It took me almost three months, but I’ve finally finished putting together the dining room in our new house!  It is no longer being used as our virtual learning classroom (thank goodness!), but instead is a beautiful modern vintage dining room that we love!

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Before I show you the new look, here’s the obligatory “before” photo.  We left all of our dining room furniture at our old house with the new owners, so we set up folding tables in here temporarily for the kids to do their schoolwork during virtual learning.  It was great to have the space, but it was such a mess in there and SO BROWN.

Once the kids got the boot, I refinished the dated oak built-in china cabinet in a green that’s almost black, and then I got to work furnishing and decorating the space!

I carefully followed Emily Henderson’s Dining Room Rules to make sure that I got size and placement of everything just right, and I’m so glad I did!  Her blog post helped me pick the right size rug, table, and chandelier for this narrow room, and I didn’t have to return a thing.  If you have design questions, her blog is an amazing resource.

I felt like the dining room was a space where I could have a little fun and be dramatic, so I went bold on the wall opposite the china cabinet and installed this vintage-look wall mural, which I framed out in trim I spray painted in gloss black.  I got this idea from Aniko at Place of My Taste who inspired me with her framed wall mural.

This wall mural was the perfect solution for this wall because the thermostat is placed in a very inconvenient spot.  That thermostat, plus the fact that there are pocket doors in the wall, meant that I couldn’t nail into the wall or hang artwork in a way that made sense here.  So, I cut the mural around the thermostat and then painted the thermostat black to blend in.

My peel and stick mural gave me the look of artwork without disturbing the thermostat or the pocket doors.

On the adjacent wall, I also had to contend with another set of pocket doors in the wall and a strangely placed light switch.  I chose to hang a mix of vintage acacia bowls and new acacia bowls on this wall.  I fastened them with Command picture hanging strips so I didn’t have to nail through and potentially hit the doors or the framing.

For furniture, I chose a slim mid-century look dining table that has built-in leaves to expand.  The end chairs are also slim, and the other chairs are vintage cantilever chairs I got at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and had reupholstered.  I also spray painted the legs a vintage brass color to coordinate with the new light fixture and the hardware on the refinished china cabinet.

This room was so much fun to put together and I just love the finished result. To me, it feels like a dining room you’d like to linger in; enjoying a glass of wine and nice meal with friends or family.  It feels special but not too fancy, and that was my exact goal: to create a space that was welcoming and warm but a little elevated from the rest of the house.

I hope you like my modern vintage dining room!  If you do, you may also enjoy checking out some of my other home decor posts.

-Bre

As desperate as we were for a house back in November, when the one we bought came on the market, my husband didn’t even want to go look at it.  He really disliked the 1970s look and the all-brown exterior.  I promised him the first thing we’d do in the summer is update it, and I kept my promise!  I’m excited to share the completed first part of our 1970s house exterior makeover!

A lot went into getting the house to look how it does today, and I will give you all the details!  

The first part of the exterior makeover was my DIY limewash stone column project that I shared a couple of weeks ago.  That transformed the bright orange rock column to a more neutral beige color that helped remove some of the 1970’s vibe of the house.

After that, we had to pick our paint colors.  We purchased several samples of paint and I’m so glad we did!  The paint looked much different on the house than it did online.  Always get paint samples!  The colors we thought we might use based on our internet mockups were not good once we put them up.

We ended up choosing Sherwin-Williams Pewter Green for the main body of the house, and Sherwin-Williams Escape Gray for the trim.  Of course we were a little nervous about our color selection (because who isn’t?!?), but as soon as the painters started work, we were in love! 

What we especially love about this color scheme of Pewter Green and Escape Gray is that these greens are different than any of the greens in our yard.  There’s always a concern with green exteriors that the house is going to fade away into the landscaping, but these greens do not allow that to happen.

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As part of our Phase 1 Exterior Updates, we also swapped the light fixtures.  We chose fixtures from the Kichler Barrington lighting collection, because we liked the wood-look accents to mimic our garage door.

There was even a Barrington post lamp light available, so we were able to coordinate our two lamp posts with the fixtures by the garage and front door.

One thing I have not yet done is repaint the front door.  I actually like the original orange, so I wanted to see how it looks with the new Pewter Green color scheme.  I have lived with it for several weeks now and have decided it needs to be a different shade of orange – something that ties in better with the garage door.  So now I’m testing colors for that.  

