The Color Dilemma aka. the Kitchen Project...

I'm so excited (and I just can't hide it...hehe)

After 2 years of living in our home, my husband has given the okay for us to do the kitchen! I was ready to take on this project, seriously, the morning after move-in, but for both financial reasons and that other house things needed our attention instead, we postponed this particular project.
and postponed...
and postponed...

K, I'm really not complaining, we did other projects instead, started a business and started a family...but Amen, the kitchen is on!

This is what the kitchen looked like when we moved in -- leaf green walls, (very greasy and dusty) California drop ceiling, oak cabinets and a pink (fine, mom, terracotta!) ceramic tile.

kind of dark and depressing eh? yeah, that's my point.

About a year after we moved in, my husband and I painted it a heather grey. And just last week, in attempt to get this project going, we took the ceiling down and the doors to the top cabinets off. It's amazing how big the kitchen now looked. Totally, not done, but a definite 100& difference.



We even had a little helper!


Some of our recent purchases:



But the biggest concern is this. My kitchen has oak cabinets (which in some form will be saying sayonara) and when I could only afford to paint the kitchen, I painted it a heather grey. We are definitely painting the cabinets, but I am going to do a two-tone kitchen. And I am not sure what color to do the bottom --- I would love a blue from the coastal family, but I am not sure if it will look like our kitchen is permanently taking residence in a cloud.

What do you think? I am going to coastal-cottage-y-farmhouse country. You understand that? :) Also, I love the look of open shelving and you can either do this by taking just the doors off or by taking cabinets down and adding shelving. It's definite more work with taking the cabinets down and repainting, but I am just not sure yet. Last night, no kidding, I was up until 2am reorganizing the shelves - to make them that fine line of artistically messy but still practical, organized and user-friendly. Again, what do you think? Should we just go the whole way and take the cabinets down? I worry about the new shelves actually not being enough space for all of my stuff. (oh and btw, the most recent picture of the kitchen does not reflect my organizing attempts at 2am...this was before. At around 11:30pm, I was thinking that I might need to have actually organized the cabinets to see if I want the shelves or not....novel idea, eh?)

So why now are we doing our kitchen?? Funny side note, about 4 months ago, our house was on the market so we can move and downsize. As I toured through other potentials, I would repeatedly fall in love with the kitchens I found ---- and since you usually look at houses that are close to your own personal style, I always found white country kitchens with beaming wood floors, the apron front sink etc etc. Long story short, even with us finding three other houses (at separate times) that we loooved and put offers on, our house didn't sell. We were sitting in my husband's office, dumbfounded, "why won't this house sell? God help us to know what your will is -- do you want us to move or to stay put? No kidding, the words were barely finished and out of my house when I looked to my right and saw an IKEA magazine on the floor.
Front cover said, Love your home...

So when the last offer didn't go through (and that's another story completely in itself), we decided to take Ikea/God's advice and love our home. Make it ours. Make it something that we want to be here. (A side side note: we do love our home. We were trying to be frugal and spend our money wisely by getting a smaller house. We don't need the three tier deck. Or the pool. Or the family room AND the living room. But God knows our heart and our intentions to be wise, but still wants to bless us with this big, beautiful home. There is a reason for us being here. A purpose. His plan.)

Oh and HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY to my husband!
Thanks honey for being my kitchen-hero! :)