Yesterday I shared some of my kitchen dreaming and scheming with you. After posting the hubby said I could paint all the cabinets gray. What?!?! Well as much as I appreciate that he approved the all gray plan, I think I’m leaning towards white on top, gray on the bottom. (That sounds like either a new rap song or something dirty.) Now that we have that settled, here are a few dilemmas that are mocking my kitchen dreaming. Warning, The photos you are about to see have not been “styled” for this photo shoot. There maybe disorganized, messy cabinets and crazy looking paint jobs, view at your own risk.
I love the look of open shelving for cabinets.
The perfect spot for open shelving in my kitchen would be on either side of the window/sink area. Although the cabinets are uneven in number, maybe I could do just one side or just the third cabinet on the right side?
Or maybe just the cabinet on the end? The problem on the left side of the sink is that the inside of the cabinet has this nifty little spice rack that I did not organize and pretty up for this picture, I went raw all the way. I didn’t even put the clean dry dishes away on the counter. You may also notice under the cabinets is still beige. My precious Benjamin Moore paint was not going to be wasted on a space that will eventually be tiled over. Doesn’t the gray look much better than the beige?
The other option for symmetrical open shelving cabinets is over by the fridge. This is a pain because the dishwasher is by the sink and unloading dishes is really easy when you just reach up and set them in the cabinet above. We may have to actually walk across the kitchen to put dishes away.
Hopefully the hermit crabs will have died off by then so they won’t muddy up my photos. (Kidding, kind of.) Right now the cabinet to the left has all our drinking glasses, coffee cups (which only get used when my parents visit), sippy cups and wine glasses. The right side has all my storage containers, homework stuff for kids and some large plastic bowls.
The other look I LOVE, is glass in the cabinet doors.
I had this in my last kitchen and really loved it.
Oh how I miss that kitchen! Anyways, back to my Annie Oakley kitchen here at the ranch new home, the cabinets have the cathedral arch in them so cutting out the middle and adding glass to the doors isn’t really an option. For those of you that are blessed to have the rectangle/square inset in your cabinets, here is I found on how to insert glass into your cabinet door.
The next dilemma in my kitchen is this beauty here….
My kitchen countertop on the peninsula has a wart of some sort. This is how it currently looks but imagine some green in the center.
Not really sure what happened but the previous owners did try to cover it up with pearlized white nail polish and a vase full of flowers. Like we couldn’t tell? The pearlized nail polish has since chipped off but you can see some of it glistening on the outer edges of the wart. Options for countertops? Let me rephrase that, CHEAP options for countertops? Oh wait, and low maintenance!
. This option scares me a little. Paint on the counter tops where food is placed?
Anyone try this out yet? Do you love it? Hate it? Does it actually turn out looking this nice?
New Laminate Countertops are the next option. When we remodeled the last kitchen the counter tops came in at I think $350. Not a bad price and the laminate they make today is not the laminate of years ago. (Sorry for the bad photo but tried to find one of our old kitchen island.)
There are some really great options out there that have the look of granite or higher end marble type stuff but for a much cheaper price. My handy hubs has never installed counter top before so that might be a new endeavor for him. Maybe?
I know that butcherblock/wood counter tops are really in right now but pretty much they scare me. Although I love how they look, check out my friend Heather’s counter top from ! To Pin the next two pictures, please head to the original source!
My friend Elizabeth at also redid her counter tops with doors!
The wood counter tops need to be conditioned or something every so often and I’m just going to be real and say, I would probably forget and end up ruining the wood. Too bad all our left over doors are hollow, otherwise I might consider this. Might. That way if I messed it up we didn’t really spend any money besides stain. Anyone have any solid core doors they want to donate to my kitchen?
That’s enough kitchen dilemmas for today. I may be back next week with one or two more. Or I may be absent from my blog as I’m covered in Cabinet Transformations Paint! So I’d love to hear from you, any solutions or thoughts on my dilemmas? Have you redone your kitchen recently? Do you have some kitchen dilemmas? Lets talk kitchens, I love hearing what you have to say!
Good conversation. Did you know they now can make laminate counters with curved (bullnose) edges so they look more like stone? I saw that recently on The Decorista. Love the open shelves and glass. Awesome kitchen before if that was a pic of it!! Love it. I like the gray and white with open shelves just on the right side of the sink option…
I adore open top cabinets. I say try it you can always add the doors if you hate it. I also vote for gray and white because I think it’s a little different, more modern, but still has that cottage fun vibe.
Just a few weeks ago I had a waffle about gray kitchens — turns out 65% of my readers were big fans of the look, so you’re going with a popular choice!
The cabinets to the right of the sink would look SOO good open! And it wouldn’t really bother the balance because they aren’t connected to the cabinets to the left of the sink.
We’re about to invest in some butcher block counters from Ikea. I’m nervous that I”m going to mess them up too but I’m going to try really hard not too.
I dont hate laminate (although I hate some colors of it … like mine!) I love that is durable, cheap and lasts. Can’t beat that.
I’m a big fan of open shelving on the right side of your sink. I think it’s the perfect place.
i love the wood! i know they need to be maintained, but it can’t be THAT bad, right?
I like the open cabinet idea, but don’t move your glasses across the kitchen and force yourself to cross the whole room when you load and unload the dishwasher! You will end up hating yourself. Form over function! That said, I’m going to completely contradict myself and say I think you should consider the wood counters.
Have you looked at Formica ‘s 180 fx white calacatta. Looks like a slab of marble
I say go with the butcher block, it can be sanded and refinished easily (like with a palm sander – you could do it! -) if it gets all banged up over time and the look is so timeless and classic.
I am in the process of updating my kitchen and ended up painting my countertops. They were so ugly I couldn’t stand it any longer and it wasn’t in our budget to get new ones right away. I’m so glad I did! Yours don’t look that bad I will say but painting would be a great option if your wanting something new. You can check out my blog post here I love the butcher block counters also! Beautiful!
Oh I’m SO EXCITED that you’re going to do gray/white, yay!! Yes, open up all the cabinets on the right. Woohoo!
I’ve seen the Rustoleum option, too, and it also interests me, but it also scares me!