kitchen reveal

Finally! A room reveal from 144, our new home!

Since the kitchen is the heart of every home, it was a no brainer that we wanted to tackle this room first. Almost all of our changes were cosmetic, but I think that they each made a big impact. 

So the big changes? Floor. Cabinets. Back splash. Lighting. Appliances.

Before we touched anything else, we elected to make the necessary changes to the flooring of the house. Our entire purpose for moving was to have a home that was completely accessible to Eliza. And while majority of the floors in the house were a lovely hardwood, we need to bring the kitchen, mudroom, office, and master bedroom up to snuff as well. The biggest reason was that it would eliminate any need for transition pieces, which can sometimes be tricky for Eliza to maneuver. The second reason is that we liked the existing wood flooring and knew that carrying it throughout the house would make the space look bigger and flow better! Win win!

We spent our first week int he house surrounded by jackhammers and noise. And weeks to follow were spent cleaning up tile dust (I swear it never goes away!), but we are so so happy with the end result. The wood throughout looks absolutely lovely, and the new plank tile we added in the bathroom was perfect (more on that later).

After the floors, we tackled step two - the kitchen cabinets. The cabinets were great wood quality, but could do with a little love. I am unabashedly a white kitchen person too, so this was a no brainer. Initially we had discussed paying someone to refinish them, but my DIY pride and my checkbook had other ideas. I won't bother you too much with step by step of that process since you can find a million refinishing how-to's online. But just know that I had a lot of apprehension! I was a newb to cabinet refinishing and I wanted my kitchen to be flawless. I did my research, spent a little money on some good tools, and took my time with the process. My three tips for anyone here would be:

 - snag a good quality paint sprayer to make the job go faster

 - use foam rollers and gentle sanding blocks on the last coats of sealant for the perfect smooth finish

 - and spring for new hardware to give it the most updated look

The job was a huge undertaking but it is worth it! The cabinets look professionally done and I'm really stinkin' proud to say that I did the work!

Step three?  New lights! In the heart of the kitchen, I selected a lantern light to aid the existing can lights. Then over the kitchen table, I went with a wood and iron chandelier from Lowe's.   

The wood and iron chandelier comes in three sizes, which was perfect for us to match elsewhere in the house. We actually have updated almost all of the lights in the house at this point too! A light tour soon, perhaps?

Step four was to paint the tiled back splash. I didn't mind the concept of the tile, or even the shape of them, but the colors just didn't work in here. Painting the tile seemed like the simplest thing to do. I snagged a quart of special tile paint and not so carefully followed the instructions. The shiny white took a few days to grow on me, but I think I really like the end result. It's much more like subway tile, but with a softer twist.

When your kitchen feels like home, you are home.