Kitchen Woes

Every so often, we run across someone who looked at our house when it was on the market. I’m always thankful that they passed it by but also a little curious as to why.  One woman we know toured the house but turned it down because it was too small and needed too much fixing up (she’s single but loves antiques so I’m sure the space felt a little small for a collector.) We met another couple who decided against it—but absolutely loved the kitchen. Huh.

Let me make it clear. We do not have a charming kitchen. It’s larger than you would expect, that much is true. However, the remodeling job manages to find the perfect balance between over-designed and completely boring. The walls are beige, the cabinets are beige, and the tile floors are two shades of beige. We’ve tried to add some color with my collection of green Arts and Crafts pottery and some art but it’s still pretty boring.

 

The floor tile looks straight out of the late 80’s and it’s set in a a faux-carpet pattern. It never fails to annoy me. Not only is the outline in the dining area in a completely different location from where we place our table, even if we did have a larger table that we tried to match up with the tile, the back door would hit it every time.

Replacing the tile with wood is a long term project—and it looks as if there’s nothing interesting under that tile anyway.

We can’t replace the cabinets until we do the floors so we’re stuck with them for a while as well. We could paint but we’re also at a loss for ideas so we’re living with beige for the time being. That said, a lighting sale at Schoolhouse Electric got me thinking that a little bit of a spruce-up might be possible.

These vintage-style shades were on sale and fortunately, they still had them in green. We’re not sure what color we’ll eventually go with for the walls but white cabinets, subway tiles, and a wood floor will certainly look nice with a pop of green.

While I was at it, I also went with the easiest kitchen upgrade on earth—new dishtowels.