Speaking of Kitchen Changes

My husband surprised me one day this summer when he came in and said, "As soon as we get the garage addition finished (ha?), maybe we should just redo the whole kitchen."  And then he went off to do something else.

Uh, what?!  He'd mentioned remaking the never-finished island, but a complete redo?

Several days later, I got the chance to ask more about what he meant.  He had just finished painting the cabinets for the kitchen area in the bonus living area above the garage.  He explained that he was really liking the finish, and followed up with, "I thought maybe we could do some painting in our kitchen, because we have too much wood."

If I was surprised by his first statement, this one had me thinking someone else had inhabited his body.  I couldn't believe my never-can-have-too-much-or-too-many-kinds-of-wood-anywhere-anytime wood craftsman would EVER utter such woodophilic blasphemy.  


I still didn't believe he'd ever seriously consider painting over vertical grain fir, so didn't give it much thought.  

Even though some of my favorite kitchens have white and/or all painted cabinets, I couldn't imagine living in one.  ---Until I saw this kitchen posted on Facebook, from a slideshow of Cottage-Style Rooms by Better Homes and Garden.

All of the sudden I could imagine walking into my kitchen, looking sunny and warm, with creamy white cabinets.  The backsplash and counters would still work beautifully.  It might just get me closer to the sunny-outdoors, bleached-warm-rocks-along-a-lazy-river feel I was after in the room.

Maybe the dark burgundy baking cabinets would be too much contrast and a bit stark, so they would probably have to be repainted.  The backsplash there, though, includes a few softer colors that would work, and allow that backsplash I worked so hard on, and love, to remain.

So, I changed the fir cabs to creamy white, the island to the gray-brown driftwood color as in the inspiration photo, and tried different colors and combos on the baking wall and the dish hutch.  (My new software, Home Designer Architectural 2014,  isn't as fully featured or flexible as the pro version of Chief Architect, so my flooring and stove backsplash run a different direction, and my trim options are a little different than what we have in the house.)

I am still torn.  I love the kitchen the way it is, and am intrigued by how bright and cheery it might look changed.  But am I just antsy, and want to change things for no good reason?  That could be a mistake.  It's not like changing clothes.

Now, these few months later, after thinking, drawing, commiserating... I show the renderings I've worked on, and shared my excitement as well as hesitations with Hubby, hoping to have a good discussion and make a thoughtful and agreed upon decision for our home.  

His response?  "I don't remember saying that..."  

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