fresh coat of paint

first off, let me say, we're finally here. to the part where i get to start sharing and showing

 all the design and finishing details i've been researching and shopping my guts out for these last 6 months. 

and i can't wait. for you to see them. 

second, forgive the terribly inconsistent lighting in these photos, there was a lot happening this day. while normally i choose moments where i'm alone in the house to grab my shots, if i didn't shoot i would have missed a few steps. so, weird blue + yellow + natural + recess can lit photos here we come.

painting is done. hurray! pulling all the tape and plastic off these walls and especially those beams was the messiest, most rewarding job to date. 

is there anything more beautiful than a clean paint line?

picking out a grey is quite possibly the hardest design job in the world. one drop of paint in the wrong shade direction and you have blue walls or green walls or pink walls. every day i see ours i'm even more convinced we chose the perfect color for our natural light and style. whew. for the walls we went with Behr Silver Drop in satin and for the ceiling we used Behr Ultra White (which looks nothing like pure white on the screen). 

our laminate flooring came from builddirect.com. i absolutely love their free sample service! 

speaking of. anyone know of a handy DIY project that uses 20 laminate samples?

we chose Eurafloor: Clearwater Oak and holy smokes. i'm a little behind in updates so as i write this, the flooring is actually completely installed and it is so so beautiful. highly recommend it! 

we officially have accessible electricity! 

it's the craziest thing to plug my iphone into a wall and watch it charge when just a few months ago this was just a hole in the ground that i personally dug. surreal much?

zoey is a major fan of the light switches we chose. "sitch? sitch?" is what's happening in these photos. at least once ever hour she asks to be light conductor. we're currently learning the art of "only one more time." 

when i was presented with my light switch options (big deal, i know) this flat button or the toggle switch kind, i couldn't for the life of me decide why one would be better than the other. so i deferred to someone else's opinion. then yesterday i was carrying an armful of draw hardware with no free hands and clicked on the light with my elbow. ta-da! so that's why we buy this kind. multitasking at it's finest. 

these right here are maybe one fourth of the boxes of cabinet pieces that we are fully assembling ourselves. yikes. we chose to go with ikea cabinets for both our kitchen and bathroom, modifying them a little for our needs. (i'll explain how when i post those photos)

we went with AKURUM in white, in the simplest recess they carry. if you've stayed away from ikeas cabinets because of the assembly, let me tell you. it's work but so worth it. they snap and click together so well and the 25 life time warrantee can't be beat! 

i'll attempt to take a more helpful photo of our bathroom layout soon, but we chose to install split master vanities and i'm so excited about it! just wait until you see the west elm number we have chosen for lighting above the mirror. 

(so many more things are already happening this week! i'm having to get back on my game to keep up and keep updating. i'll do my best to link up, but if you have any questions along the way about what we're using or where we're purchasing from, leave a comment and i'll be sure to respond!)