Surviving Sarah

I don't know about you, but I love inspiring kitchens. One of the toughest parts of renting, is not being able to change things in the kitchen. We have a decent kitchen in our rental, but it would still be fun to make some changes. So I thought it would be great to debrief about our Ocoee Home kitchen. We had so much fun creating this space--over 5 years ago. (Where has time gone!?) I first want to talk about the planning period. When we began planning for our renovation and actually renovating, Pinterest did not exist. Can you imagine a world without Pinterest? My life was less inspired. However, even without Pinterest, Scott and I took to the internet in search of most things. The times we ventured out to a showroom or store, we were left unimpressed or uninspired. We loved that the world was quite literally at our fingertips. So since there was no Pinterest, I would bookmark every. single. thing. I. liked. You can only imagine how many bookmarks I had and how difficult it was to look through them all. We also spent a lot of time flipping though magazines at my mom's house or Barnes & Noble. The girl in me who loves school supplies and organization (hence the DIY planner) created a notebook organized by room with magazines pages and samples.

That notebook brought me so much joy! In fact, I had an entire file box filled with fabric, rug and tile samples much like a hoarder. The dreaming part was fun but it can also be overwhelming because you literally have so much to choose from. It may be tough to narrow down what you really want and you totally get the pressure of picking out the right thing because there are hefty dollar signs attached to get item. Nobody wants to waste money or want to change it within a few years. So take some time to plan and figure out what you really want.

Maybe you feel lost even figuring out what you want. I took time to figure out our style by looking through lots and lots and lots of pictures. As I looked through inspiration photos, I noticed that the same things kept popping up--white, marble, accents of black, chrome, open shelves. We were also very drawn to using two shades of paint--one for the majority of cabinets and a different one for the island. Through this process of researching, we were able to figure out our style--classic modern is what we called it. We were designing a house that was originally built over 100 years ago and was technically considered in the country even though it resides about a mile from the city square. We wanted to restore the classic feel yet add modern touches. Figuring that out helped us tremendously. To figure out your style, ask yourself as you research:

What do I love about this picture?
What do I not like about this picture?
What does that say about my style?

Here's some examples of how we implemented classic modern: Our cabinet choice nods to classic shaker style yet the black sleek hardware is modern. We chose classic white subway tile with white grout to capture both a style that is classic yet clean and modern. I realized that I didn't like rounded edges. Most of the pictures I liked had straight or hard edges. That signifies a more modern style than traditional. Get the idea? All houses are different yet this house deserved a little bit of modern mixed with its classic beauty.

I want to share with you the few main inspiration pictures behind our Kitchen renovation. The first comes from the Southern Living Idea Home from Senoia, GA in 2010. At that point, we knew we wanted a mostly white kitchen but we still hadn't landed on where to buy from. We had quotes from Home Depot and a local cabinet maker--both so much money. When we saw this picture, we realized that we could do an Ikea kitchen. There are a few things from this one picture that narrowed our ideas: Ikea cabinetry, custom hood woodwork, custom woodwork on the back of the island, wood floor stain color, and to push our kitchen table right up next to the island. That is a lot from one picture!

Another kitchen that largest influenced us was designed by Urban Grace Interiors. This kitchen is completely swoon-worthy. Behold this glory...

This kitchen mostly inspired us to do a few things, the first being open shelving. We mimicked the bracket design from this kitchen. I just LOVED the chalkboard idea so I, Miss Not-so-crafty, created one out of scrap wood from Home Depot and a little chalkboard paint. At first, I wrote HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT because that was the daily reminder that I needed (Amen from all the mothers of little humans). Then after a while, I realized how fitting GIVE THANKS BE JOYFUL was for me and changed it. We obviously loved the white cabients but we also drew inspiration for our hardware from here. Originally, we were going to do chrome or silver hardware to go with white marble countertops but when our countertop choice changed (due to the amazing deal we scored from Ikea) we changed our minds. In fact, we were already living in the house before we ever ordered the hardware. When I saw the specks of black in the New Venetian Gold Granite, I decided we should accent that in our hardware.

Here is another picture that inspired how I decorated our open shelves. The open shelves really were one of my all-time favorite parts of the entire house. It was a place that could truly capture my personality. We used everything that was on our shelves. I wanted it to be functional yet beautiful.

The last kitchen picture that was a big inspiration for what we did was the home of Julie Holloway from Milk & Honey Home. She also had beautiful open shelves. The hardware in here is what we originally were going for until our countertops changed. We chose the same oval lanterns, sink faucet and apron front fireclay sink.So now you know how our kitchen evolved. You can see all the elements from the pictures before displayed in our kitchen. Spend some time figuring out what you want--you don't want to change it within a few years. We originally wanted a different color island but decided that it would be easier to start with a white cabinet and then paint it down the road if we needed a change. Don't rush the process and be flexible (like we were about the hardware).

If you are in the middle of researching a kitchen renovation, I hope our steps help you. I have a whole board of kitchen inspiration for you to jump start your research. At the end of the day, you want to create a space that you enjoy and feel at peace.