Our Home we built, the "Greystone Manor"

We've lived in our dream house for three years now. This house is a collaboration of design work between my husband and myself, down to every last detail. Building homes together is something we both love and enjoy. So today I am going to share some photos of our home that our friend, and professional photographer Tim Furlong took. Our home was built by my husband Jason Black, and you can find his new company website here.

A tour of our home....

Wall color is Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams

Wall color is Grant Beige by Benjamin Moore

Granite surround is Calcutta Gold Marble

Sea Salt on the walls again, it's a common color theme throughout our home.

Cabinet color was a custom color blend. We have quartzite on the island.

Bar stools are from Ballard Design

We custom designed our railing

Sea Salt is the wall color

Sleeping porch

Sleeping porch with hanging beds

If you would ever like to share or repost our photos in a blog post or other publication please email me. Information is in the contact me area on my home page. :) And stay tuned, because we are building a new home and can't wait to share photos with you. You can follow me on Instagram here, or my husband and his building company here.

XO~Gretchen

Designing a Beach Bungalow Part 5: The Kitchen

So if you have been following along you have seen the other spaces that I have designed for the beach house I am dreaming up. Today's focus will be on the kitchen. It's the heart of the house, right? I envision that the kitchen be open to both the dining area and the family room. Because I think big open spaces are perfect for a vacation home. Here is an inspiration photo from the blog House of Turquoise that I found via Pinterest. It was designed by Kerry Hanson.

What I love about this kitchen, is the mix of white and gray cabinets, the stools, the light fixtures, the windows, and the backsplash. I really could envision something similar in a beach house. So I took inspiration from this photo, and I came up with this design.

I'll start with the wall color. I figured you would not see that much of it, by the time the cabinets and backsplash are in, but I like having a little hint of the aqua. 

I think the color Retiring Blue by Sherwin Williams would be nice.

The cabinets I would like to see painted white with no glaze, just clean and crisp. I would put these fun knobs from Anthropologie on all the doors. I may have to brush them with a little silver paint on the metal part. 

Then I would put cup pulls on all the drawers.

I would make sure to have some glass cabinet fronts. I think it's great to have a place to display pretty dishes and serving pieces.

I like the design of the kitchen island, I would probably put a really light quartzite on it. We have that on our island in our kitchen, and I love it. It looks like marble, but it does not stain, and holds up beautifully to all the day to day usage it gets. Here is an example of a slab I might choose.

I would opt for a farmhouse sink. I love my farmhouse sink. It is a classic addition to any kitchen.

The faucet I like has a vintage feel. I would select a chrome finish. You can shop local retailers for different faucet options. There are so many out there. My only advice is to not get something really cheap. Invest in a good brand like Kohler or Mohen, because you want something that is going to last a long time. Sometimes you get what you pay for. ;)

Love these glass dome light fixtures from Grandinroad. I think two of these over the gray island would be great.

Seriously, I think, my favorite part of the kitchen would be these stools from Serena and Lily. I actually am trying to convince my best friend that she needs them for her new kitchen. If you haven't noticed, I am really in to kelly green lately, I almost love it as much as aqua. And the two of them together is pure perfection.

I would use a simple white subway tile. I love how these have a beveled edge. They are clean, classic, and timeless.

The rug is from Urban Outfitters. They have a great selection of rugs at reasonable prices. 

I love the idea of having baskets in the kitchen too. They are not only resourceful to use for storage, but they add a pretty layer of texture to the space. So I have this idea to purchase some plan tight woven baskets and then painting them to look like these.

There you have it! I could probably write another post about all these dishes and accessories I would use. Of course I would have some vintage hobnail dishes on display in the glass cabinets, since I love collecting them.

Here is my mood board for the family room space, so that you can see how nicely the rooms compliment one another.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend! Now I really wish this beach house I designed was real so that I could go spend the holiday weekend there. :)

Until next time.....

XO~Gretchen