Home Improvement: Kitchen
The kitchen was one of the only rooms in our house that needed a complete over hall. It was a mess full of yellow and burgandy colored tiles, horrible wood cabinets,an old chambers stove, detachable dish washer, the list can go on and on.
The stove I actually loved, but it didn’t have a lot space inside and would have made it difficult for cooking so it had to go along with pretty much everything else.
Here are a couple of the before shots of the space:
We closed on our house Memorial Day 2007 and didn’t move into January 2008 when this kitchen was in workable condition. Removing that tile was torture. It was cemented into the walls, which meant a lot of the walls came with it.
The kitchen eventually started coming together and the cabinets got hung, (I would have preferred to the ceiling, but hubby disagreed and marriage is a compromise…blah blah blah), the new appliances arrived and I got my farm sink!
I wanted a beautiful glass tile backsplash of course, but with Ann Sacks taste and a Home Depot budget that wasn’t going to happen right away.
Now enter 2009 and the kitchen still had no backsplash, I wanted to repaint the walls to a white/beige and paint the floors! I begged, begged and begged some more and finally with my birthday coming up my hubby gave in!
The tile of my dreams was still out of the question, but I was able to find Subway tile for 24 cents a piece at Home Depot so this little weekend project come up to around $150 for the adhesive, tiles, spacers and grout.
Here is what the kitchen looked like before we added the grout. I would have loved to have used dark grout, but Jon felt better about doing it white. It didn’t matter that much to me so we went with white:
Jon’s not happy that this project took a bit longer than expected. He/we were working on it Saturday afternoon, all of Sunday, and Monday evening. Plus he wasn’t too happy that I was snapping pictures of his crazy hair. Ha ha.
Here it is finished product with the white grout. I spent the majority of the day yesterday putting the kitchen back together and whipping up some snacks because my hubby thought it would fun to invite guests over when most of my kitchen supplies were residing in the dining room. Ah fun times.
Here is the corner where the old stove and dishwasher resided. We moved the dishwasher to next to the sink and added more cabinets and counterspace.
Close up of the tile:
So we are now almost finished (famous last words). Next step is to paint the walls a lighter shade in the white/beige family and then take the green that is now on the walls and paint the floors that color.
Here are my offensive wood floors:
Bear got a little angry when he was in his puppy stage and started to kibble and scratch at the floor.
So of course I now need to ask for advice. What color do you recommend I paint my walls? I love color so I haven’t really worked with a lot of light shades in the past. I need help!
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My living room is one of the rooms that evolved drastically from when we first moved one. Originally I painted the walls chocolate brown and did accents of white, blue and orange. That lasted maybe 2 years.
Our dining room sat empty for months. Okay maybe it was empty for just a handful of weeks and then we couldn’t take it anymore and put in a folding table and plastic outdoor chairs, but in my mind that was still empty.
On the main floor of our house we have a Florida room. Being that it’s a Florida room it is a considered a 3 season room, because there is no heat in the room. The previous owners used it as an indoor patio with outdoor furniture and it looked like this when we moved in.
I have serious kitchen envy! Thanks for putting the good life for less in your blogroll, btw! I’ll make sure the favor is returned!
The kitchen is really coming along! I love your blog and I’m very inspired and admire your sense of ambition. I’m sure you will become very successful. I also hope to break into the design field in the next few years after I finish school. Good Luck! hope all goes well in your ventures.
how about staining the floors a dark ebony or chocolate color? or whitewash?
Pottery Barn has some neat colors in the swatch book.
your kitchen is awesome! i can’t wait to see the floors painted that green color, so pretty. as for what to the paint the walls, that’s a difficult question. have you thought about a light gray or would that be too modern? good luck!
Camila, it looks fantastic! What a trasnformation! What did you use for your countertops? The backsplash looks so good.
wow, your kitchen is BEAUTIFUL! I can’t wait to see what it looks like after you paint the floor!
You backsplash came out beautiful! I love how it looks with the dark countertops, everything looks so pulled together and wonderful!!
Since the major things in your kitchen are pretty basic in color, like the cabinets and countertops and now the tile, I think any color you pick will look great! Since you like color, try something different and daring- make your portfolio stand out with something fun.
Cant wait to see the floors painted!
Oh…I don’t know! I looove your walls the jadeite green – maybe you SHOULD just ebonize the floors, finishing them up with some seriously glossy lacquer???
Hate for you to do double-duty on the work when you already have a color you love on one surface…
Holy cow, it looks AMAZING!! I cannot wait to see what it looks like after the floor is painted!
Thanks for leaving such a sweet comment on my blog today too! 🙂
OH MY GOSH I LOVE IT!!!!!!! it's so pretty camila!! love your sink & jon did a great job with the tiles!!!
hmm… for the walls I feel like you can pretty much do anything?!! Maybe do the floors first & see what you think it needs… ah i'm no hlep!! but you're amazing & i know it's going to be grogeous!!!
you kitchen looks soooooo good!!
Oh my goodness, it looks great!!!! Love the subway tile!!
holy smokes, i have had no time to comment on anyone’s blog lately, but this is quite a transformation! You ROCKED this one out!! I LOVE it. I would do a shade of grey on the walls.
xx
Kara
Looks like you married the right guy! As for the color, I love the Benjamin Moore colors, some of the historic colors are nice, love to see the floors with a pale grey or even – “camouflage” – Cream of course always looks rich, lancaster White wash is nice too.
