apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Wow! Great Job, i love!

Its nice - but I'd have to put at least some of the doors back up...
...I think that the wallpaper backing the interiors of the cabinets would still be a lovely visual surprise.

(This would be the perfect kitchen for a plain white refrigerator too - Stainless is so out of place here)

oh i love this, what fun! i want to make an icebox cake in that kitchen!

It's very cute, but I would kill for that original pine 1950s kitchen. I live in a midcentury house, and the kitchen is the only non-original element (the owners refaced the cabinets in the 1970s with 'country' style oak). When I have the money, flat-faced stained pine cabinetry is going to make a comeback, and "brightening things up" be damned.

Why do I get the feeling that John didn't get a lot of say in this?

I hope he has a mancave he can retreat to from the tsunami of girly pastels and cute.

That's sexist. What if he likes the florals and pastels?

very inspiring transformation, especially on that budget! thanks for sharing

moving into my first owned place this fall too... i hope i can just get the kitchen to look like the before!

Beautiful! I was amazed by the transformation... you have made me want to wallpaper the backs of my cabinets!!

What's the paint color in the dining room? I'm on a quest for the perfect blue-gray! :)

@ slowdown, then i dont think John will have a wife..... LOL....

I agree with bepsf about the cabinet doors and the fridge...but still, the kitchen looks great and that house is absolutely adorable.

Very cute, and probably a good idea if you live someplace like Kansas. As someone who's had to learn the hard way, though, I can tell you that it won't take much of an earthquake to send a lot of that stuff flying off the shelves.

That kitchen is absolutely adorable! The sexism from Blandwagon and flobeau, not so much.

kccc1209, Lauren is in Louisville KY, which is not far from the New Madrid Seismic Zone. We get seismic activity (she's about as far from the NMSZ as I am), but not frequently enough to worry about stuff flying off shelves. We're supposedly due for a "big one," though I imagine if/when it happens, whether or not the doors were taken off the cabinets will be the least of anyone's worries.

I think they did a beautiful job. Even in the before pic I really liked the countertops and stove, the era of the kitchen generally. The afters really exceeded my expectations. That they did it on that budget makes it even better.

wait- did they REMOVE a dishwasher and replace it with that Ikea shelf next to the fridge?
while a dish washer in that spot is a little weird- especially in black, its a DISHWASHER!!
just asking...

So stinkin' cute. I love it. Great job!!!

@flobeau: That's exactly what I was commenting on...the idea that straight men can't like certain things, certain colors, etc. or they're not 'real' men. It's absurd. No one would look at a traditionally masculine home shared by a hetero couple and wonder whether the woman has a "woman nook" to retreat to.

I love it!!!

I really like it. I was worried when I saw the "before" that I was going to be saddened by the "after." But I love that you've kept the form of the original and added some peppy colors. Too aften people think they have to rip out all the original charm in order to make a kitchen their own. Thanks for demonstrating that this is not true! I love the colors.

@ teeze... not everyone likes dishwashers. They're terribly hard on your dishes and pots. We have vintage fine china, Le Creuset and copper cookware, vintage glass and crystal, and vintage silver. None of it can safely go in a dishwasher, and we do like to use it for everyday. Plus, I really feel items are cleaner when I hand wash them-- they certainly sparkle more. And if you do it properly in stages using a full sink and super hot water and gloves I think the water consumption isn't any worse... and it's time consuming, but so is cleaning anything properly. In short, we have no use for a dishwasher. We use the ugly stainless monstrosity in our kitchen to store tall vases that won't fit in our cabinets and don't get a lot of use, but we would kill for the extra cabinet space. I try not to think about the extra we are paying in rent for our lovely "all stainless, granite, fully equipped" apartment kitchen that we hate... the rest of the apartment is worth it though!

Cute kitchen update... love the color on the bottom cabinets. Thank god they covered that awful pine... I'm definitely in the "PAINT IT" crowd. Am I the only one who thinks the kitchen curtain clashes though? The blue seems all wrong to me.

Luurve the wallpaper. It looks beautiful with the frisky green and chill blues. And your vintage pyrex bowls make my heart sing! Really fun.

You know, I really like this post and kitchen transformation. I think you have done a great job. There will always be comments from people with different taste. But you have done fantastic work and enjoy!

SWEET!

Love the cute vintage feel!

Brilliant and beautiful!

LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! My husband and I have just moved into a new place and were trying to think of ways to refresh the kitchen without paying an arm and a leg in renovations.

This kitchen looks terrific. It's a job well done!!

thanks to everyone for their comments! i love to hear everyone's thoughts. i'm quite happy with the result (cheap, bigger feeling, and cleaner looking)

@firebird - don't get me wrong the kitchen cabinets were is great condition - but the room being so small (9x9) we had to do something. Also, the kitchen was updated in the late 60's. I'd die to see what the original looked like. We are planning on an actual renovation next year.

@blandwagon - John actually had a lot of say in the kitchen. despite the photos, it is a little less pastel in person. we like it :)

@yiyehtov - the dining room is "blue lagoon". it's a glidden paint. it is actually much brighter than the picture. the lighting in the dining room is lousy. check my flickr, i have a couple pictures that display it better.

@teeze - no we didn't remove the dishwasher. it is a portable beat up old one. we just wheeled it into the adjacent laundry room (the before picture was actually taken while we had our home inspection, so none of it is our belongings)

@slowdown - preach it. john isn't afraid of things being feminine. he wants an overall cohesive look for the home and the kitchen fits in. :) ((not meaning the whole house is girly, but a similar bright, fun look))

@marie516 - the curtains are very close to the wallpaper - but not quite. they are very thin, so in the daylight they seem much brighter. they work...ish. i've been looking for some new ones actually!

Again thanks to everyone who has commented. it's been great to see what everyone thinks!

This is adoreable.....I LOVE it! How was it using vintage wallpaper? I've heard that it's difficult to use because it's so fragile. True?