Kitchen Files: Floor Beneath Our Feet

There's been some changes taking place in the kitchen as of late. Some small, small that make a huge difference, and some that are so monumental they're life changing. (Seriously I'm not exaggerating.) When you've lived without a proper kitchen for as long as we did any updates you do are touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread. It still makes me giddy to turn the lights on in there! Our final assessment was set for last Thursday so we were working our tail feathers off (we much rather would've been shakin' them) to get the kitchen floor in before then (as well as a few other smaller things). We finally got everything finished at about 1:30am Wednesday night (or Thursday morning if you will), and fell into bed without showering, and barely getting changed. Then before I even closed my eyes, it seemed like the alarm was going off, and we had to get up to finish tidying and a bunch of other things we were too tired to do the night before. Before we were able to get out of bed our social worker called to cancel the appointment because she was sick. I was annoyed for all of 30 seconds, because it meant we got to go back to sleep, and we honestly probably weren't ready for her to come anyway haha.

Anywho, we're glad she didn't cancel until the morning of, because we needed the meeting looming over our head to finish up the floor...

Tada! It looks great! We love it, when we first started we weren't sure if we really liked it, but the more that went down, the more we liked it. Which is a good thing, because this floor was a biotch to put down. It. Took. For. Ever! You had to flash the floor, and flash the tiles, then wait about a half hour for them to set before sticking them down. And the floor dried quicker, so it was a while before a good rhythm was figured out.

A gratuitous detail shot. And no, I couldn't have dusted the floor before hand, because I already have about 6 times. There's a lot of glue on the edges of the tiles (which is most of what you see here) that we're going to have to thumb off before we poly-seal it. (which is probably going to take a week because it's such a tedious job) Jason wasn't the neatest of gluers, but he put in a ton of hours on the new floor, so I can't complain.

Another update we did, that doesn't really change the look of the room much, but makes it a whole lot more functional came in the form of counters.

They still kind of look like ply-wood, but if you look closer, they're really...

Peel and stick tiles from the dollar store! Because we are having to post-pone our lovely quartz counter install due to a pesky leaky roof, I had to improvise. I wanted something wipeable, because I was tired of sweeping the counters. Yeah, sweeping, and we don't have a little hand held one, gotta get the ancient bristle broom up in there. Pain. In. The. Neck. (literally) So while this little counter update may not change the look of the room, it's umpteen times more functional, because no I can actually wipe up spills. Hoorrah!

So, like the dining room, it's still a ways a way from being finished, but it's much closer. Next step is some base and case and hole patching as well as some paint touch-ups. Plus organize and unpack all our kitchen stuff we still have downstairs.

Some Small Improvements

There have been a few small things taking place here lately, small, but very exciting things! Each big stage we hit in the kitchen is exciting. I remember when the fridge got moved in there, and the stove hooked up, it was like Christmas morning so I promptly cooked a most delicious roast beef. Then came the the instal of the cabinets, and sink, and I was actually able to do dishes, so I celebrated by doing the worlds largest stock pile of dirty dishes. And we were relatively good about keeping up to date with our dishes. The thing that I wanted most of all in there for a while were lights! We had one floor lamp in there that we'd switch between two different outlets depending if we were cooking or washing dishes. I was more than ready for lights, even if it was just the one over the sink. Thankfully I got more than that. (Sorry for the crappy pictures, I still have to use my phone, and it's really hard to get pictures of pot lights haha)

 Hello gorgeous illumination, where have you been all my life. We've had overhead lighting in here for a couple weeks now, and I still get all giddy and smile bigger than is necessary every time I flick them on. You can actually cook at night now, without getting the lamp cord caught in the oven door. Success! As if getting lights up in here wasn't enough excitement for me to handle Jason came home with this bad boy the other day.

 It's my favourite kind of dishwasher...FREE! That's right, that gorgeous beaut that matches the rest of our appliances was free! Jason switched it out at this guys house who got a new one, because this one didn't match the new fridge and stove he got. Jason called me to see if I wanted a free stainless dishwasher, I thought about it for a microsecond, then questioned why he even bothered to ask because what kind of person says no to a free dishwasher. I was thinking we'd take it as a temporary thing until we could get one that would fit better with our appliances. I didn't realize it was only a year old, and was super nice looking at fits in perfectly with his other appliance friends. We've already put two loads through, and he works like a charm. We feel like we're real grown ups now that we have a dishwasher haha.

Moving over a room, to the ever forgotten dining room, We've primed and painted (the top part), and the floor has been scraped clean of all the drywall mud slops and nails and other crud that was there, and it's ready for floor!

