from Bedrosians Tile & Stone.


The shelves are all Carrara Marble. Thad made the brackets using 2x4 scraps.
We painted the walls, ceiling, cabinets, and trim Farrow and Ball's All White.
We still need to finish making the two drawers on each side of the range.


The countertops and the subway tile are all honed Carrara Marble.


The built in was a fun project.  We still need to add the trim around the base of it.
I shared a before image of it in my previous post.  I tiled the inside of it with the Carrara Marble Subway tile.  The shelves are also Carrara Marble.


The knobs are French porcelain knobs.


The island is a butcher block table I found in France.


I sanded it down and treated it with the Woca White Lye I also used on the floors.


For the floors we bought our black oak raw boards from a local family owned saw mill.
Thad then added the tongue and groove joints and installed the floor in the herringbone pattern.
One thing I noticed with the Black oak is it seems to have some pink pigments.
We treated it with the woca white lye which helped draw out those pink pigments.  The bottom image on the left, you can see the floor on the left side of that image is lightened with the white lye and the area my feet are on hasn't been lightened yet.  I will share more images and more about the finishing process in the near future.


These French doors were once used as our headboard.
We hung them on White Shanty Hardware that Seth custom made for this area.
White Shanty is based out of Utah and all of their hardware and furniture is handmade in the United States.  The quality and craftsmanship is amazing.  On instagram we are giving away a 400.00 gift card to White Shanty.
The pantry and refrigerator is behind the doors.
I will share more images of this area in the near future.


On another note....





I will be back with more images of our kitchen makeover.
In the meantime you can find me posting daily on instagram.....











Monday, March 21, 2016

Carrara Marble Subway Tile Built in Makeover and Dying Easter Eggs Naturally


Hello!
I hope you are all having a great Monday.
I am trying hard to get back into the swing of blogging, it's too easy to just post on instagram and I am hoping to get back to posting weekly on the blog as well.
I wanted to share a few images of our recent kitchen makeover.
We still have lots of finish work to do I just wanted to share a few images today and I will be back to post more before and after images.


We went with Carrara marble countertops and subway tile.
The vintage French bottle drying rack I have had for five years sitting in storage.
I had planned to list it in my shop in the beginning and then decided to keep it since it is hard to find these racks with both sides attached, they often get cut and each side is sold separately.  I had hoped I would one day have the right kitchen to put it in.
I think it finally found a home : )


The built in was a fun project....
I wished I had taken more before pictures, and I only have a couple I took with my cell phone.


You can see the before here.
We tiled the inside of the hutch with Carrara marble subway tile 
and installed marble shelves.   This built in has a hutch that is directly behind it also.
We swapped the bottoms of the hutches so that I could have plenty of drawers on the kitchen side.
I painted everything in the kitchen Farrow & Ball's All White, except for the built in doors and drawers I painted Farrow & Ball's Strong White.


We still need to caulk the shelves and install the bottom shelf.
I will share more images of our kitchen in another post.

***************



I wanted to share a few images of the new items we recently listed in our online shop....





While I was in France this fall with my friend Tracey of French Larkspur,
we would wake up each morning to a bag similar to these bags hanging on our door with fresh croissants.  I had to purchase some for the shop.  
I hope to get more in stock soon.



The monogrammed bags are so pretty.




A vintage French drying rack is always a fun way to add some French charm to your kitchen.


I have used one of these for many years.
I just use a linen towel under it to catch the water.





*************************************
I wanted to repost this fun Easter egg dying experiment the kids and I did four years ago.
The eggs turned out so pretty, we are going to try and do it again this week.


The kids and I did a little Easter egg dying experiment using mostly fruits and vegetables...

I had not heard of dying Easter eggs using fruits and vegetables until
I came across a Better Homes and Garden article on how to make your own dye....
I might be the only person that had not heard of this before : ) .....
The kids and I decided to experiment with making our own dye this year.....




We ended up loving how the eggs turned out.....

We decided that we will be dying our eggs this way from now on....
It was a lot funner then just using tablets and vinegar like we always have done in the past.





These lavender colored speckled eggs were a product of mixing grape juice and vinegar together.
We left the eggs in the solution overnight.
For some reason the eggs had a bubbly film over them in the morning, so the girls rinsed them off
and this is what we ended up with.
We all loved how these turned even if it was by accident.....


A few of the foods we used to create some of our favorite colors....

Red Cabbage, Boiling Water, & Vinegar ~ Robin's Egg Blue
Blueberries & Water ~ Bluish-Gray Eggs
Tumeric, Boiling Water, and Vinegar~ Mustard Yellow Eggs
Brewed Coffee ~ Golden Brown Eggs
Beets, Boiling Water, & Vinegar ~ Pale Pink Eggs




The kids dyed a lot of eggs!
 The eggs turned out a really pretty blue, that were almost the same color as my vintage french zinc pitcher that is in the first image....



Austin and Dustan experimented with their own recipe.....
It was an interesting one.
They combined avocado skins, potato skins, and onion skins.
We added boiling water to their mixture of skins, and let it simmer for five minutes.
We then added vinegar....
They ended up with really nice peach colored eggs : )
They are mixed amongst this pile of eggs somewhere....


We only had one dye that didn't turn out.....
That was the jade green color....
You peel red onion skins and simmer them in water and then add white vinegar,
and this is supposed to produce jade green eggs, instead we ended up with
orange eggs.
I am not sure what we did wrong.....





Hope you all have a Blessed Easter Week.
I will be back with more images of our kitchen.



Wednesday, March 9, 2016

French Farmhouse Items in the Shop


Hello, I hope you are all having a great week.
I photographed my spring collection in our kitchen, however you can find more details about our kitchen on instagram. 
You can find me posting daily on Instagram, DreamyWhitesLifestyle is my username.

I wanted to share a few images of the vintage French items we recently listed 
in our online shop.











































In case you missed it, I had updated my previous post to announce the winner of the giveaway and also announced the winner on instagram 

You can find me posting daily on Instagram, DreamyWhitesLifestyle is my username.