WhaT to dO About the KitcheN?

{A little bit of the holidays in my kitchen window}

As I may have mentioned before, we live in an older (way older, almost ancient!) home. It has a bit of charm and character, but I will admit that I sometimes wish we had a brand spanking new house. I hesitated to say (or write) that out loud as I’m sure the house is going to hold that against me and the roof will start leaking . . . again!!!

Last year, we were forced to make a few changes in the kitchen – the 1964-vintage oven/stove, brown-rusty-orange in color, went kaput! Don’t you love it when people call old things vintage?? My dentist should have called my old fillings "vintage" and maybe I wouldn't have gotten so cranky about her ill-timed remarks (but that's another story)!! Anyway, we replaced that honking huge stove and the refrigerator, the countertop, backsplash, hardware on the cabinets and the sink/fixture. While all those improvements were needed and helped the kitchen, it just didn't seem like enough or that it looked as good as it should. What to do??

{Before}

The thought of renovating the whole kitchen crossed my mind . . . but only for a second. For one thing, I'm not a great cook. If I had a beautiful new kitchen, I'd think I needed to cook all the time and that is definitely not me. So, when faced with the prospect of an expensive, dusty, messy and lengthy kitchen renovation or a fairly quick re-painting job, we made the easy decision. Yes, we decided to go ahead and paint the cabinets. My Dad was shocked!! What!?!? You’re painting wood cabinets???? Oh my word – he was aghast!

{After!}

{And look, there's Maddy's Christmas art project next to the microwave! }

But guess what -- it turned out beautiful! I absolutely love it. We also had some beadboard/wainscot paneling (whatever you call it) put up around the edge of the counter. I asked my painter about using beadboard wallpaper and painting it and he looked at me like I was possessed! He said - - never, repeat after me, never paint wallpaper! So, he had a carpenter friend put up the real thing. More fabulousness!! I sang, I danced, I baked!

I am so thrilled with my "new" kitchen! Hubs is also thrilled that his wallet didn't take such a big hit as it would have for a fancy-schmanzy remodeled kitchen!

{Loving the beadboard look!}