So, we're not quite up to "After" in the kitchen. "After" implies finished, right? But while there are still a fair number of little projects to go, everything is useable, brighter, and far removed from the Very Scary Between! Happy sigh.
You may (or may not) have notice that the cabinet handles changed from oil rubbled bronze to silver. Well, that was the DIY that didn't. Someone on the web mentioned spray painting her hardware, and I decided to give it a try since I wanted silver handles to go with my lighten-and-brighten goals. It doesn't look bad in pictures, thankfully, but in person they look very fake, feel a little funny, and the silver is slowly chipping off. DIY fail. But for $12 it was worth a try. It will do until I get fed up and save up enough to replace them.
On to happier topics. Look at those lights! I LOVE them. They don't take up visual space or endanger our foreheads, and the light goes up, down and all around! It makes such a difference, especially at night.
I also love this curtain fabric! It was the first purchase I made for the house after we closed, because it was just so perfect. (Good thing too, I can't find it anywhere now!) I like to have a mix of old and new. The rest of the house has history oozing from it's walls and woodwork and will probably get more modern fabrics and furnishings, but the kitchen already feels pretty modern. So I loved the stylized, almost colonial feel of the flower pattern, to bring in some "old".
But I also liked the modern color scheme. It ties in perfectly with the counter top, the teal flowers give me a starting point for the future island color, and it adds a hit of cheery yellow. I made the faux roman shade from the tutorial found here.
Ahh, those walls! So fresh, so smooth, so clean! The textured wallpaper I purchased for them, thinking that would be the only way to cover all the lumpy wallpaper remnants, turned out to be too thin and, ahem, cheap to use. (Hey, at least I didn't loose much moolah on it!) But the ladies who were going to hang it for me encouraged us to go ahead and smooth out the walls with some drywall mud and paint them. Since this was the look I really wanted, I was thrilled when my Hubby made it happen! (The mudding, not the painting. I tackled the paint with help from a wonderful friend.)
In the interests of honesty, I will hereby disclose that flowering greenery is a perfectly normal thing to see in our kitchen. Spotlessly clean and clutter free counters are not.
Projects still to be tackled include:
- putting handles on the drawers
- new silver handles for all the cabinets
- putting up some baseboard
- putting trim on the back of the island to cover the cabinet join
- painting the island
- getting stools for the island
We're getting there, but for now, everything is much brighter, cleaner and Me-er (I know, I know, it's not a word. But it should be.) Most importantly, the kitchen functions beautifully no matter how many cooks and helpers we have at work!
One more set of pictures, just for comparison. The Before:
And the After.
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