It’s that time of year again, also known as the best time of year, fall! Growing up in Ohio I have always loved fall…the smell of the leaves, cooler weather, the beautiful colors of the leaves or my favorite-when the leaves twirl on the road when a car drives by on a sunny day. Fall also brings all the fun of Halloween and Thanksgiving and time spent with family and friends.

When we lived in Texas it was 10 years of torture not being able to enjoy a fall season to the fullest. A few years into living there I found a state park about 3.5 hours from us that had maple trees that would change colors each year. So, almost every year we would make a weekend out of it and go hiking and enjoy the beautiful fall colors-worth it!

Now each year I have always decorated for fall and usually I don’t buy anything new for my house until this year when I’ve decided to start changing my style from a farmhouse style, which is what we had in Texas, to more of a modern traditional style. I always start at Target and their decor gets better and better each year. I also love going to all the craft stores , especially because most of the time their decor and florals are on sale and this makes them super affordable. Some other favorites are Home Goods, Kirkland’s and ,of course, Trader Joes for some of the best and affordable pumpkins. Hope you find something you can add to your fall decor !

Favorite Fall Faux Florals

One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine

Favorite Fall Decor

Door Mat Canister Vase Pumpkin Candle Acorn Candle Mosaic Canister Twig Pumpkin Large Twig Pumpkin Small Candle Holder

This is long overdue by only 13 months. No big deal. The kitchen renovation was always on the to do list but on the 5 year to do list. We had planned it out and designed it and found out what it would cost and then decided we would save up for the next 3-5 years to pay for it with cash. Well that obviously didn’t happen thanks to a water leak in the laundry room.

After doing my research via pinterest I was able to quickly draw out our kitchen plans and make a list of our musts. In my drawing also labeled where everything would be stored in our new kitchen based on how much we used it and accessibility. Living in our kitchen for a little over a year really helped to know how we used our kitchen and what would function best in the future. Also, because i had spent so much time researching and really pinning kitchens over the years I knew i wanted Navy cabinets, brass hardware and faucets and to have some industrial elements and all of that while embracing our traditional home. To counteract our dark floors and cabinetry I wanted to keep the counters and backsplash bright white and I had seen subway tiles many times but didn’t think the flat style was a fit for me and thankfully our designer found a more rough edge with a textured glazed face. And because I can never go simple I also opted for a herringbone design. The countertops were also easy considering we had owned a home previous to this one and it had granite, which stained so much and just never looked as good as when we were bought the house, so I chose quartz for more durability. By the time we met with our designer our meetings went a lot faster since I had narrowed down my style so much. The bonus to hiring a designer is she can help with things such as our island that once she measured had shown us we could actually extend it and slide it down to provide more space for our stove and oven work area. She also has access to backsplash tiles, countertops, hardware and so much right in her office. Once since she knew my design style she was able to quickly pull up a faucet and cabinet pulls that I instantly loved. I’m one of those people that will read every review for a product and look at every website to make sure I’m getting the best deal before purchasing and so her finding it for us took all that away from me-phew! 

Here is a list of our other musts:

• Mixer lift
• Spice drawer
• Dog storage drawer
• Tall pantry for small appliances
• Drawer for holding utensils next to stove
• Pull out drawer for trash
• bread drawer

Now I realize these are extra items we didn’t need but I absolutely love baking and cooking and wanted it to be a space I could utilize to its full potential and really enjoy being in there. I also hope to never have to renovate this kitchen for many many MANY years from now. 

Once all our designs were finalized we got working on the demo. We knew we wanted to save as much money as we could with renovation so our first save was doing the demo ourselves. My dad came down in the middle of march to help us demo our entire kitchen including our porcelain tile floors (so thankful for him!). We would go to work and come home to half the kitchen already done without any help from us. Still have no idea how he carried out slabs of granite on his own without breaking them or himself! The last day of the demo we spent the entire day ripping up our floors. My dad would pry up the tiles and underlayment and I had the job of pulling up hundreds and I mean hundreds of staples. By doing the demo ourselves this saved us almost $4000! Now that’s a huge amount of money and could now be towards our renovation and my fancy faucets that my husband may or may not have been in agreeance of the price.

Once we had completed the demo was when things got serious with Covid and we were all about to go into lockdown and we got a bit worried we would not be able to move forward with our renovation and we would be living months without a kitchen. This wasn’t the most ideal time for a renovation but unfortunately nothing in life is planned out perfectly. Thankfully nothing was put on hold and we didn’t have any long lead times.

This is right around the time that I realized home design and building things and demo was what I loved doing. Seeing something that you helped create and such a huge reward and I love seeing it everyday.

I hope this makes you feel like you could design your own kitchen and even demo it !

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