This post is brought to you by BEHR. Color that’s True to Hue. If you feel it you can find it. Visit truetohue.behr.com
Even with the best of intentions, projects fall to the wayside. Life takes over and priorities shift from things you want to do, to things you have to do. Take for instance, the DIY kitchen update that Joe and I planned, but never finished. Planning, as you may remember from an earlier post takes just as much time, if not more, than the actual execution.
We recently purchased a historic St. Paul home, which we loved, but some rooms needed an update to be more functional. We realized it was too big of a project for us to tackle on our own, and we needed to have professionals that knew what they were doing (i.e. not us) make the updates we requested. For many people, a full-on renovation isn’t the right solution. Before we personally decided to make the leap, we spent a lot of time thinking about how we could spruce up the kitchen without any demo.
Here’s the original layout:
And what it looked like when we first moved in:
In this planning stage we realized there were a couple of opportunities to make big changes, but which one to pick? Cabinet color? Backsplash? Flooring? They all seemed equally important, but our DIY skill set still needs some improvement. We love the cabinets in the space and felt that with a little paint and some new appliances, the kitchen would be more enjoyable to use.
We headed to Home Depot to pick up some BEHR paint, thinking “this is going to be easy.” One would think with the wide range of colors, it would be an easy decision. Because I am who I am, I agonized over the “right” color. Color can affect not only the feeling of the room, but also the inhabitants. I like the idea of a bright color, but could I really drink my morning coffee in a room painted Laser Lemon? What about Joe? More often than not, our styles are in sync, but would he be more of a Restless Sea to my Evaporation?
Joe and I found ourselves making regular trips to Home Depot, picking up multiple samples of BEHR paint by the dozen. We loved the experience of sorting through and choosing paints with names more reminiscent of bands than paint color: Exclusive Ivory, High Speed Access and Extreme. We carried on, every weekend painting that small square, taking a few steps back and staring, as if we were admiring a piece of art in a gallery and not our kitchen cabinets. Nothing felt right. Dove? Too feminine. Observatory? Too masculine. Pavestone? Not “kitcheny” enough.
After many, many test squares and painting the entire set of cabinets (twice!), we needed to stop, step back, and do more planning.
With all of the colors that BEHR has available, we decided to revisit what initially felt like “safe” options: black and white. We liked white because it’s universally classic, but doesn’t bring a whole lot of personality to the space. Color is more fun, but because the house is so small, we were hesitant to choose a color that would define the look of the entire first floor. Then there was the idea of going all black. It seemed like the best of both worlds – the boldness of color with the neutrality of white. Our biggest concern was if it would make the space feel way too dark. So we pulled some images of small kitchens that used black in a big way for inspiration.
I love how sharp and moody these spaces feel, but I was still missing a little bit of color and the warmth of wood. To further aid in preparation, I collected some pieces we knew we wanted in the kitchen and started pulling swatches that complemented focal points like a Cambria quartz countertop, a Lacanche range, brass Delta faucet, and Hygee & West wallpaper.
We landed with these two samples: Behr Blackout N510-7 and Pixel White N530-1. Blackout had just enough gray in it to feel warm, while Pixel White was gray enough to soften the contrast.
Since I wanted to be sure this was the right balance. I drew up a very rough sketch of what our DIY kitchen would have looked like:
So, what happened after all of this planning? Nothing. In the end, even after all of our planning and experimenting and some execution, Joe and I realized this project was too big for us to tackle on our own. Life happens and we got busy. Even though we had our designs selected, colors picked out, and a plan in place, the project was put on the back burner until a couple weeks ago. What did we end up doing, you may ask? Well, dear reader, that is for another day. Until then, enjoy a sneak peek of the painted kitchen (and Winnie) until the big reveal later this year.
Photo credits (top to bottom): MyDomaine // Sarah Sarna // MyDomaine // The Design Chaser //
Kate is currently learning to play the Ukulele, much to the despair of her husband, kids, and dog. Follow her on Instagram at @witanddelight_.
BY Kate Arends - July 7, 2015
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July 7th, 2015 at 4:05 pm
These colors speak to me on a spiritual level. I love them!
