My Kitchen.....

I snapped a few photos of my kitchen so I could study them and decide what I am going to do in this cottage transformation. I was going to wait and share them with you in the before and after segment of that transformation but I decided to share them now and get your imput. Should I paint them or not? Can you have a cottage kitchen with light colored oak cabinets? What do you think? I know for sure I want to change out my countertops to quartz but I'm still undecided about the cabinets. As I stated before, it's my biggest fear in all of this.



I do like the color of the paint on the wall. It is a soft sage green with a grey undertone. But....isn't there always a but? I like the warm neutral greys that are on the market today. One thing I have learned from past mistakes, painting mistakes that is, is to wait until I have picked out more of the big decorative items first. If I choose a countertop that has pink in it, a paint with green tones will not work, at least not for me. Another mistake I have learned from is how light affects the color of the paint. Last summer we went to Nashville to help some friends paint the house they had recently moved into. My friend, Cathy, made her paint choices and had them mixed. We took them back to the house and began painting. We each took a wall to paint. It was a grey rainy day and the paint she had chosen had a grey undertone. The wall I was working on recieved the least amount of light in the room. As I worked, I noticed the paint looked quite grey on that wall. When Cathy walked in she exclaimed in a rather loud voice "that paint is grey!". I knew the color looked more grey because of the light and tried to explain this to her but she would not be convinced so she mixed all the paints together, mind you, it was all the same color. I began painting the wall AGAIN, it still looked the same but when the sun came out and more light poured into the room, it looked like the color on the color swatch. Speaking of swatches; when the color swatch was held up to the wall, before she mixed the paint together, it matched perfectly; but it was her house and not mine so what's a little more paint rolling between friends.

Backsplash; I've never really liked this backsplash on the wall. I like the subway tile backsplash and will be using it, it certainly says cottage style to me. I also like the glass tiles that are out there but I think they are fad-ish and will look dated in 5-10 years. While I don't mind repainting in 5 years, I don't want to have to redo any big things to update. For me, subway tiles are classic. I like to have color in the kitchen so I won't be taking the backsplash up the entire wall. That always looks to heavy to me.

As you can see, I already have stainless steel appliances, I won't have to change those. Whew! wiping my brow with relief! That is a big expense. Also, the floors are already hardwood and I won't be changing those....another whew and swipe of the brow.


Here's another shot of the stainless steel appliances. If I could redo this stove I would not get a black topped stove. It's a real dust collector. I can wipe it and 2 minutes later it seem like it is dusty again. Yes, I do use it everyday, it's not just a dust collector but that black shows everything.

The microwave over the stove is wonderful; it has freed up my counter tops for other uses. There won't be any changes there even though I love those fancy cottage style hood vents, that microwave stays!

The knobs on the cabinets are brushed nickle. I won't ever get those again. They did not wear very well. There are so many choices on the market today just at Lowes or Home Depot, and there are also choices you can find on the internet. Gotta decide about painting those cabinets before I get as far as choosing cabient jewelry.



I love this bar. It's roomy enough for 6 barstools although we only have 4. I'm not sure if I will put quartz countertops on it or use butcher block. I love the idea of butcher block to break up the reflective surface that comes from a quartz or granite countertop but my Sweetie doesn't like the idea of butcher block. Who do you think will win? As is, this piece is not cottage style at all but with a little tweaking I hope it will at least blend in with my cottage goal. I will be adding some beadboard to the back part of the bar and change out the corbels to something more cottagey. If I don't end up painting the cabinets I will at least paint this. Maybe painting it will give me the courage to do the rest of the cabinetry. I can see this painted a cream color with the butcher block countertops and the beadboard. I'm getting excited about all of this.






Here's the front view of the bar. Plain Jane, isn't it? Those are a few of my plans. I know it is going to be a time consuming effort. I really want to do this on a shoe string budget. I hope I can pull it off. I will be doing a little at a time; with working a full time job, time is precious and I don't have a lot of it once I get home from work. Another reason for taking it slow is to pay everything as I go. Don't want any debt from this adventure.

Well, that's a look at my kitchen. If you have any ideas to share feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

~willa~