This post is brought to you by Ace Hardware. I was given a gallon of paint from the Clark + Kensington line to use and review at my leisure. Clark + Kensington recently outperformed other big name paint brands in a Consumer Reports evaluation. All labor and opinions are my own.

After a few teaser shots, here’s the real deal. A fully detailed post entirely dedicated to recent events in the mudroom/dining room/laundry nook {i.e., the Everything Room which a reader creatively suggested we call the “mudding nook” – I like it!} that involved a paint brush, paint rollers, Frog Tape and a gallon of goodness. I repainted the Everything Room for the THIRD time. In a little over a year. Sure, it would have been easier, quicker and cheaper to have gotten it right the first time but sometimes I need to make flubs. Finding out what doesn’t work is just as helpful as figuring out what does work. In the end, victory is that much sweeter. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself to keep from feeling like a complete failure.

First, a quick 360° around the room to help you get your bearings. {FYI – I took these pics on an overcast winter morning so the lighting isn’t the best but I didn’t have the patience to wait for a sunny day which, realistically, might not happen here in Ohio for weeks. Boo gray days.}

Sweet, sweet victory.

The color is Besalt by Ace Paint, color-matched in Clark + Kensington primer + paint in one. {Ironic, I would have named it Bepepper.} I chose a flat finish for a deep, flawless look. On the walls, it’s deep and dramatic. When I look at it, I feel like I’m looking into outer space. It tricks me into thinking I can extend my arm and magically reach beyond the wall. I can’t.

With three kids nipping at my heels and HH working overtime, it took me an entire day to paint out the room. Many of you ask how I get projects like this done with kids in the house. I don’t have a babysitter. I don’t have a nanny. I don’t have a magic answer.

I have to psych myself up for DIY when my kids are present and my HH is not. I put on my inside-out painting clothes and tell myself I’m not getting out of them until I’m done. Usually, the hardest part for me is getting started.

I prepared as much as possible in the early morning while Mabrey was awake and Layne and Everett weren’t getting on each other’s nerves yet. I taped off the chair rail, removed items from the walls, moved decor and furniture to the center of the room and got all of my painting supplies ready. That way, when I put Mabrey down for her morning nap and turned on a movie for the boys {Kung Fu Panda in case you’re wondering} all I had to do was get my paint on.

After Mabrey woke up from her morning nap and the boys’ movie was over, I took a lunch break to feed the kids and myself. I wrapped my paint brush and roller in plastic wrap to keep them from drying out while I was sidetracked. After lunchtime and playtime was over – about 2 hours later – it was time for Mabrey’s afternoon nap. I laid her down and turned on another movie for the boys. {The Incredibles this time} It bought me enough time to finish one coat on the walls. I had to touchup and cleanup with all three kids whining for dinner which was pretty stressful but I was in the home stretch and just wanted to get it done. We ate dinner at 7:30 p.m. Typically, I don’t let my kids watch 4+ hours of TV in one week – let alone one day – so when I do resort to it on special DIY occasions, I try to sequester the mommy guilt. I don’t always succeed. And that’s how painting with three kids and no babysitter goes at my house.

This primer + paint in one means business. Usually you’re looking at 2+ coats when you paint a color this dark over a really light color. I only needed one full coat and a little touching up. That saved me precious time and kept my kids from starving – hehe. I’ve used all different brands of paint and this stuff claims a spot at the top of my list. It has a great consistency {not too thick, not too thin}, outstanding coverage, virtually no odor and is less expensive than other big brands that boast similar properties. Awesome.

But enough talk of kids, mommy guilt and good paint. Let’s get back to the room.

Some of you worried that I had dismantled the gallery wall.

I assure you. It’s still kicking. I was smart lazy and painted around the 3M adhesive strips that are stuck to the wall. With the frames in place, you can’t even tell.

I did take down the abstract art {see it leaning on the chair rail?} and remove the two smaller frames that were above it. That section was feeling a little top heavy. The abstract art is staying and I’ll be adding some new frames to the wall.

When the walls were lighter in color, I wasn’t feeling some of the prints and fabric scraps that I added to the frames last minute for The Tile Shop shoot. But with this new deep charcoal, almost black, I actually don’t mind them.

I also cheated around the wardrobes and window. The wardrobes are secured to the wall with anti-toppling hardware. I had no time/patience/muscles to remove them. I painted around them with a 1.5″ angled trim brush and small foam roller. You’d never know unless I told you. Wait a minute.

