October Run-down

Well guys, whole month has gone by with no posts from me. It's true - I never blogged once in October. Whoops. We did tackle some stuff around the house & enjoyed the first official month of Fall in Ohio. Now we're looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, which we all know will be here in no time. But before I get ahead of myself, here's a run-down of the things we did last month:

Andrew turned 30 and we had everyone over for cake, pumpkin pie, and ice cream:

We got new rugs! One is in the dining room under the table, the other is in the kitchen nook. They are both from World Market - we were grateful to take advantage of a big sale.

I painted the trim & cabinet in the guest bathroom. From oak to gray, I'd say it was a nice little upgrade (for the cabinet especially). I only have a few more rooms to do before all the trim in the house is white.

We passed out candy for trick-or-treaters the evening of October 31 {so festive!} then attended an annual costume party hosted by our friends. Check out our fun costumes!

Some of the greatest Halloween costumes we saw this year included a girl dressed as a Softball Trophy - entirely spray painted gold, complete with bat and little wooden stand; a toddler Fly Fisherman collecting candy in his net, and a Green Army Man that was the spitting image of the small plastic toys we all had growing up. People are so clever! What are some of the cool costumes you saw?

I'm not quite ready to decorate for Christmas - I like to wait until after Thanksgiving. So I packed the jack-o-lanterns and ghosts up, but left out the pumpkins & got a few turkey themed items out. I also made this canvas to put on our mantle:

Thanks for checking in with us over here at Old Elm... I hope you all had very pleasant Octobers. I hope to write again soon with tales of more projects conquered!

Keep creating, DIYers!

Breakfast Nook

I really like the farmhouse style/JoAnna Gaines type kitchens. You know what I mean? Think wooden floors, white subway tile, farmhouse tables and lots of beadboard. But making a breakfast nook of our own was one thing that kept getting placed on the back burner. Probably because we're amateurs who have real day jobs and do not have ton of money to just toss around! But at a slow steady pace, Andrew & I have been working on transforming our house, and in a lot of ways we are getting closer to the "look" we like want… 

• The kitchen cabinets were painted white. Check. 
• We added breadboard to them. Check. 
• The dining room got board & batten. Check. 
• The fireplace got a facelift. Check. 
• Flooring is done. Check. 

It seemed that all we had remaining was to figure out how to make our nook bench. 

Well folks, we finally made it & here's how it all went down.

There are several ways to get the bench. Build it from scratch, turn an Ikea bookshelf on its side, use old church pews, etc. I decided we would make ours out of kitchen cabinets. {What can I say, I wanted the extra storage!} So I bought two builder-grade oak cabinets from Lowe's. For a long time, they just sat in our basement and we doubted if this was a project we would ever accomplish.  Then earlier this month, Andrew had a night where he was REALLY inspired, and he just started going to town on it. Turns out this one wasn't the headache we feared it would be. We had everything built in 2 nights, I took 3 days to paint it, and then all we had to do was order cushions & charrs for the other side of the farmhouse table.

We removed the baseboards and measured where we wanted the bench to be on the wall. Then we added a frame to the back {between the wall & cabinets} so the bench wouldn't be so narrow. Next Andrew devised a way to attach the bench to the wall using L-brackets cleverly hidden under the baseboards. He's a gem! The last part of construction was securing a large piece of plywood to the top with the air nailer & putting the beadboard on the sides to match the kitchen cabinetry. Things were looking good!

Then I painted. I used my old stand-by Valspar Bonding Primer. Things were now looking super good! The end was in sight! After everything dried, I caulked the cracks and we accessorized.

A sidenote about our "accessories"… The cushion is from Pottery Barn. Andrew found it online and we were jazzed because it had the same dimensions of our bench. Weirdly, the thing came and it was 2.5 inches narrower (is that a word?) than advertised. So PB sent me another just to be sure mine wasn't a defect… replacement cushion was wrong too. We decided to just keep it & added the board & batten to the back of our bench to compensate the missing inches. We're both in love with this detail now, so evidently it was all a blessing in disguise. Next fun challenge - the chairs are from Restoration Hardware, and we had to send several back because they kept arriving broken. So who even knows if they will be durable enough to stand the test of time. For now they look cute and hey, they were on sale. So whatta ya gonna do! 

So with the bench built, board and batten add-on, cushion/pillows, table/chairs in place…we are ready to use this bad boy! Icing on the cake will be to find a cool silver lantern to hang instead of the current light. We're in no rush. Thanks so much for checking in to see what's new with us. I've been a bad blogger. I would say you should check back soon for more frequent posts, but who are we kidding!

Keep creating out there, people!

Better Late Than Never

Today we mulched. 
Which seems kind of silly considering the theme of my last post was how soon Fall is approaching.

However, we sort of did this on purpose. We're having around fifty people over in a month or so to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday, so we wanted things to look presentable for that. We bought a bunch of colorful perennials for the bed near our garden, and planted a row of mums out front. The mulch makes even our existing plants look better. It was a long day spreading four yards, but it's a good feeling to see the pay-off of all our hard work.

