The Kitchen Update

A little paint goes a long way.....

Sometimes the simplest change can bring great results. Whether that change comes in our personal life or our professional life, we have all discovered how making small changes can yield a big difference. For me, I had been on a journey to surround myself with peace, tranquility and positive energy from my personal life to my business. I work a lot of long hours each day as well as some hours over the weekends and finding balance has seemed to elude me over the past few months. I hadn't been making as many blog post, my house was chaos (or it least it felt like it half the time; in between massive remodeling projects), and I felt I was in a constant state of disorder.

Those of you who know me well, know that my personality type needs order, schedules, and cleanliness. I also require some down time in order to find peace and harmony and fuel my creative energy. But I just couldn't achieve any those things and getting back into a routine after the holidays had seemed like something that was just out of reach. Finally, several weeks ago, something that had been bugging me for quite a while started to change. They say that your surroundings can have a huge impact on mood and energy and guess what folks? "They" are absolutely right!

I decided to change the color of my walls (which I couldn't take anymore), in my living areas. What had once been a dark and dysfuncional design in my home transformed into a peaceful, creative, place for me to live..... all with a little paint.

Now I feel balanced for the first time in months. Projects are getting done quickly, I'm ahead for the first time with the blog and our antique shop and I'm pretty excited for some down time this weekend (after I organize my office, of course). ;) So, I am a true believer in creating spaces and surrounding ourselves with positive energy. I believe that this is definitely achievable on any budget for decorating spaces. I also believe that surrounding yourself with positive people can impact our peace and happiness as well.

Rainbows and sprinkles, people.....rainbows and sprinkles!!!

A few days ago, I showed you the transformation of my living room and today I'm sharing the transformation of the kitchen and eat in area. If you didn't get a chance and want to see the living room update you can click here.

Here is a look at the eat in area before:

Now for the update:

In the eat in area, I had previously painted this bistro table and chairs to match my painted coffee bar. Those of you that follow along have seen this already, but after I painted I did tweek this area a bit by adding a decorative door and shutters to the space.

Eventually, I would like to find a new boxwood wreath to replace the evergreen one that is still going strong since Christmas. I am having a hard time finding a boxwood wreath the right size so that is on the list! Besides a few tweeks to the decor, which you will see in the before and after pics, all I did was paint and it completley changed the look and feel of the space!

Can I get an AMEN!

Without further ado, here is a look at the before picture of the kitchen!

Like I said in my last post, the old pictures aren't great quality but the new paint changed the level of light, which yielded much better photos. Now those brown walls and red accents are gone, gone, gone!

I painted my little red rooster that we lovingly named, "Chicken". LOL! Of course, since gray is my favorite color, he is tres chic now in gray! I added some new bar stools that I purchased from Target! I love the detail on them and yep, they are gray! This galley kitchen is pretty small but it makes up for it with impact from the black cabinets. The black cabinets were one of the things that made me want to buy this house. The countertops and brown floor tile? Well, that is another story indeed! I'm not a fan and I would love to do all hardwoods throughout the entire house but since this isn't our forever home, we may not want to invest the money.

The color of the walls are the same "Wordly Gray" by Shermin Williams that we used in the living room. I still have some touch ups to do and I need to finish painting the hallways, but for now, I'm happy! What makes you happy? Do your surroundings bring you peace and joy? I hope they do, but if they don't, all you might need to do is add a little paint!