I did remove the curtains to cut in around the window but I didn’t take down the woven blinds. Unless you came to my house and took the blinds down yourself, you would never know there’s a light bald spot behind them. Along with scheduled naps and screen time, I also cut corners whilst painting a room with three kids in the house. I never said I was perfect.

I can’t talk about the Everything Room without mentioning the laundry nook. Before I painted this time around, the nook wall was an accent wall the same color as Mabrey’s room. I liked the dark contrast and that’s what made me decide to continue a dark color around the entire room. But I thought a grayer, blacker color would work better because the Everything Room is fairly open to our black and white kitchen. {The paint in Mabrey’s room has more of a navy, green undertone.} There’s a short wide hall that connects the two spaces.

I owe you a big post all about the nook. It’s coming. I promise.

For now, just know that the nook fits into the room better with the rest of the walls painted dark too. It feels more like a part of the room – as it should.

Next to the nook is where the kids hang their outerwear and bags. I added a modest bench for putting on and taking off shoes. Normally, this area is chock full of stuff but at the time these pics were taken, the boys were at school so imagine more pint-sized coats and backpacks. This image does a good job of showing the true color of the new paint.

We painted the french doors Benjamin Moore White Dove {same as the wainscoting and all the trim in our house} back before The Tile Shop shoot. I like how they contrast with the new moody paint but could see a bright poppy red working too. I think I used up all my big girl cajones painting the room dark so I may need to grow another pair before I brave colorful doors.

So, yeah, this new color is “the one.” It makes the white horizontal planking on the walls look crisp. It complements the travertine tile. It brings out the black hardware in the room. It plays nice with our adjoining black and white kitchen. It’s masculine and dramatic.

With the right wall color in place, I’m excited to step it up a notch in here. You may have noticed that I brought in a cowhide rug. It’s from IKEA and I bought it almost two years ago. It was hanging out in the boys’ bedroom but it wasn’t working. I think it’s found its new home. I picked up four sheepskin throws to toss on the dining chairs. They’re also from IKEA. We remove them when we eat. They’re working out really well. They hide messes on the removable seat cushions in between washings.

I wouldn’t consider these images “afters” by any means. Things left to do:

*expand and tweak the gallery wall

*possibly add curtains that fall to one side of the french doors

*do something about the space between the two wardrobes. Currently, there’s a petite sofa living there. I DIYed a slipcover for it but it was a disaster. Turns out I can sew pillows, curtains, clothing – NOT slipcovers. For the photo shoot, I pinned and ironed the heck out of it to make it presentable but as soon as the shoot was over, I removed it. That’s how bad it was. Not sure if a built-in bench is my style. I’m kind of leaning towards a free-standing chaise or shelling out to have the little sofa reupholstered. Thoughts?

*work on styling. There’s nothing in that silver bowl on the table for crying out loud! I didn’t style anything for these pictures. This is how the rooms looks right now. I can’t wait to have fun decorating. And this room needs a little pattern wouldn’t you say?

*find a lamp for the fauxdenza

How do you feel about the new wall color? Love it? Hate it? At least tell me you’ve repainted a room three times in less than two years.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Remember when I repainted the mudroom/dining room/laundry nook? {Yes, that’s all one room – let’s just call it the everything room, shall we?}

It was definitely an improvement. But it wasn’t quite right. This past weekend while HH was working overtime, I got stir crazy holding down the fort + three kids and decided to conquer that room {at least paint-wise} once and for all. I’ll share the nitty gritty details in an upcoming post but, for now, please enjoy some teaser shots.

No more messing around. This paint color is “the one!” So what if it took three tries?

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Remember the photo shoot? Well, today I finally get to share the fruits of our labor with you.

HH and I partnered with The Tile Shop over a year and a half ago during the renovation of our Underdog. After many, many, MANY months of hard work {and very little sleep}, we are so excited to be a part of The Tile Shop’s blogger spotlight and ad campaign. As of today, you can read about the details of our tiling adventures over on The Tile Shop’s site here. The online spotlight includes many never-seen-before photos of our kitchen, mudroom/laundry nook/dining room and bathroom as well as commentary and DIY tips contributed by moi.

If you happen to live in one of The Tile Shop’s major markets you may just find full page ads featuring our house popping up in your local glossies. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek! As far as I know, the ads should run in the following prints over the next few months: Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine, Chicago Magazine & Chicago Home and Garden, Kansas City Home and Gardens, Charlotte Home & Garden, Cincinnati Magazine, Indianapolis Monthly, Madison Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, Nashville Lifestyles, Philadelphia Magazine, Pittsburgh Magazine, Long Island Pulse, St. Louis Magazine, Buffalo Magazine, Washingtonian Magazine and Atlanta Magazine.

