If you follow me on Instagram, you may know that we are right in the middle of doing some kitchen updates right now. It hasn’t gone quite as smoothly as I was hoping but I am still very excited to see the finished results. Before I get to showing you some of the updates, I figured that I should show you what the kitchen actually looked like before. In all of the years of blogging, I don’t think I have ever really shown full pictures of the kitchen so here you go….
I loved the uniqueness of the cabinet finishing when we first moved into the house twelve years ago but I cannot wait to see it go!
We have talked about installing drawer pulls and door knobs ever since we moved in but never actually got around to installing them.
Our small, super awkward pantry leads out to the dining room.
And the other side of the kitchen looks out onto our eating area and great room.
And there is our current, soon to be transformed, kitchen! I can’t wait to show you the after shots!
So here is what we are doing:
Painting the Cabinets – While I have read many DIY posts for painting kitchen cabinets, this will not be one of them! It took me about a month to paint our master bathroom cabinets so, realistically, this is just not something that I wanted to take on. We will be getting painters in and having the cabinet fronts sprayed with Benjamin Moore Simply White.
New Countertops – I spent FOR.EVER picking out our countertops. Durability and ease of use was our primary concern with the counters, so we ended up going with quartz. After many, many samples I finally picked my dream counter top only to have the WRONG countertop installed. 🙁 Due to financial issues, we ended up having to stay with that countertop so I am hoping that I am not disappointed in the end.
New Sink – I had originally wanted a farmhouse sink but, since we upgraded to the quartz countertops, my farmhouse sink budget was cut.
Tiled Backsplash – We will be tiling the wall behind the stove as well as the wall where the windows are. We are also going to be framing out the windows with thicker trim and losing the curtain toppers. We ended up going with the same marble subway tiles that I used in the laundry room.
And lastly, I did a huge kitchen purge and re-organization. Honestly, I thought that I had organized the kitchen quite well and had purged what I needed, but I was still able to get rid of a ton of stuff. It took me a whole week to complete, but I went through every single item that went back into that kitchen! There is still probably another week to go until everything in the kitchen is finished up. I can’t wait to show you!
I shared this post at Tip Junkie.
I am so so sorry about your counter tops. I had something similar happen…it was a problem with the install tho, rather than the counter itself. I should have been more insistent with the company and had them replace it but I didn’t. 3 years later I paid to have them replaced ( by another company). I had granite put in the second time and I am sorry about that since I had corian with an integrated sink the first time and loved them. But I like the granite too so all is well. Hopefully you will love the counters you have as well!
Everything always seems to work out in the end! I am actually really liking the “wrong” countertops now and they tie in really nicely with our tile. Thanks so much for dropping in! 🙂
Sounds like you have made some stunning choices! I can’t wait to see it Jenn:)
Hi – Your kitchen looks great! I too have been going back and forth on painting the cabinets. May I ask how much the paint quote was? I’ve had everything quoted to me from $2-10k! Also, did you have five coas painted purely to cover the wood grain? Does it not look nice with the wood grain showing through? And finally – did you paint the insides of the cabinets? Again I’ve had differing professional opinions on this, mainly saying with pulling plates and cups in and out that the painted insides will wear away faster. I struggle though thinking it would be awkward to open the cabinets and it be blond/oak coloreded inside. What did you do? Thanks so much!!
I don’t actually have a cost breakdown of the painting as there were other things that were done that were all looped into the quote. I would estimate closer to the 2-3K. They are painted on both sides of the cabinets – I can’t really see them wearing away that much on the inside and think that there would actually be more wear on the outside. The 5 coats was more for durability and due to the type of paint they used but I do like the look better than with the wood grain showing through with the rest of the kitchen design. That being said, I painted our bathroom cabinets with 3 coats and the wood grain shows through there but it is more of a shabby chic look so I guess it partially depends on what look you are going for. Hope that helps!
Where did you get your white dishes? They are exactly what I’m looking for. 🙂
I got them at Kohls a number of years ago. They’ve held up great!