Oh, and to see how I made that DIY Address Number Plaque, find the tutorial on my Instagram!  

After painting the door, the next part of the makeover MAY be adding some stained cedar wraps to the bottom halves of the porch columns (again, to tie in with the garage door and lighting), and painting a stenciled tile pattern on the front porch concrete.  Will it all happen this summer?  I don’t know.

And then someday we will replace landscaping near the porch and the lily-patterned sidelight next to the door.  We’ve got bigger fish to fry currently though, my friends.

For now, we are so happy that our 1970s home has taken a huge step into the present.  

I hope you like the new look as much as we do!

-Bre

Last month we installed Tranquility 5mm Copper Ridge Oak luxury vinyl plank flooring from Lumber Liquidators in our living room and basement.  We replaced white carpeting in the living room and some composite flooring in the basement that had been damaged when our furnace leaked. 

Because vinyl plank is increasingly becoming a popular flooring choice, I thought this review post would help with some of the luxury vinyl plank pros and cons, and help you decide if this flooring is right for your home!

What is Luxury Vinyl Plank?

In a nutshell, luxury vinyl plank is manufactured flooring that is meant to mimic the look of hardwood floors.  It is totally manmade – there’s nothing “wood” about it.  Unlike vinyl flooring of the past, luxury vinyl plank comes in, well, planks as opposed to sheets.  Sometimes it has some texture to it, in an effort to give it more of a hardwood look.

The “luxury” part of this product name is a little misleading, in my opinion.  I don’t really think this flooring is luxurious.  I mean, it’s not glistening marble or anything like that.  That’s just my two cents.  🙂

Why We Chose Luxury Vinyl Plank for Our Home

The completely honest answer to this question is that we chose luxury vinyl plank flooring because the previous owners installed Copper Ridge Oak vinyl plank flooring throughout the rest of the first floor (just not the living room), two months before we purchased the house.  

We wanted cohesive flooring on the first floor since it’s a fairly open floorplan, but we did NOT want to spend money on new floors for the entire first floor.  Because of that, we opted to install the same vinyl plank flooring in the living room.  And, since we also needed to replace the basement flooring, we ran it down there, too.

What are luxury vinyl plank pros and cons?

In the time that I’ve been living with these floors, I’ve been keeping a list of luxury vinyl plank pros and cons so that I could write the most helpful post possible!  As things come to mind, I will update this post, too, so that it continues to be informative.

The Positives of Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring

There are a lot of positives with luxury vinyl plank flooring!  Just because I am not totally head over heels in love with it doesn’t mean that I don’t recognize its benefits.  Here are what I think are the pros of luxury vinyl plank flooring.

The Price is Right (at least for the product)

We got our 5mm Copper Ridge Oak luxury vinyl plank flooring on sale for $1.99 per square foot.  That is a really good price for flooring!  Even with the added expense of underlayment and other necessary pieces (like trim pieces, threshold pieces, etc.), the price of the flooring was great. 

Carpet, tile, and hardwood ALL can run more expensive than that!

Remember to investigate the quality of the vinyl plank before purchasing.  Of course there are poor vinyl planks on the market and you don’t want to make that mistake!  We got ours on a great sale, so if you’re able to wait until the floor you want goes on sale, too, you can really save a lot.

If you’re hiring an installer to do your floors, prepare yourself that you’ll probably pay as much for installation as you do for the floor – or even more!  One installer quoted us an astronomical amount, and the installer we ultimately used was much more reasonable.  But, installation was still a large part of the money spent on this job.

Luxury Vinyl Plank Installation is Fast

Let’s be honest.  Laying new flooring is pretty disruptive to your life because you have to move everything out of the space where the flooring is being installed, and you may not be able to use the space again for some time (like if stain or grout is drying).

One amazing attribute of luxury vinyl plank flooring is that installation is fast.  For our installer to complete approximately 1200 square feet of space, it took 4.5 days – and that includes removal of the old flooring and baseboards, and installing the flooring underlayment for our click-and-lock flooring. 

The parts that took the longest were making cuts for all of the doors in the basement and undercutting the large stone fireplace that I limewashed in the living room.  (He undercut the stone so that the flooring could slide right underneath and have a seamless transition between stone and floor.)

