Hello there! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! We celebrated my husband at a big event on Saturday – he got a huge award for his many years (and still going, he’s as busy as ever in “retirement”) as a teacher and composer and we are SO proud of him!
Yesterday was a lovely low-key day and it was absolutely gorgeous outside. It’s supposed to be 73 today! Whoot!! That is abnormally warm for us but I’ll take one day of it.
It was such a beautiful day yesterday so I decided to take some updated photos of the kitchen as it is so far. A few of you have asked for wider shots of the space so I did some cleaning:
Adding the new French doors during our family room reno last year was seriously one of our best moves ever in this house. It has transformed the whole main level.
The window seat is also a BIG statement and I’m totally, crazy, stupid in love with it:
I found fabric for the pillows and cushion this weekend and I’m so excited to get sewing! These have just been standing in for the past couple of months while I’ve figured out what I want to do there:
Here’s a wider shot of this area:
The only thing I’ve not been happy about through the whole reno process is the patching of the ceilings. They don’t match the rest of our ceilings so I think it’s going to be messy to fix that. Not looking forward to it but in the scheme of everything we’ve done, it’s minor and I’m pretty thrilled that’s the only thing I’m not pleased with.
Here’s a look at everything with the new extended island – my pride and joy:
This is still one of my favorite DIYs I’ve ever done in this house. I am thoroughly enjoying the bigger surface space:
On a side note, since I finished the island our kitchen has stayed relatively clutter-free – it’s been wonderful. I used to pile everything on the island and the table and I’ve made a concentrated effort not to do that over the past few weeks. It takes more work on the front end but it is the best feeling to have a clean kitchen. (Well, not always clean – but mostly picked up at least!)
Here’s the whole kitchen from the family room:
You’ll notice here the difference between the old paint color, Sisal (above the cabinets) and the new, Analytical Gray (everywhere else). I haven’t painted up there because most of it will be covered by cabinets, but you can really see the more gray tint in the analytical gray. I love that color!
This view will look completely different by the end of the summer – that microwave wall will undergo a big update. This wall of cabinets will be built up to the ceiling and will get a makeover as well:
I am seriously SO excited to get moving on that part – my next project is building in the fridge for a more custom look. I’m about ready to start that, just need to figure out a few more details.
Here’s one of my favorite views as I sit on my chaise, chaise window seat:
Knocking down one wall in the family room doubled the size of our kitchen. We didn’t realize how much it would transform that space as well. Happy accident for sure!
A microwave will move to this spot in the island sometime soon:
I’m SO excited about that! I think we’ll love it.
Here’s the view from the other corner of the kitchen:
I love looking at that view cause it’s all done, other than the fabrics on the window seat. :)
And this is from that same spot into the expanded family room:
We knew taking down a wall would make a big difference, we just had no idea how big! Someday I will dig up older pics and do a before and after post because you can really appreciate the difference when you look at those! Crazy.
I hope this helps those of you who wanted to see how things have come together! We are just so thrilled with this whole space and so grateful we got to do all of this. Now I’m heading outside to enjoy this gorgeous weather and work on some clean up in the flower beds. I’ve never started this early and I’m hoping to get a good head start on the season.
Isn’t it amazing how the the nicer weather energizes you? I love this time of year!