Kitchen Island DIY - on a budget!

I love so many things about the kitchen in this house. It has a beautiful bay window. It still has sweet original cabinets. Those original cabinets were already painted white by the previous owner (which is my preference and I didn't have to do the painting!). Plus it's a nice open space with plenty of room for the whole family.

But after a while we started wondering if we were making the best use of the wide open space by just leaving it... wide and open. Hmmm. So I grabbed the kitchen cart we had parked along the wall and pulled it out to see how the space would feel if we added an island or peninsula.

See how much space there is even with the cart pulled out?!

There wasn't a good spot for an island thanks to the traffic flow through the kitchen, but a peninsula? Well, that just might work. I told my husband we'd live with it for a few days and see how it felt. And then about an hour later I was on craigslist looking for cabinets because why didn't we think of this sooner??

beautiful kitchen by biggerthanthethreeofus I pinned for inspiration and didn't actually copy at all. but still beautiful.

Sometimes Craigslist means a lot of waiting and searching and more waiting, but this time I found something right off the bat. A set of two cabinets that came within 2" of the total length I was looking for. The doors and drawer fronts were plain, which was a good fit with our original cabinets. And it was listed for $125 for the set! The post was a few weeks old so I offered $100, the seller accepted immediately, and we had our cabinets by the end of the week. It saved hundreds over buying new, plus hours over building our own. Guys, I love Craigslist. Always start there before you buy new or build!

The cabinet resident proved to be somewhat problematic:

Check out these beauties:

note the green wall

Spruc*d Market Furniture Plans (with Ana White)

Have you ever had an idea for a furniture piece and just didn't know where to start? Or loved one of our plans but it wasn't quite the right size? Or wished for a printable PDF version? Well guys, the days of wishing are behind you. Now I can help you find the plan of your dreams at Spruc*d Market!

Have you heard of Spruc'd Market yet? It's a new project by Ana White (DIY builder extraordinaire!) that offers the best premium and custom plans at a low cost!

Now I know what you're thinking. "But you already offer plans for free!" Yes, I totally do that. And I love it and will continue to do it. Guys, all the plans I share on my blog will still be free! So stay with me here. But when I get requests for custom plans, or specific adjusted sizing for my plans, I can't justify the amount of time that takes away from posts that will appeal to a wider audience. I wish I could, guys. But I'm a full-time mom and part-time blogger so I've got to make my blogging minutes count. The great thing about Spruc*d Market is that it allows me to do this for you - whether it's making a custom plan from scratch, adjusting a plan to fit your space and needs, creating an especially intricate or time consuming plan, or just offering the plan you want in a pdf format - and get a little something back for my time.

There are lots of plans from other vendors, too! Including one of the best tiny homes I've ever seen!

 

So if you're in the free plan game, stick around. We love that you're here and I'll keep the free plans coming! (and check out all our free plans here) But if you're needing help with something specific, head over and send me a message on Spruc*d Market and let's see what we can make together!

Living Room - Post Nesting

After all my talk about the living room while we were waiting on baby #4, the little squirt showed up early and I never got around to sharing all the updates we actually made! Turns out babies have no respect for my blogging time. None at all. Well, never fear, because today I'll show you just where we ended up (you can see full pics of where we started in this post).

Let's just go down the list: