I thought I was gonna win him over with a chunky butcher block but he blind-sided me with his diagrams. How could I compete with them? I couldn’t. I can’t. So it is, Chris, I think your last picture is perfect. Let’s go with it. A shortened, narrow peninsula will make us both happy.
Even though Chris has given me a lot of freedom, we don’t go through with any plans unless we both agree on something…which sometimes means walking away from an idea, or fixture or piece of furniture completely. It’s okay. It’s only stuff, right? We care about our relationship a lot more than paint colors or pillow shams.
Our wood grain Shaker cabinet fronts were designed for busy, high-traffic homes like ours. Clad with durable textured thermofoils, this line is compatible with Sektion, Akurum, Godmorgon, and Besta cabinets from IKEA. It's the perfect, practical way to add the warmth of wood to all the rooms of your home.
We have teamed up with Loloi to create a line of rugs that are as affordable as they are beautiful. This collection houses a great mix of traditional and modern rugs, in cottage-y colorways, as well as vintage-inspired beauties that you’ll want to roll out in every room.
We partnered with Stuga on a line of hardwood floors — The Ingrid is really livable, and the color is very neutral. It doesn’t lean warm or cool, it’s that just right in-between. We have really loved putting it everywhere in our house. It’s the best jumping-off point for design, no matter your interior style. In addition to being beautiful, Ingrid is really durable — we have three kids, and we always have a home construction project going on. Ingrid stands up to it all.
SHop all
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Befores, afters, mood boards, plans, failures, wins. We’ve done a lot of projects, and they’re all here.
We have a long-standing relationship with DIY, and love rolling our sleeves up and making it happen.
Even when you don’t want to rip down a wall, you can make that space in your home better. Right now.
A reader recently asked me if I’m starting to fully embrace traditional style and whether we still consider our house to be a “modern Colonial” and why. It was a really great question and so timely — I had really just been thinking about my approach to this home and how my style has changed […]
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blog stalking is a two way street :) i’m glad we’re both out in the open now ha and that we got to meet in real life. your renos inspire me! i can’t wait for the day when we get to redo our own house (minus the whole trying to agree on everything part). i can’t wait to see how the counter paint works out!
love the emails! tooo cute :)
Thanks for the heads up, Susan! This is a very similar layout to the kitchen we have now, except we are shortening the peninsula and making it a little more narrow. And because we are upgrading to a countertop depth fridge, we’ll most likely have even MORE room. But our kitchen isn’t very big as is, so valid concern on your end.
You don’t mention the dimensions, but be careful that you aren’t making the working area really tight if there’s more than 1 person in the space, and that someone can stand in front of the fridge and not block off the rest of the kitchen and that you can stand in front of it without having a problem running into the fridge
LOL those diagrams!!!!!!!!!!!! I do agree with him though. Unless you have a HUGE ginormo kitchen space, an island just isn’t necessary. It does block a lot of the cooking “flow” and I’d to see you guys regret it later. Free standing islands are cool to move around and stuff, but if it is permanent, do you really need it in the first place?
oh my gosh, I just looked at those diagrams again. Go Chris.