Up Date on Kitchen!!!!

Thanks for all your comments and great input on the dilemma in my kitchen with the french cabinet vs. open shelves.

I think with only being in the house for a month and doing so much all at one time has made my decor ju ju fade some!!! 

 I was going to live with it for awhile but if you know me as many of you do, you know the dust does not settle when I am working on a project!

So with that said the French Bakery Cabinet below came down.

The cabinet is down and the cabinet over the refrigerator is going to get a little make over too.  Open shelves will be heading up onto the wall for a more open feel.  This is a long and narrow kitchen.   The cabinet just made the kitchen feel choppy and closed in.  The counters will be open again for more counter space too.

The pretty bakery cabinet will be transformed and rebuilt into a cabinet above the refrigerator.  Terry has some good ideas on how to do that and the cabinet will be functional too.

So stay tuned to the never ending Kitchen re do!!!! I feel good about taking the cabinet down and putting up open shelves.

The shelves will give the kitchen a more open feel and it will not be competing with the chippy window above the sink.
Hopefully we will have this done soon to give you a look.

Thank you again for all your wonderful comments and suggestions.  In the end I have to live with this kitchen and I hope to have it making me smile soon.

Hugs,
Kris

Kitchen Reveal ???????????

Happy 4th of July.  Hope your long holiday week end was wonderful.  We are off to see the fire works with family and friends.  I cannot wait.  That is my favorite part of this holiday to see those beautiful fire works.

Kitchen Reveal  Well sorta............

Ok I have the kitchen pretty much finished.  Here is the problem.  I am not sure I am liking it?!!!!

I will tell you why with some of the pics.  Would love your opinion too.

Here goes:

Before pictures of the kitchen:

Typical builder kitchen.  Stock cabinets and laminate counter tops. Nothing too special.

After Kitchen:

We took down the stock cabinets.  Put in Ikea butcher block counters and a new sink.  Opens up the kitchen much more than the before picture below.

Before

Terry added a stock cabinet over the stove to frame out the microwave and he also added crown molding to make the stock cabinets look a little more custom.

Painting all the faux oak trims and cabinets white give a more open feel to the kitchen from this before picture.

We took apart Terry's grandmothers cabinet to make this bakery cabinet hanging now on the wall.

This is Terry's Nana's cabinet and I thought it might be a good choice to take it apart and make it into a new cabinet for the kitchen.

This is where my dilemma comes in.  Not sure I am liking this cabinet hung like this in the kitchen.  I made sure when Terry took it apart to make this cabinet  he did not ruin any of the pieces in case I wanted it back to its full glory!

I love the french feel the cabinet gives to the kitchen just not sure I am liking it hung like it is.  I am debating whether or not we should take it down and put up butcher block open shelves with my vintage iron brackets.  Open shelves stained dark like the counter tops would pop with all the white and the wood would add some warmth to the decor.  So that is my dilemma.  Not sure what I want to do.  This is where you can leave me a comment on what you think?

The cabinet gives me storage for all my glasses and extra bowls and plates.  I know I can put them out on the open wood shelves too.  So still a dilemma!  Does it come down or stay up?!

By doing the open shelves it would clear up more counter space for me too.  I think I am going to have to live with this arrangement for a little while and see what I want to do.

Just torn.
 If I put this cabinet back together I have another special place I can put it in the house.  So which ever way I go it will all be good.

  Usually I know right away what my vision is for a room.  This kitchen is really giving me a hard time.  I thought I wanted it the way it is and then when it was  done I just not sure now.

Love the white cabinets and new hardware.  I am hoping to save up to get new appliances down the way.  I think new stainless will give the white cabinets some contrast.

I like the crown molding finish to the cabinets.

Made a cute little coffee bar in the kitchen using all the things I had from the old house.

I was able to use my vintage clocks on this shelf above the coffee bar.

Had this old vintage shelf from the old house and this towel rack with old door knobs was out of my bathroom in the old cottage.  They both work perfect for the coffee bar.

Found these cute cups at Home Goods on the clearance for $2 each.  Wish they had more.  Love these little cuties.

Cute saying on them.  Love the gold heart.

Found this cute Keurig pod holder on line.

Added a new framed chalk board on the door leading to the lower level off the kitchen.  I had this framed chalk board hanging in my office and Terry cut it down and make it work on this door.  Love that man and his tools!!!!

This old window I had hanging in the living room of the old house.  Love that it fit into the kitchen decor.  Always loved this chippy window.

I also was able to hang up some of my vintage platters again.  I still have several more I am thinking about hanging.  Just waiting to see what I do about that french bakery cabinet and open shelves!!!!

As you can see by this picture this kitchen is long a narrow.  So that is why I want it to feel more open.  The light I get in the dining area and kitchen is fabulous so love that.

One more quick little add on in the kitchen.  I did not like that open wasted space above the refrigerator.  We have 9 ft. ceilings so that space was not useful.  Just felt like a big black hole to me!!!! I had some old vintage salvage odds and ends and I challenged Terry to put something together to close up that open space.

He did just that.  He took old salvage crown molding, base moldings and old frames I had and enclosed the top of the refrigerator area.  Was so excited to re love these odds and ends into something new.

Now I am on the hunt for a special french dairy sign or something salvage that would pop in that open white space in the frames.  The refrigerator still pulls out when I want to clean back there.  Terry said he could put hinges on this so we could open it and store things but it is just so high.  I did not see the point of that.  So I will just love it being a decorative space with old history pieces in the kitchen for now.

So we went from this to........

This

From this to......

This

This to....

This

Now the real question is going to be will this french bakery cabinet stay or go!!!!!!!

It was a cloudy day today on the 4th for us.  So I did not get a lot of my natural sunlight that beams in.  This kitchen is so pretty and bright most days.

Hope your 4th was fun and safe.
I am enjoying this new little one this year for the 4th.

This is Terry this year on the 4th with 5 day old Charlotte our new grand daughter.

This is Terry 6 years ago with Abby our oldest granddaughter and Charlotte's big sister.  They look so much alike.  You can see how much weight Terry has lost from this picture 6 years ago with Abby to the current above picture with Charlotte.

Today is Terry's dad's birthday.  We enjoyed celebrating the day today with him on his birthday.  Abby and Charlotte with great grandma and grandpa.

Here is Terry with his dad and Tim our son in law and little Charlotte just 5 days old.  4 generations together.

Happy 4th.
Enjoy the new week.
Hugs,
Kris