The floor is an engineered hardwood from Armstrong that we got from an auction before we even closed on the house, they've got a great reclaimed wood look to them. We're super glad we took every piece out of every box, because there was a ton of variation to them. There was a warmer more reddy/orange tone, and a lighter, blonder tone, then there were darker pieces to each tone. We sorted them into three piles, and decided to use the warmer toned ones in the nursery

It's even pretty in this poorly lit, night time phone picture. It should be going down Wednesday, then hopefully Thursday/Friday - or part of the weekend, will be devoted to putting down the kitchen floor so we can get this final home assessment done. I'm really looking forward to having the floor down in there so we can actually walk in that room without getting drywall dust all over our feet and traipsing it around the house. Just have to get my but in gear to do a few of the projects I've got for in there.

Kitchen Files: White Boards

   Happy Good Friday everyone, hopefully you're all enjoying a wonderful dinner of some sort this weekend, we've got two lined up to break up our organizing and cleaning before our visit Tuesday.

Not actual white boards (although we do have a giant one of those gracing our living room currently). I'm referring to our kitchen cabinets. In preparation for our first home study visit one of our goals was having the dining room and blue room (which we'll be using as nursery) cleaned out (as much as possible), and one of the easiest ways to begin doing that was to assemble the rest of the cabinets to get the big bulky boxes out of there. Hooray, we did that...but unfortunately their space was promptly filled with multiple boxes of flooring, such is the way with renovations.
   What we managed to get done was put up our three uppers, which really changed the look of the whole room (I'm still not 100% sure if I like the look of them haha, but I'll deal with it).

We put up a corner cabinet, which looked absolutely massive sittin' up there all by its lonesome, then we added two equally massive 24in cabinets that are connected with sliding doors. We mounted them high (24in above the counter top instead of the standard 18) for a couple reasons - we wanted to be able to use things like the mixer or coffee maker, or anything else that is tall under them. I didn't want a large space above the cabinets, because it's a bitch to clean, and I don't really have anything to decorate up there with. Also because we're planning on adding a shelf underneath the sliding door one (possibly the corner one as well) to house all our teas and coffees, and mugs that we use multiple times a day. I said before we bought them, that Jason wasn't 100% sure of going with Ikea cabinets, but after hanging the uppers, he was singing a different tune...even recommended them to people who are thinking of building some quick sale homes. Please disregard the pile of shims in that expansive opening, they're in a better home now.

  
Currently we only have one outlet in that area (beside the sink) so there's a power bar on the microwave that runs them all (only one at a time though, mind you. It's frustrating)  The pantry door still distracts me every time I walk by, it's like a white board just asking to be written on. I thought Jason was going to going to blow a gasket trying to put on that door haha. He lost all respect for Ikea at this point, because they don't really give you any sort of guide to attach the door to the drawers. The door is attached to two drawers and pulls out, then you can pull out the other three drawers that are in there. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of how it functions. You have to be very precise with your measurements, then screw on these clip things that snap into the drawers. As I mentioned before with the whole drywall cutting fiasco, Jason isn't the greatest at super exact measurements, so he was anxious he'd mess it up. It took a while, and a fair amount of standing staring at it before we got it figured out. The space between the pantry and the cabinet is only 9in, not large enough for another cabinet, so we're going to build a bottle rack. It's going to go from the counter to the same height as the uppers. It will serve two purposes, to fill the gap between, as well as to cover the gap behind the pantry (since it has to stick out further due to duct work we had to run upstairs).

Looking at these picture makes it seem so cluttered, oh how I dream of the day when things are complete and everything has a home. (I have tried to put the cereal away somewhere, but Jason always just ends up putting it on top of the fridge, I think he's afraid Kai will get at it, she loves Cheerios) As you can see the space on either side of the window isn't the same, we'll most likely add some open shelving to the left, to help balance it a bit. Some freakin' trim might help too, yeesh.

On to the other side of the kitchen now. These two friends had been sitting half done for a while, they were desperate for some love. The one on the right was easy peasy, we basically just had to attach the doors. The corner one was a bit more complicated.

