I'm Dreaming of a New Kitchen

So our kitchen is tiny, and by tiny I mean the room is an okay size, but it's poorly laid out.  It's no ones fault, really - there are so many doors off of the kitchen, there is no room for continuous counter space.  There is an opening to the old breakfast nook, the Living Room, the Dining Room & the basement.  It's also not wide enough to add an island - bummer since I'm in love with islands.

So we do the best that we can with what we have.  When we moved in the kitchen was partially renovated.  There were laminate stick tiles on the floor that were new.  The countertops weren't awful & the cabinets were a nice natural honey color.  So we decided to go with a yellow wall color - buttery yellow actually.

But I have a dream.  This is my dream kitchen.

Photo Link: Here

Crisp white cabinets & sleek black countertops.  Unfortunately it doesn't work exactly for our kitchen... that's why it's my dream kitchen.  The white and black is too harsh for this house - it just wouldn't look right without redo-ing the entire first floor.  So we'll save that vision for the next kitchen.  So began my quest to find a kitchen that would work in our house.  That's when I came across this happy compromise.


Photo Link: Here

It even has a similar wall color.  The warm floors and cream colored cabinets are perfect for our house.  We plan on restoring the wood floors under our carpet eventually and while we have dreams that they still exist in good condition under the layers of kitchen laminate - we aren't entirely sure that there will be anything salvageable left. 

Right now we don't have a lot of money, so this is something for far down the road - but this is the plan.  All of the work will be done by us, and will we scrimp where we can without sacrificing the look. 

We will paint the cabinets this cream color.  You can sand and prime and paint your own cabinets and doors, however it's incredibly time consuming, so we will get quotes to have them done.  If it's outrageous, we will be doing it outselves!  Our existing cabinets, while all honey colored, actually have three different styles.  You have to look closely, but they are all there.  I think that painting them will help unify the different styles a little more.

We will do a dark countertop.  Because we have so little countertop, we might actually be able to do granite!  If not, we'll go with a high grade laminate.  I'm envisioning a black-brown color. 

We will leave the walls a yellow color & get new floors.  Tile floors would be great, but they are pricey.  There are some amazing vinyl sheet flooring options now that really look like tile.  This might be the direction that we go.

The only outstanding question is appliances.  What color do you do?  White probably just wouldn't look right & black would be too stark. Or maybe we use a cream color that is compatible with white.   Is stainless our only option.  It is becoming more affordable, and would really complete the look, but this isn't the house that we plan to live in forever - do we want to put that kind of money into our appliances?  We might try white appliances and use the stainless appliance coating.   Maybe we'll buy some to try out on the old dishwasher before we throw it out.

That is the plan.  Look out for it down the road.  You never know what 2011 might bring!