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{Updated} Entry Way Bench + Shelf

Morning! We are in the dead of winter here and this grayness is taking its toll on me. Like big-time. It was cold, rainy and just plain blah here this weekend. I guess there’s no excuse for getting inside house projects done, right?! I know it will be March before we know it but January is one long (and gray!) month in Portland…

One of the many challenging parts about moving into a new place is trying to find a home for each furniture piece. Items that fit perfectly in our old bungalow have either settled in here nicely, or really don’t fit anywhere in our new space. I smell another garage sale this summer…

Anyway, one of the pieces I’m incredibly thankful we can continue to use in our new home is the entry way bench and shelf that my sweet in-laws had made for us a few years ago. This piece is crazy practical and works hard for us. It houses our hats, gloves, shoes and other random items such as scarfs, purses, and keys. Whatever I don’t want to lose, I place on the bench.

This is what it looked like in our last home…

As you can see, it was black. As of last week, it’s now the same color of our island (Farrow & Ball’s Down Pipe) thanks to some leftover paint and an afternoon spent painting. Since the bench is going in the same large room as our island, we thought it would be nice if both of these pieces were the same color.

Here’s the space before we brought in the bench/shelf (the kitchen is on the left). It needs something in the corner, don’t ya think?

And here’s the space with the updated entry way piece (sorry for the poor photos in advance)…

Again, the photos are poor – it was so dark in the room due to our lovely weather:(. I’m still unpacking boxes and trying to find my baskets for the upper shelves, so obviously the piece has yet to be fully styled. But at least it’s painted and in place. A small success!

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{Styled} Cupcake Vineyards Video Shoot with Matt Moore

Friends!

Nearly a month ago, I had the opportunity to style a shoot with New York Times bestselling author Matt Moore. Matt’s book, Have Her Over For Dinner, provides tips for gents to create simple meals for hosting a dinner date. It’s genius. Together with Cupcake Vineyards, Matt shares his favorite recipes and tips via a Valentine’s Day microsite and a series of six videos. I was lucky enough to be in on this fun project, and just this week, the Cupcake Vineyards Valentine’s Day microsite went live, and I’m finally able to share some photos and details with you!

The day began early – prepping for six videos in one day is no small task. There were flowers to arrange, food to prep/style, and scenes to set. Luckily, in between a few of the first shots I remembered to grab my camera, but I’m afraid I only took a few photos as I was a busy bee from start to finish of the shoot.

One of my favorite styled scenes was in Matt’s “Table Setting” video where I had the chance to create a mini tablescape. I like the wax dripping from the candles….total accident. Love when that happens!

Matt was just as darling and lovely in person as he apppears on camera. He was professional, funny, and embarrassed all the ladies in the kitchen with his top-notch cooking skills. I not only learned a thing or two about cooking (anyone ever heard of a ricer before?!), but I also learned that a delicious home-cooked meal doesn’t have to take lots of time.

Friends, if any of your men need help and/or hints in the kitchen…direct them to these videos. Matt’s the king of no-fail dinner dates. Promise. Special thanks to Matt and the Cupcake Vineyards team, and cheers to a fabulous Valentine’s Day (it’s only 3 weeks away)!

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The Main Event: Kitchen Island

If our kitchen story had chapters, I think we’d be on chapter 24. Seriously, lots to piece together when it comes to an entire kitchen! I’ve shown you little snip-its of our island before, but today it gets its day in the sun.

As you know, our kitchen is one giant room, and it also houses our farmhouse dining table. It will also be home to a small sitting area as well as our entry bench and shelf. Therefore, we wanted an extra large island to marry all of these spaces together. It needed to be big. It needed to make a statement. And it needed to have character. So, I sketched out a design, and we worked closely with our amazing woodworker to make this piece come to life. I wanted the island to look like a piece of furniture, rather than just a predictable and massive rectangular cabinet.

As you can see, one side houses our microwave, our trash (large middle drawer), and the other drawers are where our pots and pans and other kitchen gadgets live. The other side has cabinets for all glassware/dishware that are seldomly used. We wanted this island to not only look good, but work hard too.

As for the top of our island, it’s custom built by our woodworker. It’s made out of maple wood and stained with a dark walnut stain. We chose butcher block because it brings warmth to the space, and we want this room to feel cozy, not cold.

How big is the island, you ask? It measures 69 inches x 51 inches. To give this big piece some character, we added planks to each side of the island, and “columns” that define the area where our bar stools will soon sit.

And as for the actual color of the island (since it was crazy sunny in our kitchen and every photo I took seems to show a different shade of blue/gray/green) its No. 26 down pipe from Farrow & Ball.

We adore the color (it actually looks more like this in person than what the “real life” photos portray) and would recommend it in a heartbeat! Last detail – the pulls are the duluth pulls from Restoration Hardware in oil-rubbed bronze.

You are probably thinking that I am holding out on you and not posting any large scale photos of the entire room. And sadly, that’s true. I’m hesitant to show you anything half done, because you will be underwhelmed. I’ll roll bits and pieces out and when all is ready, I’ll take photos of the entire room and kitchen:).