Kitchen reveal!

The journey to finish or at least 'finish' the kitchen in my apartment has been a long one. It is easily the space with the most limitations, and the most funky, old building I will call them quirks, though there are probably less cute sounding words I could use. So I've had trouble coming up with a plan for the room, despite knowing it needed to be fixed up since the first moment I moved in. This is how it looked when I showed up.

My roommate is definitely a have-things-out-where-you-can-see-them sort of person while I'm a put-it-away-where-the-clutter-can-be-out-of-sight kind of gal, so there's a certain amount of clashing there. But I think even he agreed that this first pass I did where I just moved the microwave and toaster oven and cleaned up the counters a bit, was already much better and brighter feeling. But after living with that for another year, well it just seemed like I could still do better, despite the limitations. So when I got the all clear to paint the floors it seemed like the time to really make everything else work.

And now it looks like this! To me this really speaks to the powers of paint. The cabinets are still old and wonky and all of the old building quirks are there. But it is so much cleaner and brighter, and the fun of the pattern really makes the space seem much more special to me. 

Even the almost-black accent wall works since everything else is so white or light. On it's own it's a dramatic backdrop for colorful dishes and glasses, and with the rest of the room, it sort of provides a nice pause, and makes the prep table and fridge feel like a separate space. 

Again, here is a before, and also a during image. The yellow was fine, but especially when paired with the dingy yellowed floors, gave the room a sort of sallow feeling I just couldn't shake. 

I also did a bit of cart switching, putting the wooden kitchen cart in the living room where it fits perfectly as a bar cart, and wheeling my little industrial cart in next to the door where it's much narrower sized doesn't block the cabinet door from swinging open. I think eventually I would like to replace this with some tall industrial shelves for dishes and such, but for now, this is something that I already have, and it ties into the stainless work table so it seems to fit better. Now I want to hang out here all the time. It feels like an easy space, but not a cookie cutter kitchen at all. 

All of the various projects in this room have been cataloged in great detail here already so if you want to see more there's the floors how to here, the accent wall here, painting the cabinets here, and the interiors here, and the pattern on the glass fronts here, oh and the refrigerator door handle (small change big impact) here. And I will just wrap up with a few more photos since I took too many because I'm so happy with how it looked. Also please excuse the accidental ankle selfie in the one below!