Fun fact: The Tile Shop will be featuring several other bloggers via their blogger spotlight and ad campaign so keep your eyes peeled. I am the guinea pig!

Can we talk for a brief minute about companies recognizing the voice and importance of bloggers? And I’m not talking about my voice. So many wonderful, deserving bloggers out there are collaborating with amazing companies and brands in  win-win partnerships. A few of my favorites: Holly Becker of decor8 + West Elm. Trina McNeilly of Lalalovely + Land of Nod. John & Sherry Petersik of Young House Love + Shades of Light. And don’t even get me started on the things that Joss & Main and One Kings Lane are doing. Fabulousness all over the internet. Fabulous. Ness. It’s a very exciting time to be a blogger.

From a consumer standpoint, I find these partnerships inspiring as well. I prefer seeing real homes - as opposed to lifeless sets or over-the-top mansions - in advertisements and catalogs. I think it shows how brands and products can be implemented realistically and effectively. More companies should take notice of this latest trend in marketing!

And just so you know, it wasn’t easy capturing a decent shot of my family in our kitchen. I find it mind-boggling that we got one pic in which everyone is looking at the camera with their eyes open, hands down and tongues in their mouths.

Um, Everett can be a bit of a ham in front of the camera.

images: Megan Hoy for The Tile Shop

I posted this image of HH on instagram a few days ago with the caption “scratching an itch.” The image and caption caused some confusion/hilarious comments. HH is not literally scratching an itch. The gutted kid/guest bathroom is giving us quite the tick though. And we’re ready to do something about it.

Last week we took the first steps towards making this space a functional bathroom.

HH poured concrete to fill in around the future tub’s plumbing which we had a professional plumber update back when we were in the midst of a full-on reno.

HH also removed and rehung the backerboard under the window because the drywallers did a shoddy job.

Once that was all finished and the new concrete around the plumbing had cured, HH prepped the floor for leveler primer + self-leveling underlayment. We used Henry’s brand from Home Depot. The underlayment is cement-based and helps to smooth and flatten surfaces before flooring installation. In our case, we’ll be laying a tile floor in the bathroom and the job is 200% easier when the floor is nice and level.

To prep, HH cleaned the floor of all debris then fashioned cardboard “dams” around the toilet drain and floor vent. He caulked around the toilet dam and secured the floor vent dam with masking tape along the inside.

He built another dam at the bathroom’s doorway. Hint: If you’re going to be using self-leveling underlayment, it’s important to block off any parts of the room that you don’t want to be affected by the concrete. Then the primer went on. {Sorry, no pictures of this step. It’s likely that I was tending to a blown out diaper.} The primer improves the underlayment’s bond and prevents pinholes/air bubbles in the finished surface.

With the primer dry, we tag teamed the  mixing of the underlayment. Hint: the dry powder is fine so wear a mask to prevent inhalation. It’s not difficult – you just add water and mix with a drill gadget – but the leveler sets up very quickly. You only have 10 minutes after mixing to pour and work with the leveler. We guessed we would need 2 bags of underlayment. So HH mixed one bag in the garage and took it inside to pour while I began mixing the second batch. Then I brought my bucket of mixed underlayment in {muscles!} just as HH was finishing up with the first bag.

Here’s the first batch going in. HH poured the mixture in small sections and used a hand trowel to gently move the leveler into tight spaces.

He also used a section of 2″x4″ to work the larger areas.

We set a timer for 10 minutes to keep track of how much time we had left before the cement started to set.

With ~four and a half minutes left, we poured the second bucket. At this point, HH was working from the hallway.

After 10 minutes and 2 batches of underlayment, we had a floor covered in wet cement. A few hours later, the floor looked like this…

It’s only cement but it already looks 10x’s better. Seriously. I sat in the hallway watching it dry and dreamt of a finished bathroom. It’s going to be great! I just know it. {See my plans for the bathroom here.}

But we’re not completely ready for tile just yet. The area around the tub plumbing didn’t level up the way we had predicted. Turns out self-leveling underlayment is great for smoothing out minor discrepancies but not major ones. Looks like mixing and pouring more concrete is in our future to get that corner as level as possible.

