Kitchen Mini Makeover: Phase I

I really wish that we had been able to document our expressions when we walked through the door of 932 for the first time.  After seeing nearly every home in our price range within a certain area, and having decided to pull out of a contract that was getting more messy by the day, this house made our eyes pop.  I loved everything about it.  Well, almost everything.  I wasn't entirely thrilled that it only had one bathroom and that that bathroom didn't have a clawfoot tub.  But, more importantly, I was not thrilled with the kitchen.  Granted, compared to the kitchens in the other homes we walked through, this kitchen was awe-inspiring.  Still, I was not awed. 

So, when we bought the house, we did so knowing that a kitchen renovation was lurking around a distant corner.  I resigned myself to dealing with the kitchen, entirely as was, until we could save enough to tackle a big kitchen project.  In other words, I planned hating our kitchen for years. 

But, one day, I stumbled upon a blog called The Hunted Interior by Kristin Jackson.  She had given her kitchen a $100 makeover.  Here are the results:

 

Kristin simply added campaign style hardware to her existing cabinets and, voila.  Isn't it beautiful?  Of course, she also added the chalkboard wall, painted her top cabinets, and added that thrift-store-bowl-turned-pendant-light.

For obvious reasons, I was inspired.  So, I thought I would invite you to check out our kitchen mini-makeover. 

The first step was painting the kitchen.  Because we plan to eventually knock out the wall dividing the kitchen and dining room to create a breakfast bar, I had decided that painting the kitchen was a waste of time and money.  But, as I have begun to realize how long it will be before we are able to take on such a project, painting was the obvious first step.

When we moved in, the entire house was varying shades of cream and white.  The kitchen was no exception.  I'm not sure that we ever included photos of the kitchen, so here are a few from painting day.  Obviously, they were taken rather haphazardly.  I'm still not sure how the vacuum made it into every shot.

After living in the kitchen for the last 5 months, I found that bringing green into the kitchen made it feel less drab, move alive.  I decided to use a sage green, and landed on Spanish Moss by the Martha Stewart Living color line at Home Depot.  So many thanks to my mom for her help.  She not only helped paint the kitchen, but is helping me take on the trim throughout the whole house.  She's awesome.  Here is a glimpse of what the painted kitchen looks like.

Depending on the lighting, I'm finding that the color's bright tones come out and overwhelm the muted tones associated with a sage hue.

If I were to give one piece of advice regarding freshening up a house or a room, it would be to slap on a fresh coat of paint.  I cannot believe the difference that a simple coat of paint has made in the kitchen. 

So, what's next? 

     -- New hardware.  (Handles for the cabinet doors are on their way.  I'm exploring options for          drawer pulls.)

     -- Putting flat corner braces on all 14 doors and 4 drawers to create a campaign style feel.  (Just like Kristen from The Hunted Interior did.)

     -- New light fixture.  

     -- Make faux Roman shades for the windows.  I'm keeping a lookout for fun fabric.

     -- Tear up the awful vinyl floor and find out if the underlying wood floor can be refinished.  If so, we will refinish it.  If not, installing a budget friendly, but more attractive floor.

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading!