Lightening up

Now that I finally finished up the kitchen cabinets, I can share another update that I made a month or so ago.  Why the delay?  Because I'm incredibly vain, and I've been waiting to show it until I could take some nice pictures after all the painting was done.

It's a mirror!  (I mean, obviously it's a mirror - I just meant that to convey my excitement about it.)  I decided to add it at the same time I decided to paint the cabinets, because I thought that, along with the white paint, it would help with lightening up the kitchen.  Look at all that beautiful light!

It certainly makes for a nice change from the old set-up, which looked like this:

God, it's SO BLAND!!  I can't get over how long I lived with it like that.  Okay, just one more ugly picture and then back to the prettiness.

As much as I liked that Asian-y design thing I had on the wall before, I think the scale of the mirror is so much better, and having that extra depth in the room is really nice.  Not to mention the difference I think it makes with the light.

I also like how the shape kind of ties in with the rug in the living room.

Things are looking good around here, folks. 

Kitchen cabinets: Episode 6

Hallelujah, they're done! 

It's taken three months, and I don't even know how many hours of painting, but THEY'RE DONE.  I'm very pleased with the end result. 

The goal was to lighten things up in my otherwise dark kitchen, and I'm happy because I think the white paint job really accomplished that.  The only way to really tell the difference (for those of you not actually present in the house) is to see the before and afters, so without further ado...

Remember this bland scene?

I can't get over what a fantastic change that is.  I mean, the green walls made a huge difference in terms of adding some personality, but even if you look at how it was with the green walls and the natural-wood cabinets, it still was pretty dark.

I still haven't made a final decision on leaving the two open cabinets on or off.  I like the idea aesthetically, and functionally it's been great too, to have such easy access to all the stuff in those cabinets.  Just not 100% sure yet, so I'll probably sit with it for a few more days and try it out the other way too before making a decision.  I mean, hey, it's waited this long, it can probably stand a few more days of indecision.

So there you have it.  Probably the last big renovation I'll do to the kitchen until I have enough money to tear everything out and start over.  Except for the overhead light.  And the dishwasher.  Okay, maybe spoke too soon.  Sigh...