Jacob and I got to get away by ourselves this weekend.
That's right, NO KIDS!!
It was the first time just the two of us have gotten away for pleasure since the trio were born!
We spent our weekend away at Pacific Beach on the Washington Coast and
stayed in the cutest little cottage suite at the Sweet Alice Inn.
I had heard about this new beach town on the Washington Coast called Seabrook.
It is basically a resort town full of beach cottages that you can rent.
I thought that sounded like fun, but then when I learned that this year's Coastal Living Ultimate Beach House is located in Seabrook, I was dying to go!
Unfortunately all of the cottages were booked up for the weekend that we wanted to go,
so I did some research and found the Sweet Alice Inn, only 1 mile away from Seabrook.
It was just as cute as the Seabrook cottages and WAY more affordable!
We did spend quite a bit of time exploring Seabrook, however, and drooling over the beach cottages.
Okay, maybe it was just me that was drooling :)
The cottages ranged from gorgeous and gigantic,
to average sized and absolutely beautiful,
to sweet little clusters of mini cottages.
But I kept coming back to this one.
I loved everything about it.
Isn't it beautiful!?
There are a ton of old-fashioned beach cruiser bikes owned by Seabrook available for guests to borrow.
You just pick one up and leave it on the sidewalk for the next person to use when you are done.
Even though we weren't guests, we helped ourselves to two beach cruisers and cruised our way around the neighborhood.
What rebels!
I think that was my favorite part of our trip.
However, I thoroughly enjoyed our tour of Coastal Living's Ultimate Beach House too.
It wasn't anything super fancy from the outside, but it was absolutely GORGEOUS on the inside!
As you enter the front courtyard, you are greeted by secluded, outdoor living spaces including a large stone fireplace, outdoor grilling area, lounge and dining area and a covered walkway to the guest house.
Our first stop was the guest house.
I was immediately drawn to the colors and was later told by the host that the interior designer (Tim Clarke) used pictures he took of the area and had the colors in the pictures matched at the paint store.
Clever!
We were in love with the ceilings and thought we could totally do that in our house.
I love how the rustic mirror in the bathroom was hung in front of the window.
After touring the guest house, we walked back through the covered breezeway to the main house.
I loved the arrangement of pictures and antique faucet knobs hanging on the wall beneath the stairs.
While the rustic plank table by Tim Clarke Designs probably cost a pretty penny,
it made me smile to know that even fancy schmancy designers buy things like the white chairs and vases at IKEA.
While I love taking in the whole design concept of a room, it really is the little things that intrigue me. For example, I really enjoyed inspecting the accessories and taking note of how the little things were arranged.
Some of the little things I particularly liked were this wire basket holding fire wood,
these rustic hooks hanging in the entryway,
the numbered bowls holding vegetables in the kitchen,
the open shelving in the kitchen,
and the stripes painted on the stair risers leading upstairs to the bedrooms.
The first bedroom we came to upstairs was the "kids' room".
There were two elements in this room that had me saying "wow!"
The first being the bamboo curtain rod and drapery rings.
What a unique way to hang the sheer drapes!
I was dying to know where the hardware came from, so after some investigating, I learned that it can be purchased through Antique Drapery Rod Co.
The second thing I loved about this room was the blue panels adorning the walls behind the headboards.
They look like blue pieces of wood with white wood grain showing through, but are actually blue panels painted on the wall with faux wood grain hand-painted over the top in white.
The bathroom off of the kids' room also had a mirror hung in front of the window,
much like the bathroom in the guest house.
I loved the blue painted vanity too!
To be quite honest, the master bedroom didn't do much for me.
It was pretty, just not really my style.
I did, however, really like the blue and white striped rug (which you can't really see in the picture I took) from Dash and Albert and the antique dresser used next to the bed as a nightstand.
The master bath was stunning and featured heated floors,
which almost burnt my feet it was so hot!
The door separating the master bedroom and bath was a space-saving barn door on rollers.
If only I had a place that one of those would work in my house...
The basement consisted of two bathrooms, a fantastic laundry room, a media room, and a fitness room.
The first bathroom was simple, yet tastefully decorated.
I loved the hunk of wood hung above the sink as a display shelf.
It simply held a small collection of rocks and two paint-by-number pictures.
The second bathroom was decked out in wood paneling
as it held the dry sauna and an exquisite shower (which I did not take a picture of!)
Isn't that a great sink faucet though!?
I was absolutely in love with the laundry room...the color and style of the cabinets, the wide-mouthed jars holding clothes pins and laundry detergent, the plethora of storage and counters.
If I had this laundry room, I might actually be able to keep up with our mounds of laundry...
okay, probably not.
As you can see, Jacob had no problem making himself at home in the cozy media room.
A guy can dream, right?
But the very best part of the house was the location.
The views were breathtaking.
After we finished scoping out the Beach House,
we drove down to Ocean Shores and rented a moped.
We drove that little thing up and down the beach, not even caring that it was freezing cold and raining.
Eventually we started to feel hypothermia creeping in, so we had to call it a day.
It was a great getaway for us, but of course we missed our three wee ones back home.
Jacob drew their names in the sand and
we took a picture so that they would know we were thinking about them.
We are definitely going to have to make the trip to the ocean more often.
I love it there!
