So, it has taken me awhile, but I finally have pictures for you of my kitchen makeover! I have debated waiting until I get our new bar stools, but I just found out they won’t be in until June … and who wants to wait until June? I am also really wanting to get two new pendants for over the island … but that is a future project and I still haven’t decided on the ones I want yet. (More on that later.)
Anyway, let’s start with a before picture. Here’s a picture I shared on my blog before.
Our kitchen is a great size and the cabinets are well made. We’ve got neutral granite counter tops and an ivory subway tile back splash. My problem has always been the color of the cabinets. It is just too much brown with the dark hardwood floors. And on sunny days, they took on a reddish hue that I wasn’t fond of.
Yes, everyone loves white kitchens these days and I’m no exception! So we decided to have our cabinets painted white. Benjamin Moore’s White Dove to be exact. I do like having the island a different color, so that was painted Benjamin Moore’s Stone Harbor Gray.
Ready for the after?
I am in love! Even on dark days, it feels so much brighter and cheerier. We had the majority of it done while we were on Spring Break. The painters we used came in, removed all the doors and then sanded, primed and painted the base cabinets on site. (It took four coats!) The doors were sprayed off-site and then reinstalled.
You might notice I also changed out my cabinet hardware. I have mentioned it before but I love, love, love the look of antique brass. I always thought it would be a great way to warm up a white kitchen and I had collected enough inspiration photos to know that I was drawn to the look.
Brass hardware will also go well with the pendant lights I am looking at for over the island. Something like these from Circa Lighting …
Or maybe more industrial like these from Barn Door Electric.
I wanted to work with the existing hardware holes, so that helped to narrow down my choices a bit. I needed pulls with a 3 inch center-to-center measurement. So I selected these antique brass cup pulls and glass and brass knobs by Emtek. As opposed to regular lacquered brass, these have a nice patina that I really like.
But wait … there’s more! Remember our breakfast room?
It got a little update too!
I have always wanted to do plank walls somewhere in our house and when I came across a company called Stikwood that creates ready made planks out of reclaimed wood, I just knew it was meant to be.
We went with the Reclaimed Weathered Wood in Gray … but there are a variety of finishes and each plank comes ready with adhesive strips along the back for easy application.
At first, I was a little concerned about how well they would actually stick to the wall … I don’t want them falling off after a few months or years, but the Stikwood website says that it is meant to be a permanent solution and the planks will not remove easily once applied.
I love that each piece is unique and you can even see the old nail holes in some of them.
The website also helps you determine how much to order based on your measurements. Once my shipment arrived I had Klaude come and install. (Many of my clients know Klaude, painter/handyman/do-it-all extraordinaire!)
I really love how this natural element helps to create a flow between indoors and out. It’s given this nook a cozy organic feel.
What do you think? Do you have a kitchen that needs a little makeover? If the bones of it are good, you don’t necessarily need to rip everything out to get the feel of a whole new kitchen. This makeover only involved paint, hardware and a new wall treatment! But I am definitely feeling like I have a new kitchen!
Sadly, the completion of this project was very bittersweet for me as just 2 days before it was all finished, we lost my sweet cat Leo, who would have been 15 years old in June.
You may remember him from this picture I posted a while ago …
He was such a loveable little guy and I still miss him everyday.
And so does his brother Luke …
(This was them awaiting the arrival of Kyle over 10 years ago!)
Leo used to hang out in the kitchen with us all the time … in fact, he spent his last afternoon laying under the kitchen table watching Klaude put up the new plank walls. I like to think he would approve of the new look.
And these tulips are in honor of him. (He loved tulips … so much so that he would bite the heads off each and every stem whenever I bought them.)
I know he is running through a giant field of tulips now watching down on us.
We miss you Leo!
