Curing the Blahs

Say you’re almost an empty-nester (both kids are in college in towns far, far away).  And say you have always dreamed of living either in a log cabin or a cottage by water so you are thinking of selling your current home in the next couple of years.  And also say that you’ve lived in said home since it was built 14 years ago and have done only minor decorating modifications to it since you moved in.  Then say to yourself that you and your husband are both borderline tightwads that hate to part with large sums of money.  What do you do?

Well, if you are my friend Kim, you enlist me to think of ideas for minor renovations and decorating choices!  And then, with a gleam in my eye, I proceed to create a Pinterest page just for your house, barrage you with paint colors and decorating ideas, talk about ideas for almost every square inch of that 3500+ sf home, plead with you to paint almost everything, including the kitchen cabinets,  and even compile a long list of paint ideas and schemes.  But even I have to focus, so I decided recently to devote my attention to her kitchen.  Because man, does it ever have a case of the blahs.

<Please excuse the photos–I had to rely on Kim and a shaky iPhone for these>

14 years ago this kitchen rocked.  The maple cabinets, the light hardwoods, and blue counters were pretty cool.  Back then I even liked that wallpaper enough to help her hang it.  Heck, since I had pretty much facilitated her picking this house plan and lot, I thought her choices were pretty good (yes, this is a true story–we go WAY BACK). But when I looked at these pictures the other day all I could think was “uh, that’s a lot of brown and yellow going on”.  Definitely not the way to market a home for sale!  At least not when you want to get top dollar like these folks will want to get.

The kitchen is pretty large, but has really limited counter space.  All the action happens on that island.  Everything from homemade cookies to playing “drinking” Jenga (it’s a thing, trust me).  But it just blends in with all the other light brown-yellow tones going on in here.  There really is no focal point, unless you count that new refrigerator.  Which I don’t.  On the other side of the high bar is a what I think the builder called a “morning room” …which is really a very large eat-in area.

With more brown.  Did I help her pick these paint colors?  Jeez.  One of the things I’ve always loved about this room though is all the windows. Kim is fortunate to have a fairly private, large backyard so sitting in there with all the blinds open to let in tons of natural light is one of this room’s biggest assets.  So I think we should go with that…make it light and bright!  Not brown and blah.

This was my inspiration shot.  The hardwoods are about the same tone, center island, open space, but most importantly LIGHT AND BRIGHT.  Then Kim put a screeching halt to this scenario–she refuses to paint her cabinets.  “I still like my maple cabinets!”-she says.  I say, with a bit of a sneer, “Well buyers may not”.  But it’s her house, not mine, and maybe, just maybe, she’s not totally over the fence about moving permanently. So I guess I’ll let her keep her pale maple cabinets.  Unless the house sits on the market for too long then I’ll be there with paint and a brush, lickety-split.

To help keep my ideas for her kitchen organized I made a mood board.  I picked out a couple paint colors that will flow with some of the other paint colors I’ve brought to her already.  Decided to really make that island be the focal point–she’s gonna have to suck it up and paint it.  And even threw in a couple extra touches like rug, lighting and decor choices.

 

So here’s the rundown.  I’d like to paint the walls in the kitchen the greige, and probably extend it all the way down the hall to the foyer.  The eat-in area gets the pop with the pale greenish-bluish-gray color.  The island gets painted a dark, deep navy and we put a dark butcher block counter on it.  The remaining counters get tricked out with granite and we top it all off with white beveled subway tile, with a thin line of blue-green-greige glass tile running through it.  Depending on Kim, I’d even vote to do the glass tile completely behind the cook top, while running the subway tile around the other 2 walls.  This room, like limited counter space, also has very limited back splash space, so splurging a bit on tile shouldn’t break the bank.  I’d like to add an extra, small end cabinet that’s open, maybe shelves or an integrated wine rack, to the end of the island.  Since this will be the largest counter space, getting prefab butcher block from IKEA then staining it ourselves will keep the costs down.  I’d also like to see at least 2 of the pendant lights hung over the island, but this will probably require wiring (I don’t remember exactly where all the can lights are located!).  The rest of the house is still fairly traditional in decor, so the rugs will blend in while being in a more modern color palette.  So what do you think?  Light and bright?  Doable?  Would you want to buy a house with a kitchen tricked out like this?!  More importantly, Kim would this make you want to stay?

Source list:

Counters= Granite: Santa Cecilia ($55-$70 per square foot in most markets), Butcher block: IKEA, $139-$269 depending on size and stain

Paint=Agreeable Gray, Sherwin Williams and Healing Aloe, Benjamin Moore (gallon usually between $35-$50 depending on product).  Island: Hale Navy, Benjamin Moore

Tile= White beveled subway tile (3×6),  $.49 each at Lowes, Glass tile=Cabot Blue Glass Mosaic, $9.42 per 1 sqft sheet at Builder Direct

Rug= Bosphorous, $49-$899, depending on size, available at RugsUSA

Pendant light=Mini Clear Glass pendant light, $99 from World Market