cotton fluff and so much more.

I've been putting off posting photos of our kitchen just yet because we still had a short list of things to finish. However, considering we added two more fairly big projects to that list just this morning, I figured I better just share the kitchen now in it's current state and look forward to a big finale later.

There are things you'll notice that still need done:

-replace the missing baseboards
-change out the existing light switches and plates/plugs for white ones
-touch up walls and cabinets
-spray kitchen/back door knob and garage door knob black

(*a surprise for later* that big oak table will be replaced with a farmhouse table with mis-matched chairs and you won't believe the story it has behind it! But that also needs sanded, primed, stained/painted)

and, as of this morning we added:

-install beadboard to the ends of cabinets and underneath bar area
-install moulding along tops of cabinets for a finished look

So, as always, we have a loooooong way to go. But, on the flip bright side of things we've already come a looooong way.

Remember this?

Builder's oak. Faux wood trim. Mustard walls.

And to be completely honest, this was even after a few updates we'd already made. The walls used to be brick red, with those oak cabinets, and a very golden laminate floor. The kitchen felt like a dungeon.

 

But now, after we:

ripped up flooring, laid new tile, painted all doors and trim white, changed out our light fixture 'globes', removed the ugly mini-blinds, painted the window casings white, installed curtain rods and the neutral striped curtains (I'm already considering raising the curtain rods to the ceiling and changing the curtains to the super long white 'Lenda' curtains from Ikea), had the kitchen painted with Behr's "wheat bread", and went through the very long, tedious and frustrating process of learning not to spray primer through our sprayer in order to get Behr's pretty shade of "cotton fluff" on the cabinets, it looks like this...

(be sure to click on the photos for a full view)

 

I am so proud of those frames! I got two packs of 2 for just $7 each. Added mats, and a photo of each of us with our birthday cakes this year, along with an internet image of a rusty old "3" in the one hanging by itself to represent our little family of three and I love love love it. Makes me smile every  morning. ...and I'm not usually a smile-in-the-morning kind of gal. ;)

 

 

Travis made the comment it was starting to look modern so I made sure to add plenty of  not-so-modern touches since that is not the look I was going for. Hope you noticed... the raw edged burlap table runner, the lovely little (and growing fast) collection of white dishes and ironstone, the mason jar candle holders, and the pretty little frames with images I've found on the internet or typed myself because after all, everything seems a little more appealing when it's FREE. ;)

Now here is where I need the help of anyone who took the time to read this post! Please please please, tell us what you think about building in that little "bar" area with bookshelves after we install the beadboard? I'd fill it with cookbooks, ironstone, maybe a few masons in a wire basket.

I know the wall above there looks so lost, but we hope once we have beadboard on the side of the cabinet and moulding along the top that it will look more 'finished'. I'm also considering a collection of plates there or art deco letters spelling out 'BAKERY'.

Let us know what you think? :)