I sit in my living room at the end of each day and look around and smile. I love my house. It makes me so happy and for some reason I still don’t feel like that in itself, is enough to stay in it. But it should be.
Why do I feel like I don’t deserve to stay in it because it’s too big for just one person…? I paid for it. All of it. I work hard. I deserve it, right?
I honestly don’t know why I’m making this so difficult on myself, really I don’t.
Anyway, the part of me that wants to keep my house simply wants to renovate the entire thing, but I’m not sure I have the time and I would need a lot of help in doing so and blah blah blah excuse excuse excuse.
So let’s just SAY I’m going to stay in my house and let’s just SAY I have the time and money to renovate it… I’d start in my kitchen…. (if you’re thinking that it seems like I’m looking for some type of exciting reason, motivation, inspiration to stay in my house, you’d be right)
I love my kitchen layout and the way it’s open and is part of the living room, but it’s SO BROWN EVERYWHERE and I would LOVE to brighten it up a bit… I’d also LOVE to swap out the black double oven for a stainless version… (see my kitchen below)
* this photo is a few years old, but basically, everything is the same give or take a few plants… it also somehow looks smaller in this photo than it feels in reality.
I can imagine if I just changed the countertops, backsplash, flooring and maybe painted the island wall that faces the living room, the heavy brown feeling on that side of the space would diminish and lighten a little, and look something similar to this photo below…
… which I actually really like. It’s more modern than my kitchen, but you get the idea. Inspiration photos -to me- are just that: inspiration. I take what I like from them and put my own spin on them, making my space unique to me and a place I want to spend time in that I love… which is to say, I don’t love everything about this kitchen above, but you get the idea.
I know that simply changing the countertops, backsplash and flooring would probably work just fine, but I would also LOVE to paint the cupboards to really make a big impact since my kitchen is part of my living room in a way, it’s always in sight.
However, EVERYONE who knows anything about anything, has told me NOT to paint my cupboards because they’re beautiful custom cabinets and not only will the paint not look right, why on earth would you cover such gorgeous wood?
And I agree… to an extent. I mean, yes, if the paint is going to look crappy, then no, of course I should just leave them the way they are AND REALLY, they are beautiful, I’m just tired of seeing so much brown in my house… but it’s possible that a few changes would give me the result I’m looking for.
On the other hand, I’m LOVING these navy and white kitchens (though some are lighter than navy blue and some are darker -almost black). I don’t really love the trend of painting the lower cabinets and the upper cabinets a different color, but I see the visual functionality of it and I do love the rich navy cabinets and white marble tops and walls and the high contrast the kitchens below have. I also love how they’re somehow a mix of high and low, formal and informal, new and old… and I just think it would be refreshing to see in my house rather than all that brown.
* Photos via My Domain from Alyssa Rosenheck for Stone Textile // Stone Textile : kitchens // Jasmine Star for Domino // Mitch Allen Photography // Amber Interiors
