This is what our kitchen looked like when we moved in, November 2008:
It's a nice big kitchen, but it was pretty ugly! See the ugly cabinets with the PINK counter top and back splash?? Pink?
We both like the knotty pine walls in the eat-in area. Since they aren't easily replaceable, we decided to leave those walls alone and work around them.
The floor is laminate and is a light gray in color. The floors were in surprisingly good shape when we moved in (and they still look good 3 years later!) so we decided to leave the floor alone for now.
The house came with a refrigerator, an old oven/stove and a dishwasher.
The dishwasher never worked at all, so Tim replaced it with a stainless steel GE dishwasher, which I love.
I assumed the oven and the refrigerator would both stop working and would need to be replaced also. Just my luck, the refrigerator AND the oven are both going strong. We will most likely replace them both before they stop working, I'm tired looking at them and ready to finish my kitchen remodel.
When we moved in, I was anxious to do something with the ugly kitchen, so I began thinking about painting the cabinets. I thought painting them black would look classy. Since the kitchen is so big, I thought it might work.
I continued on with the black trim from the living room into the kitchen. The black trim really looks good with the knotty pine walls.
I went for it and I painted the cabinets a semi-gloss black, so they would be easy to keep clean, and Tim and I both love the end result.
Here is the kitchen as it looks these days. I can't get the lighting to reflect how it really looks, but here are several different pics with different lighting taken at different times of the day.
The kitchen looks quite yellow in this picture. Believe me, there is nothing yellow about this kitchen. It must be the florescent lighting playing tricks.
The back wall is painted gray.
We added plain silver hardware to the cabinets. Tim picked out and installed a dark gray counter top, a black double sink and a new faucet.
The back splash is made of metal or tin. Close-up of the back splash:
Well, kind of a close-up. When I make this picture bigger, it becomes distorted. Sorry! I have a lot to learn about photography, lighting, re-sizing, etc... Please bear with me
We rarely eat at this table, the plants have now taken over. It's the brightest room in the house and the plants love it here. (The short plant on the right is fake, but the other 3 are tropicals)
Now for the Kitchen wish list:
1. Of course I can't wait for the day we go shopping for a stainless steel refrigerator and stove. I'm not sure which one I will be more excited about, a new stove or a new refrigerator.
2. I would like to bring a splash of color to the kitchen, but I'm just not sure where to go with it. I have brought in a bit of turquoise and I can't decide if I want to continue on with the turquoise or switch to something like maroon or rusty red. Decisions, decisions!
3. I would like to add a back splash of some type to the wall behind the stove. Maybe some tile work would look good there.
4. We need under the counter lighting and a light over the sink. We also need a new light fixture in the kitchen area.
5. I have the long black curtains over the 2 bigger windows. I still need curtains for the window over the sink, and also for the small window in the door to the back porch.
6. I want to paint the table and chairs black. Yes, more black. The table really looks better with the black tablecloth on the table. When I take it off, there is too much wood with the knotty pine walls being almost the same color as the table. Rather than deal with the tablecloth, which picks up lint and dog hair like crazy, I am really considering trying to paint the table.
The worst that can happen? We will hate it and we'll have to go out and buy a new table. We got this one at an estate sale for about $20.00 so it won't be a huge loss if I end up ruining the table. I'm willing to take the chance.
This is a picture of the table I want to paint:
I'll post more about the kitchen updates as we get to them. I am anxious to finish this room and move on to other rooms in the house that need attention.
*** UPDATE: We got a new fridge! Check out this post.
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