Kitchen thoughts and pictures

So at long last I'm posting some pictures of the kitchen, even though it's not done yet! Here's the before picture of our lovely 1940's kitchen. This is actually a rather nice picture, the light was very good and it almost looks serene. However in real life, the floor was vomitous, and the yellow was dark and stained and almost flourescent in certain light. It had to go. I wanted bright and clean more then anything so we went with bright white paint on the walls and cabinets. We decided we wanted to keep the classic tile for now, though down the road we might actually remodel this room and if we do, there will be new countertops and cabinets. However...we may not. There's something charming to me about a grandma's kitchen.

Now here's the boys ripping out the ugly linoleum flooring. It acutally wasn't in that bad of shape, but it was just too ugly for words. We debated about putting in new linoleum in a slightly less offensive tone, but our friend who does tile talked us into the tile. Laying a floor is hard work! Of course I wasn't involved ;) DH did it with the help of his friends. But they did a really great job. I'm the painter in the family, so I did all the painting. DH did help me with some of the prep - sanding mostly. Painting a kitchen is a pain in the ass. I look forward to the rest of the rooms being easier by far.

The picture on the left is when the tile is almost done and the painting is half done. Then the picture on the right is current state, except i've finished the last of the cabinet handles. I couldn't find any new handles that I liked better then the original handles so I got metal cleaner and a toothbrush and cleaned off years of what I like to call "finger fudge". Ugh! They came out nicely though. I was left with a bit of a color conundrum because when all was said and done, the kitchen looked clean, yes - but almost hospital white. I went to buy floor mats and saw some dishtowels at Target that were white with yellow, green and brick red stripes. So we got those and red mats to match the red stripe. I think it turned out okay and as you know from previous posts, I'd like to make cushions for the chairs and perhaps new curtains to add some more color. I like these curtains from pottery barn:

I wonder if they'd match with the rugs? If not I could always get some neutral rugs like they have here. The possibilities are endless. The target rugs were cheap anyhow! There still is several little things to do. The pantry door is yet untouched, as is the pull out cutting board. I decided I want to paint the new kitchen/garage door, as it's the wrong white and looks almost blue agains the walls. And my mother in law says she has a pot rack that I can have. I need to go look at it to see if it will fit over the stove. That would open up a cupboard for my canning supplies from the garage! That would be nice. Ah the garage....we're tackling the garage next...or rather DH is. He has some plumbing and electrical stuff he wants to do in there, and we want to get a quote for a garage door. Plus then we want to build shelves and sheetrock most of the walls. A new window is important as well as the garage window is rotting!

I'll be helping with the garage of course, but my own next project is painting the living and dining room. We are going away to visit my parents this weekend, but when we come back I will start packing it up, taping and TSP'ing everything. Joy! Hopefully lovely before and after pictures of that area will grace this page soon.

Cheerio...