My Minty Kitchen Remodel!

I did it! Painted our kitchen the color of a Jordan almond, taking it from a too-bright butternut to a just-right mint, like I've long been dreaming of. It wasn't so easy pulling this off with two kids in tow, even though Tessa did "help" with painting. Luckily, spilled paint wasn't too difficult to scrub off these floors. Probably will be best for me to take on less ambitious projects for now, at least until the baby starts sleeping through the night. Still, no regrets here. We are loving our new kitchen. Here are our before shots:

And our after photos: 

I also removed the cabinet that was to the right of the sink, and we put up open shelves (that still need to be painted white). We didn't actually lose any storage because we moved the cabinet into our laundry room, which is just off the kitchen. I had aspired to paint our kitchen cabinets white, but now that the room is a different a color they don't bother me anymore. So this has at least been moved way down on my project list. 

I cleaned up our chalkboard wall, too. Previously this whole wall was a chalkboard, but since we obviously don't use the very top, I used tape and framed it out in mint.  

Another change we made was to move the refrigerator, making better use of the space we have. 

I also painted one wall the same creamy blushy color that's coming down our staircase, creating a cute little nook. And, again, paint has made such an enormous difference with minimal money. I spent about $60 on two gallons of paint (Benjamin Moore's "Cool Mint" and Behr's "Porcelain Skin") and about $30 in materials to build the shelves. Really, we've been working on updating this kitchen for a while now, considering that I painted this corner hutch with Annie Sloan chalkboard paint this past summer, and we added the kitchen island this past March after a trip to Ikea. 

Our kitchen is definitely the heart of this home; I'm writing this blog post at the kitchen island right now. We eat breakfast here every morning, and I usually eat lunch here, too. Friends tend to gather here during dinner parties. It's bright and sunny, and now it's more cheerful than ever. This space is totally me. Since Nekos is the cook in the family, I'm happy that he is obsessed with it, too. We keep walking into our "new" kitchen and saying, "Oh! Whose kitchen is this? Ours? Rad!"