Before and After: Kitchen Updates

This was a very big weekend for our kitchen, a very big weekend indeed! My sister Kari and her husband Ben came down from VT (where they now live! Much closer than CO! Woo!) and boy did they hook us up. Ben is even more handy than Jason is (sorry honey) and between the two of them they put up my much awaited backsplash and pendant lights over the new peninsula.

But as they say, begin from the beginning. I guess you could describe our kitchen as galley style. You walk in from the living room and there is one long row of cabinetry/appliances on left:

Straight forward faces double doors out to the deck:

And the right side has another little area, fridge, dining room access and then a half bath:

Other direction:

When we first moved, we immediately took care of two big things: appliances and lighting. After the new fridge and range were in, our electrician installed both under and over cabinet lights, which made an incredible difference in warmth and ambiance. And then I said, "You know, I feel like our cabinets would do much better with, like, bronze knobs instead of silver." A quick trip to Lowe's and we were in business. I don't have any real before and afters of this but trust me, it was genius at work.

So those changes held us for awhile but we always struggled with the big blank wall on the right that seemed to be such a waste of space. Well besides the nice comfy home it made for Ashton's highchair.

Surely we could find some way to get a couple stools and extra counter and cabinet space, but there was no doubt that our kitchen was too narrow for an island. So, we constructed a fake peninsula out of a wardrobe box and Ikea countertop to make sure it functioned well and didn't block the entrance to the bathroom because this was not going to be a small expense. We lived with that for awhile, decided we were 100% sure and then...

We went for it. Ordered the cabinets and granite, scheduled the install, and voila!

Now, enter Ben and Kari this past weekend. I'm getting to my point I promise. The project still was not finished. The lighting was now really off-balance being mainly on the left side and I have been wanting needing pendant lights. Short story: I ordered some and Ben hung them for me this weekend! Afterwards, my little DIY project went up on the wall (I found some cute dish towels at HomeGoods that I cut up and framed) and here is the finished product :)

There's still a little hole in the wall near the ceiling we need to fix. Ben opened it up to do the wiring and discovered that the contractor who refinished our kitchen simply put more drywall up over the old stuff. UNEARTHED: This lovely wallpaper of yore.

Drumroll please...My favorite part about the new peninsula:

Double bins for trash and recycling! This little baby is also known as my anniversary gift haha. It was an add-in that I couldn't live without so I invoked the nearest occasion Jason owed me a present for. I'm nothing if not resourceful.

Oh, but we are only half done my friends. Let's turn our heads to the other side of the kitchen to the wall that so desperately needed a backsplash. I picked a mid-sized subway tile in natural stone. Neutral. Non-threatening. No fancy patterns or inserts. But, um, tile that turned out to need monstrous amounts of grout due to beveled edges and to be more porous than coral. I was not Jason's favorite person during the grouting process, not at all. 14 pounds of it went on and then about 13.5 pounds had to come right back off in scraping. Whoops.

But what's really the most important thing here? Jason's tired arms or cracked fingertips? No. It is how beautiful it came out :) Little right side area next to fridge:

Left side:

Oooooo! Ahhhhhhh!!

Here's the down and dirty with what happened in between all the befores and afters:

In between all this they cut down a fallen tree from our back yard using rope and chainsaws and also switched out our old gold grimy firebox for a new sleek black one (part of the upcoming fireplace makeover). They made quite the team :)

So this is officially our new kitchen (minus my dish towel frames).

 I am IN LOVE! A huge thank you to Ben and Kari for coming down and making this all happen. I can't wait to return the favor once you move in to your new house in a couple weeks xoxox! Oh and thanks of course to my husband who always asks me what I want and (almost) never tells me no ;)