Classic Kitchen before and After! Guest

I saw this kitchen and thought Kristi from the Thrifty Gypsy did such a great job.  Since I raised 5 roosters, I am quite partial to the little guys she has around, but I especially LOVE the rolling pin bouquet/ display!  Check it out:

We have lived in our home for 9 years. 

And I think it's safe to say that the kitchen has changed A LOT through those nine years!  We did aHUGE project last year when we ripped up our tile floor and put hardwood down in the kitchen.  At that time we didn't think our land would ever get approved (it had been 6 yrs of waiting).  And of course literally THREE DAYS after putting it in, we got the call that all was approved!  I simply laughed (because I wanted to cry, lol) and said, well hopefully it will be good for resale!    We already had it in the DR and LR so we were trying to "match" prefinished to the finished on site we already had.  It's not perfect, but I'm fine with it and LOVE my wood in the kitchen!  And will put it down again (darker stain) in the new house!

During the process of taking out the tile, the display end of my island was broken.  So instead of ordering a new end, we put in a pine bookshelf and painted the whole island black!  I still can't decide if I should distress it or not.  It's been like this for almost a year and I love the black. 

Some of the after pictures are dark, sorry about that!  It was sunny all day and I took my camera out and the clouds rolled in!  I knew I couldn't wait for tomorrow because it is CLEAN today, lol.  And five minutes after taking the pictures I was fixing dinner, so you know what that means!

Anyway, I'm going to post a "before" picture, but it's really when we moved into the house.  My kitchen has been decorated much differently from these pictures, but when my computer died last year, the pictures went with it! :(      And I have never shown my "completed" kitchen yet.  Hope you enjoy the tour!  Here it is!

Before...

             

And after...

This is the view from the foyer walking into the kitchen

The "old" wood floor (site finished 9 yrs ago) is in the DR and then it meets the new floor (prefinished) in the kitchen.  It's a little different but works fine I think (and hope)!!!

                            

That little toile bag on the pantry holds my daughters bibs!  She gets them herself when she wants to eat! :)

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

XOXO

(a Second post)
First,  I'd like to thank you ALL for your sweet comments on my kitchen!  You all made me feel so good!  So THANK YOU again!  It's been a labor of love all of these years.   But that is what makes it fun right?!   I love to decorate so it has changed many times and finally gotten to where I really love it.  French country is ME!

A few of you asked some questions so I will post some pictures of the things and answer them for you!

The wall color is Sherwin Williams Blonde.  Which I love and will probably use it (along with it's lighter sister Ivorie) in the new house.  Finding paint colors is HARD!  But when you find one you like, STICK with it! :)


My window treatments were made by one of my good friends Kathleen!  We met when our boys went to preschool together.   She made all her own curtains and valances in her own home. Someone walked into her house and said you should go into business and she did! Her husband made her a real work table and workroom in her basement.   She is a fantastic seamstress!  I had all the fabrics ( I have a fabric buying sickness, lol  my basement is embarrassing!) and drew her a very pitiful picture of what I thought I wanted and she made it EXACTLY!   Her and I always joke that someday we'll go into business together.  She likes the fabrics I pick and admits she would NEVER think to put what I put together, but then likes the end result, lol.   I have mostly ready-made curtains in my house (because I have a sewing machine and don't know how to sew!) but splurged in this room!  She also made me some london valances in my LR that I will show another day.

I almost NEVER pay a lot of money for anything and almost never buy new either!  #1 I'm cheap, but mostly I love the thrill of the hunt and the variety you get at thrift stores, consignment shops, yard sales and etc.  And I think it's SO much fun to bring a piece home that you know will look great with all your other things.  And to pay next to NOTHING for it is the icing on the cake!



My rooster lamp came from the City Mission for $2.  My mother found this one for me, she KNEW I would LOVE IT and she was right!  Thanks mom!  I found the lampshade on eBay, which is the exact fabric used in the rest of the room. They had an auction of 5 lampshades with this one included and when the lot didn't sell, the seller sold me this one for $3 plus shipping.  Another fun find!

My rolling pin collection are all from thrift stores, I don't think I ever paid more than $2 for any of them.  I got the crock at a AJ Wright.  

This little sofa table was found at a garage sale a few years back for $25. I had NO intention of garage saling, I was on my way to somewhere else when I spotted it driving down the road. I turned my car RIGHT around, LOL.   I didn't have a DIME on me.  I pleaded with the man running the yard sale that I was going to the ATM and would be RIGHT back.  I literally went right to the ATM and back and there were people swooning over it!   When I got home I found a name on it and googled it.  Turns out it's very pricey furniture, LOL!  It's all wood and french country, what's not to love?! :)

The rooster plates my dear cousin found for me out thrifting!  I had the plate hanger in my basement from a thrift store, waiting for some plates to go in it! Score!

My crystal lamp on the kitchen counter is from Salvation Army.  I found this beauty for $2.99 about 5 yrs ago and knew it was coming home with me! The plate, plate holder, fleur jar and rooster and topiary spoons all came from AJ Wright for next to nothing.

My coffee lamp!  It's a vintage coffee maker turned into a lamp, found it this way at City Mission for $5.99!  Can you tell I like lamps?  Another obsession of mine!

The jelly cabinet I found at Salvation Army for $8 and gave it a makeover.  I added the wood fleur de lis and then painted it black and decoupaged some roosters that were scraps from a wallpaper border.  I decoupaged some more on top and stenciled the big gold fleur on top.  It was a very fun project!  It holds my tablecloths and cloth napkins which we use everyday because I'm cheap it's green!  No throwing away paper napkins everyday!

                                          before-

       

The chalkboard was covered in another post. You can look at it here. I made it from a frame I got at a consignment shop. 

I got this silver bucket (I like it tarnished!) bucket with lion head sides at a thrift store in Florida and it fits all my junk in there nicely!

So what do you all think? 

A lot of love and work went into this kitchen I can tell!