Friday, June 8, 2012

SUWYL: Kitchen Edition

This is linked up to the Show Us Where You Live Home Tour at Kelly's Korner!

They say that the kitchen is the heart of the home. In our case, it is not only the heart, but the hub as well! Command center, gathering place, where all things gather.... it is a busy place! But I love love love it and it is really one of the things that made me fall in love with this house almost exactly a year ago when I first saw the online pictures! Thankfully, I could see past the ugly counter top, wallpaper, and back splash! HA! On to the tour!!!

First, lets take a look back at how it looked prior to us moving in...


Like you stepped into 1997...

That wallpaper was AWFUL!

This was after moving in, but prior to our kitchen update. We were shopping for granite for several months. Back splash tile took even longer!

The "cooking" side of the kitchen.

This is how the eating area looked for a long time. The window treatments were just something I threw up there while I decided what I wanted to do. Notice the new light fixture!

Other side- the window came from an historic home in down town Little Rock.
 And the AFTER pictures!!!
We ended up going with a darker back splash tile because of the white cabinets. I love how it turned out! The accent tile is the same that we used on the fireplace (you can see it in last weeks post about Living Rooms!)

The bar stools are Ballard Designs. I had bought some knockoffs at Garden Ridge, and the first time my husband (who is NOT a big man) sat in one, it pretty much collapsed under him. Lesson learned.

I have a few roosters around because I wanted a very subtle french country feel. The basket is where we keep our fruit-apples, oranges, peaches- It was a thrift store find for 3.00!!!

Love my gas cook top! I want to replace or paint the red accessories. We had red accents in our old house, but now we are moving to more light colors and blues.

Focal point above the sink. Love how this turned out! I also replaced all of the brushed nickle hardware (in the whole house) with the oil rubbed bronze.

Looking in from the dining room. We still have a few left over white appliances, but we are waiting until they die to replace them. But we love having a trash compactor! All of the kitchen rugs came from Target- both the red ones before and the blue/tan ones after.

That double oven is about 15 years old, and the display is a little hard to read. But my mom says it cooks more evenly than her fancy KitchenAid ones! So yay for 15 year old whirlpool ovens! HAHA!

A few more roosters...and the baby monitor!

I totally copied this from Pinterest. Sorry for the person who was trying to sell them- but I like mine better!

We added glass over the table- our two year old was ruining the finish!


And the most recent change is the window treatments. I made these with some fabric I found on clearance. There was just enough and it was the perfect colors and pattern! I love it!



Hope you enjoyed the tour!!! Look forward to seeing you next week!!!

6 comments:

Betsey said...

Rachel, did you have to order those stools online? Or is there a place in LR that sells the Ballard Design stuff.

The Brewers said...

I ordered them online. I want to say they had free shipping on orders over a certain amount, so since I didn't pay tax it was actually cheaper than having to go to a store. :)

The Brewers said...

Oh, and they come in one piece so you don't have to put them together!

Shoshanah said...

I can't believe that wallpaper! I know when we bought our house the wallpaper was crazy, and removing it is really the only project we've done in the kitchen or really the whole house. But someday I'd like to give our kitchen a complete makeover similar to yours.

And just letting you know I'm stopping by from Kelly's Korner.

Tracy said...

Love the new kitchen! I think our granite is similar and I'm loving the backsplash you put with it!

Unknown said...

Great transformation! Love the backsplash.