National Kitchen Renovation Month

I jokingly asked The Writer yesterday if someone had declared this National Kitchen Renovation Month since I got 3 kitchen calls in one week. LOL

They are each drastically different so I thought it might be fun to share the “befores” with you.

The first one is a planned major over-haul in an old southern Colonial.

I think you will be amazed by the after. ( I hope. haha)

 

 

 

The second one is the funniest. It involved a call from someone who had been highest bidder on an in-home consultation I donated to the Shakespear Festival for their fund-raiser and her re-do is due to a sewer line problem.

 

 

 

I have often had people say to me-  heck, I have said it myself  –

 “I don’t cook”.

 But we don’t really mean WE DON’T COOK.

We just mean…. not a lot.

Well…………………..

She means it. I started opening kitchen cabinets and guess what I found?

Hard Cover Books.

In every single cabinet.

Not one sack of flour, box of cereal, can of peas. Nada.

The girl DOESN’T COOK. LOL

That cracked me up. (She gave me permission to post this by the way. She thinks it’s funny, too.

 

 I can’t believe this picture turned out so fuzzy. It’s a classic.

 

The last one is just an update, nothing very dramatic. Granite to replace Formica,

 new backsplash,

 new granite composite sink ( have you seen those? Pretty cool)

some window treatments.

This is a perfect opportunity though to discuss undertones of color. I will do a more extensive post on this at some point but this picture is a great teaching opportunity.

All paint color starts out as a tinted base. This is refered to as its “undertone”. Undertones MUST be in the same family or you end up with a real challenge. In this case the wallpaper has a cream background but when you compare it to white you realize it is very yellow. The paper also has a lot of pink and blue.

The trim is stark white.

The tile floor is a neutral but with gray and pink veins in it. So now we have a gray undertone competing with a yellow undertone.

Throw in the cabinets…. orange.

The lighting is fluorescent which makes the orange even more pronounced against the blue.

This is where I am often called in to “fix it”.

 Once you have gone that far down the trail there is no easy fix. You can only try to make it better. In this case I am trying to take as much color away as I possibly can on the countertops and back splash since they want to keep the paper.

Get the undertones right from the git-go and save much heartache.

So what’s your kitchen like? Old World? Classic Colonial, Shabby?

Share.

And remember,  

Kitchens are once or twice in a lifetime projects, typically. We want to pay attention to new ideas, absolutely, but seek longevity in design and materials as well.

Choose wisely.

If you don’t have you name in for the Donnie Sasser painting giveaway go here.

And if you would like to say, “That was fun!” at the end of your project contact me at

www.cindybarganier.com.