mini kitchen remodel

 

so we have been hard at work trying to make out new house a home, just getting things to FEEL like us is hard enough. we painted the house, hung pictures and found a place for our "stuff'.. that itself is a stressful chore..

the kitchen is the heart of the home and we really wanted to make it bright and white and on a budget we did it ourselves, well, damian did.. most of it.

we took inspiration from pinterest, houzz and of course picking the brains of all my stylish girlfriends..

here is what it looked like before.

 

we tore down all the upper cabinets and all but 2 people told me i was crazy and i actually thought i was too for a minute when damian actually started ripping the door off..

6 useful cabinets of storage..

poof! 

GONE!

 

the one cabinet above the fridge i actually wanted to keep but.. it came off when damian removed the one next to it.. so.

we went with it..

yep. we will take that one down too.

why.

not?

we tiled up the wall.. allllll the way up the wall..and on alllll three sides..

the hardest part was removing the 8" black splash of granite.. that was a whole day.. yes. 1 whole day.

 

it is a bit tricky to get the pattern down.. and all the cutting! all the light sockets.. geesh!!

but.

i just LOVE the look of subway tile.. so clean and fresh..

 

we took down the drop ceiling light boxes and had some pocket lights installed.. it lifted the ceiling and made it SOOO much brighter...

 

we had all the bottom cabinets painted white and put new clean modern hardware on..

found it all home depot.. nothing too fancy.

 

repainted the ceiling a fresh coat of white..

 

hubby worked late after work every night for a week.. his hands were raw and he was so exhausted..

looking back it was quite a stressful task we took on but to tell you the truth.. 

we over simplify everything..

i mean we really do..

we usually jump into things and go..

"oh wait! this is sort of a big deal!"

it always works out and i love that about us..

remember our camping adventures?

prime example, bought a pop up trailer and went camping having no idea AT ALL what we were doing..

but we figured it out and it is what we look forward to every summer..

sometimes you just gotta JUMP! and the net will appear..

have you heard that saying?

i love it..

 so here it is the after photo.. 

a sweet friend bought me an air plant and glass bubble for christmas and i am obsessed! i went to buy 2 more because i love it so much! they were the perfect addition to our new kitchen! hanging in this corner they are just perfect!

{thanks nicole!} 

a BIG tip i learned.. adding some plants, my oils on the counter, cookbooks, etc.. made a HUGE difference it making the space feel lived in and not too stark white or just being non functional.. who would of thought i would ever say too white.. right?

for that great question..

 "where is all your stuff?"

{additional photo added}

so here is where we store all of our dishes, everything we need to serve our meals is here, i love the restaurant feel of having the dishes out there and stacked up..  we have a couple more wood salad bowls that i just pile inside of the one you see here, something about a kitchen feeling used but organized.. it just feels great! all over flow of platters, big bowls, pitchers etc are in the garage in bins and labeled for the one time a year i may actually use them :)