Black and White Dining

With my love for all things black and white, I came across this simple yet gorgeous dining room that I just had to share.  Have a good weekend!!

{image via Decorpad}

Zebra....

I was reading my daily blogs, and today's post at A Thoughtful Place was on zebra prints in the house.  It reminded me of my trip to Homesense awhile ago (when I purchased the Old Hollywood prints), and I saw a zebra canvas print I LOVED (but wasn't willing to pay the $200+ price tag, even with my $100 gift card...).  For one, it was LARGE. Large enough to fill a wall I want to do this on, but purchasing a print would be far EASIER...and it's it gorgeous?? And two, it's BLACK and WHITE! Hello!! I LOVE black and white!!! But, the zebra print probably isn't there anymore (I did see another zebra print at a different Homesense location, but it wasn't the same.  It didn't have the same impact this one did.  Isn't it gorgeous? (Oh, did I say that already??) I kinda regret not buying it....(even though we don't have art in our budget right now.... [insert sad face here]).

{image via Decorpad} 

Movie Room

Wouldn't this be the best theatre room? The Old Hollywood pics and the black walls create an inviting movie room.  Slap on a good movie (I'm an action fan, but I also love to watch a drama or a romance every now and then -- solo, preferably, as I don't like to make my hubby suffer through something he hates [and I also prefer to cry alone if I'm going to cry a LOT!]), and curl up on your own little bed (oh yeah!!) with a bowl of popcorn and voila! Perfect movie night!

{image via decorpad}

Are you bold enough? (Am I???)

Some people are really scared of black.....or grey (hi hubby!).... so it takes a lot of guts to do something this bold.  I came across this picture on the Veranda website, and absolutely loved it.  Would you be bold enough to do a black or grey wallpaper?? Even in small doses such as this?

{image via Veranda}

 I adore it! If only we had a place in our house for a small bold wall like this....(although, doesn't it look similar to the wall treatment I mentioned here from here?? I could do it using PAINT!!!) Hmmmmm.....

New backsplash = new kitchen!!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year!!! Was your holidays as busy as mine??

Well, it's (almost) finally done!!! The backsplash is installed!! I'm so proud of my husband and all the hardwork he's done on our house. It looks AMAZING!!! One thing I do have to say though is tiling is NOT as simple as it may look....and all I did was wash off the grout!!! (it's HARD work!!!)  My hubby spent a few days before Christmas installing our new glass "bamboo" backsplash (that HE picked out too!!), and on the 23rd, I helped him grout it....well...sort of (he grouted, I followed and washed it off -- it's tougher than it sounds 'cuz you're constantly scrubbing and washing your spunge, getting clean water, etc etc....). Anyways, we have a few final touches left to the kitchen (replacing the white plugs with BLACK plugs and steel plates, and re-installing the hoodfan above the stove) and then we're basically done!! (we still have a lot more to do on the house in general, but overall, it's looking AMAZING!!!).  What do you think? Here's the work in progress (some of the pics were taken with my phone, so they're not the greatest quality)....

 BEFORE -- note the hideous lino, BLUE countertops, and post under the peninsula (we had ONE drawer in the kitchen.....) -- the little black dog, Jack, is ours, the others are our friends.

 This is before the counters were done, but after the flooring was replaced with laminate (from Costco -- walnut, $1.74/sq ft -- can't beat that price!!)  See the ONE drawer by the pantry door...we had so little storage, we hung our cooking utensils with hardward from Ikea

 After the granite was installed and a wine rack (built by my dad) and bank of drawers were added and stained to match existing cabinetry  (we decided painting our entire kitchen cabinetry was beyond our renovation budget at this point....) I'm not a fan of our oak cabinets, but they're less noticeable now....

 The wine rack (open from both sides) that will hold hanging wine glasses on the top (designed by me, built by my dad) and the new bank of drawers (just waiting on drawer fronts, also made by my dad, to match existing cabinetry style)

 The new sill-granite sink in Cafe Brown

 New glass tile backsplash!!!

 The plugs will soon be replaced from the standard white, to black plugs with steel plates (nickel finish - to match our faucet)

{images via Krystal}

I am BEYOND happy with the final product! The backsplash is TO DIE FOR and just finishes the kitchen off.  And, to be honest, my husband actually picked it out.  Yup, that's right. HE did.  When he first showed it to me at the store, my first reaction was, "Ugh....hideous." But I took a sample home to appease him and I had to eat my words because it grew on me, and I had to admit that his choice blew mine away and looks fantastic.  My mom is now trying to recruit him to install her backsplash, since my dad is busy fixing our hoodfan and making our cabinet drawers!! haha...

Black doors....and me!

Since my husband and I decided that we're going to paint our new baseboards and casings to white (instead of matching the existing color -- which is a orange-y-peachy-pinky white), and we'll have to paint our interior doors anyways....I've suggested that instead of painting the doors white, and blend in the the casings etc, that we do BLACK!! Yes, black doors!  It would play in well with our countertops and backsplash (as both have a little black in them), and it would add a nice dramatic, interesting feature to the house.  As we're trying to go with a more neutral wall color, why not add some flare with our doors?? We'd only have two doors on the main floor (foyer closet and pantry), and 5 in our upper hallway (3 bedrooms, bathroom & linen closet) and one door in our 3rd level (door going to the basement --we live in a 4 level split).  We could also do the closet doors inside our bedrooms, but that wouldn't be a necessity, as I don't know if we'll bother painting those casings all white (as we'd have to take out ALL the furniture...). Plus, with a black door to the bedrooms, we wouldn't HAVE to paint those casings inside the rooms. They could stay as they are, because there would be no bright white anywhere near them that would set off an alarm of: "Oh...those casings are actually an orangey-peachy-pinky white...not actually white....eww.....". (when they're not near something that's actually white, you really can't notice it...but if we have to paint the new casings anyways, why not get the color we want??)

Here are a few examples of black interior doors. Don't they look amazing??? I'll probably still have to take him to my friends house and show him their doors in person, but still...just imagine! (ok, so if I hadn't seen them in person -- we used to have a showhome with black doors -- I would probably be wary of doing them too). But once you see them, they're amazing!!