Here's a shot of some of the new perennials, which are to the right of the deck.

In this picture you can see that we mulched around the new flowers, then added top soil and grass seed {the blue specks} 

It's been pretty hot and dry lately, so I'll have to focus on watering a bunch back here so it grows and the plants don't turn into burnt crisps.

Here are the existing host plants and hydrangea with new mulch surrounding.

The hydrangea blooms dried up, so I pruned them. I read that if you cut where the bloom was, the next year there will be two from that spot. So the bush will grow and blooms will increase. Hopefully that is the case! I also read you can put coffee grounds around the base of each plant to keep the soil acidic & help retain moisture.

Thanks for stopping by OE!

Tomorrow we'll move things inside to finish quarter round in the kitchen. What are your plans?

Happy Weekend!

Fall is Just Around the Corner

Hard to believe there are only 30 more days of summer. Between cookouts, ballgames, ice cream runs, weekend trips & family vacations, it's definitely been a season jam-packed with fun. We've been able to conquer a decent amount of tasks on our To-Do List plus take time to enjoy our favorite aspect of warm sunny weather: recreation, rest, & relaxation {when we aren't at work, that is!} Although we have no children, when I heard it was time for kids to go back to school I thought to myself, "can't believe it's that time already!" Fall is just around the corner.

Zipping through the Smokies on our summer vacation to Asheville, NC

Fall brings a lot to look forward to…bonfires, football, Halloween, changing leaves, boots, pumpkin flavored everything, and then Thanksgiving. It's nice to see how nature takes on a different look out in our yard. Andrew always loves Fall best because of football {of course} and he secretly also loves mums & sedum, two plants that stick around to look awesome while everything else withers away in preparation for snow. This Fall will be especially great because we'll be celebrating his 30th birthday in October. We both set aside a week off work to mark the occasion with a special trip for just the two of us. Can't wait!

From a decorating standpoint, I'm also getting excited to get Old Elm all decked out for the season. 

Here are some of the seasonal things I like most:

From the top // a great little spread + banner from Pottery Barn // Jack O'Lantern shades from Ballard Designs // Did you know you can bleach pinecones?! Click here for the must try tutorial // I don't know about you guys, but I never miss The Great Pumpkin! // And finally, two fun party ideas- candy in vintage glass canisters & squash bowling for your fall yard party fun!

What are your favorite Fall traditions & home decor items?

Farmhouse Table

Here are a few photos of my latest project: 

refinishing an antique farmhouse table in 5 steps

(1) Here is the table as I bought it… a little rough & dry on top

(2) Using 220 grit paper, I lightly sanded the top surface + edges with the hand sander

(3) After wiping the dust off, I used an old cotton t-shirt to apply stain

(4) Here is a "during" photo - stain on the right, no stain on the left

(5) After the stain dried, I finished the project by applying 1 coat of polyurethane

Nook Look Book

Hey neighbors, welcome to Old Elm! This week I have a string of days off, so I am working on refinishing the top of a great farmhouse table. Andrew & I went to a few antique places recently, and we found this gem of a steal at the last place we stopped {Victory!} It's going to fit in really well with my plan for the kitchen...

As you know, we've been slowly but surely working on renovating our kitchen. Most of the big stuff is out of the way. And until we scrounge up enough courage to fork over the cash for new countertops…I've been dreaming of a breakfast nook. Here are a few of my favorite pins on the subject:

I love the idea of a cozy little laid-back spot where we'll enjoy weekend breakfasts with our kids someday. I've been devising a way for us to insert one into our kitchen. The area near the sliding glass door to our deck is the spot I have to work with. Previously, we had a little round table + chairs there that Andrew's grandma loaned us when we got the house. After considerable researching {Pinterest has a TON of ideas} we decided to build our nook from 2 kitchen cabinets I picked up at Lowe's for $99/each. It will be a straight bench that will match the rest of our kitchen & have the added bonus of storage! I plan on putting some of my larger weird items there…like the griddle, my cake/pie/casserole carriers. Because those things are so great and handy while you're using them...but when you aren't? #storageproblems

So back to the table… Here is what it looks like sitting in my garage:

Today I lightly sanded the top to remove some imperfections {not all, they give it good character!} then added some light stain.

I used the color "light walnut" by Varathane. It was hanging out in our basement, leftover from another project. Woo! I did 1 coat.

When the stain dries I plan on finishing up with a few coats of satin polyurethane to keep it durable and protect the finish.

I look forward to posting a finished photo of our very own breakfast nook someday!

Office Reveal

This room is dedicated to our "outdoorsy" side // Decorated with maps, globes & knick knacks from our travels, we keep Andrew's fishing poles and fly tying supplies in here along with our books & laptops. If you stopped by Old Elm and found us in the office, you'd probably see Andrew sitting at the desk paying bills and me curled up on the arm chair in the corner chatting with him.

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished" - Lao Tzu