Kitchen inspiration

So as you just read in the previous post (or will read in a second), I just purchased a house! Bad news - it's almost 100 years old and in need of some serious TLC.

One of the first rooms I plan to tackle is the kitchen. What cabinets are in the house are a dark wood and there's CARPET in the kitchen! While I would love to gut the kitchen and start from scratch, that's not in the budget at this moment. Below is a picture of the kitchen (with all cabinets/drawers open thanks to my nephew. Notice the pretty green paper on the door backs - don't you just love that!

So my plans include at the moment:

1.) Paint the existing cabinets white (undecided if top cabinets will get doors put back on - doubt it)

2.) Remove nasty carpet and 'hope' hardwood floor underneath is in decent shape, if not it'll get painted in a checked or striped pattern. Okay when I started this post a few days ago until yesterday when I finally took possession of the home and riped up one corner of the carpet I thought there were old tongue & groove hardwood floors in the kitchen. I still think that floor is there (I can see it in the basement - know it's there), unfortunately when I pulled back the carpet I found old tile that my brother thinks were installed with a glue that's been since banned and will require full haz-mat suits to remove......so the kitchen floor is in limbo - something will have to be put on TOP of the tile floor because the carpet will be going real soon.

3.) A refrigerator & stove are a must since the house doesn't have either and I'll probably get a microwave too, although I rarely use one, but my nephew (Johnathon) is worried that I won't be able to make popcorn if I don't have a microwave! Silly boy doesn't realize you can make popcorn on the stove top.

4.) Knock down a wall and make current bedroom into dining room

5.) Move current back door over 5 to 6 feet so it lines up with the stairs and gives me more wall space in the kitchen.

6.) Remove green colored paneling and replace with sheet rock

7.) Add a few floor and wall cabinets by stove and fridge. I hope to have enough room to do a floor to ceiling pantry style cabinet on outside of fridge, not sure I'll have room though.

8.) Remove facing above cabinets and make into a shelf to store baskets and such. This is not going to be what I'd once thought either - not as much room as I thought I'd have when I finally got the house and starting 'poking' around - still going to try it though.

9.) Install floor & wall cabinets on far wall in the new dining room.

10.) Replace window in new dining area with 15-lite patio door that will eventually lead to a back deck that I'm going to build (hopefully sometime next year, which may been when the window becomes a door too!)

11.) Cover ceiling in tin tiles. This may have to wait a bit but will happen at some point, I love, love, love tin ceiling tiles in a kitchen.

12.) New light fixtures throughout kitchen and new dining room

13.) Install outlets - there is only ONE outlet in the whole kitchen - Ugh, that won't work

14.) Kitchen Island - this may also wait a bit but I hope not since my new floor plan is kind of built around it. Don't think it should be too terribly expensive to make, it's just a few cabinets and a counter top with electricity ran to it - how hard can that be?

15.) Eventually I'd like to replace the counter top with either stainless steel or butcher block - most likely a combination of the two. Unfortunately the existing counter top is in good shape so I can't warrant replacing it right now, but one of these days....

16.) Food disposal and new faucet - stainless or brushed nickel

17.) One day I'd like to get a farmhouse sink also, but that's definitely one that will have to wait - have you looked at the price of those.

The primary color in the kitchen will be white. As of right now I plan to paint the dining room/kitchen walls a dark red and accent with yellow. Of course I hold the right to change my mind about that at any given point in time!! And going back and proof reading this post I realize after reading my to-do list for the kitchen that in the end I'll pretty much gut the kitchen with the exception of a few existing cabinets & the counter top, hmmmmm.

Below is a little inspiration for the kitchen design floating around in my head.......please realize if you come visit me I expect to be working on my kitchen/dining area for quite some time. Upgrade/remodel could likely take me about a year to complete. I'd love to have it done in a month but don't plan to hire a contractor to do it which means it'll be on the slow track (basically I'll get done what I can and then wait for help from brother & Dad). While I want to do as much of the work as I can, I'll admit now that I'll need help - somethings I won't be able to do by myself and other things I don't know how to do - yet anyway. To slow things down a bit more, we're in the middle of baseball season - 3 young one's (two of my brother's who's helping with improvements and he's the coach!) and they don't understand when you have to miss one of their games.

Love this island, but I think I'd like one that's bi-level with bar stools and butcher block top

Clean & Crisp - black, white & stainless - can't go wrong

French country kitchen - love just about everything in this kitchen
Love, love, love this look.....don't know about you, but I'm liking the look of the open cabinets, and once again white & stainless!

Pantry organized in jars with a chalk board door - how cool is that!

I've been downloading pictures from the internet for several months now while waiting to close on my home and failed to write down the website or link as to where I got the pictures. If any of these belong to you or you know where I got them please feel free to contact me and I'll get proper credit posted under the pictures.