The Kitchen.....YES!

Remember my Stuck in the 90's  (click on that to see more) kitchen.  The lovely range top island/table combo, the weird window surround,

 

the gorgeous deep mauve walls, almost fuchsia tiles and hunter green formica.

 and the oh so lovely orangey tone wood cabinets and trim.

Can you imagine waking up to that every morning?  Well, here is what I wake up to now.  In early morning light.

I have to show you again.  With more light.  From this

 

to....TA DA! 

From this

to this,

and from this

to this.

More photos cause I just can't help myself. The bar stools are on their way to a makeover.

The chalkboard on the side of the pantry cabinet and the cabinet added to the top.

Another view and a glimpse of the new entry to the dining room.

   

My chalkboard painted tray.  This was one of my first Pins, oh so many Pins ago.  Yep, that's chalk.

The new cabinet added to the top of the pantry cabinet became a wine glass rack when I realized that the designer had made a slight error when calculating crown trim and door placement.  Don't worry I spoke to her severely and then docked her pay. 

The refrigerator surround with the new built out top cabinet

and the trimmed out corner cabinet. 

The left side

  used to look like this

and now looks like this.

The old window surround. We took out the canned light and hung a pendant light.

The canned light was off center about 6 inches so we used the box to center and hang the pendant.  I'm not crazy about it though so I'm trying to come up with something else.  We rebuilt the window surround taking out the funny little bump out and the stepped area behind and to the sides of the sink.

This left us with enough room to add cabinets on either side of the windows.  Right now they are open but eventually they will have glass doors.  I built a cornice for the window using the same angle that is above the fireplace

 and then stenciled a vining leaf pattern onto it with drywall compound.  Then painted it all gloss white and glazed just the stenciled inset with a light taupe color.  To beat the heat of our summer sun we hung a bamboo blind.  All together it turned out so pretty!

  

The open cabinets hold some of my blue dishes, some of my blue glass and Mother's gold glasses.

And Uncle Stevie's blue mixing bowls.

The right side used to look like this

but now looks like this.

and this

 

As you can see there are still some things to do.  The island is waiting for its legs.  The oven cabinet is still waiting for its bottom doors.  The floor is going to get a paint job real soon and then baseboard molding will go down.   But it is mostly done!  

This is a good time to say thank you to my sister.   Karen came to celebrate my 60th birthday with me.  She brought me a gift. She brought me these. 

There are a lot of elements in my kitchen that are different from my original plan.  Like a painted, planked wood back splash instead of glass tile.  That is because she brought me a gift of cobalt glass.  My sister knows me.  I have collected cobalt glass, deep blue pottery, blue and white dishes and old silver for years.  But there was no safe place room for them in the Old House so I had packed them and put them into storage. And taught myself to forget my beautiful things. It was easier that way.  When I saw these glittery blue glass canisters with silvery lids I mentally slapped myself in the head and when she left I went searching for my boxes. The House on the Hill is perfect for my love of blue and silver shinies.  You can see them scattered all over the kitchen and they have also spread to other rooms. So thank you sister!  I am so glad you remembered the real me.  

 Love my plate rack!   I added this to the kitchen when I remembered my silver trays, my blue and white plates and my old family platters and dishes.

Another look at the whole thing.

There are a lot of little details I want to share with you and I will in another post. But for now just one more photo to show you when it looks the best.

 Doncha love it....I do!