Kitchen walls: before, during, after

Way back when we moved into this house, every room was covered in wallpaper. Really, really ugly outdated wallpaper. The kitchen cabinets were original dark stained wood. Read about that makeover here. The den had paneling. And all the trim was dark stained wood. And there was a lot of it.

This was before we moved in and there were still a lot of belongings left behind. If you click to enlarge the photo, you can see the ugly country wallpaper, a weird shelf thing, and the original microwave that died shortly after we moved in.



















We painted the paneling, the kitchen walls, and replaced the oven and oven hood(removed the old microwave). I picked the dark pink(raspberry) I think because the warm tones would go well with the dark stained cabinets. I was also tired of painting the rest of the house beige and tan for resale(we are renting from my in-laws and they will either rent it or sell it after we move out). I wanted something bold. And this is how it stayed for a long time. I'm really not sure why I took this picture at night. It doesn't really make for a fair comparison. I wish you could see how much more natural light is in the after, but you can't see it here to compare.



















Oh wait! Here we go. A picture during the daylight. After the kitchen trim and cabinets(read about that here) had been painted. You can also see the tester spot I painted with the new color(next to the light switch). I also took down the shelf and extra trim. It makes the room more opened. The shelf wasn't that bad, but it looks more updated and modern without it.

















And the after. It's so much brighter! And looks great with the "new" white cabinets. It looks so fresh!

















Another angle with more true to life natural lighting(no lamps on).

















And on to the laundry room...

before...










































during...

















after...































































The next phase of the total makeover is to paint all the trim and cabinets in this room. This all started when our house got broken into last summer.

Let's see if you can follow this:

We had to get a new door, which was white, and I needed to paint the new trim, but I didn't have(or want) the paint that's currently on the trim. Which means painting all the trim in the laundry room AND kitchen AND the den, since it all flows together.

I thought, if I paint the kitchen trim, I really need to paint the cabinets too. After that was done, onto the rest of the trim. It took me almost 6 months to finally get around to painting all the trim in the kitchen and den. Then I wanted to change the wall color(which is so much more fun than trim).

That brings us to today. The only part I have left to do, was the only part that needed to be done: the laundry room trim and new door frame. It still hasn't been painted.