Hi everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  For today’s Moodboard Monday I am sharing a kitchen I recently designed.  This moodboard was a participant in a contest over at Olioboard.  The contest was to create a modern kitchen.  This is my version of modern.  To me, modern is clean lines, exaggerated patterns and lots of soft neutrals.  I think the neutrals make modern more livable.  Thanks for stopping by.  Happy Monday!

Welcome to Walk Through Wednesday.  Today I am sharing the kitchen/dining room combo. 

Love the mix of dark wood cabinets with painted cabinets.

I am also loving the dining nook.  If I could change only one thing about my house it would be to have windows like in this nook.

I am a sucker for mixed seating, especially these happy yellow chairs. 

As always, thanks for stopping by.  Hope you have a wonderful day!

In the beginning…  Above is a picture of a picture (the flyer that I picked up when the house was for sale) of what the kitchen looked like when we moved in.  This was before I started my blog so I don’t have a good “before” picture.  Here are some of the changes we have made; new appliances, new countertops, new sink, new light over the sink, new window treatments, and I removed the wallpaper. 

I have been busy the last couple of weeks working on my kitchen cabinets.  To refresh everyone’s memory, this is how they looked the first time I redid them.   My husband took down the cabinets over the peninsula.  He added beaded board to the recessed (and damaged) doors.  He also added beaded board to the sides of the uppers and all around the peninsula.  I then painted them a creamy white and added a brown glaze.  You may click here to see the original post.

It wasn’t too long before I got tired of constantly wiping down the bottom cabinets.  The creamy cabinets were pretty and I loved them but they showed a lot of  stuff; scuff marks from my kids shoes when they climb up to get something from the upper cabinets, food, dust, etc.  I was also craving a little color.  My initial plan was to paint the bottoms only.  I thought I was done when I made the post above.

After awhile, I realized that the uppers needed a little something.  I didn’t want to paint them the olive like the lower cabinets but I didn’t want to leave them creamy either.  I decided to compromise and paint the frames olive and leave the recessed, beaded board doors creamy.  I am really happy with the results.  The upper cabinets don’t feel too dark or heavy as I feared they would if I painted them solid olive.  The other reason I wanted to leave some of the creamy beaded board was so they would tie in with china hutch (which is just behind where I was standing when I took this picture).

I do have a few more things on my wish list for the kitchen.  I want to add a backsplash, change out the flourescent overhead lights and change out the flooring. 

But for now, I will call it a day in the kitchen.  I am ready to move on to some other projects.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I really do appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to visit me.  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Linking up with the following:

Le Chateau des Fleurs

I painted my lower kitchen cabinets last March.  They were cream-colored with a brown glaze.  I painted them an olive-green with a brown glaze.  I thought I would leave the uppers the creamy color to tie in with my china hutch (below).  The china hutch is just to the right of where I was standing to take the picture above, so the two are pretty close together and I feel that the should feel related.

China Hutch

Well, The upper cabinets have been bugging me.  They just didn’t seem right.  I didn’t want to fully paint them green for the reasons above and because I thought if they were fully green they might be too dark and top-heavy.  So, what to do?  My first plan was to paint the boxes and leave the doors.  I tried that but it seemed a little wonky to me.  I next tried just painting the frame green and leaving the beadboard panel cream-colored.  (Picture flashing lights and horns blaring and a voice saying WINNER over and over!)  Ha, I finally figured it out.  I love the new look.

Only trouble now is, I have to paint the rest of them!  Guess it turns out this is what I’ll be doing while the kids are in school.

This is the perfect kitchen for me.  My favorite styles are Industrial, Rustic, and Modern.  This kitchen very successfully integrates all three.  I love everything about this kitchen but my favorite details include the pendant lights over the island, and the cabinet pulls.

I know white kitchens are all the rage now but I am swooning over these darker stained cabinets.  I bet they are easy to care for.  Same goes for the granite counters.  How about you?  Do you love the stained kitchen cabinet look or are you more of a painted cabinets person?