Miss Macchiato

I wish I had before and after shots of the kitchen, but I didn’t think to take any. Or maybe I did… but I have no idea where they are at now.

When we first moved into the house, the kitchen and dining room had the original wallpaper still up: White background with purple and red flowers and berries attached to crayon green stems and leaves. Horrifying. The kitchen cabinets were the original brown stained cabinetry.

It’s taken me two years, but all of the wallpaper is gone, the walls are sanded, plastered, sanded, plastered, sanded, plastered, maybe another sanded-plastered round in there, and then primed and painted. The cabinets still aren’t done, as I have to sand, primer and paint the row of cabinets in the back of the kitchen and the walls need touch up. But I’m getting closer.

So this is a shot of my kitchen with my new, spiffy under cabinet lighting on. For some reason I had left one of the cabinet doors open and didn’t realize it until I had finished taking pictures. Oh well. You can still get a good idea of what it looks like. I have a galley kitchen and it’s quite small, so I take all available space very seriously.

Here’s a shot as you walk in from the living room/hallway.

Not as pretty as the first picture. First of all, we don’t have a microwave with fan installed. Instead, the previous owner had some sort of weird shelf installed in its place. Eventually we’d like to buy one and have it installed, but it’s not a priority. I keep the microwave, espresso maker and a couple of large cutting boards up there.

From this angle, you can also see where I haven’t yet sanded and painted the cabinets. The doors have been unscrewed and the cabinets are exposed, so it looks a little ugly back there. I was also getting ready to cook dinner, so I hadn’t set anything up for a glamor shot. It’s clean and it’s lived in. That’s the best I’ve got.

The door on the left is a pantry of sorts, but it’s more like a deep closet with shelves. Once you open the door, wire racks hang on the door and that’s where I keep all my spices. I got them from Lowe’s for a few bucks. The other door, directly across from your view, leads to the garage.

Here’s the back counter for a better idea of how much more work I have to do. There’s really not much compared to how much has already been done.

I keep all of the crap to the side of the fridge, as well as a little reader board that reminds Tom what leftovers are available and still OK to eat. We’re trying to be good about eating leftovers and not letting them go to waste.

Here’s a bigger view with more of the unfinished stuff.

I’ve posted previously on the kitchen colors. Here they are again for a refresher.

I chose the browns and the white based on the existing, dated laminate counter. We have the money to replace the counter, but if you do that, you really should replace the cabinets. And of course, you can’t stop there, because you should also replace the sink and faucets. That’s all money we didn’t want to spend. So I had to make the counter look as exciting and pretty as possible, which is why I went with the darkest shade of brown in the counter, and the lightest shade of white/cream for the cabinets. Now the counter looks pretty nice. We also upgraded the hardware by buying new knobs and handles. Those aren’t cheap; we paid about $50 in total for that. Still, it’s cheaper than replacing the kitchen altogether.

For kicks, I took a picture of the cabinet lighting on without the overhead light on. Kerry told me that his lights burned out and, since they’re halogen, he hates them and hasn’t replaced them. Here’s what he’d have to work with if he had under cabinet lighting.

So it’s coming along. It’s not perfect, but it’s getting there. So far I’m really happy with the results and can’t wait to get it finished up.