It's got these swing/pull out carousel things that make it a functional corner cabinet, versus the usual on all fours with your head stuck in it trying desperately to reach that damn pot that you need, but your arm it just that much too short, cursing yourself for even putting it all the way back there in the first place. We've all been there. So I was happy to get something with a pull out function. This cabinet, while being large (just over 4ft) was relatively easy to assemble, the the pull out function had a ton of parts but was also pretty easy to put in. Although, Jason did feel a little cramped shoved in there, and I quote, "Who the hell designed this!? Oh, I know, someone without shoulders!" He's always good for a laugh. We still have to build them up and mount them, but unfortunately we can do that until the outlet beside the stove gets moved up about 10in. It's seriously just floating there in the middle of the wall.
   We were hoping to get the floor in there before we had our home visit, but we're picking our battles haha, there was just too much to do. Once she comes though, we've got a long list of things we will have to get done before she comes back, and the kitchen floor is definitely one of them.

Kitchen Files: Top That!

We have had many a long discussion regarding the kitchen, and it's gone through a lot of changes since it's conception phase, but it's about to go through it's biggest, and arguably most dramatic. 
   COUNTERTOPS! Holla! We were initially going to do concrete, because we could save a bunch of money and do it ourselves. But I'd always wanted to do a quartz, because well, it's better. So I took the plunge, and went and got some samples. Progressive Counters is the exclusive carrier of Cambria quartz in our area, so I paid them a visit.  The guy (Paul) I talked with was super helpful, and knowledgeable, and gave me some free samples.

 I put this up on Instagram & Facebook, and it was split pretty much right down the middle with what people think we should do. They're showing more yellowy/brown in this pic, here's more accurate representations:

The black is called "Flint Black" from their Classic collection. I like it, it's got nice depth to it, there's some clear glass looking specks that let you see down into deeper layers. It's also a bit reflective, which adds some cool dimension.

But then there's the "Whitney"  from the Jewel collection which I like better. Even Jason said he liked it better - but then changed his mind when I said I liked it the best too haha. Silly boy. It also has the cool glass like pockets that let you see into deeper layers, and some sparkle to it, which almost makes it look like it glistens. It's not so white that it would seem sterile with the white counters and tile, because it has so much grey in it, it's has much more "aggregate" than the black.

What's good about quartz you may ask? Well, it's super durable and hard, it's not going to scratch, or dent like some other types of counter. It's considerably less porous that concrete (or marble) which is fantastic because it means it won't stain - Paul told me I could even spill red wine on it and leave it overnight with no ill effects - I'm not really sure what he was insinuating with that. You never have to seal it with anything, once it's installed you're good to go...concrete on the other hand we'd have to seal at least once a year (but is recommended twice a year). Two of the biggest winning features in our minds (that help make us feel better about the cost) Cambria comes with a Lifetime Warranty, and progressive does everything for us. They come in and take pictures, and precises measurements, and they make the templates, and they make it and cut it. Then they lug it back here and install it and make sure everything looks great, and is seamed properly. While we have no issue taking on a project like making our own countertops, the piece of mind knowing that professionals will be handling things, and if we ever have any issues we have someone to call is wining out right now. Plus we realize that we kind of suck and getting things done haha, and we'd probably still be counterless this time next year if we did it ourselves.
   So we're about 90% sure we'll be going with the Cambria quartz. And while the samples are nice, they didn't really help too much, because the debate is still raging hard about which colour. I should be able to pick up larger samples when I go in to meet for the price quote.
  Hooray for the prospect of counters!

Over The Sink & Through The Window

Since we're making progress in the kitchen, I thought I'd take the time to discuss the lighting situation in the kitchen. Before, the entire space was lit with an old, off centred, and odd angled, florescent light, a ceiling fan, and one little globe light (if you could even call it that)

Here's what it looked like when we moved in. Man, look how tiny that kitchen was! (The pictures seriously don't to it justice, I should've taken a picture of me standing in it for reference) Don't you just love the pinkish sort of glow that's reflecting back in that little nook from the wallpaper?

 It's hard to believe that's what the kitchen used to look like...with carpet! Even the empty space we have is an improvement over that. Now that walls have been removed, paint has gone up and cabinets are (mostly) installed we can get our electrician (aka: cousin Adam) to come back and change things up in the lighting department for us. Our table and benches will be in the corner roughly where the old closet & hutch were, and benches will go all the way across the window, so we'll be moving the lighting from the fan over so we can hang a pendant over the table (instead of in front of the fridge). We're going to swap out the old globe light (that broke during demo anyway) with a pot light, and we'll be adding 5 more pot lights spaced throughout evenly. We bought those ages ago, and if memory serves have a stainless face plate. It'll be so nice to have electricity working in this room again...right now we have an old floor lamp plugged into the one working outlet, and since it gets middle of the night dark at about 4 in the bloody afternoon it gets a little difficult to work in the evening. 
  And over the sink (which is staying in the same spot it was before) we'll be hanging a pendant. I flip flopped on what I wanted there more than anything else so far. Which seems a little weird. First I flip flopped between pendant or pot light. Then once I decided on a pendant it was back and forth between various different lights. I had originally DIYed something.

