Home Tour // A Peek into my Kitchen
I think we are coming up to almost a year now since we had our kitchen painted.
When we moved in to this house the kitchen was some pale and awful shade of yellow. I am not a yellow person, not a fan, yuck, didn’t like it – but when we moved in I was just days away from my due date with Valentina. Painting the kitchen wasn’t high on the priority list, ya know.
And then suddenly three years went by and we welcomed another baby into the family and there were other projects to be done but man I did not like that kitchen color – plus, I am the one who cooks so a lot of time is spent by me in that room.
Blah.
It was a year ago this past November that I was starting to notice the yellow kitchen walls turning a smoky color. I don’t burn candles. I also noticed a lot of my oven safe dishes were all coated in a black film when I took them from the oven. What the heck – I didn’t understand what was going on. I made a call to the propane company to see if they could come out and see if there was a leek in our tank or a bad connection to our stove. We have our own propane tank – we do not have city gas service to our home.
The guy came right away – the same day in fact and said our oven wasn’t burning right. He took several parts of the oven apart to have a look and cleaned up a lot of the soot that had been coming from the oven. He advised me to call a appliance repair shop to replace the broken fitting and not to use the oven until after that! It was almost like a slow carbon monoxide leek. Say what!
The appliance place came right out the next day – just days before Thanksgiving when I would be cooking the feast of all feasts. We were back up and running but now my kitchen looked like it had fire damage from the smoke and soot. The yellow was grey and impossible to clean off with any kind of product. The white ceiling was a horrible mess especially over the stove. The kitchen needed a fresh coat of paint ASAP.
We called a claim into our homeowners insurance and called a painter. We had a great recommendation to call on Michael Kramer who was a very highly detailed painter. I showed him the color I had in mind and we agreed it would lighten up the space – I have dark cabinets (another project) light floors and counters. I chose Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter. Our kitchen opens up to the rest of our first floor including the dining room and living room which are wide open floor plans. I wanted something to compliment the wall color in those room which is a very light blue/grey.
A light gray with warm undertones, this classic shade creates a unifying look that calms and restores. A great transitional color, it’s perfect for an open floor plan.
He was also going to repaint the ceiling and door trim, which are all bright white. As soon as he had the first coat of paint on it immediately changed the entire look of the space. So bright and light especially against the dark cabinets.
Our kitchen isn’t gigantic but is a decent size space and took him almost a week to complete. There is no way my husband and I could have tackled this project as a DIY with the kids.
I couldn’t stop at the paint, I had to update the lights too. We had recessed lights all around the perimeter of the kitchen, but I upgraded them to LED with new cans. The previous cans had that smoke grey look and were just gross. The LED has been great for chopping and prep – super bright.
The center light was one of the what I call “boob” lights. Gross and never provided much light so we never turned it on. I wanted a light to be more of a chandelier and a satin nickel finish to compliment the grey and other stainless/nickel we have in the kitchen. For example, that giant Electrolux refrigerator that I love to HATE.
I found this orb chandelier on Amazon WAY before they had them readily available at the big box store like Home Depot. This one was a perfect size for the kitchen and not too modern or too farmhouse.
I feel like my style is a mix of modern and farmhouse – if that makes sense! I love the way the paint and lighting updated the space for a really small budget. I’m still deciding on a light for over the sink – I’m not totally in love with the small pendant that hangs there now.
That pin-board hanging on the wall (my command center for the family) was black, but I painted it white, another quick and cheap update.
We only have one large window in the space – it had a roman shade installed from the previous owners – a twall print YUCK. I took that thing down which let all the light in and hung it in my laundry room (for now).
I had T.J. install a glass shelf right about where the windows meet in the middle. It reflects the light and I can put pots of herbs and other decor. Ordered it on Amazon because I could not find a piece of glass that size at any local hardware store.
This summer I hope to install a backsplash. I already have a tile in mind! And then I think that will conclude the kitchen update until I get enough courage to paint the cabinets white or dark grey!
I’d love to hear if you’ve ever painted kitchen cabinets. If you have any tips or tricks. I know it is a huge undertaking but I was thinking the summer might allow me more time without our insane school/activity schedule.
To be continued…
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