My NEW Kitchen - The Reveal

The day has finally come to share my brand spankin' new kitchen! Woohooo! I am so so excited! This post is going to be super picture heavy, and I'll try to keep the talking to a minimum.

First up - some BEFORE pictures (eeeeek). I seriously had pretty much forgotten what the old icky kitchen looked like. Prepare yourself people. No bueno.

BEFORE:

Ick. Right!? Don't get me wrong, I am grateful that I had a fully functional kitchen with working appliances and a place to feed my family. Seriously, I am a very lucky lady. BUT - when we are speaking about efficiency and aesthetics, this kitchen was seriously not cuttin' it.

ok - are you ready to see the {zillion} AFTER shots?? I am so ready to show you!

AFTER:



!!!!!!!!!!!!
(btw - my amazingly talented father in law built us this gorgeous custom range hood. We used a stain by varathane called "Sun Bleached" to give it a grayish "sun bleached" look. Can you say, one of a kind!? Yeah baby!)

!!!!!!!!!!

See that gorgeous shiny white subway tile. Dreamy! Our friend Mica installed it for us and did an amazing job. Just perfect!

This {double basin apron front farmhouse sink} is straight from my dreams! It was one of my non-negotiables.

Apron front!!!!!

(and I may have strong armed my hubby into the gold hardware. I mean, c'mon! The coolest, right!? My other non-negotiable)

See this corner cabinet.....

It pulls out!!!!!!!

Poof! There are now cabinets where there once were none.

Oh - and see this before picture below. See that closet OUTSIDE the kitchen. Yep, that's a coat closet that was turned into a pantry. The food was being stored OUTSIDE the kitchen people.

Now!!!!

And they pull out!!!!!

Food. INSIDE the kitchen. I know, I know!

This is our little home office nook...

These drawers have our office type stuff like stamps, envelopes, coupons, etc. They also hold the kid's art supplies and coloring books, etc. Very handy if you ask me :)

And this is the wall where the black buffet used to be. We kept it pretty bare so there would be a clear walkway to the sliding door that leads to the backyard. No more bottleneck!

Soooo!!!?? What do you think!!? Do you loooooooove it!? I love it so much, I want to shout it from the rooftop. I am such a happy girl!

Here are the basic details:
CUSTOM Range Hood - OOAK (one of a kind and made with love by the fabulous Tom Miller)
Cabinets - Ikea
Gold hardware - Overstock.com
Granite counters - Home Depot
Floor/Back splash tile - Home Depot
Sink - Signature Hardware

So, there you have it. My new {beachy glam} kitchen makeover. It really is my dream kitchen and I couldn't be happier with how everything turned out. Thanks for coming along for the ride. I hope the reveal lived up to the hype. lol.
Happy happy happy!!!!!!!

{GROCERY} sign

Happy Fourth of July eve everyone :) Our 4th of July plans tomorrow will include a trolley ride, the beach, a bbq, and fireworks...oh, and root beer floats :)

I wanted to share a quick kitchen project I did recently. I made a sign :) Ooooh, ahhhh. lol.

First step, buy a board. I got mine at Home Depot and it was pretty poplar wood with a great color and grain to it. I had a 3.5' piece cut and was on my way.

I loved the grain and grayish color to the wood so I decided to keep it as is instead of painting over it.

Next step, pick a font.
I printed my BIG letters out individually on card stock.

Then I cut them out...

And traced them on my wood board using a pencil.

I used basic acrylic craft paint to fill in the letters...

After they were completely dry, I took out my palm sander and went to work. Once the initial distressing was done, I made a white paint/water mixture and sort of "white-washed" the whole piece to give it more of an aged look.

Here is the final product :)

close-up shot of the lettering...

And here is a shot of it from the doorway of the kitchen....

(& a teaser kitchen cabinet shot).

I was trying to wait till we got our new kitchen windows before I did any reveals. Alas, it is taking WAY too long and I am getting impatient. Kitchen reveal will be on Monday (with old windows). I'm soooooo excited to show it to you!!!!

Have a happy and safe 4th everyone :)

Crafty Quickies

Happy Monday everyone. Just wanted to pop in to share a couple quick projects that I've been working on (if you follow me on Instagram "arichardson79," you've already seen these). Nothin' fancy, just a few easy "smalls". Take a look:

First, I bought Rustoleum's glitter spray paint when I was at Home Depot and it didn't disappoint.

I just taped off the bottom of a mason jar and made is sparkly :)
Oh, and look at how BIG this peony is!!

It was the size of my head...maybe bigger. Lol. So pretty!

Next, i decided I wanted to spruce up my utensil holder so it will fit in with my new snazzy kitchen (reveal coming sooooon). It was just a basic metal canister thingy (sorry - I don't have a true before pic). First I spray painted it white. The next day I used some washi tape to tape off a design (herringbone). then I sprayed the whole thing gold.

Not a perfect tape job, but I think it turned out cute :)

I didn't get a before pic of this one either (fail) but my sister gave me an old vanity mirror that she wasn't using anymore. I turned it into a counter-top chalkboard :)

Aqua, of course :)

So, that's it. A few little randoms. lol.
Here's a {dreamy} kitchen teaser pic for ya :)

Yay yay yay!!!

Have a great week everyone :)

Yosemite - Part 2

Helllooooo there. How's it going!?
I wanted to share some more of our Yosemite pictures and also perhaps a teaser pic of our in-progress kitchen remodel. If you follow me on Instagram (arichardson79) you are probably sick to death of my in-progress kitchen posts. lol.

Now, on to Yosemite :)
After our camp was all set up, it was time to start relaxing. My sis in law and her family were in charge of dinner the first night. We had deluxe (like bacon wrapped bleu cheese) sliders served with baked beans and macaroni salad. Yum!

The next day, we took a short hike to the (wet) base of the infamous Bridalveil falls.

It's seriously so beautiful in Yosemite that we stopped every 5 feet to snap a picture.

 

These kids were SO done with us taking their picture by the end of the trip.

After our short hike, we headed down to Sentinel beach for a picnic. The kids played in the {snow melt} water for a bit too.

(Hayden was hanging loose the whole trip...no idea why - lol)

Brrrrrrrr.

Seriously SO beautiful!

Yosemite Falls in the distance...

After our fun at the beach, we headed back to camp to make dinner. It was our turn and we were serving yummy nachos :) My favorite! Everyone got to doctor up their chips and heat them over the fire.

Here is Josh's masterpiece...

Goober.

And the rest of the night was spent relaxing by the fire
(artsy "ring of fire" pic provided by Noah).

Hang in there people, we only have ONE more Yosemite post to go. I just love it there so so much!!!

Oh yeah - here's that kitchen teaser pic for ya.....

2 words for you - IN LOVE.

Stay tuuuuuuuned!