This weekend, Rich and I put the kitchen and breakfast room back together again. Oh sure, I still need to stain a few doorway saddles, and we've ordered 6- and 3-panel doors for the two closets that had flat doors (this way all the doors in the house will match). And yeah, I do still want to get new window treatments for the picture window (good thing Rich is in the biz!). But for the most part, we are DONE!
And it really looks phenomenal. So good, in fact, that I've been actually having my breakfast and coffee at the new table we got at Target (black, solid wood round pedestal table on sale!), rather than in front of the TODAY show. And we invited friends over on Sunday to celebrate, with a champagne toast and everything.
So now, allow me to dazzle you with before and after photos.
BEFORE: Above, you will notice the outdated brown cabinets (at this point, I'd already removed upper cabinet doors to prep them for painting), an old fridge that stuck out far beyond the cabinets, and an old stove that had combusted while I was making a 3-burner sausage, sauce and pasta meal.
AFTER: New floors, painted cabinetry and new hardware, a new beadboard window opening and pendant fixture where an old, laminate-covered soffit used to be. And did I mention my new stove? Oh, and what's that on the far right-hand side of the photo? That would be my new counter-depth, French door refrigerator.
AFTER: We took the walls from what I called a warm cafe au lait color (and what Rich referred to as "flesh colored") to a classic sage. Rich also found this oak chair at an antique shop it's his new place to sit and tell me about his day when I'm at the (brand new! super cool! convection oven!) stove chefing up a storm.
BEFORE: The attached breakfast room (which is also Wendy Dog's dining and sleeping area) was painted the afore-mentioned cafe au lait, also suffered from vinyl-floor syndrome, and had a mismatched arts-n-craft inspired ceiling fan and circa 1993 forest-green tile-topped farmhouse table.
AFTER: Sage walls, a (not-yet-painted) louvered door to hide my hundreds of cookbooks, a bookcase that holds my assorted servewear, and a new pedestal table (we're going to paint the old chairs black to match).
Posted by Melanie
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