Kitchen Before and After; Decorative Painted Walls

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This project was sent to me from Bethany at Sawdust and Embryos.  It is amazing what they were able to do with paint, and some new lighting... and p.s. that back splash is PAINTED on there!  WOW!  Here is what Bethany has to say about her project:

You should know, this is going to be a long post. Here's the story on how our kitchen painting project turned into what felt like a demolition and remodel:

I came home from work one evening and decided to finish painting the kitchen Dark Teal!! It was just dark enough outside that I couldn't paint without the kitchen light on. But when I flipped it on... NOTHING HAPPENED. This happens about 50% of the time with our tacky fluorescent central lighting in our kitchen. It just flickers, and then nothing. On this particular evening... it. made. me. furious! All I wanted to do was finish painting!

It was at that point that I called Nick at work and said, 'do not come home until you've gone to Menard's and spent whatever it costs to put in kitchen lights that will actually WORK. And while you're at it, pick up some decorative pendant lights to hang over my island.'   ...The rest is history.

Although Nick has some experience with electrical wiring and such, his dad's knowledge is vast. So He and Diane came up for the weekend. It was messy.

Father and son bonded.

This was after sweeping  just the kitchen.

I had a glimmer of an idea to paint something special on this one wall, and I toyed around with lots of different ideas. But in the end, I decided on this subtle swirly pattern. Since we chose flat paint for the walls, I bought the same color in high gloss. I just love the way it turned out.

And I only used this much paint for the whole project. Too bad they don't sell paint by the tablespoon!

Okay Okay, here are the after photos. It may not be a 'remodel' since all we did was paint and put in new lighting, but we feel like it's a huge transformation! The cabinets, appliances, flooring, backsplash... all the same as they were before. But man, changing the lighting to recessed can lights made a HUGE difference. I feel like my kitchen glows. And it does... literally.  Enjoy!

Luckily, after some searching, I was able to dig up pictures of the kitchen from WAY back when we were considering purchasing this house. So these before pictures are from before we even lived here!!

Here you go peeps.

Before:

AFTER:

Before:

AFTER:

Don't you think they did some great updates? 

I really love that accent wall!

What do you like about the changes?