When do we expect the bathroom to be finished? I dunno. 2014? Hehe. I laugh but it’s totally feasible. We’re just working on it whenever we have a chunk of time to devote to one step of the bigger project. HH has a lot of traveling to do for work over the next three months. We only have a few free weekends coming up but every little project we tackle gets us that much closer to not sharing a bathroom with the little people in our house. I’m stoked.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

If you follow me on instagram @housetweaking you may have been witness to some behind-the-scenes footage of the photo shoot. Like the image above where HH is kindly staying up waaaaay past his regular bedtime to help me with a gallery wall. {More on the wall in another post.} You may also be wondering where in the world that floating credenza came from. As much as I would have liked it to, it didn’t just appear over night. HH built it after I sweetly suggested the idea whilst batting my eyelashes and ever so slightly bending over.

Hehe. Not really. He was on board the minute I showed him my inspiration. So, yeah, I canNOT take credit for this idea. I stole it. Technically, I guess I tweaked it a little by using different stain and hardware. Thanks Chris & Julia! And thank you worldwide interwebs. My house wouldn’t know what to do without you.

For a brief and satirical DIY overview, see below. For a more thorough and less cray-cray tutorial, see Chris & Julia.

DIY Fauxdenza

Peeps from The Tile Shop were at our house earlier this week.

That’s Brian on the left and Megan on the right. Oh, and that’s me in the middle. Brian and Megan work in marketing for The Tile Shop. In the midst of our demolition in 2011, Megan contacted me about collaborating with The Tile Shop. At the time, I had never heard of The Tile Shop. But after checking out a local store {which happens to be only five minutes from our house} and discovering their huge inventory {I’m talking TONS of different materials and aesthetics} and excellent customer service {not only do they suggest tile that fits your needs & desired look but they have DIY tutorials and workshops going on most weekends}, HH and I were more than thrilled to jump on board.

A year and a half later, we still have nothing but good things to say about The Tile Shop. More than once, we called our local store right in the middle of a project to ask how-to questions. We were given on-the-spot advice without any hemming or hawing or “I don’t know. Let me get someone else.” We’ve been around the home improvement store block ifyaknowwhatimean a few times over the last 11 years as homeowners and avid DIYers. Nothing is more frustrating than going into one of those businesses and the most the employees know is what aisle what product is in – if that. Sure, they might be able to point you towards the floor tile and grout but beyond that they’re pretty much useless. Now, I’m not saying that’s been our experience every time but A LOT, yes. Our experience with The Tile Shop was nothing like that. And it can’t be chalked up to brown-nosing either. 95% of the time we called anonymously {meaning they had no idea ‘the blogger’ – that’s what they call me – was on the other end of the line} and had our answer in less than five minutes. Done-zo. So, yeah, we like The Tile Shop. And I wasn’t paid to say that.

Anyway, now that most of the tiling projects are complete and the rooms around them are taking shape, Megan asked if we’d be up for a photo shoot to feature the tile in vivo. It sounded like fun plus we liked the idea of a fire being lit under our youknowwhats to get a few rooms in order. We said yes. For the past six weeks, we’ve been stuffing in as many projects as possible to get a few rooms shoot-worthy. It was a ton of work but it was so fulfilling to see it all come together.

I have to be honest. I did have a minor meltdown right before the shoot. Other than my own photos for the blog, I’ve never been part of a real photo shoot. As the day of the photo shoot neared, I got more and more overwhelmed. I didn’t like not knowing exactly what to expect. I was embarrassed about our unfinished projects – like the exterior, messy garage, non-working front door, gutted bathroom, etc. They weren’t going to be a part of the shoot so it didn’t really matter but I started second-guessing our decision to go through with the shoot. I’m sad to say that I took out my frustrations on HH which was totally awful of me. He was helping out so much – with the kids, the neverending list of projects, meals, cleaning, everything. I was mean to him and I regret it. There you have it. Proof that I’m far, far, far from perfect. I’m not proud of the way I treated him and told him so. We’ve since made up ;) but I owe him big time. HH, you’re the best.

