Belly Up to the Bar

Not that kind of bar...geez you guys must be having a rough week.  No, I'm talking about a bar of the breakfast variety. 

Recently, I was asked by my friend, Julie, to help her with a little kitchen redesign.  She had a wall that she just could not figure out a solution for, so she sent me some pictures and asked for my input.  This is the wall:

And here are a few other "before" photos of the kitchen (please forgive the lighting, I am still figuring out how to use my camera):

 

Since counterspace is slim and there is no eat-in area in the kitchen, we decided a breakfast bar would be the perfect solution.  We discovered that Home Depot carries the existing countertops, so we ordered one in the dimensions we needed and just a few short weeks later all is installed, the walls were painted, artwork and accessories placed and voila!  Here is the finished product:

We wanted to complement the red tones of the cherry cabinetry, so we chose Behr's Mountain Haze for the wall color.  The soft green tone is beautiful with the other finishes in the room.  I tried my hand at carpentry and built the shelves, inspired by these which I saw on one of my favorite blogs (http://www.younghouselove.com/).  They turned out pretty nice, but I think I will leave the carpentry to someone else next time.  It was a lot more work than I expected!  We purchased wooden letters spelling "EAT" at Michael's & painted them with a teal spray paint I randomly found on clearance at Home Depot.  The stools

and rug are from Target and I scored the wall mounted wine rack at Home Goods.  The other accessories are a combination of purchases made at Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond mixed in with things Julie & Dan already owned.  I'm very pleased with how it all came together, and best of all is Julie and Dan love it too!  

So, are any of you struggling with a space in your house? Maybe you want someone to come in, take over and surprise you with a room makeover. I'm still waiting for Genevieve Gorder to show up and offer to redesign my whole house.  Ahhhhh a girl can dream!  I had so much fun doing this that I am seriously considering taking on a few clients as time allows, so if you do need help with a decorating or design dilemma you are having, please let me know.  It's like my mom always tells me, sometimes just a fresh set of eyes can help you see potential you didn't know existed!

Happy decorating everyone!