Sadie Olive

I love the idea of “inspiration friday”. I have seen it in action on quite a few blogs, and I just love looking at the photos that inspire people. So I have been thinking this week about what I could use for my inspiration post. I didn’t want to use current magazines since most of you (I’m sure) get the same ones I do, so I thought back to the older magazines I’d saved. One came to mind that I actually used as inspiration to create a look in my old kitchen. I thought it would make a fun post. You can see the inspiration room, and then the room it inspired me to create…

Josh and I bought our first house in 2003 (or 2002? I can’t remember now). Budget (of course) was an issue, so we decided on a fixer-upper. Josh and his father, both being in construction, and my Dad in drywall, it seemed the logical route for us to take. It wasn’t long after we moved in that we completely gutted our kitchen (actually most of the house) and put in motion plans to create a new one. Living without a kitchen for months is no picnic, but I suffered through it to try and create the kitchen of my dreams. I didn’t want just any kitchen, I wanted a beautiful kitchen. I spent a few weeks looking through magazines for inspiration, and I fell in love with one I found in a 2001 Country Living. (Keep in mind, that even with a mac-n-cheese budget, I still have caviar taste…)

This is the inspiration photo I found for our new kitchen.

It’s a custom kitchen with lava stone countertops and a huge open space to work with. It certainly doesn’t have much in common with our space; which is a long, dark and narrow galley kitchen. Nevertheless, I took the photo to a cabinet maker behind my husbands shop and he was able to reproduce a very similar looking cabinet to fit my space.

In our kitchen we used limestone countertops (which I don’t recommend as they were very hard to live with). I did look into the lava stone counter tops (from the photo), but they were far from fitting into the budget. We also considered concrete, but were scared off when the salesman told us it will crack and it’s just considered part of it’s “charm”. The limestone offered a natural look without being as “busy” as granite can sometimes look. The look of the limestone is great, but it stained very easily. I had the cabinets painted in a bright off-white with an antique glaze in all the crevices. We couldn’t afford the viking range, but we did splurge for the viking hood, which I love. I also really wanted a farm house sink, but budget did not allow it. The two hanging lights were from Restoration Hardware (the closest I could find, in trying to keep to the detail of the inspiration room which had old nautical lights). The sink hardware was another splurge, (the smaller details make such a difference in a kitchen). We finished the backside of the lower cabinets in a wood stain to try to match the photo. We added the spindles on the sides even though the countertop didn’t have an overhang, as our hallway was to narrow to accomodate seating on that side. (Another detail I just love).

My family room went through the most dramatic change in our house (other than the addition). It started out with deep green walls with a faux brown finish (very dark) and had spanish red pavers and a huge built-in with even more spanish flavor… (curved openings, and knotty pine cabinet doors). It was probably my least favorite room when we purchased the house. I knew right away that I would repaint, but I thought I would try to work with the built-in by taking away some of the spanish elements. I figured if I (when I say I, I mean my husband) painted the whole thing white and added some old mouldings, etc… I could make it more my style.

As I revealed my list of ideas to my husband he began to realize the amount of work he would have to do to get it looking anywhere I considered half decent, and (surprise!) he was finally convinced that it needed to go. This led to our discovery that it did not have the spanish paver flooring continued underneath, which meant we would either have to patch in the spanish pavers (which I had already expressed my distaste for) or replace the flooring all together. Amazingly, he happily agreed to replace the flooring.

I decided on seagrass carpet. I had seen it in a few of my magazines and had my heart set on the material. The rest of the house has a dark (almost black) wood floor with very thin slats (the thinnest I have ever seen), and it would have been impossible to match. It took some research, but I finally found a company who carried the seagrass carpet, and (presto!) it was installed. I love the way it came out. I also had my dad smooth the textured walls and ceiling and painted them “latte” from restoration hardware.

The room felt like a cave before and it is so much brighter now. It’s the room we spend most of our time in, so I wanted it to be light and casual. Here’s a few before and after photos so you can see what I mean…