You've Come a Long Way

When we first bought our house we didn't realize how bad our kitchen was.  We had been living in an old, dark farmhouse and anything was a step up from where we had been.  I knew the first thing I wanted gone were the peach walls.  We, eventually, wanted to rip out the old vinyl and replace it with ceramic tile and change the layout a bit but we figured we were years down the road from that ever happening.  After painting the kitchen and living in the house I realized how truly disgusting our kitchen was.  The previous owners must have fried everything.  The cabinets, walls, appliances, light fixtures, you name it were coated in a layer of grease; grease that would require an army to remove.

God provided some immediate renovations in the form of a flood from a frozen pipe.  While it was a nuisance and a month of upheaval, we were able to install a new ceramic tile floor for a fraction of what it would have cost us.  Some of the cabinets were water damaged causing all of them to be ripped out and replaced allowing us to change the layout of our kitchen a bit to increase the functionality.

I loved the new, clean cabinets, but realized how imperfect our kitchen walls were.  There were huge gaps filled with caulk along the top edge of the countertop backsplash.  I began looking for tile for a kitchen backsplash.  I wanted it to compliment our cabinets, countertop and paint color, but still remain neutral enough that when we decided to sell our house it wouldn't be difficult for someone else to change out the color theme of the kitchen.  I found a perfect, easy to install backsplash.

After installing the backsplash, I had wanted to install hardware on the cabinets.  I found $150 worth of satin nickel knobs and pulls for $35.  Sadly, after bringing them all home I realized that our cabinet doors weren't quite even and the knobs would make them noticeably uneven.  I decided we could live without the hardware and returned it all. 

The kitchen is finished.  It is more than I envisioned we would ever have and I am truly pleased with the results.  It looks spectacular, is not covered in grease and functions much better than I ever dreamed it would.  It makes me smile when I enter it and happy to cook dinner for my family.

Kitchen before:

Kitchen after fresh paint:

Kitchen after renovations:

Kitchen with tile backsplash, new blinds, and a new table: