Then and Now: Kitchen

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This is probably the room where we have done the most - and yet it is also the room that still needs the most too.

Here are 5 things we have done in the kitchen:

1. Wallpaper - gone. First I painted these walls red, then I didn't like that so we went with the same neutral we used through much of the rest of the house.

2. Lighting - there were very bright "UFO" lights in here before. It felt stark and cold even though it was very bright. Dee put in some new Tiffany-style lights and it adds a nice warmth.

3. Cabinet between the rooms - gone, to open the room up more. We ripped out a little more than intended here and now have no cupboard doors on one of our cabinets. Oh well, I want to replace them all eventually anyway, right? We needed the storage space that we took out, so we replaced it with an Ikea island that Dee LOVED putting together. :-)

4. Countertops - I mean really, purple laminate?? Seriously? It did match the wallpaper nicely though, I must say. So, here is the deal with countertops: they would not be that expensive to replace. Problem is, I want to also replace the cabinets and they WOULD be expensive to replace, and we don't want to put countertops we want to keep on cabinets we don't - so, I painted them. This was pretty much a fail. I mean, it does look better colorwise but the paint is peeling up and looks awful. I researched online how to do this right with a faux painting technique, but it just didn't work out how I wanted. So while I do think it looks better, it is far from the look I really want. Live and learn. When we can afford to, I think we'll go for cheap countertops (I have priced these and we can do it for around $250) that we won't mind getting rid of when we replace the cabinets in hopefully a few years.

5. Okay, so we really only did 4 things in the kitchen. They were just big things! Other than the things I mentioned above, we also really need to replace our appliances in here when we can.