New House: The Kitchen

When we first started the moving process (putting our house on the market, looking for a new one, etc) I thought I was going to have to shut down the blog and start a new one. We spent the last 3 years doing major projects on our house and I thought my blog title would no longer be relevant. Thankfully, that's not the case.

For it is not where you live, but how you live that determines how many projects you can do.

I only say that so that someone will read my blog and make an internet meme out of my quote, and then it will be all over Pinterest. Feel free to fill in the blank with whatever applies to you (i.e. "how happy you are" or "how much money you will make").

We did NOT buy a fixer upper this time around. The house was built in 1996 (I think), so it's fairly new, and has been well maintained. The house itself is very nicely decorated, but it is definitely not our taste. So let the City of Projects be revived!

I'm going to try to stay committed to do a series of posts now, where I share current photos of the house as it was listed for sale. Then I will share what I plan to do with each space. I'm a little nervous to post photos of the house before we have actually closed on the house, only for fear that I may jinx it. But I can be a daredevil, and so I share!

Today I will share the kitchen/living room. I am starting here because I cannot stop thinking about making this into my dream(ish) kitchen. It would be my real dream kitchen if it wasn't completely opened up to the living room, but you work with what you have. I don't think we looked at one house that didn't have that feature. Not my favorite, but seems to be a trend for newer homes in that area.

I do appreciate the counter space and upgrades in this kitchen - It has nice appliances and granite countertops.

There's also a nice built-in desk on the left there. We had a similar space in our old kitchen. It was more  of a built-in hutch since we couldn't sit at it, but it caught a lot of clutter. I'm hoping I can figure out how to use this space so it's not super cluttered all the time. But if you ask Kennedy, that's impossible when you live with me.

Here's a look standing at the island looking into the breakfast nook and living room.

And here's the living room area...It's actually much bigger looking in person.

Now, I feel like I've typed a lot of words, and in an effort to keep things short, I'm going to shift to a list of plans I have for this space.

• Paint all walls in a neutral grey tone, kind of like this:

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• Paint all cabinets WHITE! I'm dreaming of a white kitchen....

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• Change the backsplash from the tumbled travertine tile to white subway tile/dark brown grout. (The granite is a dark brown color, so I want to tie it in.)

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• Something untraditional with the island. Not sure on details yet but I definitely want to add posts to the two corners on the bar side...possibly paint it a different color than the other kitchen cabinets. I haven't decided if I will be safe and go with a dark grey, or if I want to bring in a pop of color like a light blue.

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• Paint all doors (throughout the entire house!) black like this. Keep the door frames white.

I haven't thought too much about the living room side. We already have most of the furniture for that room. We will mount our TV above the fireplace instead of off to the side...same grey color throughout kitchen and living room.

Ok, what room should I do next??