Friday, June 18, 2021

Plans For Our East Texas Kitchen

Hi, Friends,
How are you? I hope that you are doing well.
I showed off the summer decor in the kitchen at home in this post.  
We've got some plans for the kitchen out in East Texas so I thought I'd share where we are and where what we plan to do in the coming months. It's getting hot in Texas. The rainy season appears to be over and the heat has arrived. It was very hot and humid two weeks ago when we were out in E.T. Bill feels like our future projects will be moving indoors. He is ready to tackle the next phase of the kitchen. 


My kitchen formula includes white cabinets. 
I love white cabinets. I painted the cabinets in January. It made a huge change in how the kitchen feels. 
Bill added the crown molding at the top of the cabinets and it really makes them look like they are better quality. 


This kitchen will never be bright and sunny because of the carport right outside the window so the paint went a long way in making it appear brighter. They doors clanked before. Paint and caulk has helped stop that. They seem sturdier for some reason. The paint is by Kilz. It's a premixed white in a satin finish. 


A valance with a café curtain is my preferred window treatment for a cozy, country kitchen look.  At home the color of the valance is aqua and out in E.T. the color is light green. I made the green valance out of Hobby Lobby Gingham but I used the Better Homes and Gardens valance as a pattern. The cafés are made out of old gauzy table cloths. They would flutter in the breeze if Texas weather didn't dictate that we have to batten down the hatches in summer. It is so hot.  

 I like some open shelving but I don't need to have it throughout the kitchen. Some stuff needs to be hidden away in my opinion. Our mismatched coffee cups do not need to be displayed. 


Predominately white dishware keeps the shelves from looking too busy. A bit of transferware in my color crush of choice adds a pop of color. Out in East Texas my accent color is green. 


I wanted shiplap on the peninsula but ended up with beadboard. We have beadboard on the island in town too. Adding something to the outside of the cabinets makes the cabinets look a little more custom.

Both houses have a collection of copper molds on the wall. 
I love the little white cabinet on the counter. The coffee grinder belonged to my grandparents. 


Space above the cabinets was common for houses of this age and price point. 
There are hacks to get rid of the space above but I utilize the space for a little bit of decor. 
A lot of the hacks look like a hack anyway. I'd love cabinetry that went all the way to the ceiling but I'm a believer in living with what you have instead of ripping out. 


We are talking about removing the microwave above the stove. The isn't a lot of clearance between the burners and the bottom of the microwave. We have the same thing in town but it feels very in your face in the E.T. kitchen. I'll probably put up a spice shelf. What about venting? Most kitchen vents don't vent to the outside. It just blows smoke and smells back into the house. Opening doors and windows is the best way to get the burned smell of popcorn out of the house. Never mind, a burned popcorn smell takes forever to go away. Ask me how I know this. 


We are going to be replacing the countertop with butcher block. I wish I'd done it at home instead of granite. We love our granite and we are glad to have had it but both of us feel it was a tad overrated. It chips. It's hard to see gunk on it with all the movement. We don't need stone out in East Texas. We don't hate the counters which is why they were pushed lower on our redo list but we are ready to start this project. When we redo the counters, we need to get a new sink.
I've gone back and forth concerning an apron sink. We have a very wide lower sink cabinet. Once the cabinetry is cut there is no going back. 
I think I can be happy with a white porcelain or enamel sink.
Once the counters are in, I'll decide what to do about the backsplash. 


The previous backsplash was the same laminate as the counter top. I got rid of that within the first weekend. Chipping it out from behind the microwave wasn't fun but it came out. 

We are on our third light fixture over the peninsula. 
The first one I thrifted. 


I'm not a fan of the orb. Sometimes it looked like a circle which was okay. 
Sometimes it looked like an oval. Bill and I didn't like that at all. 

We replaced it with another fixture from Home Depot. 


I'll call it the salad bowl fixture because it reminds me of a salad bowl. It was okay and would have remained except that it was impossible to keep clean. Our property is a dirty place. Bill does not have time to constantly clean a light fixture. I couldn't removed the glass myself  because I couldn't reach it. The angle of the ladder and the peninsula made it impossible for me to reach. 
I replaced it with the same one that we put up in the laundry room. 
It's open at the bottom so we can clean the glass if needed. 


I'm looking forward to having new countertops but I'm not excited about getting them installed. 
Bill can do it himself and he is handy and works fast so it may not be as bad as I think it will be. 




That is about it for now. This is already a cute and functional kitchen. It's just going to be a bit cuter soon. 
I'll keep you posted. 
Have a good weekend. 
Katie 

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