kitchen vision

we are so happy to own our little house. people here in town have been moving lately & the horror stories about landlords & absurd price increases make me quite content to deal with our own home in our own way. it certainly helps that we pay either the same amount or less each month than most renters in this town. if ever you want to become a slumlord, i think this is the town where you can get away with it. i digress...

other than our big window/pass-through project & our anti-pass-through project of taking out the door behind the fridge (yes, there was a random door sans handle that connected our kitchen & our bedroom) we haven't done much work inside the house. i am kind of itching for a project, which is why i am pinning all kinds of kitchen ideas. one of these days i will actually post pictures of our kitchen as it is now. for today, i just want to put together my "vision" for our kitchen.

generally i am not a big fan of white cabinets. however, the blue-grey bottom cabinets & white upper cabinets in this picture have me swooning. i also love the white subway tile backsplash.

from here.

the hardware on our cabinets is really cool & i am pretty sure original (i.e., old, but in a vintagey way). this picture inspired me to keep our hardware, which is a big money saver, and just ORB it ala sherry at young house love.

i have always loved concrete counters, but i think my dad might actually consider killing me if i ever went through with installing them. he is vehemently opposed to them and given that he is a contractor who knows his stuff i suppose i should trust him. i found this great tutorial about making your own stainless steel counters. although the picture won't post well here, this is the counter inspiration i am currently sold on.

from here.
our floors are also black and white checker like this kitchen! bonus!

i also love wood & butcher block counters, which i think you can buy from ikea. i hear they take a fair amount of upkeep to prevent staining & watermarks though. while i am not totally convinced this isn't the route for us, as of today i prefer the look of stainless above. our sink is the original cast iron white sink & while it looks cool, i have always been drawn to the farmhouse sinks like the one below. the other problem with our cast iron sink is that it stains easily so i am going through bar keepers friend like a fiend over here!

from here.

to recap, my vision includes:
-keep our existing floors
-paint the lower cabinets peppercorn grey or something similar
-paint our upper cabinets white
-white subway tile the backsplash around the sink
-ORBing our existing hardware so it is nice and dark
-replace the counters with stainless steel or butcher block
-replace the existing sink with a farmhouse style (maybe--i could live with our current sink, which would save at least a couple of benjamins)
-installing a permanent dishwasher to the right of the sink

one day at a time, right?