While the cat is away, the mice will...

install hardwood floors! While I was on my European vaca, Nate was installing hardwood throughout our main floor. Let me tell you, next to his handsome face, that was quite possibly the best thing to come home to! Since we moved in over a year ago, we have been dreaming of this installation. The carpet was by no means awful, but next to our Bleeker Beige {Benjamin Moore} walls, it left the main area of our home feeling, well, like a big beige box. And the light color wasn't exactly great at camouflaging dirty little puppy paw prints.

Our first step was to find some inspiration, so I did some browsing on Pinterest and a few of my favorite blogs. Here are a couple we loved the most.

{pinterest, originally from countryliving.com}

{milk & honey home)

After we figured out what we were looking for {dark, rustic, and a little "knotty") we headed up to Lumber Liquidators in Spokane and decided on a handscraped, engineered birch:

{lumberliquidators.com}



We loved it's handscraped finish and random imperfections, and lucky for us they had enough in stock to take it home that day!

Now for the before and afters. Before I left for my trip, our living/dining room area looked like this:

 

Well, not exactly like this. This was actually the day we moved in. So no furniture or bleeker beige yet.

Another view...

And a pic of the lovely linoleum in the kitchen.

I have definitely seen worse linoleum, but I was still pretty excited to get rid of it.

Now for the afters (taken at my friend's baby shower, hence the extra decor and seating)...

No more beige box, I'm loving the contrast! The dark gray fireplace wall adds some depth to the room too. Things are coming together :)