Far Ago Farm

 Hi friends!  I am kind of late to the Irish party, but I wanted to share my St. Patrick's Day decor before I take it down.  I have never been an over the top St. Patty's decorator, but with becoming a new grandma you know I'm all in on holiday festiveness now!  I am taking it all down tomorrow and gearing up for Easter which will be here before you know it.  Enjoy! I hope you enjoyed some of my St. Patrick's touches. I will be back soon with the start of Easter decor.  Have a wonderful weekend,  Join me at these fun link parties: Saturday Sparks Grace at Home

 Hello friends!  I dug out my good camera today because I wanted to take some nice, quality shots of our kitchen upgrade project. Sadly, my card reader on my laptop wouldn't read my SD card. Ugh!!! So, since I really wanted to get pictures out to you today, I snapped a few late in the day pics on my phone.  Boo to that! Nonetheless, our kitchen project turned out so nice that I think it still shines through in the less than stellar photos. Excuses aside, let me remind you where we started.  When we built our home last summer, we weren't crazy about the backsplash and island wrap choices being offered by our builder. We decided to go without and install something ourselves.   We chose oak beadboard stained in Minwax Aged Barrel. Here we are in the beginning stages: And here it is finished! One of the issues we ran into was a variation of coloring in the way the oak took the stain.  We were very careful when selecting our panels, yet after install, one of the panels was noticeabl

 Hello friends!  Thanks for stopping by to see what's going on around here! When we built our house last year, none of the options the builder offered for finishing the island wrap and kitchen backsplash appealed to us.  We decided to just have them leave the drywall and we would decide the final look later and install it ourselves. I am so glad we did!  The picture below was taken before closing.  The kitchen, living and dining are all open concept.  We have white cabinets & trim, neutral paint and light granite counters.  Out of view in the living room is a floor to ceiling stone fireplace with dark mantel and a dark oak entertainment center. There is also dark LVP throughout the entire home.   With the kitchen being essentially shades of white and the living area heavy with wood & stone, the two areas were polar opposites and we needed to do something to make them more cohesive.  We decided on stained oak beadboard for both the island and the backsplash.  My husband I pu