Buying a ten-year-old house with a dark green kitchen filled with builder grade cabinetry, countertops, and appliances quickly drove us to completely redesign the space.
Now that we’re finally done remodeling the kitchen, our friends who have seen it have kindly complimented the work and are now inspired to do a few projects with their kitchen, too.
Recreating our Texas kitchen simplified the process
Our project would have been longer if we had not done this before.
However we missed the kitchen remodel from our Texas house, so we pretty much replicated the look.
Kitchen projects our first year in the house
First we found a new kitchen table set so we’d have somewhere to sit.
After installing a microwave over the stove with a display shelf above, the walls were painted creamy yellow.
Then I sewed new blue floral on yellow valences and bought a wrought iron baker’s rack for my cookbooks.
When the old oven died the week before Thanksgiving, we replaced all the old appliances.
Kitchen projects our second year in the house
After Christmas the cabinet doors were removed so the cabinets and doors could easily be painted.
The blue painter’s tape labels on the shelves correspond to blue labels on each door, A to A, B to B, etc.
Doors and drawers have permanent homes and like to go back where they began.
Otherwise, they won’t shut completely.
Three months later the cabinetry was completely refreshed!
Beadboard was added inside the back of the display shelf over the microwave and to the sides of the island, then painted Pam’s Lace (white).
Dark French Country wrought iron hardware replaced the old brass leafy handles on the drawers and knobs on the cabinets.
Then I chose limestone and bronze tiles for the backsplash and a faux black granite for the countertops.
Although we live in pricey Northern Virginia, we live on the less pricey end of NoVA.
So it wasn’t worth spending money we didn’t have on super expensive countertops.
Since I have such a tiny pantry, we shopped for a huge over the door organizer at the Container Store that significantly maximizes the space of my wee pantry!
(How I miss my huge pantry from Texas. Lots of houses we toured didn’t have a pantry at all.)
We also painted the walls of the inside of the pantry, which were all marked up for some reason.
Future projects
The next major project for the kitchen will be a new chandelier.
Meanwhile I’m considering window treatment options for over the sink.
Otherwise, this room is pretty much conquered.
I love using this space!
As much as I miss my Texas kitchen, I think this one turned out even better.
Of course, it has good bones and features not possible in our Texas house.
I really love the tall, tall ceilings, so I’m on the fence about a pot rack, which would actually fit the space.
However, it would also be a dust collector and might cramp the space.
However, it would yield lots of space in the cabinetry.
We’ll see.
Dolly Madison inspiration for the room
Read this blog post to learn more about Dolly Madison and how she inspired the nickname for our kitchen.
