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.  :)