Kitchen Overhaul

It was about two weeks ago that I decided I couldn't stand my tan and red painted kitchen and my purple dining room wall anymore. Something has been 'off' with the 'flow' of our house for a while and I think I finally pinpointed it with the tan color that stretched from the entry to the kitchen to the dining room. The problem is, once I decide that something like this bothers me, nothing else in the world matters...I have to fix it. So last weekend I spent about 24 hours total painting my kitchen to perfection.

We have a very open floor plan, and when I tackled painting and designing this house three years ago, I will be honest. I didn't know what I was doing. I'd been in some houses where people had red kitchens and I thought that was fun. Once I'd seen a really pretty purple dining room, hence, my choices. I plucked all those different ideas from all those different homes (as well-done as they might have been) and mashed them all together in our house.

WARNING: This is not a good way to pick colors for your home! I WISH I had done more sketching and inspiration boards and research before I slapped 13 different paint colors up our house. That's what I get for being a quick decision-maker I guess. Sometimes it comes in handy, but sometimes it gets you in trouble.

My husband is reading this and saying, 'I told you that.'

So little by little, I'm going back through our house and taking my original inspiration and color schemes and just toning them down a little. This is a horrid picture, but I'd like to share what this house looked like before we moved in. This was a picture taken by the listing agent:

Which is perhaps the reason this house didn't sell when it was listed. The owners ended up taking it off the market and listing it themselves, which is when we discovered it. This is what it looked like after I had worked a little magic:

MUCH better. But still not my favorite. It took me a while to get settled in and figure out what I liked. These pictures were taken pretty early-on so some things changed, but basically I was just really over, those red curtains, that red ceiling, and those tan walls. Here is what my kitchen looks like today!

I started by priming and painting the back splash a high gloss white. Then moved on to painting the ceiling the brightest white known to mankind (by far, the worst part of the process). Touching up the white woodwork in my house and the doors that are painted white took the longest time, but I am so happy with the finished product. I think my kitchen is lighter, brighter, and I was still able to tie in some small touches of red.

Here's the semi-finished dining room (Shutter still waiting to be hung above the buffet):

Overall, I think these colors will lend themselves better to the decorations I change throughout the seasons. Red worked well during fall and Christmas, but not as well when I was in a springy-summer season. And purple never really 'worked'. I'm so happy with the hard, detailed work I accomplished last weekend (even if it drove my sister nuts that it was taking so long and she didn't have anything to do).

Now come over and visit so I can show it off. :)

-Extreme Painter