Kitchen - Before and After

I have zero aspirations to becoming a design blog, or a food blog, or an anything blog. But I would like a record of life, so enjoy the photos I'll put up periodically as we tweak our new house. First up, the kitchen. The house had the original, standard, builder-grade oak cabinets. Boring. Thankfully, I have the BEST mother-in-law a gal could ask for, so she graciously came to visit for two weeks and we worked our tails off painting the cabinets. She refinishes furniture on a whim, or paints doors or muds a bathroom all in an afternoon. She's tireless and fabulous, and she has all the know-how. I'll get to the how-to in the next post, showing you how we took a kitchen from this:

boring oak cabinets, and even with the immense amounts of natural light, it felt heavy.  All decor/furniture is the previous homeowner's.

 

(Hi, Momma!)

to this:

(you'll notice that the island was missing a door - the hinge broke when we tried to re-install the door, but it's since been replaced)

BIG transformation, and only with paint and new hardware. Items left on the kitchen to-do list:

• fix the hole in the pantry door, and possibly hang a chalkboard on the door as well
• change the pendant lights above the bar
• paint the walls in the kitchen
• possibly replace the faucet in the future
• update the dishwasher
• put a vented microwave above the stove (?) to free up counter-space
• lay tile in the pantry, because right now it's carpeted. EEW.