The Kitchen

The kitchen was the first room that I went to work on while Daniel was demo-ing the upstairs bathroom. At first we were using DIF, the thick, sticky blue liquid you squirt (or spread) on the wallpaper, let sit and then peel off (so the directions say). In reality, we never seemed to get the timing right with DIF. If you don't leave it on long enough then of course the wallpaper won't budge, but if you leave it on there too long then it dries, which means you're now back to square one again! After taking down wallpaper in four rooms, we finally wised up and bought a steamer from Home Depot for about $50, and it's worth every penny!

After getting the wallpaper down, washing the walls, and taking out the wooden cornice above the sink, it was time to paint! I chose Benjamin Moore's Yarmouth Blue for the top half of the kitchen walls. We left the bottom the same color as the trim throughout our house. We also replaced the knobs on the cabinets from brass to polished chrome to match the sink faucet and my stainless steel accessories. Next was the light fixture. Although we liked the one the previous owners had in there, we wanted a fan so we just transferred the chandelier to the breakfast nook and got a fan with a light for the kitchen.


Before


Before


Before


In the process...

















After















This is the fabric I'm using for curtains in the kitchen and breakfast nook.

Eventually, the plan is to tear down a wall or two to open up the kitchen. We originally wanted to take down the wall separating the breakfast nook and kitchen. It would mean saying goodbye to our pantry, but if that allowed us to add more cabinetry and open space then I was all for it. What we later realized was that this particular wall houses ALL the pipes that go to our second floor and attic-- the drain pipe, water lines, etc. Instead of rerouting all those pipes (which would, of course, be a large additional cost to having the wall torn down) we refocused on the wall separating the dining room and kitchen. Here, we could build a "peninsula" coming out from the wall with a stove top/oven, leave some room for bar chairs on the other side and open up the space all at the same time.

I found this great "W" at Anthropologie in the fall. It just happened to be the colors in our kitchen and gives the walls a little texture and fun!