Kitchen Vol 1

Before we could add new flooring, we had to  decide on what to do with the kitchen.

This is what it looked like when we did our final walk through.

It is an amazing size. Which is important to me because I love to cook and entertain. When we first saw this kitchen it did not excite me. I did not like the placement of the sink and left handed dishwasher placement. (sorry lefties)

I knew immediately that we would eventually put in an Island. The space was just screaming out for one.

I labelled it "fantasy island" because it wasn't going to happen for a little while, so it was just hanging out on my wish list.

We decided to keep the cabinets and just refinish them. We cleaned, sanded, accetoned, primed and painted. It was long and involved but they turned out great! I chose BM White Dove, Its a warm white but still very crisp.

We sprayed the bases first then the doors separately in our unfinished basement. While the sprayer was out we pulled every last door out of the house and gave each of them a couple of coats of fresh paint. Its amazing how grimy they can get.

We taped off the already painted kitchen. Which is a classic and a favorite warm grey, BM Revere Pewter.

We lived without doors for several weeks, Winter was slowing down our paint drying time. I kind of got used to seeing all my junk, and the plus side was that I could see where I had put everything.

Floors came next. We removed the old vinyl floor and began the search for flooring.

 I wanted a mid toned cool color

that wasn't too trendy but something interesting.

Not too dark, not too light, not too rustic, not too shiny, not too busy, I sound like Goldilocks!

We also decided on laminate Vs hardwood simply because we have a young family and I didn't want to be too precious about every minor scratch and scrape. Someday I wood love to do wood! Meanwhile the laminate has been really great.

We chose African Ironwood from Lumber Liquidators. It was easy to install, thanks to my husband and father in law, but tricky not to repeat the same planks. The variation made it more challenging.

So dusty but its coming along.

We painted all the shelves and drawers too.

Waiting for shelves to go in. We purchased our appliances at Home Depot during their Black Friday sale in November, They were not delivered until March! Luckily we hadn't tossed the old ones yet so for a little while we used those.

Finally we got the cabinet doors up and new appliances in. If you look closely I have mapped out where "Fantasy Island" will go in blue tape.

As you can see I have enough room to host "Dancing with the stars"

A side by side