Luckily, by the time the actual shoot rolled around I was over my not-so-perfect hump and things played out smoothly from there on out. Megan and Brian were in town for two days and they were so wonderful to work with! They were very easygoing and not at all stuffy or pushy as I had feared they might be. The first day we made a list of accessories {mostly fresh flowers and greenery} that we needed to style the rooms. Then we spent a few hours shopping around for said accessories. It was during this first day that I mentioned something about a gallery wall {hello, New Year’s resolution!} in the mudroom. {Btw, Megan asked me what we officially call this room. I told her it depends on what we’re using it for at the time. Sometimes it’s a mudroom, sometimes a dining room, sometimes a laundry room. Sometimes we just call it the everything room!} Megan thought it was a good idea and encouraged me to give it a go. So we picked up some frames for the gallery wall too. That night HH and I stayed up late working on the wall. More deets in a forthcoming post but here’s a sneak peek…

Then I was up waaaaaay before dawn cleaning, styling and accessorizing the other spaces.

Now, mind you, we still had three kids at the house during the prep and shoot and had to work around naps, feedings, school drop-offs & pick-ups and even gymnastics practice. The logistics of it all had me in a tizzy but it went better than I could have ever imagined. Layne was at school most of the time. Mabrey was Nap Champion the day of the shoot and that made things easier. She LOVES being around people so she was more than happy to have extra faces to smile at when she was awake. Megan had her giggling on her lap. Everett is pretty much the life of any party. Megan and Brian were really good about letting him ‘entertain’ them with his costumes, fake mustaches and constant questions. At one point, Brian may or may not have had on a stormtrooper helmet.

They let him play photographer at the end of the day which he thoroughly enjoyed. He thought it was pretty funny that I took a picture of him taking a picture. We even managed to get a pic of the entire family together. Can’t wait to see that one.

Everything you’ve read about behind the scenes of a photo shoot are true. One part of the house looks magazine-worthy while there’s a disaster just outside the camera’s view. Photo shoots make you do weird things too.

Like bust out your iron for the first time in over a year. I ironed shirts, towels, even my slipcovered sofa. See above. I washed all the windows inside and out in below freezing temps a few days before the shoot. My hands were frostbitten afterwards. I’m lucky I didn’t have to get all 172 Hours and self amputate. Just kidding. That’s not funny.

For surprise’s sake, I won’t divulge exactly which spaces were photographed but you could probably figure it out. Just think about which rooms have tile in them. As for the pictures themselves, I can’t say just yet where they’ll pop up but I will be sharing them with you when they go live so you can check them out. Sorry. I like surprises.

Megan and Brian are still on the road hitting up some of their stores for photos. Megan texted me this picture today…

It’s a display bathroom in one of their other stores and it was inspired by our master bathroom. Notice the penny tile floor, the textured shower tile, the floating vanity, the round wood mirror and the industrial wall sconce.

Fun fact: The Tile Shop names all of their displays. This one is named “The Dana.” Craziness.

Thanks Megan and Brian! I had a blast. Please come back when our other bathroom is finished.

images: 1-5) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking 6) Megan Hoy for The Tile Shop

My heart is heavy this week. Lots of sad news involving people we know and love + cancer. No one in our household but that doesn’t make the news any lighter or less serious. Cancer can kiss my a$$.

In an effort to distract my thoughts, I’m sharing a bunch of random information. Sorry if there’s no good flow to this. Blogging, DIYing and decorating seem so trivial today. Pretty much anything that doesn’t involve hugging the people you love seems trivial today.

We used Bondera to install the subway tile in our kitchen.

It was easy to peel and stick directly onto the drywall. HH lubed our kitchen scissors with cooking spray to cut the adhesive sheets.

The subway tile went up without a hitch but when we got to grouting, there was some pesky tile shifting. We think this was due to the size and weight of our extra long subway tile. The tile displacement wasn’t noticeable when all was said and done but we think it’s worth noting that if you’re going to be working with an extra heavy or large tile then maybe Bondera isn’t the best choice. Now you know.

The tile is 2″x12″ imperial blanco in a gloss finish. The grout is Laticrete in natural grey. It’s an epoxy grout which never has to be resealed. The downside is you have to clean up any stray messes pronto or else it’s permanent. I spent the entire evening after we installed the backsplash cleaning grout off of everything in kitchen. That stuff is like concrete when it dries! I missed some on the back of the handle to our trash pull-out and it’s still there to this day. It’s not visible but I feel it every time I throw something away. It peeves me.

The open shelves are made from reclaimed fence boards from HH’s family farm + IKEA brackets. They are 11″ deep.

HH sanded the fence boards down a little but we didn’t want to completely remove the natural patina. We finished the shelves with a few coats of sanding sealer {above} then a few coats of spray poly in a satin finish. The shelves were left out in the garage for a week to off-gas.

To hang the shelves, we were able to tie into studs in a few places by pre-drilling and then screwing directly into the stud. You can see the patched holes where we originally hung the MDF shelves. Hint: a strip of masking tape sticky side up catches drywall dust.

