Our Kitchen: Planning Phase

When Ty and I bought our first home we knew that updating the kitchen would be high on our to do list... Thankfully, all we really need/want to do is paint the cabinets and add hardware to them. Ideally we'd love to replace the countertops but that's not as high on the list. 

I originally thought we'd hire someone to paint the cabinets, but Ty has done several projects around the house that are much more difficult than painting cabinets... So, here we go, diving head first into a huge project that we will most likely wonder what in the world were we thinking... BUT.. It's fun working on your house together and there's nothing like accomplishing a big project DIY style...

First up, let me show you what our kitchen currently looks like...

(view from the living room)

There's really nothing wrong with it at all.. and, in fact, some people may prefer the oak/orange color but I have always wanted white cabinets.. always. The cabinets are in great shape. I really don't even dislike the countertops. I'd rather have granite but I think the light countertops and the white cabinets would look perfectly fine together.

Here are a few more pictures of our kitchen...

(our eat-in area of the kitchen)

Now for the inspiration pictures.. I tried to find pictures of kitchens that seemed similar to ours...

via

I love this kitchen tutorial.. It's a great one and I learned a lot of good information from this site.

via

I love the open cabinet concept... I think I want to leave a few cabinets open...

The cabinets labeled 1, 2 and 3 are the cabinets I'd like to leave the doors off.

I went to Lowe's yesterday and talked to one of the painter guys who offered up a TON of tips and ideas that encouraged me to tackle this project. He suggested that we use this instead of sanding the cabinets...

I've used this when I painted an end table, but I've never used it on such a large project like kitchen cabinets. Have any of you ever used this? Do we sand or use the deglosser? We have a sander so that's no problem to sand instead if we needed to.

I also found this hardware that I think would look amazing on the white cabinets. We kind of have a rustic feel going on in our eat-in kitchen and I think these knobs would look so cool and unexpected...

I love all of the options in the set except I wouldn't use the drop down pull for the kitchen.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has painted kitchen cabinets or has any tips to offer! What do you think of the ideas we have so far? I'd love to know! 

love, Darian

Rosemary Recap: Part II

Where to stay? You cannot go wrong in Rosemary Beach. Rosemary mainly consists of houses, carriage houses (these are smaller), and apartment like condos. Everything we have seen is very nice. We've stayed in a house, carriage house and two different condos... They all were fabby!

Where to eat? We always eat breakfast and lunch in the house... We buy groceries and find it makes things much simpler. We make it easy too... cereal, sandwiches, chips/dips, etc. This way everyone can eat when they get hungry and it's fast which is nice because we don't want to miss any beach time! For dinners we usually go out or get take out. BUT.. we go a little later than usual. We do not want to miss sunset so this puts us eating around 9 pm... My favorite place to eat in Rosemary is Cowgirl Kitchen. 

What to do? I'm really not kidding when I say we go to the beach everyday, all day. We get the beach service chairs which is something I highly recommend... It may seem pricey, but we LOVE having the chairs set up for us each day plus an umbrella- you just can't sit in the sun all day, all week.. we love having the shade of the umbrellas!

There are other things to do in Rosie too... Rent bikes, kayak, shop, get ice cream..... It's just the sweetest little place. 

What are your favorite places to vacation and what do you like to do there?

Rosemary Recap: Part I

Today I'm linking up with Sami from Sami's Shenanigans for a weekend/vacay recap!

Good morning, sweet readers! It feels great to be home, settling back into routine and writing on my blog. I never realize how much I've missed my home until I am back in it... there really is nothing like home. I also missed my sweet puppy so much.. He was so excited to see mommy and daddy. 

Ty and I spent the majority of our weekend in the car.. 22 hours to be exact. Yes, 22 hours! Are we crazy? I really think so. What should have been a 12 hour car trip turned into 18 hours.. I thought I would lose my sanity but I survived and that's a story for another day.

Instead of just a weekend recap, I thought I'd share part one of our vacation recap this morning. I cannot even tell you how much I loved, loved, loved our trip to Rosemary Beach, FL this summer. I know I've talked about this trip so much lately but it just is one of the best weeks for us.

Something about being at the beach makes me feel closer to God.. the ocean is so big and so powerful and it makes me feel so small.. in a good way. I love the reminder of how microscopic I am in comparison to the world... and how BIG our God is. The ocean also makes me reflect on what I've accomplished so far in life and causes me to think about where I want to be in the future... It's almost like I find myself at the beach each year.. Does anyone else feel the same way or am I crazy? Maybe it was that long car ride...

Anyways, I got to start my trip with this...

This would be a gift basket from my wonderful mom. She put these baskets together for us girls and it was the sweetest thing ever. She is the most thoughtful person ever and we LOVE her girly baskets! :)

We spent our days laying in the sun, eating yummy food, sipping pina colodas, watching the sunset and playing with my adorable first cousin who I love dearly...

  

Tell me, what would you like to know about Rosemary Beach/30-A in FL? 

Have a happy Monday! Come back tomorrow for Part II.

love, Darian