Side note: I’m looking at apartments in MN and just saw a kitchen that resembled the before shot, with the same type of chairs/table. I’m assuming that’s the norm there?
July 20th, 2015 at 3:15 pm
It must be! They have a kind of “church pew” look to them.
July 8th, 2015 at 11:47 am
When we moved into our house two years ago, I painted our kitchen black. My husband thought I was crazy and now he can’t imaging the room any other way. We love it!! Can’t wait to see the big reveal 🙂
July 20th, 2015 at 3:12 pm
That’s awesome. Took a little convincing but I think Joe is really excited that we kept black cabinets in our final design.
July 8th, 2015 at 5:21 pm
I am in the SAME boat as you right now, well…sort of. Currently we have massive holes in our kitchen walls and ceilings and are tacking a full fledged budget reno but I just came home the other night with a ton of paint samples ranging from dark slate- black. Its so hard to pick just the “right” one! I can’t wait to see your finished space!
July 20th, 2015 at 3:11 pm
Yes!! Did you select a shade yet?? Let me know 😉
July 9th, 2015 at 10:53 am
Can’t wait to see the final images. We had a very similar experience at our old home (which we now use as a rental in NE Minneapolis). Finally after avoiding the cabinet painting for months, we just hired someone to do it all. It wasn’t horribly expensive and made a huge difference. DIY is not for the faint of heart. I’m more of an approachable DIYer as in something that takes less than one day. 😉
July 20th, 2015 at 3:11 pm
Haha! I’m totally with you Jessica. Less than a day is ideal 🙂
July 10th, 2015 at 10:03 pm
What program did you use to make the sketch?
July 13th, 2015 at 9:09 am
Hi Kate! I designed this in Illustrator. Not super efficient but it works!
July 12th, 2015 at 1:44 pm
Can you tell me the brand of the bar stool in the kitchen
July 18th, 2015 at 11:46 am
Beautiful.
I would love to know the stool source as well.
Thank you!
July 24th, 2015 at 1:58 am
We are planning in 2 yrs. Our realtor said 2 things. No buyer will even cnsider a house without 1. Granite countertops and 2. a tile floor. Easy decision not cheap.
July 24th, 2015 at 2:06 am
That is planning to sell.
August 7th, 2015 at 7:50 am
[…] Have you fallen for the dark-on-the-bottom cabinets? Before you go out and buy all new lower cabinets, thereby using up the rest of your kitchen decorating budget, head to the paint store and find a sample of the color you want. You’ll find that with an afternoon and a paintbrush, you can make your lower cabinets look just as on trend as if you bought them. (via Wit and Delight) […]
August 7th, 2015 at 8:06 am
[…] Have you fallen for the dark-on-the-bottom cabinets? Before you go out and buy all new lower cabinets, thereby using up the rest of your kitchen decorating budget, head to the paint store and find a sample of the color you want. You’ll find that with an afternoon and a paintbrush, you can make your lower cabinets look just as on trend as if you bought them. (via Wit and Delight) […]
August 7th, 2015 at 8:45 am
[…] Have you fallen for the dark-on-the-bottom cabinets? Before you go out and buy all new lower cabinets, thereby using up the rest of your kitchen decorating budget, head to the paint store and find a sample of the color you want. You’ll find that with an afternoon and a paintbrush, you can make your lower cabinets look just as on trend as if you bought them. (via Wit and Delight) […]
August 11th, 2015 at 5:37 pm
[…] Wit and Delight […]
August 16th, 2015 at 6:45 pm
I love this colors!
August 17th, 2015 at 11:34 am
[…] moving forward. As a regular Wit & Delight reader, I’ve already shared the challenges of painting my kitchen, so I was a bit gunshy of repainting an entire room (including the doors!) with such a bold shade. […]
August 30th, 2015 at 8:01 am
[…] our time in this space, the kitchen was where we wanted to start our renovation. As you know from this post, we toyed with the idea of using the layout we had to save money and give the place a little face […]
October 20th, 2015 at 8:37 pm
[…] Wit and Delight […]