In the places where we couldn’t hit a stud, HH used toggle lock drywall anchors.

These bad boys can handle up to 100 pounds so technically I could put my kids up on the shelves for time-outs if I wanted. Not that I will.

I tried out some industrial chairs in the dining room a few weeks ago. I liked the chairs but not in our dining room/mudroom. With the tile floor and metal pendant, it was all a little too cold for me.

In fact, the seats themselves were cold on the buns. I returned them the next day. I found them at Home Emporium near Cincy for $79 each if you’re interested. Their inventory is always changing so they might not be there now.

I finally started painting the french doors in the kitchen. Before I could even start to paint, I had to take a razor blade and scrape off a ton of drywall mud that had splattered onto the doors and their windows during renovation. The doors came to us primed.

We splurged for this gel-flow trim & door paint from Home Depot. I think it was $20? Anyways, the ‘no drip, no brush marks’ claim hooked us. The stuff stinks and isn’t like a typical paint. It’s thick and you don’t stir it. It’s like painting with crude oil. As for the ‘no brush marks’ claim, either I’m a sloppy painter – which is highly possible – or the claim is too good to be true. I mean, it’s definitely better than a plain old latex at hiding brush marks but it’s not perfect. FYI – This glop is oil-based and not low VOC so be sure to work in a well-ventilated area.

Still, I’m absolutely loving the results. Very shiny almost like they’re wet and DRAMATIC. Once the doors fully cure and I get the hardware back on, I’ll share some glossy afters. I haven’t painted the french doors in the mudroom yet.

Hope you understood all that nonsense or found something useful. Hug your ‘lil and big ones today.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

You already saw our kitchen go from this…

…to this…

Yeah. That was a complete gut job. Since then, we’ve been doing what we do best. Tweaking.

We originally installed four open shelves near the range. They were totally functional and got me on the open-shelving-in-the-kitchen bandwagon but left a lot to be desired. The white MDF boards got lost against the light-colored wall and looked a little meh. A reader with a keen eye also noted that the shelves seemed too low and would look better if they were in line with the hood.

We lived with them that way for a few months. I really liked having our everyday serving ware {plates, bowls, glasses, etc.} out in the open for quick access but felt that something was off. I went back through my kitchen inspiration photos and noted that many incorporated wood shelving. And after I looked further, I noticed that {as the wise reader above had suggested} the open shelving was in line with either: 1) a range hood 2) wall cabinets or 3) both. Aha!

I mentioned to HH that I thought the shelves would look better if they were raised so that the top shelves were in line with the hood and the bottom shelves were in line with the bottom of our wall cabinets {on the perpendicular walls}. He just looked at me.

He didn’t say a word but I’m pretty sure he was thinking, “What?! I just hung those shelves. They’re not going anywhere.”

Then I added, “And wouldn’t it be nice if we could find some reclaimed wood to replace the MDF?”

Still, the look and no words. This is what HH has to put up with on a daily basis. Have pity on him.

But I had planted a seed. And eventually it sprouted some roots because a few weeks later HH told me we had a few fence boards leftover from our DIY ‘love’ headboard. On top of that, they were 1″ thick – exactly what we needed. He thought we had enough to replace the MDF shelf boards. He also said something about installing a backsplash while he was at it.

I love that man.

I’ll have full-on ‘how we did it’ posts next week but feast your eyes on this…

How you like dem apples?

First, let’s discuss the most obvious tweak. The backsplash.

We chose 2″x12″ white subway tile and a contrasting warm gray grout.

We decided to tile up to the hood but not to the ceiling because we really didn’t want the hood to be an ‘in your face’ focal point from the adjoining family room.

Likewise, we chose to only go three tiles high with the rest of the backsplash. Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy an entire wall of tile now and again but when it’s visible from a not-so-utilitarian space {like our wide open adjoining family room} then it feels a little cold to me. Not to mention, keeping our backsplash minimal saved us time and money. Unless your kids are doing the cooking in your house {in which case TELL ME YOUR SECRET}, you really don’t need a backsplash that extends to the ceiling.

It’s hard to tell from this shot but the low backsplash wraps around under the microwave.

No backsplash along the desk area. I’m reserving the under-cabinet space for an inspiration board, memos, reminders, etc.

