From the day we saw the listing photos we knew going into this house that the kitchen was the toughest space. It was not exactly a dream kitchen and was kind of surprising how small it was for how big the rest of the house is. When we went into contract I started brainstorming some cost effective ways to make the kitchen functional until we could later gut it. The truth is all the work we have done in this space is VERY much temporary and meant to just buy us a few years. We have big dreams of gutting the whole space, opening the space up by removing the dining room wall, placing a large island with bar stools and having new floor to ceiling U shaped cabinets layout. Because I knew it was all just temporary I did air on the BRAVE side and pick colors and choices I would hesitate to do normally.

Here is what we did!

1. We painted the counters. We did this first which seems odd but it needed to cure over a week and we didn’t have much turn around time. We used a kit found at the link here ——

2. We started to prep the kitchen to be painted by our painters and we couldn’t help but take out the upper cabinets in the middle of the room. This last minute change was the biggest change with little effort. It opened the space up and let so much light in!

3. After our painters painted (Green is Fox Hall from Sherwin Williams) my friend Jess helped with so much. She helped me install the easy peel and stick floors, knobs, and placing the doors back on.

4. The easy peel and stick backsplash was probably the most impressive. We do want to grout it to help it look a little more finished! One day!

5. We tried to make the dining area as intentional as we could adding some more storage and counter space. The credenza we have is perfect for it!

6. Our little table is from Wayfair. It is a little too big for the space but they do offer smaller sizes.

7. The last big change we made was taking out the old vent hood and adding in the microwave. This made it so much more functional for us. It is so nice that all our appliances now match.

So that’s a wrap. For now. We still have small changes to make like lighting fixtures and strips to the backsplash etc. I still get caught up in dreaming up what this space can be one day but for now we will live our life enjoying what we have.