One of our favorite things to do in the summer is bbq and gourmet burgers are at the top of our list! Not only are they delicious but they are so easy to make!! We throw some pre-made beef patties on the grill and cook them for 5-6 minuets a side. While they are cooking we make the homemade guacamole!

4-5 ripe avocados

2 vine ripe tomato 

2 tablespoons red onion

2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

juice from 1 lime

salt and pepper to taste

Scoop the ripe avocados into a bowl and smash them with a fork leaving some larger chunks. Add in the chopped tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Use a fork to combine all the ingredients. If needed add more lime juice and salt and pepper.

Now it’s time to put the burgers together. We top a beef patty with cheddar cheese, a fried egg, and a big scoop of fresh guacamole! If you like you can add condiments of your choice!

This is has become a family favorite that our whole family enjoys, even our 6 year old!!

-Grey Birch Designs-

One of my favorite things to make in the summertime is summer salad with homemade dressing! Homemade dressing is surprisingly easy to make and soooooo delicious! One of my favorites is a spinach and strawberry salad with a strawberry dressing. Here’s what you need:

-A bag of spinach and a bag of spring mix lettuce

-Sliced strawberries

-Precooked sliced chicken strips

-Sliced almonds and craisins (optional)

To make the dressing you will need:

-1/2 cup vegetable oil

-1/4 cup vinegar

-1/2 cup sugar

-1/4 tsp paprika

-2 tbsp sesame seeds

-1 tbsp poppy seeds

-1/2 cup strawberries, fresh or frozen 

Take all the ingredients for the dressing and place them in a blender, mix until completely blended. Pour over salad when ready to serve! 

  

This summer I have been spending a lot more time than normal cooking in the kitchen and teaching my kids some of my favorite recipes. Something new that has been so fun and helpful is my Samsung Family Hub refrigerator! It has a feature called Smart Recipes and if you tap on it you can view that recipe and all the ingredients needed to make it! This has saved dinnertime at our home more than once, plus it gives us new ideas for recipes we haven’t tried before!

          

One of the new recipes it showed us last week was for S’mores dip! I never would have thought of this and it’s now a family favorite! On the family hub it gives you the option to read the directions, show you the ingredients, and even add the ingredients to your shopping list!

          

I can’t wait to try out some more fun recipes this summer!

-Grey Birch Designs-

I am frequently asked about my living room mirrors and everyone is always surprised when I tell them they are actually a DIY project I did a few years ago. When we first moved into our new home I realized the living room needed a statement piece. I tried to find tall designer inspired mirrors but just couldn’t bring myself to spend a chunk of money on them, so I set out to try and make what I had envisioned for a fraction of the cost!!

Supply list:

Inexpensive Mirror

1/2″ Plywood

This can be customized a bit depending on the size mirror you get

TIP: If you don’t have a large saw to cut the plywood some Home Depots will cut it for FREE or Lowe’s does cuts for a small fee.

Barnwood

I found mine on a local classifieds page but Home Depot sells wood that looks similar

4 Pack of Flat Braces

They come in a few different sizes so you can pick the size you like best, I used the 2.5″ size

– Wood trim
1.5″ wide and .25″ thick

– Wood Glue

– Wood filler

– Black paint

– Clear Silicone adhesive

Tool List:

– Miter saw

– Sander or sand paper

– Drill / driver

– Clamps

– Nail gun or hammer & nails

STEP 8:

When the glue has dried, sand the wood filler (if you used it) touch up the paint and add the flat braces to each corner. The final step is to add the hanging hardware. There are many ways you can do this. I like to drive 2 screws several inches apart into the back of the wood and connect them with picture hanging wire.

That’s it, your done, and now you have a beautiful custom mirror without the designer price tag!!

-Grey Birch Designs-

One of the biggest projects we tackled this summer was creating an outdoor dining area on our back deck. We built this deck about 3 years ago out of redwood and it just didn’t hold up well against the elements. We knew it needed some repairs, but we decided to make it bigger and better than it previously was.

It’s a super easy system and basically fits together like a puzzle. We used 4×4’s for the posts and 2×4’s for the slats on top. We cut our vertical 4×4 posts to fit just under the eves of our house, giving it a true custom look. Each piece of wood fits nicely into a bracket and then they all attach together with the provided screws.

                     

  

Your front porch is such an important part of your home but it is often overlooked. It’s the first impression people get when they come to your home and it sets the tone for what to expect inside. When I recently designed my porch I wanted it to represent my interior style but also give off a warm and welcoming feeling when people approach our front door. I chose furniture from Grandin Road because I wanted something comfortable and stylish. They have some of the most beautiful, on trend furniture and decor around! 

For years and years I had a small wood bench on my porch that wasn’t very comfortable. I knew I wanted to change that and when I saw these big oversized chairs (Vaca Chair) I knew they would be perfect! They are super comfortable and I find myself hanging out on the porch just so I can relax in these gorgeous chairs! I paired them with some adorable black and white pillows and a cute black metal side table. Since my porch isn’t that big I picked an end table instead of a coffee table to keep the space open.