  I started with a flower pot from Ikea...

Spray painted it red, drilled a hole through the bottom and strung it on a pendant cord, then held it up trying to get an idea of what it'd look like. 

It looks cute red, but the scale just wasn't right, and I wasn't 100% happy with it. I figured it was mostly due to the fact that it wasn't up and I couldn't fully appreciate it.  Then during one of my weekly ReStore perusals I found it. THE light. I'm on the lookout for a decent looking chandelier that I can revamp for the dining room, so I always make a beeline for the lighting area - like a pregnant lady for the pickles. They didn't have a chandy that stuck my fancy, but I spotted something just as good, and some slid over and scooped it up faster than a bat outta hell (not that I know for certain how fast they are - but I hear they're pretty darn speedy)

Ain't she a beaut! It's a cracked glass, bulb shaped pendant with stainless plates. And it's considerably bigger than the little pot, so it will be able to hold it's own above the hefty sink.


Here's a little comparison...

Woot woot! I got it for  $20! I've tried to find similar ones online or in store, and the cheapest comparable one I saw was $90 (or there was a $60 plastic version from Home Depot). I can't wait to get it up, it's going to make the coolest light shadows.

  Yay for the ReStore, now if only I can find the chandy, dressers, desk, and chair I'm looking for too haha. 

The Kitchen Files: Rise up, Rise up

Oh rise and show your power! Remember that song? By Parachute Club they're Canadian eh, and they won a Juno for that amazing song, true story...I looked it up!
  We took a cue from the good ol' club of parachute fans and made our cabinets rise up! Quite literally. We built bases for them (and by we, I totally mean Jason did all the work, and I just laughed at him when he flubbed some cuts) I did throw in my two cents a few times and save him so extra work, so YAY ME! I actually came home from work to find him just finishing up the big corner one. Let me tell you, there's nothing sexier than coming home to see your man on his knees with hard wood. (Oh man, did I just go there?!) Whoops, almost forgot my mother reads this...sorry, mom but I had too...was just set up to perfectly not to.
   ANYWHOOOO...we built simple frames for the base cabinets to be screwed into out of 2x6's because we want to make them 38" high, instead of the standard 36".

Then after we had them in place, we shimmed, shimmed, shimmed. Because the floor was SO out. More warped than Jase's sense of humour. After the third one we were asking ourselves why we didn't just put self-leveler down when we thought about it. Then we remembered it's expensive and we're cheap frugal.

The magic, floating shelf. Why yes, that is double shimmed, and no, there seemed like there wasn't any base actually touching the floor. But Jason secured that bad boy real good - we performed the jump and shimmy test, and it passed.

Then we got to screwing in the cabinets. (Not even going to go there) Again we performed the hang test, and she was good and secure. 

While Jason started on the pantry I had SO much fun cutting away the copious amount of shims we used. Good times. Then in the heat of the moment, I got all excited and did this...

Just for fun, to get a bit of an idea of what it'd look like. That's the cork tile flooring. Once they're actually glued down, and butted up all snug like, and all sealed up the lines between them should be less noticeable. But they look good, they're a bit darker in person, can't wait till they're in either.

Kai was being general contractor, and did what any good boss would do, and cut out early.

Lights out, dead dog pose. Apparently so tired she couldn't even make it to her canteen hehe.

So now the kitchen is marginally more functional. At least I can now store a few things in there, and can actually good. There have been some mighty tasty meals comin' out of there since the stove got hooked up. Maybe that's why Jason's been putting in a bit more work, now that I am actually feeding him.

And just for fun, another gratuitous picture of a sleeping Kai. Mainly just because her sleeping positions both astound us and invoke a strong urge to laugh out loud, so they are worth sharing.