Of course, installation time can vary depending on factors such as type of vinyl plank (is it click-and-lock or glue down?), whether subfloor needs to be replaced, amount of area being covered, and more!  But, in general, installation of luxury vinyl plank should take less time than installation of other flooring types.

Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring is Durable

With young kids and a dog, durable flooring is important to me!  The white carpeting in the living room started showing signs of wear practically the second we took ownership of this home.  I am so glad it’s gone!

Also, the Tranquility brand Copper Ridge Oak flooring that we chose is 100% waterproof, which is amazing for our basement especially.  Hello – we already had a water issue down there!  It’s nice to have peace of mind that if we have another problem down there our flooring won’t be ruined.

Not all luxury vinyl plank is waterproof; some is water resistant.  That means that for a certain amount of time (usually a set amount of hours), the flooring will be okay with water on it, but after that time it could be ruined.  It seems to me that if you’re going to install luxury vinyl plank, you might as well get a waterproof type!

Another thing we love about our new flooring is that it is extremely difficult to scratch – much unlike hardwoods!  (I know all about scratches in hardwood floors! We had a ton and I even wrote a post on the easiest way to fix scratches in hardwood floors.)  We’ve slid furniture across it, my kids do all their crazy kid stuff on it, and my dog runs around like a madman, and it doesn’t show a single scratch.  

Luxury vinyl plank’s durability is, in my opinion, the best thing going for it.  If you want flooring that you can install and not think about again for at least 25 years, luxury vinyl plank is a great choice for you.

The Flooring is Very Warm

One luxury vinyl plank pro that I never expected is that the flooring is very warm to the touch.  It is so comfortable to walk on and does not ever seem to get cold.  Our hardwoods in our old house were cold all winter, and don’t even get me started on how cold the tile floor was!  That is not the case with our new vinyl flooring.

Vinyl Plank Flooring is Easy to Clean

This stuff could not be easier to clean!  I use my dry Swiffer on it regularly to gather up all those dust bunnies, and then I mop with Murphy’s Oil Soap once in a while.

Swiffer WetJet also works, as does liquid cleaner made just for vinyl floors.  

I haven’t noticed any film on my flooring like I would get on my hardwoods sometimes after cleaning, so I’m liking how easy these are to maintain!

The Negatives of Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring

While there are a lot of positives associated with luxury vinyl plank flooring, there are also some definite negatives.  These are the drawbacks that I’ve noticed so far.

Luxury Vinyl Plank Can’t be Refinished

Unlike hardwood floors, when luxury vinyl plank is worn out, it can’t be refinished.  You just have to rip it out and start over again. 

While this is definitely a drawback of the flooring, the same thing is true for carpeting and tile, so it’s not a unique drawback by any stretch.  It’s just something to keep in mind when weighing your options.

Renovating Can Cause Problems

Unlike hardwoods that can always be replaced and filled in when needed, the style of luxury vinyl plank you choose can be available one day and then gone the next.

This is EXACTLY what happened in our house!  The previous owners installed Tranquility Copper Ridge Oak flooring in October 2019.  In January 2020 we went to purchase that same flooring to run it into the living room, and we found out that the style the previous owners installed had been discontinued, and replaced with a new style that was not compatible with the old style (in terms of click and lock mechanism).  

Luckily the areas are separated by a couple of stairs, so we didn’t need the floors to physically connect.  However, when we had the newer Copper Ridge Oak flooring installed, we noticed that it is slightly darker than last year’s version and the planks are slightly wider.  

These slight differences drive me nuts!  

Plus, we would like to renovate the kitchen and mudroom at some point, but we realize that doing so will have a huge impact on the flooring.  We won’t be able to replace the flooring with the same flooring that’s already there (since it’s not available), and because the flooring seamlessly flows from room to room, we will have to install threshold pieces in some strange spots.

The Repeat in Patterns Looks Cheap

This may be my overly-analytical tendencies talking here, but I really don’t like how I can pick out repeat patterns in the luxury vinyl plank floors.  In our basement there’s one spot where two identical planks are very close to each other, and the matching “knots” in the wood stick out like a sore thumb to me!

