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First time home buyer: Ideas for kitchen

12 years ago

So this is my first house and I want to do as much renovating as I can on my own but I would like some ideas that will work. My kitchen is small but has great potential I think. Right now it has brown tile on the floor (which I want to rip out and put down lamanate flooring), light brown cabinets, and a really ugly three color tile behind the oven and sink (white, tan, dark brown). The appliances are white and I'd like to keep them. The walls have the aweful fake wood panels going on but I don't know if it's a good idea to take them off. Basically I'm asking for any good recomendations and color ideas. Should I get all new cabinets or just paint them? Rip down the wall panels or just paint over them? I found something that I like and its the dark chocolate brown cabinets, with white tile, and pale blue walls. Any tips would help!

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Comments (4)

beekeeperswife
12 years ago
Hi Kris, you should post this on the Kitchen Forum. Include photos, and a floor plan.

Also there is a thread that will explain a lot to you about posting photos, drawings, and many other great ideas (including "The Sweeby Test". Check it out, I'll link it below.

Congrats on your new home!

Here is a link that might be useful: New To Kitchens Thread
roarah
12 years ago
The best advice I got when I bought our house years ago was to wait and live with the kitchen for at least six months before planning anything other than painting walls or adding curtains. After learning about how the kitchen functioned I had a whole different lists of priorities than I had when I first moved in.
Congrats and enjoy your new home!
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First start some idea books that is what helps us understand what you like. Also we need more pictures a floor plan done to scale , a list of things you don’t like about the kitchen Are you getting new appliances and even if not we need the sizes of those . I will say it is best to live with the space for awhile before doing anything, that gives you time to see how the house works for you. It is surprising sometimes that what you think will happen in the space just doesn’t . IMO the min. amount of time is 3 months of living in the space.I assume these are the realtor pics and not your furniture.
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yayagal
12 years ago
At the kitchen forum you can find dozens of pictures for inspiration. They were very helpful to me. If your cabinets are good, just paint them a nice white. If you hate the fake wood walls you're going to have to put something over them or remove them. That would be my first consideration. Beadboard would look great over them or take them out and have someone do a skim coat drywall and you're good to go. One step at a time.
rosie
12 years ago
Congrats, Kris. I agree with investigating your possibilities and letting them simmer for a while, but why not go ahead and paint right now to suit yourself? The awful paneling. Cabinets. Everything. You'll be pleased and happy and no longer in a hurry to do something that actually costs money.

The suggestion to leave that phony paneling in place and eventually panel over is a good one. Do paint at least it now, if nothing else, so you can smile instead of wince, then eventually cover with the surface of your choice. Unfortunately, it usually still looks substandard after it's painted because there's just not enough of the right kind of texture to it.

I've done it, BTW, and been very pleased with the result, but I was a very young housewife with a pile of maternity bills, and the possibility of showcasing its cheesiness by juxtaposing nice new cabinetry against it mercifully wasn't a possibility. I just ran new paint over everything in sight, sewed up new curtains for the window, scrubbed and waxed the linoleum, and hung some posters and plants (anybody guessing the era here?), and I'm guessing it probably did look as cute as I thought it did then. Even poverty can pay off sometimes. :)

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