our spacious kitchen

our lovely new kitchen with all new everything!

when jason and i first set out to find a house/condo/house boat/whatever we could find that didn't break the bank, our top request was a nice, modern kitchen with pretty appliances.

as you can see in the photo above (excuse the mess!), we definitely got what we asked for.

we were extremely lucky because not only was it nice and modern, we got a new kitchen! and when i say new, i mean brand spankin' new, right out of a catalog (IKEA, anyone?). new hardwood floors, soft-close cabinets, dishwasher, oven, fridge! the list goes on.

the best part? that's only half of it! not pictured is a whole other side of the kitchen, which was wide open (at least several square feet!) for us to do our thing! of course, having only been in the house one week, it's nowhere near complete, but here's what we've added so far:

we found this awesome table at homegoods prior to the move and decided to throw our wine and spirits on there! but then...

we noticed the table itself really wasn't enough to fill the space, so we went ahead and got a cool storage bench from target! it made the area so much more dimensional, added texture, and now, our guests can join us in the kitchen and not just in our dining room. i also loved that the color of the bench matches the table's metal legs perfectly! cute and functional in several ways.

at our old pad, we used this IKEA cart as a stand for our toaster oven and random items that we couldn't find a place for in our tiny kitchen. here, it's home to our collection of cookbooks, our brand new juicer (which i can't wait to use!) and my pretty flowers, which are stored in my super cute handmade ceramic vase from stumble & relish (my favorite little gift boutique in evanston, which i am lucky enough to also call my employer).

needless to say, i am in love with our spacious kitchen! we're still moving stuff around, adding more knick knacks (we still have plenty more boxes to unpack!), and working on the wall situation, so there's lots more to come. 

follow me on instagram to see what else is goin' on!

making our new house a home

we did a thing!

jason & i just moved into our new 3-story suburban townhouse one week ago today.

just before christmas, this house was added to our "visit" list pretty much by accident. the list of houses we had made for our realtor started to dwindle a few days before we were scheduled to visit. one by one, each house became pending or contingent, and in turn, our hope of finding a house was just that... hope.

though i instantly fell in love with this property's photos on the MLS, it happened to be an hour away from my job, and i told myself i couldn't move somewhere with that long of a drive. jason convinced me to look at it anyway, and sure enough, it happened to be "the one." seconds into the tour, we just knew this was meant to be our home. we were on the phone with our mortgage lender before we could even walk out the door! and naturally, within hours of visiting, interior design ideas began flowing through my brain nonstop and my "maison" pinterest board grew probably 100%. two and a half months later, it is finally ours!

though this is only a brief version of the very long story of our multiple month house hunt, i don't think i could be more in love with a house!

stay tuned as we make this house a home the best way we know how! with metal & burlap. (& love, of course.)

sooo many more boxes than pictured. ;)

portillos on moving day, because, why not?