Sinking

I had a dream last night I was sinking, in a giant puddle of hot caramel sauce, and instead of trying to save me, Jason kept dipping his giant pretzel stick in the sauce and laughing at me. (eat your heart out with that one Freud)  What I think it means, is that I've had to suffer far too long without a kitchen sink, while my plumber husband does nothing about it. We have had the most gorgeous farm house sink, just sitting around taking up space, waiting for its moment to shine since February! Now that we have that row of cabinets in, there's no excuse for it to not be there. We didn't buy a cabinet for the sink from Ikea for a few reasons. The sink we have is much heavier than any of the styles Ikea sells, and doesn't have any addition "lip" support like the Ikea ones do - we have a true farmhouse style sink. Also, and probably the biggest reason, they didn't have the right size, since they were mostly made for their sinks. So, good thing for us, Jason knows and works with a cabinet maker who could hook us up with a custom, super sturdy cabinet for my beautiful baby. So, I had been harassing Jason for what seemed like eternity (to both of us) to contact this guy, and get it done. So finally he did, and that's another part of the reason we finally got around to doing the rest of the base cabinets, because he wanted/needed to take a look at everything all set up so he knew what he was working with, and what he needed to match. 
   So now the great debate comes in, since we're having a cabinet custom made, what kind of style do we want. 

(via)

 Something like this, which has the cabinet kind of hugging the sink, and two cabinet doors...

(via)

Where the sink looks like it's just resting on the cabinet, and is snug up to the cabinets flanking it. (which I like better than the first, and would go better with the style of cabinets we have.)

Or...

(via)

The drawer style. This is my favourite, and although this sink isn't an apron front sink, we could still get a drawer with ours, it'd just be one large drawer. I like this idea the best, because a lot of the time drawers are just more functional, especially under the sink - you don't have to go rootin' around on your knees smashing your face to get whatever's at the very back. And this way, we could just make a faux drawer with the support piece. So we'll have to talk it over with Mr. Cabinet whenever he gets here to take a look at what needs to be done. Hopefully, it'll be sooner rather than later so I can actually wash dishes in a kitchen sink, as opposed to lugging them all downstairs to wash them in the crappy sink that smells like poop.

The Kitchen Files: Movin' on up...

...well kind of. There have been some new developments in the kitchen that are worth sharing. First...

we got the stove hooked up!!! FINALLY! Throughout the day last Thursday I would periodically break out into a happy dance, and there was also a whole lot more fist-pumping going on than in an average day. The thought of being able to cook even spaghetti in a fraction of the time it has taken me for the past year got me all giddy. Our first meal cooked was a delicious roasted chicken and vegetables. It's already got quite the workout, and I look forward to continuing to put it through its paces. 

We also moved the fridge into its rightful home when we did the stove. And it got a well deserved scrub down to commemorate it's new place, and a subsequent grocery shop has filled her up and let her bask in glory.

This past weekend we also FINALLY cleaned out the dining room of all the crap that was being housed in there (and by we, I actually mean Jason!). Mind you he mostly just moved the majority of it to another room, but it was clear & clean enough for us to get at the cabinets to put the rest of them together.

Plus it's quite amazing to see it all cleaned out like that. Now if I can just motivate him to get the mud scraped and off the floor, so I can prime and paint and lay floor, it'd be like a fairy tale.

After he cleaned out the dining room, he got to fixing the one burner on the stove that wasn't working. He managed to get the power burner working, but this is was the simmer burner looked like after he "fixed" it.

Umm...hello singed nose hair! You notice the nice blue flames on the outside - that's what it's supposed to look like haha. I was tempted to run across to the store and grab a big ol' bag of marshmallows and start singing campfire songs, but I was too busy laughing and trying to get a picture. After tweaking some more, he managed to legitimately fix it, and now we have four working burners and a working oven, so I am like a pig in mud I'm so happy. 

We also started building the bases for the base cabinets to get mounted on, so by this time next week we should have them all installed, and then I can actually store my kitchen things. In. the. kitchen. It is definitely a step in the right direction, and yes, a step that shouldn't have taken 11 months to reach. 

Kitchen Files: Where to Park Your Keester

A lot of butt talk has been taking place as of late in good ol' Casa d'Armitage. We pretty much figured out what we're doing for the bench area in the breakfast nook, so then we had to move on to the three or four chairs we'd need for the other side of the table. I was initially thinking I wanted to do something like this:

Some fun painted traditional chairs. I figure this would be the easiest (and funnest) way to bring some of the accent red into the kitchen. I like the one on the far right, and the second from left the best. I haven't however, been able to find any quality chairs like that anywhere. I've been searching kijiji/Goodwill for months and continually come up short. They either aren't the kind I'm looking for, or they're a whole set (with table). So I started thinking about other options. Jase and I talked, and we figured since we were being so frugal, and coming under budget with everything else we could "splurge" on the chairs. There was this chair that I saw from the beginning, that I just kept coming back to, so it went to the top of the list.

