Mini Kitchen Makeover Morph

Do you ever look at something and hate it with a passion? Well I do every time I look at my kitchen and I get to do it twice!

We live in a 100+ year old house and therefore we have 2 kitchens and they don't play well together. We have a front kitchen which is where we come in from the garage and houses the pantry, the stove and the refrigerator and the back kitchen which has the sink, the DW and the cabinets. I log about 10 miles a day walking back and forth between the two rooms.

We have tried to figure out ways to make the main kitchen work as a kitchen but it never will because it has 8, count 'em, 8 openings that make it impossible to add cabinets. And if we keep it as the kitchen I still have the issues of no coat space/backpack space and my dining room still gets used a craft central and is ruining my DR table and always has a mess on it to clean up before dinner. Add to that when I make dinner, I can never see anyone.  Don't get me wrong, I think it is an awesome house and I love the size of the room. It just doesn't work as a kitchen. But it will make on heck of a great mudroom/multitasking room. Would you like to see all of these openings? We will start at the back door and then circle around clockwise.

 Here is where you can see the back kitchen.

And here is what you see going into the main kitchen from the back kitchen. Yep, you run smack dab into the fridge which does keep us thin if we want to navigate this space without getting stuck!

And here is the view from the DR into the back kitchen. 

Isn't that carpeting lovely? Who does that!!!

Yea, I got a little angry at the peeling wall paper a while back as well…..I really think I should have entered this kitchen into some ugly kitchen contest. I totally would have won.

Our solution that will fix all of our storage issues, coat issues, craft/office issues, dining issues, and and give us a great, flowing, usable kitchen is to turn our large DR into an eat-in kitchen and use the old kitchen as a mudroom/office/craft space. Trust me, it works.
Here is a picture of the DR so you can get an idea of the size and the fact that I actually have wall space!

The idea is we will put a line of cabinets, the fridge, and stove along the long wall with the white buffet. Then the sink, DW and a few more base cabinets will go down the middle where the DR table sits. It will be about 9 feet long and 3 feet wide. We will replace the DR table with one that is longer and skinnier and it will get pushed over into the bumpout where the desk is sitting. We will have bench seating along the wall and smaller chairs for the rest. I cannot wait!! I think we are going to build our own cabinets as well (Ana White plans) since the quote for 8 base cabinets from Home Depot was $7000!!! Um, no. I'll keep you posted on that brain child.

But we are going to keep the back kitchen as the storage for all my things that are stored in that white floor to ceiling hutch in the main kitchen sooooo……

on Saturday, I just couldn't take the ugly no more and I decided to paint the cabinets…..

this is the primer color because I was going to paint the cabinets black and I had the primer tinted with some black so coverage would be better.  The primer already made the cabinets look great…..

Which made that disgusting carpet look even worse sooooooo…...

I ripped up the carpet. OMGOSH! Could it get any worse?  Yes it is about to…..

'cuz then I ripped up the disgusting rotted linoleum tile and discovered this!

I was so excited that I might have cool original floors but alas, the former owners liked to do most everything half-ahem, way apparently so…..

I will need to find flooring. But in the meantime, I liked the grey so much that I deep-sixed the black and went with grey for my cabinets color.  Albeit, a lighter grey. The primer was reading a little too blue or lavender depending on the time of day.

 

so I thought I'd ask your opinion and put them side by side. 

Which do you like better?

And am I a total loon for thinking of my DR as my Kitchen?

Don't answer that.

Always being renewed,

Please see the link party page to see where I link arms with those blissfully beautiful bloggers that host every week. So gracious they are along with these other sweet ladies!

Read more at http://diyshowoff.com/2013/04/01/that-diy-party-10/#xgMAcRCgRocl5vmh.99       

 

 

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