Here are some before pictures of our kitchen. The cabinets were a honey oak color, and the tile was a white ceramic tile with dark grout.
We stained the cabinets a dark espresso color and put in 20x20 travertine-like porcelain tile in a brick pattern. I learned that real travertine is not very durable and is harder to clean. With a chocolate lab and a baby on the way, durability was a huge consideration. We also repainted the baseboards to give it a nice clean touch. Here's the after...
Here's a glimpse of the old fireplace. I tried to hide it as much as possible since I hated the navy blue tile. Really? Who would want blue tile on their fireplace surround?
We replaced the blue tile with a natural travertine stone... So much better. Here's the after!
And now we're on to tackle the wood floors. We had originally thought we could sand down our existing wood floors and refinish them, but we found out when the wood floor guys came out that our floors are actually a thin piece of real wood on top and a cheap material underneath. There is no way to save these, so we are having to do all new wood floors. We've picked out a dark stranded bamboo... going green, something different... and we found out that bamboo is one of the hardest woods making it very durable. I can't wait to see it, but we're waiting until we head to Colorado to get it installed while we're out of town.
4 comments:
The kitchen and fireplace look fantastic! Did you do the same flooring as the kitchen in the powder bath!?! I feel your pain when it comes to home remodeling projects, and know just how good it is to get your house back!
Katie, are you seriously still just hanging out??? Yes, we did the same tile in the half bath as the kitchen. There are times when I'm sitting in my living room and I can see both the half bath tile and the kitchen tile, so I wanted to keep them the same. I thought about changing it up, but I'm too consistent in nature to do that. I didn't take pictures because it didn't seem that exciting. The walls are still a golden yellow color that we tried to do ourselves, but they may get changed in the future.
It looks great Cindy! I LOVE the cabinets and fireplace especially!!! Good idea to do the floors while out of town - it's such a mess! You'll love them in the end though! Can't wait to see them!
Cindy - house looks great! I am impressed with your nesting...what is next after your floors?! Have you started the nursery? You must show pics when you do! p.s. I felt "fat" for 7 months of my pregnancy...hang in there, the belly with eventually show!
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