We don’t go on many dates, my kitchen and I, except every 7 years or so. In fact, she hasn’t gotten a makeover since we first moved in and gutted the whole thing. After my big bedroom makeover, I decided the kitchen was the best next project since its a fairly small room and not completely overwhelming.
She’s not too hideous, just a bit outdated. I painted her in what I thought to be a neutral color, although now it seems a little dinghy and yellow. I accented the room with purple and wine decor. I still love the basics of the room, but its seems dark and dated now. I won’t be gutting the kitchen again, but I do want to give her a little face lift and maybe a little nip-tuck here and there (aka getting rid of the junk in the trunk). lol!
First, as far as color scheme, I want a brighter, fresh room. Although white washed rooms are very in style now, I’m not willing to paint my newer cabinets that are in very good condition. Without going all white, I wanted to add color along with the white to help the color pop against the dark cabinets. The basic colors will be aqua, yellow, and white to compliment the blue/aqua-ish color in the adjoining dining room. Before picking the specific apint colors for the walls, I decided to find a fabric for the valence to match the walls against.
I wanted to pick a fabric for the valence over our one small window in the kitchen. Easier said than done, it was almost as rough as buying jeans! Ethan hung out with the girls on Sunday afternoon so I could shop uninterrupted, a rare treat for me. I went to Joann’s, Target, Kohls, and Pier One looking for fabric, table cloths, shower curtains, ANYTHING I could cut down and turn into a valence. Okay, so maybe I also went to Old Navy, but that was unrelated. ZERO LUCK (except at Old Navy, of course)!
Fortunately, Hobby Lobby is open on Mondays (not Sundays) and I found some great prints. I chose one for the valence and a couple others to frame – so excited about this part. Once I had the fabrics picked, I chose the paint colors with a little help from my friends.
Now all that is left is all the work plus some accessories! I guess even though my kitchen will be a cheap date, she will be a needy one. lol. This may be how Ethan feels with me.
Stay tuned for more kitchen progress, complete with all the post-date girl talk.
What to do you think? Any suggestions for my updated kitchen?
As Always, thanks for reading!
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With your cabinets your makeover should be easy since they pretty much steal the show already.
It’s always a good idea to pick fabrics first since it much easier to match paint to fabric than the other way around. Either aqua or a pretty yellow paint would look lovely with your gorgeous walnut colored cabinets. Are they maple?
Have you thought about building a shallow “hutch” of sorts for over the base cabinets? Because of the length of the area you could incorporate a bulletin/chalk board as a family message center with shelves on either side to store your spices. They are better off not stored so close to the heat of the stove/oven.
You could also store your spices and other small food items in one of those over the door shoes storage systems you talked about in another posting behind the pantry door.
ooo, great thinking! thanks for the ideas!!
You’re welcome Jocie. As mentioned before I’m obsessive about organizing and space management is a big part of that. Which is what made me think of a shallow hutch to get more use out of the large wall space over the base cabinets.
If your cabinets are maple you can find one/bys in maple at HoDe to build it.
Painting over wood can be scary, but there aren’t many cosmetic things that I know of that are permanent. If you did paint it to get the white-washed look and wanted to change it in a few years there are products you could use. Citristrip is a product I have had great results with in the past to remove layers upon layers of paint from furniture I was given or purchased from thrift stores.
Whatever you do do not paint that wood. I can’t stand when people paint such nice wood. Just a new wall color(im not sure what shade I still have white walls in my kitchen lol). So I’d have no idea what to suggest. Maybe add a sized suitable island with some stools. Not sure if you have the space for it but its nice to have.
Hey Jocie! I wanted to let you know that I love the new Better Half page! I also wanted to let you know that I awarded you with the One Lovely Blog and Very Inspiring Blogger Awards 🙂
http://www.themodernparsonage.com/?p=1803
Maybe you could spray paint all the knobs a super-bright color. That would brighten things up in a way that would be totally reversible for cheap sometime in the future if you wanted a change.