Spontaneous & Fast Project

Last Thursday evening Philip headed off to a Jets game and I was feeling mega burnt out from the work week and ready for an evening of relaxing. I didn't feel like making dinner, let alone doing anything productive.

Philip left, I made myself a snack, and I sat down to watch some Netflix. A little bit into TV I went to catch up on blog reading and came across this Apartment Therapy article about simple DIY projects to do this weekend. I looked at all the articles, and after reading this one, I decided to do a quick change in our kitchen that I thought might tide me over until the big reno happens.

Our kitchen cooking area can be pretty tight, and I get lonely cooking in there alone! Sometimes Philip sits at the kitchen table and chats with me while I cook, but then I have to open the cupboard doors in order to see him at all. I have to admit I'm not that trendy when it comes to the open shelf trend, I find things get dusty and I just don't have enough pretty things that I feel like displaying in my kitchen, but I did think this might make the some-day-to-be-changed kitchen layout feel a little more welcoming and fit our lifestyle better. I decided to get out the screwdriver and take off the doors on the kitchen side of the peninsula.

It took 4 screwdriver bits, about an hour, and the removal of 18 screws, in addition to the wiping of ancient 1960s sawdust, but it was worth it!

The removal of the doors, along with the wonderful yellow tulips I got last week from a friend, are turning our kitchen into a smilier place by the day :).

One of the best things about this I realized after the light of day happened the next morning is that it lets the light from the kitchen area window flood the whole space. It really helps things to feel brighter!

Happy Monday!

The Kitchen Colour Conflict

Philip & I have been constructively arguing about the cabinetry we'd like to go with for probably a year now. For those who aren't in the loop, I work in the kitchen business so it can be tough every day selling beautiful kitchens while ours remains dishwasher-less with a fridge in the living room. We're really hoping to renovate the kitchen this year, depending on cash flow, so we started to choose some of the decor aspects to make a more accurate budget. This week we made some great strides towards envisioning the kitchen we'll be putting in:

1. We're looking into redoing the entire main floor flooring...it's a bit of a crazy addition to the budget, but the floor needs refinishing anyway and this way we could have the same floor throughout the kitchen and living room. We'll likely do carpet in the bedrooms, and then we're going to do engineered natural maple throughout the remaining main floor. We're looking into installing it ourselves to save a couple thousand dollars, but we have to think that through a little more.

2. Two tone cabinetry is going to be the look we're going for, and we chose my favourite grey-ish stain from my work, Slate, for the bottoms while the uppers will be a painted soft white. 

3. As far as countertops, we're hoping to put in a new quartz product in a white tone, it's a laminated quartz - a thin layer of quartz with a manufactured core making it really light weight - and affordable. It's a brand new product so we'll see what the limitations are and if it will work for us over the next month or two. 

4. This is a big one...we plan to take down a number of walls. All of the walls we can. When we're done you'll be able to see from the living room all the way to the back door, and the kitchen layout will  be drastically changed.

Take a peek at some 3D renderings I did at work the other day! Let us know if you have any ideas we should try to incorporate? We've been brainstorming but it's a big project to undertake!