Gettin' Creative With Our Kitchen Makeover

Once you have your goals for a project in place, it's time to start getting creative!



Hubby and I definitely had some creative thinking to do if we wanted to reach our goals for our Kitchen Makeover.


Here's our plan to make our Goals a Reality:

• Beauty -- We already removed the harsh 1980's florescent light box, and the floral-embossed vertical blinds from the room. We plan to bring in updated lighting fixtures, white cabinets, brushed nickel hardware, and pretty fabric to soften things up! Add in SW Cork Wedge paint color and some really cool original art pieces (wait till you see what I have in mind), and the room gets a whole new look! This also sets the tone for the design style {what I've termed "fresh classic style"} for the rest of the house.
  

• Storage -- We really need every available inch that we can get. So that's why we removed the soffits, to take the cabinets all the way up to the ceiling. New 42" cabinets on top will add SO much extra storage, and we are just taking advantage of previously unused space! A few organizational items will really help us get clever storage out of every cabinet. Plus the pantry is getting transformed to not only look beautiful, but be more functional as well.
  

• Function -- Keeping "like" items together and having "stations" set up in the kitchen is the key to having this space function as efficiently as possible. This way, multiple cooks won't be in each other's way and it will make it easy to find and put away items too! We are keeping our kitchen table for eating family meals and for homework and games. A vintage wire paper tray will hold important papers, and an organized "junk drawer" below will provide space for pens, checkbook, homework supplies, calendar, phone #'s, etc.
  

• Space -- How to make the kitchen seem Bigger & Brighter? Just going from dark, dated oak cabinets to classic, white cabinets was a HUGE start! A few of the cabinets are going to have glass-fronts as well, which will help visually expand the space. Taking new window treatments up to the ceiling will draw the eye up, as will the new, taller cabinets. New lighting fixtures will also be glass, so they won't "stop" the eye. Recessed lights in the "work triangle" shine light into what was once nothing but dark shadows. A cute lamp on the counter adds task lighting and a warm glow. Counters will be mostly clear of all but a few items.
  

• Budget -- After much discussion about whether to keep the old cabinets and re-work them, or get new cabinets, in the end we decided to get new. This would help us reach our goals for our Kitchen Makeover the best. But our budget was not very big! So we did a bit of comparison shopping, and got our new cabinets during a huge sale with lots of free extras and a good percentage off. Our budget would only cover new cabinets right now, so updating counters, tile, flooring & appliances will have to wait.

So in the end, our kitchen will go from this:

to this:

(a little sneak peek for ya!)

{above light pendants from Pottery Barn}

Hope you liked the "preview" of our Kitchen Makeover! :)
I just love sharing all of this with you!