Post 32: Kitchen introduction

Our kitchen is one of my favorite and least favorite rooms in the house (if that's possible).

On the one hand, we have great custom cabinets, we've recently updated all of our appliances and our sink, and it's the heart of most of our social events.

You can read about some of our upgrade projects by clicking below:

• Microwave
• Cooktop
• Kitchen Sink

On the other hand, the room is pretty dated (cue wallpaper, furdowns, honey oak waterstained cabinets, and poor lighting).

Pause. Okay, before I go on, I am not out to offend anyone.  We have gotten a lot of nice compliments on our kitchen and a few mixed reviews when we have shared that we are "renovating" the room.  The truth is, we agree that our kitchen has a lot of great features; it's just not exactly what we want.  So we are going for a different style. Play.

It's not very open to any other rooms and so it poses barriers to conversation and flow in the house.

When we first moved in, lighting in our kitchen was pretty much non-existent.  We had this awesome little guy to light the main part of the kitchen...

...and this dim fan to light the breakfast area.  (It may not look super dim, but I spent a lot of time messing with my camera and trying to get the picture while the sun was out to show the room without shadows!)

After a year and a half in this house (when we finally got the nerve to tackle this project), I decided I wanted the space to be as bright and open as we could make it.  Here are some pictures for inspiration.

Our to-do list for the kitchen is pretty lengthy, but we think it is going to make a huge impact.  Here's what we're planning on doing:

• Removing all furdowns
• Opening up the bar for more "open concept" flow
• Painting cabinets brighter
• Raising the cabinets on the wall
• Installing better lighting
• Removing wallpaper and texturing/painting
• Installing new counter tops
• Installing a new, brighter backsplash

Follow along with us as we work to make this space awesome!  Click here to see our first project -- venting out our downdraft stove!