Now for the less obvious tweak. The reclaimed wood shelves…

Seriously. They might be my favorite thing in the entire kitchen. Besides the skylights. The wood is old fence boards from HH’s family farm back in Pennsylvania. Like I mentioned, it was from the same lot that we used to DIY our previous headboard. {Don’t worry. HH sealed it so there’s no risk of contaminating our dishes with nasty chemicals or harmful dust.}

This shot shows how the raised shelves follow the lines of the kitchen better. I liken their new, higher position to a good {not Joan Rivers} facelift. It’s like that’s where they were supposed to be all along. Oh, and I have no problem reaching stuff on the shelves at their current height. At 5’4″, that was a slight concern for me but, turns out, it’s just like reaching up into a wall cabinet for something on the bottom or middle shelves.

The wood isn’t perfect. It’s bowed and warped which did pose somewhat of a challenge to hang. It has an aged patina that can’t be bought and only comes with time. We purposefully left some of the old paint on the boards.

Each shelf is actually made up of two boards placed side by side. Since we reused the IKEA brackets, HH had to cut the boards length and width wise to fit. Even though there are two boards and they aren’t perfectly smooth, it’s not enough to make our dishes wobble precariously above us.

I love the function of the open shelving so much that I bought two more brackets and we added a low shelf over near the fridge for easy water drinking. {See how the backsplash continues along this wall?} The height of the shelf is in line with the backsplash and still allows us to utilize the electrical outlets properly. This corner needs work. I want to hang the paper towel roll and I’ll probably remove the coffee maker since we rarely use it.

HH was worried the area under the shelf would be wasted but it’s perfect for storing cutting boards.

Some more shots because I can’t enough of the reclaimed wood and it’s Friday!

The mix of the shiny white tile, glass globe pendants, stainless steel brackets & appliances, weathered wood shelves, warm walnut island top, dark lower cabinetry and aluminum stools are so us. We love the contrast of light + dark, old + modern, shiny + matte.

I still have a short list of things to add to the kitchen, mostly final touches and accessories: window treatment, rug, maybe some hooks under the lower shelves near the range for towels/kitchen tools, wall art to the left of the window, etc.

Last week, one reader guessed another addition to the kitchen…

Cabinet lighting. {I’ve yet to paint those damn french doors. Why?! It’s not that hard!}

HH installed it himself. I have no idea how. I’m clueless when it comes to electrical work. I do know our electrician-in-law {who did the rest of the electrical work on the house} ran supply wire and hooked it up to switches so the cabinet lighting turns on/off with the flip of a switch. Presto! If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask in the comments section and maybe HH can answer them. I’m sorry. I have no desire to be an electrician.

But I do love what lighting can do for a space. I wish I could capture the ambience of the cabinet lighting at night. It’s the only lighting we use in the great room in the evenings after the kids are tucked in bed, lunches are packed for the next day and the kitchen is cleaned up. Cabinet lighting – that’s about as romantic as we get, people.

One last thing before I go…THANK YOU for voting for Mabrey’s room in the Room for Color contest over on Apartment Therapy. We won the dark division! I couldn’t have done it without you.

Have a happy weekend! I’ll be attempting a weekend warrior project that involves paint. Fingers crossed the kids cooperate.

Click here to see who won this week’s Bona giveaway.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Ever since I can remember I’ve always had a weird obsession with peeking in people’s homes at night. Okay, that sounds weird. But it’s not the people I’m looking at. I’m looking at the house. The innards of the house. There’s something about seeing lights on, a TV flickering and pictures on the walls that grabs my attention. When I drive by my favorite local homes at night, I slow down in hopes of catching a glimpse inside. Total stalker. I know.

The weather was so beautiful tonight {I’ll take upper 70′s and sunshine in late October anytime Mother Nature} that I slipped outside to peek into my own house for fun and realized that I’ve totally forgotten to show you the exterior lighting we added to the Underdog. Forgive me. Also, please forgive the aftermath of our new hardscaping. Yes, that is the original screen door lying horizontally propped up against the house and a wheelbarrow to the left of the picture window and a hose reel on top of the brick planter. Junking up the front yard. We’re cool like that. If you look closely, you can see our grassy lawn too!

Our electrician-in-law urged us to go with exterior downlighting installed under the eaves. HH and I hadn’t really thought too much about exterior lighting and, if our EIL hadn’t mentioned downlighting, we probably would have added landscaping up lights instead. We’re so happy that we went with the downlighting! Our EIL placed the recessed lighting so that it washes flat areas of the brick facade. We like that it warms up the brick and gives it a soft glow. That way there’s no annoying bright light shining in through any windows to the interior.

