Plans for the Kitchen

Pineapple House has been our home for six months now! Oh, how time flies...

We feel like we have come a long way. The living room and dining room are painted and styled. The girls' bedrooms are done. (You can see Kati's room ~here~ and I'll share Bekah's room soon!) We have planted an herb garden and done some outside painting and sprucing up. And now we are turning our attentions to the kitchen. 

You know that we are DIY-ers when it comes to house projects, and the kitchen is no exception.

We plan to do our updates in stages...a little bit at a time. 

Have I told you that Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year? My friend Joanne told me of her friend who designed and built her entire house for Thanksgiving Day! I have never met Joanne's friend, but I know that I like her! Fortunately, Pineapple House is already well-suited for Thanksgiving Day. (We had a trial run a few Sundays ago when we had 25 people for dinner!) 

But back to the kitchen...

In preparation for Thanksgiving, Ron began Kitchen Updates: Phase I earlier this month with the installation of our double-oven range. I haven't cooked a turkey yet, but I have certainly been enjoying the (almost) new range!

This week, we began Phase II: removing wallpaper. 

About that wallpaper. Years ago (early 1980's), Ron and I were in a local paint store. While he was shopping for something-that-I-don't-remember, I sat and browsed through wallpaper books. I came across a pattern that I loved, kind of a sampler look with houses and baskets and pineapples and hearts and a coordinating border, but it was definitely not in the budget. Our farmhouse kitchen was large and would have required a lot of wallpaper. 

When we came to see Pineapple House for the first time, I was amazed to see that wallpaper in the kitchen!

However, since it is 2016 and not 1985, the wallpaper is coming down. In fact, a good deal of it came down a couple of evenings this week. (Of course, we are hosting a ladies' game night this weekend. Nothing like a bit of remodeling chaos to make your guests feel at home, huh?) 

After the wallpaper is down, we are going to paint that space and also the space on the other end of the kitchen past the cabinets. The walls will be the same antique white that we have used in all of the other rooms. The trim will be...ahem. I'll get back to you on that. (But we're narrowing down our choices.)   

We are going to replace the shutters with paneled shutters which Ron will make. The valances are new; they will stay. 

Where the previous owners had a kitchen table, we have chosen to put our kitchen island. We considered a small table for an eat-in kitchen, but we are sentimental about the island and there was really nowhere else to put it. We purchased a couple of bar stools so that someone could eat breakfast or lunch, or just hang out with the cook.

Or hang out with a cousin. :)

Other phases, yet to come: 

1) Move the washing machine down to the basement. (Part of me will miss having it so handy. The other part of me will be happy to reclaim some kitchen space.) 

2) Replace the stained glass chandelier with one that fits our style.

3) Move the refrigerator over a bit, to where the washing machine is now. This will allow us to have a longer counter surface, instead of two short lengths on either side of the fridge. 

4) Build a new bottom cabinet to fill in the space when the fridge is moved. (This will make me happy, because I lost the cabinet that was under the cook top. Now my pots and pans are all over the place, including some down in the basement. How's that for convenience?) 

5) Install a new sink. Although we loved our large undermount farmhouse sink at The Farmhouse, we're not sure that would be right for this kitchen. We're considering a smaller farmhouse sink from Ikea, but I prefer a single bowl sink. Fortunately, that decision is a bit down the road. 

6) Replacing the countertop. We will probably go with butcher block again, as we loved our counters in The Farmhouse. Wood is so warm and pretty. 

7) Painting the cabinets. We'll probably keep the hardware. It's not "modern," but it fits with our style. 

Again, this will all be done over a period of time. Don't expect a big reveal in the next couple of weeks! But I do promise to keep you posted as we complete each phase. 

We are excited about making the changes that will make it our kitchen!