I Found My Twin

I have been milling over ideas about the new house with my sweet friend Alisa.  While chatting about the kitchen I was telling her all my ideas.  This home was built for a elegant Southern Bell.  She's very put together, very feminine and her husband built her dream home for her with all that in the fore front of his mind.  The kitchen has beautiful cherry cabinets with pink counter tops, floral wall paper, and beautiful antiques every where.

Let me show you a quick peak so you can see what I mean:

A look at the living room from the kitchen.

Isn't it beautiful?  It's formal, feminine and when my mom went through she fell absolutely in love.  She kept saying, "I would leave it just like it is Sis."  My mom is a bit of a Southern Bell herself.

With 5 kids, 4 being boys, those precious antiques and the beautiful antique light fixtures etc would be at risk.  I have been thinking and planning ways to frugally decorate and make it little kid friendly.

So I've been searching the blogosphere for ideas and I came across The Thrifty Decor Chick.  I swear she and I were separated at birth.  Today's blog (Are You a Piler Too?) made me giggle and feel like I'm not alone in this :)


She loves DIY and had a project that ended in this:

That was her back door, Click the "a project" link above for the details

Now, while I've never had this particular incident, I am known for taking on big things and getting ahead of myself and once or twice they have ended in shattered pieces.

Back to the kitchen, I had an idea of what I wanted to do.  The trend these days is painting cabinetry and I'm just not a fan (sorry!).  This house has beautiful cherry wood cabinetry that were custom built.  There is cherry trim through out the house.  It feels sinful to even consider painting it! 

I had a picture in my head of what I wanted to do.  Including building an island since there's so much space.  I want darker counter tops with pops of black here and there.  Imagine my awe when I pulled up The Thrifty Chick and saw my future kitchen on her blog!  (click here for more pics and the original post)

Look!  Cherry Cabinets!

The back splash in the new house is white tile so the bead board isn't necessary.  I love the counter tops.  Call me crazy, but I love that they're not granite.  They look great and I can afford them.  The island she has is very similar to the one we built in this house and we planned to build the same thing (sans oven) in the new place.

Everything she's done so far has been very in line with my taste and it's all Goodwill finds and garage sale finds.  She's a woman after my own heart.

Beautiful but affordable.  Two of my favorite words.