Whats Your Style Series- The Kitchen + Giveaway

Many of you have seen the transformation of my kitchen over the past 5 years.  It has gone from a "Very Brady" kitchen to a "painted everything" and now we are at the "ripped it wide open stage".

 Today I'm talking kitchens as part of the What's Your Style Series that Jenna organized.  Last month was all about living rooms, and next month I'm pretty excited to talk bedrooms (we haven't gone there much around here).

 So in case you are new, let me catch you up to speed on what I've been working with .

Here is my kitchen when we moved in circa 2009.  Lots of walnut laminate, lots of laminate period!

There was a wall separating it from the "den" that we lived with for a while until my husband decided to knock it down on a whim- bless his heart, demolition makes me a happy woman!

Here was the situation one year ago.

Walls down, a giant mess...

And current day...

 Taking the walls down made everything so much better and brighter, and gave use new zones to live in.  The space is now broken into three parts: kitchen, dining and lounging.

So what is my style?  

It's sort of Eclectic, Mod-Cottage, Beachy, Vintage.

But I think I have to add Budget in here too.  This kitchen has a whole lot of DIY that saved some serious bucks going on in it.  Lets start with paint...

 We painted almost every surface in this kitchen.  Ceiling, counters, cabinets...

Thank goodness for paint that is specialized for laminate!

The look I wanted was Mod-Cottage, Beachy.

The Vintage just happened naturally due to bone structure ;)

The upper cabinets went white, the lowers a deep navy blue.

The kitchen cabinets were in great shape and had tons of storage.

I liked that they were simple and flat.  We added IKEA hardware to the doors, changed out the fridge and dishwasher and painted stripes on the ceiling.  I love the vintage ovens, but sadly the lower one is all that works so a new plan is on the horizon for them.  

One of my favorite areas is the little built in desk.

It acts as Minecraft central for the kids...

We even painted the countertops to look like marble.

I have a tutorial on how to do it it here.  

 It's been three years and it's starting to wear though, but it was a great money saving fix for the interim.

See the cutting board below?  It hides a nasty burn mark from a pot, so it never moves.  

I recently added a valance.  Need to tailor it a bit more, not sure I'm loving since I've had this window naked for 5 years...

 And this brings me to my work room (a.k.a. my dining table)...

My Dad built the table as a wedding gift, and he made it wide enough to fit a width of fabric and long enough (8') to cut wallpaper.  I'm here A LOT making messes.

The chairs were flea market finds I painted Palladian Blue...

and the lights I built from old vintage spaghetti pendants and welded (with Dad's help again) into some orbs I scored at Homegoods.  

I guess this is part of the space is where the Eclectic/ Vintage  comes in.  I repurposed this old dresser as a side board/ bar and painted it a gray/ blue to work of teh kitchen cabinets.  I added an old neon sign (kind of makes dieting hard with a donut reminder staring at you).

The rest of the space is technically "living area" than kitchen, but it all flows together... 

it's kind of the lounge for folks while I cook.

I just recently added drapes, after a year of painful indecision.  

I found the fabric here , and it was a great price!  I was nervous about so much red cause I'm not a "red" girl by nature, but I really love how it warms up all my blue I have going on.

and I love how it picks up my coral red door (which I am currently writing this from behind it)...

 The coffee/ Mojito perches for the pyro loving folk...

and here is the view from the end of the room.  

We do plan on updating the counters and opening the oven wall up to the mudroom/sunroom in the next year or two so things will change once again, and who knows... my style might too!

I hope you enjoyed my little tour.  

Be sure to check out all the other fab bloggers on this tour as well:

Tuesday, February 25th

So Much Better with Age

Eclectically Vintage

Shabby Love

Iron & Twine

The White Buffalo Styling Co. 

Wednesday, February 26th

Rain on  a Tin Roof

Shabby Creek Cottage

DIY Showoff

Craftberry Bush

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