A New Year, A New Kitchen

 

I haven’t been blogging regularly for a while and nobody’s currently reading this blog, so hopefully I can get away with slipping this in without anyone noticing.

WARNING:  I guarantee you will see nothing uglier on the Internet today than the following pictures.  Get the eye bleach ready just in case.

Finally, this year we will be remodelling our upstairs kitchen.  Our house has many fine features – a great location, a fabulous roof deck and spectacular views among them, but it is not blessed in its kitchens.

I say kitchens, because we have two of them, one upstairs and and one downstairs.  The downstairs one is very tiny and in need of extensive remodelling, so we tend to mostly use the upstairs kitchen.  Yes, the pictures you are about to see are of our nicest kitchen.

Ready?

 

Aren’t those burnt orange walls and green laminate countertops just GORGEOUS?

 

 

I bet you’re jealous of those fabulously inconvenient shelves.

 

 

You too, can revel in the lack of storage space.  Now do you understand why you never see any ‘in progress’ shots on my recipes?

It gets worse in the other direction.

 

 

 

What about that LOVELY panelled ceiling?

The. fridge. will. go.

 

 

I am so embarrassed that we’ve been in this house for six years and done nothing about this hideosity.

We are on a tightish budget, so we can spend more on the downstairs kitchen, so it’s going to be Ikea or similar all the way up here, keeping most of the existing appliances and the existing layout intact.  We already have half a ton of Ikea kitchen stacked up in our basement, bought in the recent sale, and the contractor is due to start at the beginning of February.

Wish us luck! I’ll be asking for lots of our opinions along the way. At the very least we know whatever we end up with can’t possibly be worse than this.

Comments

[Kimberly]

I'll just assume your questions are rhetorical. Will you hate me if I say the upstairs kitchen looks better in these photos than in person? Or will you take it as a compliment to your photographic skills?

Can't wait to see the changes!

[becky]

Paola, I've seen so much worse, I actually don't find it bad, except for the wall color and countertops.

Have you ever seen the online DIYs for painting the fridge with chalkboard paint? It might save you some bucks to put toward some really nice countertops, which seem to be the biggest problem you have going on - I don't mind your cabinets at all except for the hardware. Are they bad in person?

[Dana]

I can see that you need more storage, and your countertops are dated, but your cabinets look like they are in reasonable shape. Becky is right about the hardware, but eye bleach is not required for me. That said, I'm sure your plans will result in a much more exciting and beautiful space. I'll be looking forward to the changes.

[Alice (Thrifted Treasure)]

Oooh great, keep us posted! Being a renter I can't make any changes at all to our kitchen so I love living vicariously through others' renovations :-)

[Tiffany S.]

The kitchen reads chili pepper walls with turquoise counters on my iPad. It's kinda cute.

[Adina]

It's not that bad - change the handles on the cabinets and that would be an easy update. Our galley rental kitchen has dusty pink laminate counters with light floral accent tiles, painted light grey cabinets and drawers, with fabulous renters white walls. Gotta love those fun color combos. I have to keep reminding myself that even though we'll probably be here awhile, it's still a rental...

[MaryBeth]

It is fine, I don't see a thing wrong with it! haha!

[Bianca]

Hey, Paola...you are too self-deprecating. I am liking the "colour" of happy that I see in these photos so no need to apologize. Your actual colours are not coming through on the screen...they're more like the colours Tiffany S. mentioned above...looks good from here but I know you must be excited to start with any changes.

I, too, have a basic builder's beige master bathroom that cries for some love every time I enter it. You have motivated me to start a project.

Looking forward to your posts.

B

[Bianca]

P.S. Can't believe you make all that delicious food with so little counter space!

[Lucy Gray]

It is the counter space that I would definitely long to change, but then I am a rather messy cook...

[Deri]

"Paola...you are too self-deprecating" Roflyrofl.

Have also seen a lot worse; a nice wash of white paint would make this perfectly acceptable, even the ceiling. And maybe a bit of a tidy-up :-D. Jim Robins could pop over and paint a Scandi-cool design on the floor.

[Sandra]

I think that process photos would look GREAT in your current kitchen. Makes it more "real". Something different than anything perfectly styled.

Just my opinion...

[Perlla]

Yes, I have seen worse kitchen than that..., MINE! Sometimes I wonder, why do good cooks seem to have the most uncooperative kitchens? I guess it is a way to make them more creative, stressed or just give up all that cooking. I must admit, every time I have a big dinner party with lots of cooking I say that to my husband: "This is the last time ..."
Paola, I am happy for you. And happy for all the new pictures and recipes we will be getting on on blog. Thanks for sharing!

[kassy]

Yikes! But I'm a renter and my kitchen is infinitely worse, I'd take your current kitchen in a heartbeat. Looking forward to seeing the colors you choose.

[Paola]

Wow. Where did you all spring from?

Thanks very much for all the kind words. Please believe Kimberly. She's seen it in real life.

The cabinets are almost acceptable, and it does feel a bit silly replacing real wooden cabinets with Ikea fake wood ones, but they are very orange, very falling apart inside and not amazingly configured.

Everything else IS hideous and you will not persuade me otherwise.

Stay tuned for pics of our horrible bathroom, which we will also be updating, later in the week.

[gypsy]

Oooh, can't wait for the horrible bathroom. I've got two of those...maybe you'll inspire me.

When we moved into our house we thought the first thing we'd do was get rid of the jade-colored wall-to-wall carpeting in the kitchen. Four and a half years later, it's still there.

[nazila]

Floor to ceiling book cases would help, lighten up the color, keep the gorgeous view - having a cocktail table is great, but I think they are really uncomfortable to sit on.