Cookin' up a new Kitchen

The past two weeks have been some hard work.  I have been working on my kitchen and have mashed a few styles together in order to come up with a somewhat compromised look and something that can be a bit more affordable.

The people we bought the house from installed an Ikea kitchen which is just fine, it was just a bit too woody.  Wood for days, fake wood for days actually.  Priority one, break it up.

We went to Ikea and priced out some new doors and it seemed like everything we liked was just out of budget since we have a perfectly good kitchen.  So, the compromise turned out being a partial replacement and a partial painting of the cabinet fronts.  I have been nervous about painting these cabinets since I was unsure how they will hold up.  But, I did ask several expert opinions, especially from the local Benjamin Moore paint store down on 4th Ave South.

With these fakey-laminate wood fronts, I would have to sand them, clean them, prime them twice and then paint them with 3 coats.  A lot of work for sure, but well worth changing the look.  It took a few days of removing the doors and hard ware and then painting, plus a couple of weeks of food on the counters.  Now that it is wrapping up, it is really coming together. Take a look!

Here is the before. It is actually great, but I couldn't handle the colors

 And here is the after.  We are keeping the Teal walls for now, but we may tone them down now that we painted the cabinets.  The Teal was more of a temporary solution to get rid of the pukey light green and ruddy-orange.  You can't say the kitchen isn't happy!

The bottom cabinets are all painted and the upper ones are a bit more complex right now. 

 I really like the colors better than the wood tones that it was before. 

 The shelving above is a new addition at Ikea and I think they are a lot of fun.

So here is something that I need to think about.  They didn't have the cabinets available I wanted (the ones on the left with white glass and aluminum trim) for the sized cabinets on the right.  At least they match colors but Bob and I are still not 100% on the mix yet.  At least I have 90 days to have a second guess on my purchases!

This was a last minute thought on my part to get the Microwave off the counter . I think I need to do something else with this one, but I am going to sit with it for a little while to see if changing it again will help or not.  I really like the exposed beans and grains above and our Soda Stream maker below!

Here is the last quandry right now.  A large closet that has a metal shelf inside for use as a Pantry.  Not efficient, and I think one day it will solve my microwave question.  This will take a bit more thought for now, but for now, it seems like we have an all new kitchen.  :)

Long Break, but now I am back

So it has been a busy summer.  Work, trip to Italy, getting married, pre-adoption meetings.  Geeze.  Thought I would quickly post my latest project before I catch up with all my recent exploits. 

Bob and I went to Ikea to start planning what we would like to see in both a guest room and our baby room(exciting) and we stumbled on a good thought for our desk!  We put a small desk in our living room so we can put our I-Mac there and watch some TV every once in a while on Hulu.   We have been looking at lots of options for desks and here is what inspired us for awhile and we just weren't sure what to do.

Life Magazine

 So I really liked this one I stumbled on when I Googled Wall Mounted Desks.  I really like this look and it would look great in our mid-century home.  I didn't see anything like this on Ebay, and certainly not in any vintage stores.  I assumed I would have to build this, and I don't think I have the skill set for this quite yet. Ha. The next image I found in the NYTimes.

I will have to go back and check out whose house this is, but I really loved the desk.  There is definitely something to hanging a desk in a public area and then be able to close it off.  I love all the wood and the beautiful hardware that allows the writing surface.  I had a friend give me a quick quote for a simple hanging surface in our living room, but the cost was still around $400 for something quite simple and clean.  Then we stumbled on this at Ikea!

 This is supposed to be for DVD storage, but really! It could be so much more.  I am surprised they dont take it one step further.

The price really made me want to make this work.  It is the same gloss white lacquer that we want to use on our kitchen cabinets when we can afford that step. I googled the Besta Burs to see if anyone had the same idea, and sure enough, Ikea Hacker had already discovered the potential.

So Monday rolled around and here we go.  Of course after I bought the cabinet I realized I had plaster walls, ugh!

So this is the way it looked. Ha.  The old desk will finally be out of here.  I found this in a parking garage for free, so I will probably find a new home for this one. Since we have the plaster, I called our install guys who did a great job on the install!

Now we just need to figure out the cord situation.  One thing at a time for now. :)