Kitchen Before Pictures and Ideas

I have so much homework due tomorrow! My first SLP observation report, a big research paper, and signatures from 5 oral mechanism exams I had to complete. But I have a good chunk of my work done, so I'm going to let myself have a little break to blog about our house project. It's been in the back of my mind all day anyway.

My focus today is the kitchen, because it needs a lot of work and because it will be my sanctuary. It looks like a nightmare, but all I see is a blank canvas that needs a whole lotta love. I can't wait to get my hands on it! Here are the "Before" pictures:

(PS - during some weird fluke with a Walgreens clearance ad mistake, Luke surprised me with a new P & S camera that he bought for $17!! Believe it or not, I've used nothing by my iPhone camera for the past year. I'm not complaining, but having an actual camera works better in situations like this where there's not much natural lighting. That's what I used to take the "before" pictures)

Okay, now for some ideas! Here's what we plan to do:

New light fixture/fan. Paint all the cabinets and put beadboard between the counter and cabinets as a backsplash (it's cheap and easy and we can paint it). We will paint the ugly paneling a very pale blue color. Cute hanging light fixture in the window. Little breakfast nook in the corner. Replace ugly brown fridge with the white one that's now upstairs. build shelving on the empty wall.

Inspiration photos:

Source: houseofturquoise.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Source: simplyseleta.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Source: houseofturquoise.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Source: leblahg.com via Jessica on Pinterest

I don't know why that last picture is aligned to the left, but there doesn't appear to be anything I can do about it. Thanks again, Blogger, for making things impossible.

Anyway, there are some cabinets above the stove that I think we will leave open and paint the inside like that last picture. Maybe we will add beadboard in there too, because I like the way it looks.

I'm so excited!! I can't wait until all the boring stuff is done (Refer to Monday's post where I talked about scraping glue off the floor), and I can get to the fun part: painting and decorating!!

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As I've mentioned before, Luke and I are no strangers to DIY-ing and renovating. Our kitchen in the upstairs apartment was a million times worse than the one downstairs. Here's the before and after of our project there. See? A little tlc makes a big difference :-)

Before

(actually, I didn't get a before picture. This was after we had all the ugly stuff torn away and the cabinets mostly painted, but you get the idea)

After