Kitchen Progress and Plans In The New House

I love that movie Under The Tuscan Sun. Don't you? 

What I don't necessarily love is a Tuscan themed kitchen ... but that's how ours looked when we purchased our new house!

The next three photos are how the kitchen looked during one of the walk-throughs before it was ours.

It's hard to see a lot of detail in these dark iPhone photos, but here's the gist: dark cherry cabinets, textured terracotta walls, good appliances (double oven!), a gas range in the island, exposed brick on the backside of the family room fireplace, and honey-colored floors.

The granite is interesting. Here's a close-up below:

I'm no granite pro so I don't know what to call this style, but it has some really nice coloration in it. Maybe not necessarily what I would have picked out myself, BUT it is in good shape and I don't feel like paying to replace it anytime soon!

So the first big decision was whether to remove the texture from the walls in the kitchen or not. I decided to just paint over it to save money AND time. We went with a greige (gray/beige) color for the majority of the downstairs rooms that would pull out the gray in the countertops but also blend nicely with some of the beige furniture we own.

Agreeable Gray by Sherwin Williams is a popular color for a reason! We had it in the bathroom of our last home and it is nice and light but still has enough contrast with white trim. You can see it in the photos below. It already brightened up the kitchen nicely!

We also whitewashed the fireplace brick (25% paint, 75% water -- two coats) and that will really brighten up the kitchen since the backside of it is one of the kitchen "walls". 

We are also having the kitchen cabinets painted white. The island will likely be a darker gray that coordinates well with the wall color. I am considering doing satin brass pulls which is a little more trendy than I'd usually go, but they look so beautiful to me and can also help with the fact that there's a good amount of brass hardware in the house. I found THESE on Amazon which I love, but there's only one left so the price is pretty high on it. I hope when they get more in stock, the price goes down to what it should be. 

Here's a photo I found on Pinterest that shows how they could potentially look (the finish on these is a tad different). She is one of my favorite design bloggers and she used pulls from Martha Stewart's line at Home Depot. 

via

So, on to the floors. We are going with a darker stain. Bye-bye, honey toned floors. I think we are settling on Jacobean for the stain. I do have a little concern that we're going too dark, but we do love the look of dark hardwoods. In the below photo, Jacobean is closest to that open floor register.

There are 11 register covers that we will replace. Ian picked this one up at Lowe's but I found a different option on Amazon that's a lot more cost-effective and will match the floors better. We want them to blend in as well as they can.

only $11 on Amazon

We will be changing out the light fixture in the breakfast area (that's where I may use the pendant light I scored on Overstock -- this one -- unless the color isn't right. To be decided....) and add some nice window treatments. 

So, in a nutshell, that's why I'm not sleeping well at night! So many decisions to be made on the home, and all from two and a half hours away in the mountains. 

If you have any input on cabinet/island paint colors or the stain for our hardwood floors, I would LOVE to hear from you! And if you have any penny-pinching tips for kitchen renovations, I am all ears. Alllllllllll ears.