Are  you peeping in my window? Haha! That’s okay. I’ll let you look in mine if you let me look in yours.

You can see in this picture how the lighting is placed closer to the house to illuminate the brick {accent lighting} and then further out from the front door to act as task lighting. The gray heart is covering our house number. Seriously. How does one see a house number that small from the road anyways? We might as well not have one. Which is why we have plans to replace it with larger, more modern numbers down the road. Well, not literally down the road. You know what I mean.

After living with standard incandescent flood lights for only a few months and almost all of them burning out, HH decided to look into replacing them with LED’s. I was leery. Typically, I don’t like LED’s because I associate them with a cold blue light that feels sterile – not warm. HH did some research {the man loves his research} and found a Sylvania 50W 2700K soft white flood light. It’s an LED good for 50,000 hours but gives off that warm glow I love so much. HH tracked a bunch down when they were on closeout a few weeks ago, hitting up several different Lowe’s stores to acquire enough for our house. Even at the sale price, these bad boys weren’t cheap. We paid $39.97 a pop! But they’re guaranteed to last three years or we get a full replacement. Sweet. If you’re interested, this is the newer available version.

The back of the house has downlighting too. And two new patios {!}. We’re replacing the back lights with LED’s as they burn out. We don’t turn on the back lights as frequently. You can see one light is burnt out now and needs replaced.

And because I like peeking in houses at night so much, here’s a shot of mine. Complete with kid lunches on the island in preparation of school tomorrow.

I’ve been wanting to reveal the kitchen backsplash in a true before-and-after post when the kitchen is put back together. But, what the heck!, I’m keeping it real and showing you what it looks like right now. We went with this 2″x12″ subway tile and contrasting epoxy grout in a warm gray. I love subway tile but was afraid that traditional subway tiles would have looked too busy…too many grout lines. {FYI – We’ll be using this same tile but with white grout on the walls in the kid/guest bathroom!}

You also might have noticed that we backsplashed {yes, I just made “backsplash” a verb} sparingly. We tiled up to the hood above the range and only three tiles high the rest of the way. Why didn’t we tile the entire wall? After all, I love me a focal wall tiled all the way to the ceiling. Well, three reasons: 1) It was cheaper not to. 2) It was easier not to. 3) I didn’t want the wall to be a focal wall because you see it from the front door and family room. We did something similar with the backsplash in our previous home because the kitchen, dining room and family room were all open to one another and liked the results so figured we’d go that route again.

HH removed the open shelving to install the backsplash. Once it was down, I decided I didn’t like the previous placement. While it was perfectly fine to reach and use, it was too low visually. Here’s a picture from a few weeks ago to jog your memory.

One reader recommended raising the shelves to incorporate the hood. I looked back through several inspiration photos and discovered that most of them had an open shelf in line with the bottom of the hood. I think putting the top shelves in line with the hood and the bottom shelves in line with the bottom of the wall cabinets is the way to go.

HH really doesn’t want to drill new holes and patch the old ones but I got him on board by saying it will be one of those little things that makes a big difference design-wise. We’ll be reusing the stainless steel brackets but replacing the white MDF shelving boards with reclaimed fence boards. I can’t wait to see the results of this little tweak!

What about you? Are you a legal Peeping Tom like me? Have you added exterior lighting to your house? Are you tweaking your kitchen? Did you notice anything else new that I didn’t mention? ;)

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Last weekend while I was stroking Rugby with a foam roller, HH was working on his own project.

Yep, we made it a personal goal to tackle the backsplash this month. After considering a slew of options, we went with our gut and used classic white subway tile – but with a twist. It’s longer than average giving it a sleek, modern profile.

I talked HH into contrasting grout. He wasn’t sure about it at first but when the first grout line went up, he was sold 100%. Once we get the kitchen put back together {i.e., rehang the open shelving which is getting tweaked as well} I’ll share our progress. M’kay?

Next up…

If you’re local maybe I’ll see you at Books by the Banks tomorrow meeting John & Sherry and the Novogratz’s! I can’t tell you how excited I am about this. I’ve never been to a book signing before. What do you say to authors? What do you wear? Is it okay to bring a baby? Is it okay if I say something really stupid, wear something I wear every day and bring my baby? Because that’s what I’m doing. I’m on the backend of a nasty respiratory virus so I’ll try not to cough on you.

Happy weekend! I hope you try one new thing.

Check to see who won this week’s Flor giveaway here.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking