Kitchen Advice Wanted

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Aaron and I are getting ready to redo our kitchen. Right now, it is pretty much how it was when I moved in almost 2 years ago. It has laminate wood floors, a horrid salmony beige color on the walls, the countertops are wooden looking, and the cabinets are starting to show wear and tear. The biggest problem is that with the table, there are four distinct woods in the kitchen, and it looks horrible.

We want to do a beach theme. I have two line drawings I got on my Disney cruise that are our main inspiration. At this point, we are just going to paint the walls and cabinets, switch out the hardware, replace the sink (it's porcelain and had multiple chips in it when we moved in), and the window treatments. Replacing the countertops and cabinets just is not feasible right now with the other things we need to do to the house.

My first idea had been to paint the bottom half a more sandy color and the top half a blue with a chair rail in between (I found one that looks like coiled rope.) But neither of us have ever put in a chair rail and we decided we don't care to mess with it now.

I know that we want to do a white on the cabinets and make it look a bit aged. We have not decided on the hardware. The sink is going to be stainless steel because I am sick of porcelain. (Every porcelain sink/tub in the house was chipped when I bought the house. How do people do that? I'm going with a brushed nickel finish on the hardware I'm pretty sure.

Our real dilemma is the walls. There is an archway between the kitchen and the living room. The living room is a very bright blue. I'm not sure it would work in the small space of the kitchen, but another blue might clash. I was thinking about maybe doing a yellow or a less pinky beige, but I'm concerned that with the white cabinets it's going to look aged. I'll have pics in the next post. Any ideas or advice would be great. We have an idea of what we want to do, but we're not sure how we want to get there!

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

The floor:

The cabinets:

The wall (with one of the art prints we're using as inspiration):

The view into the living room:

 

[luvmy3]

My bathroom is beach colors so I love the theme you are going with

I don't know if I'd do blue in the kitchen because there was already so much blue in the living room, but if you wanted to I'm sure you could find one that wouldn't clash with your living room color.
I would do a sandy beige on the walls. I would do accents like the valance and towels/linens in blue, and brushed nickel hardware and faucet.

 

[minkydog]

Wow, that's some blue you got there. I agree, use a sandy color on the kitchen walls. Maybe a warm chai color with white or antique white cabinets. Nothing dramatic. What color are your appliances?

We're redoing out kitchen too--I feel your pain We're refacing the cabinets, new hardware, new sink, new counter tops, keeping the white appliances. If I could send you our chair rail, I would. I've been stripping wallpaper and ripping out chair rail for about 2 weeks.

 

[indimom]

I agree with white for the cabinets. You'll have them looking like new almost overnight.
I really like the brushed nickel for the cabinet handles and the faucet.

I have to agree with you about doing blue again. I'd be afraid it would clash with the adjacent room. I think a coral color would work or the "right" beige. OR even a very pale (think butter) yellow. You can then accent with light blue and primary red.

Oh, and if you hate the countertop. Someone on the DIS posted about PAINTING their bathroom countertop with a special paint designed for this purpose. They had pix and it looked really nice when done. So, if you want a cheap change in the countertop, it might be something to look into. I had no idea this was even possible until I saw it here.

Good Luck. Make sure you post finished pix when you are done.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

LOL. The blue on the walls was the first thing I painted. I love bright colors, and even did a test sample, but didn't realize how it would look on the whole room! I had been thinking about a subdued yellow and have several paint samples.

The refrigerator and microwave (mine) are white, but the dishwasher and stove are just a slight off white.

The counter paint sounds neat, I've never heard of it. I'm wondering if it will be too much though. As much as I truly hate the countertops, I'm hoping that with a fresh look for the rest of the kitchen they won't look so bad.

 

[luvmy3]

LOL. The blue on the walls was the first thing I painted. I love bright colors, and even did a test sample, but didn't realize how it would look on the whole room! I had been thinking about a subdued yellow and have several paint samples.

The refrigerator and microwave (mine) are white, but the dishwasher and stove are just a slight off white.

The counter paint sounds neat, I've never heard of it. I'm wondering if it will be too much though. As much as I truly hate the countertops, I'm hoping that with a fresh look for the rest of the kitchen they won't look so bad.

I think your coutertops will take on a different look with a beach themed room. Butcher block (even fake laminate ones) is very cottage like which can work well for beach theme too.
I have the same counters, right now I have about 8 samples of new counter sitting next to my new stove. I can't decide which one I want, but I definitely need the change, since I hate my current counters with my current decor.

 

[indimom]

Had to add that I do think the wood countertop would work with a beach theme also. But I wanted to throw the painting idea out there in case you really hated it.

 

[tvguy]

Good news, the blue has to go.
Bad news, I love how your kitchen and flooring look right now.

Only unbiased advice I have is, put together a budget for the project, and multiple it by at least 5.

 

[Tuffcookie]

With that bright of a blue in the livingroom, I would go with a very pale yellow on the upper wall in the kitchen, with the sandy brown at the bottom and the chair railing in the middle.

Have fun! Until you decide what color you like, buy small samples to try on the wall. My favorite paint is Benjamin Moore. Although it costs more it covers so much better!

TC

 

[luvmy3]

OP, what about doing something like this kitchen (2 pictures in the group). You could tie in the blue in your living room with the tiles in the backsplash. Its so cute, I wish I could do it in my house.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&...e&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

 

[disneyhand]

Look at this: http://theletteredcottage.net/

She has done lots of projects and has great taste (in my opinion!) with colors. She explains what she's done also. There are lot's of great links on her page as well.

Regarding your existing sink, is it installed under the counter top? If so you may not be able to change it out until you change the counter top. I once ran into this situation and had to wait for a new sink.

Good luck!

 

[golfgal]

Before I saw your pictures I was thinking a light blue but I have to agree now, that is way too much blue in one area. What ever color you get make SURE it has the same undertones as that blue in your other room or they will look really bad together. Have the paint store people help you with that if you need. I would be tempted to go with white on most of the walls and maybe a pale yellow on the wall between the cabinets for a little color just to offset the bright blue in the next room.

When you paint the cabinets, look into a product called "Liquid Sand". There are some other names for the same thing but basically you brush it on like paint (it is clear) and it gives your paint something to bond to on the cabinets. I would also use a VERY GOOD oil based paint (Benjamin Moore makes one). It will hold up much better on your cabinets.

Is your only counter space that picture you showed? If so, adding a new formica/laminate countertop will NOT cost very much, probably under $100. I would keep the floors. When you paint the cabinets (and any wood trim in the room maybe) your floors will really stand out.

For the chair rail, it is REALLY easy to do if you have a miter saw. It will be well worth the investment to get a table top saw that rotates to cut miters. You can get a Black and Decker pretty good one for around $100. You will find you use that for a LOT of things in the next however many years. If you don't have too many outside corners (like a doorway) you can put up a chair rail in no time-especially a decorative one because the rope will hide a lot of oopses.

edit:--for the appliances, you can buy appliance paint if you want them all to be white (which I would suggest). Otherwise, look at appliance stores for used appliances. Since the rest of your appliances are "used" they will work. You could also look on craigslist, etc. and get a pretty good deal on white.