And by the way, I'm not responsible for that moldy green color on the walls... It was here when we bought the house.
It's really this "dropped ceiling" lighting that has me down in the dumps.
It looks so dated and makes the kitchen feel cave-like. It seems like there ought to be some sort of easy fix to update this...
I'm thinking that perhaps something like this might be our best option... CHeap and easy-- no major construction changes.
I'm only worried about the deep soffats making the cabinets look so squatty. If you glance back up at the pics of mine above, you can see that there's not really room for nice nice trim along the top edge...
Any way. This is where we're at so far. Any ideas?
4 comments:
If it were me, I'd rip off all the upper cabinet doors and go with an open shelving look there. But that's just me, and I have some outrageous, outside the box, "industrial", minimalist ideas about home decor these days.
As for your lighting problem.... No doubt about it, if it were me, I'd be ripping out that dropped ceiling.
If you want cheap or free, you're not going to get very far... unfortunately. And what you do get done that is cheap or free is going to look cheap... or free. :/ If I were you I'd decide what is the #1 most important thing to you - such as the lighting, or the cabinets - and splurge there and go cheap/free on other things. I mean, any work you do is an investment.....
OH yeah... have you seen this thing floating around on pinterest where they did a back splash using free reclaimed wood, and polyeurithained the crap heck out of it? I thought it was pretty neat looking, but I don't know if you're into the rustic look or not.
Yes, I have seen that and I love it! BUT. I have to wait and see what the cabinets end up looking like. If I can't get the right look on those stupid laminate cabinets, then a great rustic backsplash is only going to emphasize how chintzy and fake the laminate looks, kwim?
I like the idea of open shelving-- hypothetically. In reality, I don't actually have matching dishes, cute spice containers and coordinating bins for my dry goods, SO it would end up looking like the food shelves in Big Lots after a weekend sale, instead of like something off of Martha Stewart. :P
Ok, I know FREE is not really a possibility, I'm just trying to emphasize that I"m looking for cosmetic fixes that we can do ouselves with very little "extra" equipment, supplies and no expert help. For example, if we completely rip out the dropped ceiling, we'd have to do a bunch of re-wiring, some framing and some drywall and re-route the air-cond ductwork. If we just frame it in, throw up some beadboard (a pic is on my Pinterest board) and install a ceiling fan, it's a much more "do-able" project, and all we have to buy is beadboard, trim and a ceiling fan. We can get most of hat at the Habitat Re-Store :) See? But still. I think that ceiling is my #1 thing and you're right. Anything we do is an investment. Kitchens and baths sell houses :) Not that we're thinking of selling anytime soon, but this is definitely not our Forever Home :)
I know what you mean about the open cabinets. If it's not done right it can look like an total mess. You'd have to constantly be tidying things up, I suppose. Maybe just some of the cabinet doors could go, just to break things up a bit, but still have stuff behind some of the doors. Or something to that effect.
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