Great kitchen.
pve
This is a really random question, but what kind of dog is your dog? We have one that looks very similar and we don’t know what she is? Love your kitchen by the way! 🙂
Oh – perhaps another option – I 2nd keeping the color of the walls and going dark on the floors.
Your kitchen is fabulous! When I was young our kitchen had a painted gray floor. It was great!
Tiny things didn’t show up and it was so easy to keep clean, and the color went with about everything.
Hi Everyone,
So happy that everyone likes it! Yay! I think I’m set on painting the floor green. I think it will make a great impact. As for the wall color I’m leaning towards a white/gray shade.
The countertops are from IKEA. I wanted soapstone or in my dreams Marble, but it was out of our budget. So they are formica and only cost us $300 for all of it. We’ll upgrade it later on if we stay in this house.
Alice as for your pup question. We got Bear a little over a year ago. He was my birthday gift! A local shelter was having an adoptathon and that is where we found him. From what they told us he is part german shepard and part rottweiler. Hope that helps!
Oh now I’m thinking maybe I should leave the wallcolor and do gray floors.
That was another option I had and the one Jon liked the best.
Decisions, decisions.
oh my, it looks terrific! love the tile.
It looks amazing!!!! I am so jealous right now. Can’t wait to see the floor.
I love it!!!! It is beautiful!
LOVE the farmhouse style sink…someday I’ll have one in my dream kitchen!
I love dark floors personally…as for walls…hmmm…
GORGEOUS trasnformation though!
It looks SO good! You have a great hubby one your hands, he totally deserves an extra big smooch for that job. If only mine was so handy…
Oh, your kitchen is beautiful! You did such an amazing job. Can’t wait to hear what color you choose.
i don’t have a color recommendation for you, but the tile looks great!
Wow, what a transformation! And you did this yourselves? I’m truly impressed. I love your farmhouse sink and the tile looks fantastic. Can’t wait to see the floor!
I would like to see some pictures of the painted wooden floors as promised…before i (hand motion) squash your dreams…
Your kitchen is so fab! I really love it! The subway tile is a fantastic addition!
I love the subway tile!! So bright, so pretty & so cooking friendly! Have so much fun enjoying that new kitchen!
I can’t believe the difference – it looks wonderful. Love the tiling, xv.
it looks sooo good! really!
what did you do with that Chambers stove?? did it work??
GORGEOUS!! I love the transformation, C!
I could see Grant Beige (it's such a great neutral) on the walls or a greyer color like BM Revere Pewter.
While I like the bold idea of painting the floors that great turquoise color, I think grey floors or dark chocolate floors would really make the cabinets & that lovely hardware pop!
GREAT before and after! I really like those cabinets….where are they from? The jadeite knobs really are stunning!
I am a random blogstalker and i have some questions for you about your kitchen… do you mind sending me your email address?!
The kitchen looks terrific. Love the subway tiles.
kitchen looks awesome but what did u do w/ the old stove? i love ur old stove!!
Beautiful what you’ve done. As for the colour, I would want to know what kind of colours you have in the living room for example, that is one place to look to create flow. If you just want a light colour then you need to pick an undertone? Yellow, pink or green? Or do you want a ‘fresh and clean colour’ in a pale tone. Give me some idea and I would be happy to give you my two cents!!
I’m so happy everyone is loving the kitchen.
Now to answer some questions.
The chambers stove does work! It is currently in my gargage. We tried selling it a while back, but got no offers. So it’s just hanging out. I dream of having a home store some day and I think I could always use it as a prop/display piece in the shop.
The cabinets are from IKEA! Amazing product and it all come up to around 2,800 not bad for a kitchen remodel.
Keep the questions coming. I love to help!
Oops sorry I’m so delayed on my colour suggestions but based on your living room (which is the first place I’d look for colour inspiration so that the colour of the kitchen actually comes from somewhere in your house, rather than just pulled from the sky) I would suggest a blue to pick up on the accents from your living room (I would stay away from painting your floor such a minty green colour–could be that it just looks that way from the photo) HC-147 Woodlawn blue, or I would pick a lighter beigy/brown shade to pick up from your living room like hc-45 Shaker beige.
Well there are my 2 cents sorry I’m so delayed! Let me know if you have any other questions.
i am so behind on my blog commenting!! love the tile, sink, faucet, counters…and i so wish the stove would have worked out for you!! you should keep it and make it work in a future home..you could always add a wall oven to help accomodate the cooking.
there are many practical inexpensive solutions to renovate a home. lately, i have been recommending diy kits to my clients. A few good ones i have come across are these because they really work
I am in serious kitchen envy right now. It gives me hope to look at your kitchen and see the finish results against your budget. I am now looking forward to the day when we can walk into a brand new kitchen, which hopefully is very soon in the future.
BTW, love the subway tiles you had chosen. I'm a fan of classic. Glass tiles are definitely beautiful, but timeless classic beats it any day. Thanks for the inspiration.
I once had my kitchen renovated and redesigned since it looked decaying unfit for food preparation. That is why I had a DIY project to push me and my friends to our creative limits. But in the case of windows, I had ours with the help of our local vinyl replacement windows (Minneapolis based installers), since it is pretty risky to handle it on our own and we're afraid that it might blow off when we did it ourselves.
After replacing the windows in St. Paul, we bought ourselves a fine countertop and cabinets that works perfectly to prepare and dine in. Days later, our kitchen looks presentable and remarkable!