A Little Detail Goes a Long Way

Hope everyone is enjoying the first weekend of summer! With the temps climbing outside, we have taken most of our projects inside this week to allow for a more consistent climate for painting. We are finally able to start working on some of the smaller detail work that we feel makes the biggest difference.

After painting the walls and the ceiling in the main room, we weren't too happy with the way the walls met the ceiling. With all the drywall work that we did, we wanted a more polished and finished look. So we decided to try our hand at crown moulding. We did a lot of research online and found a piece of moulding we had bought for the sun room to try to make some transition pieces for the corners. Since we have vaulted ceilings we thought it would be a little more difficult to make the cuts, but after some trial and error we were able to get them up.

Before the paint

After the second coat of paint - so much better than railroad ties

The moulding really finishes off the ceiling in this room and makes it look more polished. After several attempts at transition pieces, we ended up cutting the pieces to fit as close as possible and then used caulk to fill in the gaps. We are pretty pleased with the turnout and we will be touching up the wall paint in the next couple of days to complete the look.

One of us wasn't too thrilled with putting up the moulding...

Tequila hates the nail gun

Really hates the nail gun

But still loves Dad

We finished the final coat of paint on all of the trim and the kitchen so we've checked that off the list, then we put up our new light fixture...

A lot bigger and more modern

Now that the light fixture and the crown moulding are up, we are at a bit of a slow period until some of our big purchases come in. We ordered the flooring that is being shipped from California and just saw our granite slabs that arrived in the warehouse (so excited!) this week. We've got to wait until the floor is laid down before we can set our island and finish it, then we'll get the granite laid and then the backsplash put up. But don't worry, that didn't stop Sara for creating new projects for us to work on.

Remember the Rustic X Console Table we built?

We moved it inside to see how it looks...and to see how the lamps would look :)

Well, of course we needed to add a coffee table to match! Luckily there were already plans for a Rustic X Coffee Table by the amazing Ana White!

Here's what we started with

 We set up the frame and then Sara's parents stopped by to check it out and got roped into helping.

Tequila seems to like it

It's such a solid piece and it's super heavy so I am glad we built it inside, because I am not sure the two of us would have been able to get it inside. Once it was built and the X's were fit in, we moved it to the kitchen to start staining.

X's on and sanded

 Since we will be replacing the floor we didn't throw down tarps, but staining is really messy so we would highly recommend it otherwise. Here's what the table top looked like after the first round of stain:

I love how the wood grain pulls the stain

 We wanted a little weathered look for the coffee table similar to what we did with the console table, so we lightened it up with a homemade white wash, did a light sanding and added some sparkle with a nickel finish spray paint. I would recommend testing out a few things to get the color that you like, but we are really happy with the results. Then we finished it up with two coats of a semi-gloss polyurethane to seal the piece and let it dry.

Letting the poly dry

I can't wait to fit this in the room with the console table and the couches. We haven't had a coffee table in our house before, but we are looking forward to having one now!

The coffee table wasn't our only project this weekend, but it's the only one that is finished to share. Here's a teaser for what's to come:

Our tools for the new project...any guesses? Stay tuned to find out!

We'll have more updates soon!

XOXO,

Sara, Brian & Tequila

Oh...quick brag, check out how awesome the doors look on the bar piece:

Glad we cut out windows for the cabinet doors!