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At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

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December 13, 2016

Kitchen and Breakfast Room Flooring Makeover

Well friends, as promised I’m back today to show you the rest of my Shaw Floors makeover! Yesterday was all about my family room but today I’m sharing how the new flooring looks in our kitchen and breakfast room.

Kitchen plate rack decorated for Christmas atthepicketfence.com

 

But before we get to the reveal of the new, let’s take a look back at the old.

This photo was snapped the night before the renovation began. As you can see, the old floors were a very light color but what you can’t see in this picture is that they were also beginning to separate in places and had significant damage in some spots. Our house was built in the early 90’s and these floors hadn’t been touched since and were in desperate need of some help.

kitchen with light wood floors

Enter my beautiful new Epic Plus floors in Arden Oak (color: gunstock)!

Kitchen and breakfast nook atthepicketfence.com

Breakfast nook next to kitchen with wood floors

I cannot even describe the ridiculous little jig and happy jumping around that took place in this house after I saw them installed. Let’s just say that my kids were sufficiently embarrassed. That’s my job as their mom after all, right?

Black buffet table in breakfast nook

Here’s another look at how the floors looked BEFORE with the wood in the breakfast room leading into carpet in the family room.

kitchen family room combo

And here is how it looks AFTER.

Kitchen looking into breakfast room atthepicketfence.com

I never realized just how much having carpet in the family room made it feel smaller. Now, with the same flooring running through all three spaces, it truly feels so much bigger and everyone who has visited our house since the installation has commented on this. It’s a reminder to me of how these decorating ‘tricks’ of the eye can have such a big impact.

Wood floors in kitchen breakfast room and family room

Against our newly painted white cabinets (I still need to do a full kitchen reveal but that is going to have to wait until the new year) the darker wood provides such a nice contrast.

white kitchen cabinets with cherry hardwood floors atthepicketfence.com

The Epic Plus floors are built using a system called Stabilitek which is designed to withstand just about anything you could throw (or drop!) at it. It’s scuff resistance is six times better than that of competitors, it resists dents up to 30% more than other engineered hardwood floors and the stronger joint system means that once it’s installed the boards won’t be shifting around.

Hardwood floors in breakfast nook

Sigh…swoon…aren’t they just so beautiful? It’s hard to believe how far these spaces have come since we first moved in almost 9 years ago and I’m so incredibly grateful that I have had the opportunity to put my stamp on this home.

Breakfast nook with bay window atthepicketfence.com

There are so many more plans in the works but for now, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the beauty of these floors.

My daughter took her first steps on those old floors and there have been many kiddos running through these rooms over the years. But I know that as many memories as were made on the old boards, so many more will be made on the new ones. The first memory of course being the happy dance I did on them. 😉

So, what do you think of them? I’d love to hear from you! And thank you so much for meeting me here at the fence today,

Vanessa signature

*I’m compensated for my partnership with Shaw Floors but all opinions are 100% my own*

9 Comments Filed Under: Decorating, Good Ideas, Sponsored Tagged With: decorating, kitchen

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Comments

  1. Carolyn Smith says

    December 13, 2016 at 3:13 AM

    The floors turned out great. Indeed it made a wonderful difference. I love the stools that you have around the bar. Could you possibly have the resource where you bought these? Thank you.

    Reply
  2. Emmie says

    December 13, 2016 at 4:28 AM

    Your new floors are gorgeous!!!!! The same flooring does unify and make a home look so much larger.
    I noticed your dining table and chairs. I love them and was wondering it the chairs had the wood color seats or if you had taken wood colored chairs and painted them, leaving the seats the wood color? I want to copy
    this look in my dining room.

    Reply
  3. june says

    December 13, 2016 at 6:49 AM

    So beautiful…don’t you love the contrast of the painted cabinets against the wood?
    Just makes everything pop.

    Reply
  4. Angie g says

    December 13, 2016 at 7:08 AM

    They look beautiful! So happy you could get another project done. Always a blessing when your space feels like home

    Reply
  5. anita roth says

    December 13, 2016 at 8:48 AM

    Awesome !

    Reply
  6. Carol Reddin says

    December 13, 2016 at 1:20 PM

    Really nice, Vanessa! It does make the space look so much larger. Love the cabinets with the darker contrast! Good choice in my opinion!

    Reply
  7. Karen Hobson says

    December 13, 2016 at 2:16 PM

    My floors are Gunstock high glass (we live on a farm, what was I thinking). They show EVERYTHING!! When the sun comes through the back patio doors, I’m forced to dust mop if I’m at home and see it.

