The first thing we did with this kitchen was pick out the flooring. Mistake #1... I should have gotten samples of flooring, cabinets and backsplash and see how they worked together instead of making individual decisions. In the end it does all flow nicely but I now know to look at all my choices in one sitting and dwell on them for a
I knew I wanted a very soft vinyl floor. Easy to clean up with kids, fairly inexpensive, and feels good on the feet. If hardwood were an option, I would have been all over it. Literally, I would have laid all over it!
One problem with my tile sample I got from the store was that it was not big enough for me to see all the colors and patterns I would be getting. However, I did not know that at the time. So when my husband sent me a picture of what the floors looked like installed my instant thought was, "why is there orange in there?!!!" I thought maybe there was something wrong with his camera! Nope.
These floors did hold up nicely with the kids and were a lot softer than I thought they would be which I loved. They were also easy to mop so bonus points for that. Another bonus point is that the vinyl actually stays pretty warm in the cold Michigan weather so keep that in mind if you're considering this.
The cabinets came next. With our time crunch and my inexperienced decorating skills, I literally looked at 3 pictures of kitchens before this process and knew I liked the white look. However, in those pictures the cabinets looked off-white so that's what we went with. We chose Kraftmaid cabinets in the color Canvas. Excellent soft closing cabinets and looked great.
Note to self: I love white cabinets. I will never again get off white cabinets because it doesn't go with my love of all things white and gray.
Mistake #586, we picked Thermafoil cabinets because they were cheaper. Within a year of having these cabinets, they were already peeling off at the bases because of this cheaper option. Lesson learned to save up that money and get the more expensive cabinets because you will use those babies every single day.
I knew I wanted some of the cabinets to have glass doors. I thought this particular pattern would be interesting and different from the norm that most people do. It had slight ridges in it which was good so it wasn't completely see through. You guessed it, they bothered me a few months later when I really learned what my style was. However, they looked great in the kitchen and functioned well.
I loved the look of black countertops against the white cabinets so we chose a dark granite from Lowe's. I would highly recommend upgrading your countertops from laminate to granite. The granite was my favorite part of the whole kitchen.
The backsplash was next. One day the tile guy showed up and I knew what I wanted in my head (which was more of a stone look) and he changed my mind. He said he brought some other samples of what was more in style now and my husband and I made a split second decision to go that route. Good decision? Yes.
We picked this color combo because it matched the floor. In the end I am happy we had them match. This room was all about the tan and brown. Which would soon begin to bug me because of my love for all things gray.
Meet our pretend island. This kitchen was definitely a good size but not quite big enough for a real island. A few months later I actually put a counter height small table in the middle of the room with two chairs so that the kids could eat in here while I was doing dishes or other random things you do in the kitchen.
There she is, the big kitchen reveal! I learned so much with this renovation but it really wasn't until after I had lived with it for a few months. I figured out my style, what I like and don't like, and what works best for our family. All of which really helped us in choosing our current home and will help with future renovations.
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