They are these chairs from West Elm. I love the shape of them, kind of retro-ish, they stack on top of each other, and they're comfy and kind of bouncy (we tested them out when we were in Chicago). But at $83 a pop, they are definitely more of a splurge for us. So I started looking for a few similar choices that are cheaper.

I came across these from here, which actually aren't cheaper at all haha, and Jason doesn't like them anyway, so I guess there out...I think I'd only want one for the end even if I did get them.

Then there's these ones, also from Target that are considerably cheaper, at about $30 a piece...but they do have to be ordered online, and that kind of sucks. I'm also not a huge fan of the rounded top, I prefer the "scoop" look, like the ones from West Elm.

The Gilbert chair from Ikea, which is one of those, kinda like it, kinda don't type thing. Plus, I don't think they even carry it anymore, so it's out too. So that still leaves the ones from West Elm that I've liked from the beginning. 

Then I came across these ones:

There's no link to where they are from, or who makes them, but I love them. The simplicity of them is what strikes me the most. Plus that red one is speaking to me hehe. Jason really likes them too. And they also have a retro, yet modern vibe. 

So now we're at an impasse again. We both like the last chairs the best, but have no idea on where to get them. We could probably make them, the construction of them is fairly simple, and making them would save some money; but we're already making so much, (which I like) that I was looking forward to finally purchasing something. Gaa, I hate when trying to make a decision ends up causing more questions.

Kitchen Files: Butt Candy

No, not in the candy G-string type of butt candy...that Jason threatened to wear to my ABC birthday party - which he thankfully did NOT, nobody needed to see his man bits dangling through the gaps, it was bad enough we all to bear witness to Brad's cheecks. I'm talking about "eye candy" for your tush haha.

 Since we’ve finished slapping up some walls, and the cabinets are coming together (albeit rather slowly), it’s time to start thinking about all the actual creation we have to do. There are a number of features in the kitchen we are choosing to DIY to save money; such as the concrete countertop – which we will hopefully be starting around the beginning of March. We are planning on building the table for the kitchen, along with the built in storage benches, and quite possibly stools for the peninsula. So naturally, I’ve been searching for any sort of inspiration we can use as a jumping off point for our own construction.

Here’s a reminder of what the layout of the kitchen will look like, and where the benches and table will go. The benches will be about 6ft long along the long wall, and about 4ft long on the other to take them to about the window. And we’re hoping to be able to get as much storage as possible from them. We don’t really need the storage right now, but we’re positive we will down the road, and there’s really no such thing as too much storage right? We’ve been debating whether we want a flip top, or drawers, or if we want back and seat cushions, or just pillows, or nothing at all. Do we want a rectangle table, or an oval? Yeesh, I guess I somehow just imagined it miraculously looking perfectly put together after we built the frames for them haha. So I pulled from a few of my favourites from Pinterest to hopefully come up with something that will best suit us, as well as our space.

I'm drawn to the fun colour combinations of this...and it definitely helps with my "pillows are better" argument. I also like the drawer idea, although I'm not a fan of the look of those knobs, I think they'd bug your legs too.

Here's another take on the drawer idea. I really like this idea...much more than the drawer from the front idea - this way you don't have to slide the table out of the way - or crawl under it. Plus we have the room for this type of style. I feel as though the more I look at the benches, the more I want cusions haha...it just seems sort of cold without any butt cushion. But the drawers with their clever dividers really strike a chord with me.

I absolutely love the look of this bench. I love the simplicity of the cushions, the back one that goes all the way to the floor, elongating the line of the bench. I'm also fond of the open end...a great place to store cookbooks perhaps??? It would work best with the flip top type of storage access.

Another fun drawer option, with pillows...I'd like to order a view like that please!

A little too formal for our tastes and style, although the table is right up my ally.

I love the look of this table. The clean lines, and low profile of it are ideal for letting a fun bench show through, and isn't bulky or heave if or when you'd have to pull it away to gain access to the storage compartments.

So there's our inspiration for the corner of our room. We're still trying to work out everything that goes with it...but we both agree that the table in the last picture will be waht we go with, a) becuase it's a sort of timeless look too it, and b) it really won't be hard to build. In terms of the benches we're rather torn on the style. I'm pro drawer from the side (like the second picture) but Jason doesn't really like that idea, not that he'd give another suggestion or anything haha. A flip top style might be easier to build, but in the long run, and in terms of functionality, I think a drawer would be best. And I am leaning more towards the third picture for cushion configuration. Hopefully we can start building very soon!