Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Kitchen cabinets: Done. For now.

What do you think? (No, I haven't done the dishes....I'm sure you don't mind!)

Before:


After:


I actually left FOUR doors off (you can't see the others from the front but they are right next to the other 'non-doored' cabinets). I'm debating if I like it like that and then if I decide that I do, I'll put glass in the doors. From where I walk down in the morning to make coffee and greet my day, I love the four cabinets open...even though it's not symmetrical when you see it from the living room. Would you leave it like that? I'm looking for some black/white scrapbook paper to put behind the dishes and decor there and am also toying with accent colors.

And here are two dilemmas:
My biggest question is: If you were a black/white kitchen...what color would you want your walls/accent color? Keep in mind that the main wall with the window shares space with the breakfast nook AND the family room so I'd have to be able to carry the color into those rooms. I tend to decorate with red, green, yellow, and a little blue. In our old house, they were darker colors and I'm thinking I might wanna brighten it up a bit...what say you?
AND...
Would you leave the doors off?

Here's my view when I walk down in the morning. Can you tell I'm trying to find colors?

Those black plates on the wall were a garage sale find. For a buck I brought home floral plates with pretty scalloped edges and painted them black. The top one, I painted an "L" on. The bottom one is still undecided. (Oh my gosh...my sink is so full! That's one half day with four kids, peeps!)

Now that I see the pictures, I'm thinkin' the blue has definitely got to go. Still like the yellow, but I don't like any pictures I've seen of yellow walls with black and white kitchens. At least not with a brighter yellow.

Anyway...what do you think? What should I do?

Oh...here's what I caught Trouble Maker #2 doing:

Yeah, putting toys on his lamp blades from the top bunk. Who KNEW?

14 comments:

  1. Love the white cabinets. Way to go. And I love your vase of lemons. That is what they are?? Not sure for an accent color for walls. I'm always too chicken. Need to check out some HGTV for some ideas. It's coming along. Thanks for sharing...now go do your dishes! jk..... I would have never noticed them if you didn't point them out.

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  2. I love the cabinets open!! Keep it for sure! I totally think yellow would look good w/black and white!! :) I feel so inspired to do stuff around our house now!

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  3. First of all, I lLOVE everything you have done. My kitchen has a black and white decor as well. I painted our walls a scarlet red color and LOVE it!!!! Warning...it is really hard to get an even coast with the red...oh, and I also did our guest bath in black, white and red. So, clearly...I LOVE black, white and red. Another fun color would be a spring/kiwi green. Oh...also, could you use a black and white damask fabric for the back of the cupboards? I have a really cute one...Michael Miller's black dandy. No matter what, you are super creative and it will turn out beautiful!

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  4. No to the open cabinets. Green as the accent color. :) I LOVE LOVE LOVE the B&W kitchen. I also love how you painted the island cabinets black instead of white. Did you guys DIY?

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  5. That kid gets it from you, is all I'm saying.

    Oh yeah, nice work on the cabinets, babe. ;)

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  6. Ok - so not that you haven't heard from me already, but you can take it again!! I love the idea of a green background, but only if you do the accent piece divider (we already talked about this) and I definitely like the cabinets open, and it will look more finished with the doors with glass in them. I also think the scrapbook paper will help define them as well. btw - the plates turned out soooo cute! What a huge difference a little paint can do! Love it.

    Lukie, Lukie, Lukie......

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  7. Heather-If I said yes that 'we' diy then I'd be lying because I took them off. I sanded them, Brooke helped me paint them, and then I put them back on.

    I don't recommend doing it by yourself. If Brooke hadn't helped, I'd still be painting. She was a life-saver!

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  8. I love what you've done!!! I love black white and red myself. I like the idea of a damask design in the cabnets if you decide to keep them off, but glass would be pretty too. My friend modpodged her cabinet fronts in her B&W kitchen with a scrapbook paper & it turned out great (just the inside part). I also love the island black! Lookin good!

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  9. i LOVE red with the black and white in kitchens, but it's a color a lot of people get tired of. i think the cab look GREAT open. i think the black white on the back of the cab would look great. awesome job. the cab look fantastic painted.

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  10. I love the yellow accents! I think yellow would look nice on an accent wall...I like black and yellow. Green is nice too. What a difference painting the cabinets white makes.

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  11. Oh my gosh Carrie I love it...you have been bussssssy! I would go for bold...like green or bluey/green (like mine ;-). But those are the colors I always lean towards. You did a great job...see what happens when there is no wv on!

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  12. Oh man those cabinets look good!! I love them!! And I didn't even realize that you left the doors off, I just thought they were shelves. I would totally go with some scrapbook paper and leave it open.

    Man now I want to change my kitchen cabinets!!

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  13. Hi,

    One must select colors wisely when painting wood kitchen cabinets. Certain woods tend not to show well when painted with certain colors. Let's say that you are attempting to paint a deep mahogany colored wood cabinet. You may not be able to paint this type of wood with a bright color like white or yellow. This type of wood may cause your bright white or yellow color to show weaker. Therefore, if you are trying to paint with bright colors you may need to start with a lighter wood color. If you are trying to paint dark you should be fine painting on a light or dark colored wood.

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  14. yikes with the fan blades, my son likes to "toss" his clothes up there after he changes. boys...

    I love your kitchen by the way, It makes a huge difference to have white cupboard instead of brown. I just need to talk hubby into wanting to do it to ours.
    I also wanted to comment on the chalkboard project you did (SEP 2nd), I came from 320 Sycamore and love the size of your frame you used as your chalk board.

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