  

For the entire four years I have lived in my home I have struggled with keeping real plants alive on the porch. The morning sun is intense and then shady the rest of the day, making it difficult for plants and flowers to flourish. Thankfully Grandin Road has the perfect solution: their outdoor faux greenery!! I added these faux hydranjia pot fillers to these amazing wood look tall planters for the exact look I was unable to achieve with real plants. These pot filler florals are my favorite. They look so realistic without all the maintenance and expense of replacing real plants!!

I wanted to create a more updated modern farmhouse feel to our bathroom vanity and with just a few changes I was able to completely transform this space. It seriously doesn’t even look like the same bathroom vanity!

The first step was to do a little demo. We had the standard builder grade mirror that had to go! These can be a little tricky to remove but the best and safest way is to tape the mirror, a lot!! This will help keep the mirror from shattering and flying all over the place in the event it breaks. You can’t use too much tape on this step so go crazy! After that take a pry bar or something that you can slip in-between the wall and the mirror to carefully pry it off the wall. Typically these are glued in a few different spots with a strong adhesive. This can damage drywall, but in our case we were putting up shiplap so we weren’t too concerned about any drywall damage.

After we removed the mirror we started the fun part, shiplap! For a more modern spin on the traditional shiplap I decide to do vertical seemless shiplap. We used true MDF shiplap boards These are easy to work with because the spacing is already done for you and will line up perfect every time. By using MDF instead of real wood you get a more smooth uniform finish without all the wood grain. We attached the boards to the wall with instant grab construction adhesive and a couple nails in the top and the bottom. To accommodate the vanity light wires coming out of the wall we drilled a one inch hole in the shiplap and pulled the wires through.

Once we finished putting up the shiplap we trimmed it out with PVC trim. This gives it a more clean finished look and hides all the raw edges and nail holes. Then came my favorite part, the finishes and decor!!

                 

The beginning of the year for us, like so many others, started out looking very different. We had decided to sell our home and move to the next city over and build a cute farmhouse in a fun community. That all quickly changed largly due to the pandemic that hit us hard in March. Although at the time it was hard for me to see, I soon realized this was a HUGE blessing in disguise!! 

I was always a little sad about the thought of leaving our current home because we put our blood, sweat, and tears into making it what is is today. The one area of our home I always wanted to make changes to was our kitchen. I originally picked out off-white cabinets but they always looked a little yellow to me. 

Fast forward to late March – I’m not going to lie, I cried like a baby after we found out we weren’t going able to get the new house. But I have the world’s best husband and he knew my heart was broken. So he said to me “how about we do a kitchen remodel and turn our current house into everything you wanted” Seriously this made me cry happy tears way more than sad ones!

This project was mostly cosmetic. I love the layout of our kitchen – it was one of the big reasons we choose to build this model home back in 2015. What I wanted to change was the cabinets, countertops, and of course a farmhouse sink!!!

I had all my cabinets painted bright white (this is just the white base color without any additional color added in). I find this to be the truest bright white. We had the island painted Nevermore Grey by Sherwin Williams. We then had new white quartz countertops installed and modified the sink cabinet to accommodate the most beautiful farmhouse sink I found from BLANCO.

I chose the IKON® 33″ sink for a couple reasons. It’s a granite composite material that is stain and scratch resistant, which is super important with 5 kiddos in the house! It’s also a matte finish which gives it a more modern feel. This fits in perfectly with the new modern farmhouse design I’m going for in this kitchen remodel. I also picked out this gorgeous MERIDIAN™ faucet from BLANCO. It’s design makes me feel like a professional cook even when I’m not!! In all seriousness it’s not only beautiful but one of the best faucets I have ever had!

We took our sink cabinet doors to a custom cabinet maker to have the doors cut down to size. My farmhouse sink has a 10″ apron but our older sink was just a basic drop in. That meant our doors were too tall and didn’t fit under the sink anymore. We also had to change the support braces to hold the sink properly. We built small brackets inside the cabinet for the sink to sit on and lowered part of the horizontal cabinet face. Now my dream of having a farmhouse sink is a reality!!

This kitchen remodel is the largest project to date that we have done on our home and easily the most rewarding!!

BLANCO is a fantastic company and we have been extremely happy with their products. Our BLANCO farmhouse sink and faucet can be found here:

IKON® 33″ FARMHOUSE SINK
MERIDIAN™ FAUCET

-Grey Birch Designs-

At the beginning of the year I had one project in mind that was at the top of my list: refreshing my bedroom!! The bedroom furniture had definitely seen better days – it was the same set we had when we got married 15 years ago!! 

I started this bedroom project by painting the shiplap wall this beautiful navy blue color (blue endeavour by Sherwin-Williams) that I quickly became obsessed with, and the rest of the room bright white. I knew I wanted a more modern but still comfortable bedroom design so I headed to one of my favorite local furniture stores,

 RC Willey