Kitchen Before and After

Oh, this kitchen...

It was the stuff of nightmares.  These pictures were taken after some of the demo was done.  You are not getting a true picture of the "before".  The center island was HUGE.  I love an island,  but this size of kitchen needs a small one!  There were also cream top cabinets that had ben "aged" by a novice so they just looked stained.

The counter tops had large Tuscan-style tiles.  Tuscan is great, but not in a 30's cottage!  You can see that the bottom cabinets didn't match the top ones.  Also, there was lots of tan.  Tan floor, tan walls, tan tiles...yuck!  Nothing popped except these mismatched light fixtures.

All of the appliances were out of date.  And let's not forget...the ceiling was painted to look like a sky.  I cannot make this up.

The first thing up was paint.  The right colors make such a difference.  The ceiling and trim is Summer Gray (which looks like a crisp white) and the walls are Sparkling Lake by Valspar.  We put a lot of our money in good flooring and had hardwood laid to match the rest of the house.  It is laid in the opposite direction to give it definition bu also because it was stronger laid against the joists.

We were on a budget so there would be no custom high end counter tops and cabinets for us.  I immediately turned to Ikea.  We live in a small town in Tennessee.  The closest Ikea is three and a half hours away in Atlanta.  I planned it all out on the computer and had my contractor go over it and remeasure and double check everything.  My husband and I drove to Atlanta and ordered everything with help in the store.  It took FOREVER and I had to make a few changes.  The Ikea people were very patient and  helpful.  It was almost like they'd done this before!

All of the cabinets, appliances, sink, and pulls came from Ikea.  They were delivered to our door in a huge truck.  It was awesome!  My contractor installed it.  He said that once they got the hang of it, they were really easy to do and were amazed with the quality for the price.  I wanted the white cabinets and simple stainless steel pulls because I love the clean unfussy look.  I went with black accents to make everything pop!

Just so you know...the curtains and the small wooden shelves were custom made from vendors on etsy.  The stools came from Wayfair.  The lighting over the sink is Ikea.  The lighting over the island and backsplach tile is from Lowe's.

The other wall was not pictured in the before because there was nothing to see.  It was just a plain tan wall.  I knew that I would be needing extra storage and did not want to buy a china cabinet.  I ordered a couple of extra cabinets and had them installed on this wall.  I love the built in look and it came out cheaper than a big china cabinet!

I realize now that I don't have an after picture of the other corner where our table sits.  I will add that!

Moral to the story: don't be afraid to try something new.  Ordering cabinets on my own from a new place and trying to pick everything that would go together was hard.  It took a lot of vision, some help, and lots of revising.  I feel so accomplished when I look at this kitchen!