If you’re installing the flooring yourself, you will probably pay attention to that type of detail, but an installer who is working quickly to get the job done likely will not.  

It’s not a dealbreaker, but it is a giveaway that your flooring is vinyl.  That’s all I’m trying to get across here.

Luxury Vinyl Plank Stairs Can be Tricky!

WHO KNEW?  But seriously – if you have stairs that need luxury vinyl plank, choose carefully!

Some vinyl planks have coordinating vinyl plank stair treads and/or risers that match the vinyl plank flooring being put down.  This gives you a cohesive look that is (from what they tell me) durable.

Some vinyl plank varieties do not have any stair products, however, so you either have to lay vinyl plank flooring on the treads and use stair nose pieces to cover the edges (HELLO TRIP HAZARD and unpleasant look), or you have to try and match stain to the vinyl flooring to finish wooden treads and risers.

The flooring we used has vinyl treads and risers, and we intended to use them on our stairs.  When the carpeting was removed, however, we realized that the treads were in good shape and we decided to stain them to “match” the floors. 

Getting a match was practically impossible and our stairs ended up slightly darker than the floors.  They’re not so dark that I’m willing to redo this project, however.  It does bother me that they’re not a precise match though!

All-in-all, luxury vinyl plank flooring seems like a good choice for people who want an alternative to carpet or tile, and who appreciate durability and low cost.  The drawbacks are definite drawbacks and could be dealbreakers for some people, so make sure to carefully consider whether vinyl plank floors are right for you!

If you have any thoughts on luxury vinyl plank pros and cons, I’d love to hear from you!  Please add a comment below and let me know what you think, or ask any questions and I will do my best to answer them!

-Bre

As I sit down to write this post, I can’t help but feel like I’m having an out-of-body experience.  Is it really me writing this?  Is this actually happening?  

The news is still fresh as I share it with all of you, so it hasn’t completely sunk in yet; hence the strange feelings accompanying me as I click away at the keyboard.

My family is moving from the only home we’ve known.

We’re leaving our beloved home in Illinois to move to the Milwaukee area.  My husband accepted a new position there and we’re going to be closer to some of our family, so it’s a positive change. 

But it’s really freaking sad, too.

Sorry, there’s just no other way to put it.

My husband and I bought this 92-year-old home back in 2009 when we were practically still babies.  The day after we closed, we found out we were having a baby of our own.  So much excitement at once, and the timing could not have been better.

The house had good bones, as they say, but was in really, really rough shape. (Did the double “really” drive it home enough?)  Throughout the ten years we’ve been here, we’ve renovated, remodeled, and redone every single room – including the outdoor spaces and all of the mechanicals.  

We brought both of our babies home to this house, and our home became the setting for many special occasions and memories, like baptism parties, holiday gatherings, and most recently, a pre-party for my sister’s wedding.  

But the life that happened here on a regular basis is, perhaps, even more memorable.  Watching the kids learn to ride their bikes on the driveway, blowing out candles on birthday cakes at the kitchen table, and reading stories before bedtime – that’s the good stuff.

Along the way we made wonderful friends that are going to be so difficult to leave behind.  Their friendship is part of the fabric of this home.  Their laughter and presence within helped make it such a happy place. 

My children are so upset – they can’t believe we’re making them leave their house and their school.  (If any of you have tips on transitioning kids to a new school, especially in the middle of the year, please share them with me!  Comment below or email me – averagebutinspire[email protected])  Their sadness is making me have an even more difficult time coming to terms with all of this. 

In my heart, I really felt like we’d live here forever.  At the risk of sounding like a total freak, I actually envisioned grandkids visiting me in this house a long, long time from now! 

But, truthfully, nestled amongst all of those heavy feelings is a small seed of excitement for a change and some more projects.  I can never sit still for long, so a new fixer upper is appealing to me and getting my mind thinking happy thoughts.  

Of course we don’t have a house in Wisconsin yet, but I’ll be sure to keep you posted on where we land.  Until then, please send good house selling vibes my way.  It’s a really tough market right now and we need all the help we can get!

Plus . . . I really don’t want to have to clean my house every single day for the foreseeable future.  🙂  

So, here’s to hoping that love brings us home to a new space that we can make our own, and that love brings a wonderful new family to the one we’ve worked so hard to fill with joy over the last ten.

-Bre