Kitchen Progress

After looking at The Lettered Cottage, and having lived with mauve floral wallpaper border for as long as I could stand it, I decided I would give our kitchen a temporary makeover until we could take care of the real thing. It was going to be easy: Wallpaper removal and new paint.

And then Jake came home from work early.

You see, our future plans didn't have the furdown/soffit. And it included open shelving, and more of the chimney being exposed. Jake said he could take the cabinets down pretty easily. Well, the soffit was in the way. Curiosity got the best of us, and I gave Jake permission to knock a hole in the furdown/soffit to see what was behind it. It could only be big enough that we could easily patch over it. Well....one hole wasn't big enough. So he made two...and then it all came down.

And it was so spontaneous, we hadn't covered anything. Demo of any size is messy.

The thing is, drywall was only below the cabinets. The rest was really, really old plaster board. So after a lot of youtube videos, we took on the drywall. We ended up doing a pretty good job for first timers. We have one bubble on a piece of tape, but something covers it anyway.

It was finally time to pull out the paint. Everything I'd seen of the color was great...until I put it on the cabinets. Country blue, anyone? I mean, I should have left the mauve wallpaper and the complete set of mid-80's cabinets. I decided to give it a while to see if it grew on me. It didn't. I ended up going with Flagstone, rather than Marina Gray - both by Benjamin Moore.

I love the white, though. It's White Dove by BM. It's the perfect creamy white, not too pink or yellow.
This is what the rest of our house looked like. Are you wondering about the light fixture in the dining room? Yes, it is an old turbine. Jake and I went to a newer furniture store when they were having a super sweet sale. We had no idea how expensive everything was going to be (the pieces are amazing, completely worth it), after being in decorating heaven and talking to one of the coolest collective staffs ever, we were on our way out, and I saw this. And then I looked at the tag and saw the red spot that meant 75% off. It was our first official purchase for Dot. The lighting is so soft and warm, it's like candle light, and the pattern on the wall coming through the turbine...perfect.

We have the walls painted as well as the cabinets, but we were awaiting the arrival of our shelves that Vaughn took to his shop and had finished for us.

New shelves. They are perfect.

And here, in all of the bad lighting is pretty much where we're at today, technically the day before yesterday.

We still need trim around the top of the cabinets as well as new paint on the ceiling (which will eventually be covered in bead board - you know, when we really re-do the kitchen). Please ignore the floor. I want to find some super cheap vinyl faux wood flooring to get us by, even though not totally necessary, it would just bring in some warmth. Every room needs some "natural" element. Oh, and we couldn't get our stove to go back all the way, so it's sticking out too far. It's not abnormally large or anything. And I've been thinking about painting the uppers gray, too. But I probably won't. But I like the new gray, a lot...I think the flooring just keeps throwing me for a loop.


PS: Isn't this a friendly pair?

Edwin and Regina.

I'd posted a picture of Regina, and our friend Tammy saw it and told Tracey that her mom had one just like it. And then she said we could have it. While they're not identical, I really like them for their differences. I think one of the great tragedies of good design came about in the form of matching furniture sets. Sure, they're easy (dot. dot. dot.), but they end up being much less interesting.

(I love their low profile and transparent nature.)

Thanks Dorothy and Tammy!

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