Overdue Kitchen 'Reveal'

I've shown you almost every room in my house over the past few years- even my embarrassing basement, but this is the first time I've actually taken real pictures of the kitchen. I showed you the kitchen way back when we moved in and installed the dishwasher, then 2 years later (hangs head in shame) when we got more new appliances.  Well, with the addition of a chevron rug, the room's actually feeling welcoming.  Not yet done, but very welcoming.  I'm even almost tempted to cook!  Almost.

It's shocking how much of a change 2 new appliances can have.

Flashing back to when we moved in, the kitchen was feeling a little cramped and dated.

We moved the fridge to a more logical nook across the room, added a dishwasher & extended the counter, and now the new appliances.

I bought the rug on a whim ($20 from HomeGoods) and it feels like it was made for that spot.  It's indoor-outdoor so it can stand up to kitchen messes.

The To Do list for the kitchen still includes

• Replace cabinets- although these look nice, they're barely functional
• Replace lighting and broken fan
• Paint- this color came with the house.  I like it, but want to tweak it a little and make it a bit mint-ier
• Install stainless vent hood
• Roman shade (or faux roman shade) on windows

That list doesn't seem that intimidating since it's pretty short, however replacing the cabinets will be no small feat- especially with our house's lack of level floors.  I'm itching for new cabinets (if you couldn't tell), but it'll have to wait at least until we sell our first flip house.  The flip kitchen can be my trial run for cabinet installation.  I'm itching to get started on that too- closing in a week and a half!!

Anyway, back to this kitchen.  What do you think??  I love how you can transform a room without major alterations.

2-Toning

I've got kitchens on the brain, have you noticed? Our propane tank is getting delivered TODAY and we'll be able to use our gas stove!

Even though we won't be doing anything about the cabinets for a while, a girl can dream, right?  And I am.  The issues I have with the current cabinets are:

• Poor quality-  falling apart drawers and cabinet boxes
• Useless soffit wasting 8" of usable space above the cabinets (covered with beautiful laminate)
• Dated door style on uppers (at least more traditional than my taste)
• Not a wood tone I would ever pick
• Inconsistent finishes- wood doors, veneer sides, & laminate boxes.  Makes perfect sense, no?

Hubby and I actually are partial to dark wood cabinets like this kitchen.  LOVE everything about this kitchen.

But our kitchen isn't spacious enough to pull it off sadly, and we aren't white kitchen people.  I love looking at pretty white kitchens, but it doesn't really fit us.  I've been drawn to beautiful 2 tone kitchens lately- dark on the bottom, but white on the top to brighten up the space.  I love this one so much, I pinned it twice apparently.

So I decided to have a bit of fun with photoshop and test out the theory on our kitchen.  I also tested a lone vent hood vs. cabinet with vent.

The lone vent hood doesn't float my boat as much as I thought it would.  Being that the stove is tucked in the corner, the room feels a little off balance without the cabinets.  It definitely makes a difference to have the cabinets reach all the way to the ceiling, though.  Any added storage in a small house is a definite plus.  I do like the 2-tone a lot, but again, Hubby's not convinced.  Silly boy, when will he decide to actually trust his designer wife?  Oh well, its a non-issue until we decide to do the cabinets.  I'm pulling for them this year, we'll see how good my convincing skills are.

What's your vote on the kitchen?

images: 1/2

Kitchen Love

I am solar powered.  This is the time of winter that always gets the best of me.  Especially when there's a cold going around our household- Hubby had it last week, now it's my turn.  Fuuuun. But I'm trying to stay motivated so I can have progress to show you. If you follow me on instagram, you probably saw... we have new appliances!!

A new fridge and a new stove are very pretty.  Yes, we need a new range hood still.  We're really excited with the change, although the stove will be MUCH prettier once it's working.  As I mentioned when we ordered the appliances, we're getting a propane tank hooked up to power our new gas stove in our gas-less house.  We have the plumbing, and the stove.... but the plumbing inspector needs to approve the pipes before the propane can be delivered and the stove can be hooked up...  and we're impatient... yay for a gas stove!!

I wanted to style the kitchen Sunday so I could take some good pics in the light to share, but I got a little side tracked and scrubbed every single surface in the room instead.  It had to be done.  After scrubbing, I did start to think about styling in the kitchen for the first time since we moved in. 2 years ago.  It's about time, don't you think?

I found the perfect tray at target to organize a few useful things on the countertop and I LOVE how it looks there.  Awkward corner no more!  Hubby's on the fence about it, but says he'll defer to my judgement.  That boy can be so smart sometimes.

I'm really excited to start using the new stove and to finish beautifying the room that I've been ignoring for 2 years!