    Reply
  8. Diane @ An Extraordinary Day says

    December 13, 2016 at 7:14 PM

    Beautiful!! I would be dancing a jig too! How exciting that you now have carpeting in your family room too!

    Reply
  9. Diane Lawrence says

    December 15, 2016 at 7:58 PM

    The new wood makes your house look so much richer and warmer. The color is amazing!! If Shaw is wanting to see how their new product survives the winter weather and the CO dryness, (and 2 dogs), I just might know a willing homeowner who would be willing to try it out! 🙂 (a very small house).

    Reply

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This is one of my most favorite projects from my b This is one of my most favorite projects from my book Life in Season! 

Because, if heaven has a fragrance, I’m fairly certain it smells like lilacs.

I think that somewhere along the way the verse in the Bible that said, ‘heaven will smell like lilacs’ just got lost in translation. But it HAD to have been in there at some point, right?

When I bury my head in the blossoms (which I absolutely MUST do every single time I walk past them), I immediately feel a stirring in my soul.

It seems like I wait forever for my lilac tree to bloom. Every year I anxiously watch as the buds begin to form on the branches and then when the blossoms finally burst forth I begin that agonizing process of deciding the absolute perfect moment to snip them and bring them inside.

And then, after all of that waiting and watching it’s just over…done. Because, unlike heaven, lilacs don’t last for an eternity. So, making my own lilac room spray seemed like the perfect way to enjoy their fragrance long after the blossoms have faded.

Here’s how to make it! Ingredients: Water, Vodka, Lilac fragrance oil. Directions: Fill spray bottle with 50/50 ratio of water to vodka. Add 12 drops of lilac oil. Give it a shake, spray and if the scent isn’t strong enough, simply add a few more drops of lilac oil.

Once you’ve made this lilac scented room spray you will be very tempted to spray it in every room in your house. And someone may want to use it in the bathroom to cover up other less…ummmm….pleasing aromas.

But, do not, I repeat do NOT, let them.

You’ve captured the fragrance of heaven in a bottle and you wouldn’t want to go and tarnish it now would you? 😉
We had two back to back days of sunshine (the most We had two back to back days of sunshine (the most we’ve had in a LONG time) and now we are back to pouring rain. This has officially confirmed what I’ve know to be true for awhile now.

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If you could spend your winters (and apparently most of spring too!) in any part of the country, where would it be?
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And, while I’m always happy to look around my home and see rooms that are updated and more reflecting of our style, it doesn’t compare to the joy I feel when I look around my home and see the people I love the most who have been shaped by the many adventures we’ve experienced together.
Happy Saturday!! After endless days of rain (and h Happy Saturday!! After endless days of rain (and hail and snow) we are finally getting some sunshine and warmer temperatures. I’ll be honest, it’s really affected my spirits having one gloomy day after the next. So this is a much needed reprieve. Our cherry trees are showing off outside my kitchen window and we plan to get outside and make the most of these days while we have them.

What’s the weather like where you are?
“The devil, darkness, and death may swagger and “The devil, darkness, and death may swagger and boast, the pangs of life will sting for a while longer, but don’t worry; the forces of evil are breathing their last. Not to worry…HE’S RISEN!” (Charles R. Swindoll).

Happy Easter! He is risen indeed!
Who has believed our message? And to whom has the Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; he has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him.

He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried; yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 

But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed.

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. (Isaiah 53)
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Isn't it amazing how small gestures can make us feel less invisible? Knowing that someone is thinking of us and takes the time to meet a need that we might not have even realized we had? These little acts can have big impacts. What is something that someone has done for you recently that made you feel valued and seen?

What have you done for someone else to remind them that you are paying attention to their needs?

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― Charles Dickens
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Every correction made to strengthen character
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Every difficult conversation
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The final pieces of the puzzle of his childhood are falling into place and the picture revealed is one that is more wonderful than we could have imagined. And we know that it is only by God's grace on us as we sought His wisdom and guidance that we have come to this point. We have been FAR from perfect parents, but one of my most sincere prayers for the past 18 years was that the Lord would stand in the gaps that were surely to be revealed by our imperfections. And He has answered those prayers again and again. He's taken my humble petitions and most sincere intentions and knocked our socks off with the young man we are so privileged to call our son. And we can’t wait to watch as his future unfolds!
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