All you have to do is post a picture. The eyes on this forum are like those of hawk. (with the memory of an elephant). If it ever was posted on here, someone will know. It's just how this forum rolls!

Congrats on your new house.

No matter what it's previous situation was...We want to see!!! Sounds wonderful, even if not quite what you would have done. Maybe someday another color of cabinet paint could make it better for you?

Nicole--yes, do post some pics!

How cruel of you to post this thread with nary a picture ; ) I quickly scrolled to the end of your post thinking surely there was at least ONE picture attached . . . stop lining cabinets and snap a few pictures!

Congratulations on your new home!

I will take "after" pictures of the paint job tonight or Saturday and post the before and after.

Thanks to this forum I know exactly what to do with that extra deep cabinet over the fridge -- vertical baking pans and cookie sheets!

In the meantime, here's the layout and my notes on suggested placement of items. Yes, the utility room needs work, those doors really do collide for now and the range fan needs to be vented... I have plans.

Glad to see booze is not too far from the sink :) Can't wait to see the pics.

The "booze" cabinet being so clearly labeled cracks me up. I have one, too. A pull-out, no less. ;-)

We're just about to move into our new house, and the kitchen layout is almost identical to yours. I'm just going to print out your layout and use it for unpacking all my stuff. :)

Can't wait to see pics! We looked at a lot of houses that had nicely remodeled kitchens that I wished had not been remodeled because they weren't my style. We ended up with white melamine cabinets circa 1990--perfect! It won't make me feel bad at all when we replace them.

"Glad to see booze is not too far from the sink :) Can't wait to see the pics."

Priorities! :D

I'd switch the booze to the end cabinets and bring the dishes and serving dishes closer in, but those two end cabinets have glass fronts, so I wanted the pretty stuff to go there.

Congratulations on the new house!! Love the booze cabinet too. Next to the cabinet with glasses=good flow. :-)

Here we go.

BEFORE:

AFTER (well, in progress):
Painting is done and touched up and the counters got their second coat of Watco Butcherblock Oil today. (Which, incidentally, I do NOT like despite all the rave reviews I read. Hopefully it wears off like oil and I can still Waterlox later, but it sure doesn't act like the triple oil mixture it's supposed to be.)

The flood light fixtures are truly dreadful and no, they don't line up nor are they placed anywhere that makes sense. A project for later.

Looking toward the "dining" area and the back hall. I am thinking of making this a keeping room and turning the front "living room" into a formal dining room.

Flooring is 3/4" solid oak -- not an exact match for the other floors in the house, which are original, but fairly close.

Opposite view, looking toward the laundry room:

The paint is BM Sherwood Forest (love it!). I am going to leave the stairwell painted the same color as the cabinets; I think it helps draw the space together. Plus that would be a nasty stairwell to paint with the diagonal landing below.

Garage door, range and refrigerator:

Small peninsula:

Backsplash is plain old 4" white tile. Not something I would choose, but it works, especially now that the walls aren't white.

There are two more under cabinet light under the glass front cabinets, but they aren't working. I am hoping it's just bad bulbs. There is no "lip" under the cabinet bottoms; the lights are recessed into the underside of the cabinets themselves - a gorgeous install, and one that would be tough to find an exact fit for. I have no idea where the wiring for the lights is; it must run through horizontal drilled holes in the wood on the bottom of the cabinets and back into the walls that way.

For a trial run, I installed some Venetian bronze switch plates I already had. Not on the backsplash -- they looked dumb there. The same tone on knobs on the cabinets seemed too much of a contrast, though. Anyone have any thoughts on a finish for the new knobs or pulls?

Wow...love it.

I was disappointed that I didn't get the jump on the booze jokes.

Oh how the added color makes a difference! There is quite a variety of glass or ceramic knobs to choose from, or if you don't think you would like the ORB, copper or the brushed nickle.

Copper is an interesting idea for the knobs. I am going to replace the sink and one of the brown granite composite sinks would look nice in there, I think. Copper might help transition between the brown and the brushed highlights on the switchplates.

The cabinets definitely need from jewelry. Those white ceramic knobs just don't do the trick.

glass knobs, nickle or even brushed pewter might look nice.

looks like there's room in the laundry room for more cabs for s torage also - lucky you!

Thank you for posting! It is amazing what some paint will do -- I didn't even notice the glass cabs until you painted. And yeah, those lights . . . . not happening. Congratulations once again!

It's a great kitchen and the green paint is perfect. Is it odd though how they stopped the backsplash before reaching the peninsula end? You didn't see it as much when the wall was white but now that it's green...

Thanks for the kind comments!

Yes, the utility room needs help. Right now it has old sheet vinyl on the floor, and washer and dryer and wire shelving all around. I'd like to tile the floor in there, add some cabinetry and counters that nearly match the kitchen, paint and remove the door. Or do something else with that doorway. I'm going to move in first and see what needs to go into the space first.

Now... back to the house to build a closet and more painting...

Your kitchen is beautiful!! The paint choice was perfect.

I think the best part of this post is that someone bought a kitchen that was a TKO kitchen, lol, and despite it not being exactly what they wanted in taste was able to work with it to do minimal damage.

Long live the TKO kitchen!

I could see maple knobs to coordinate with the counters -- if you've seen Pirula's kitchen and like that yours would look similar. Lee Valley has the knobs. The wood tone would also look good with the green.

I decided on a bronze knob with a lot of copper highlights in it. I would have never thought of a copper tone if jilljohn hadn't mentioned it.

I think the darker knobs sort of stop the eye and de-emphasize how long and narrow the kitchen is. My traditional cherry dining set doesn't really go nor does it really fit the narrow dining room. But I like the cherry tone with the oak. You can't really sit two people at the bar, but you can pull one stool around to the side. We do this at my Mom's house all the time. Besides, most of the time the cat occupies the other stool not a person.

(Forgive the fish tank and the extension cord... this is the only place I have a grounded outlet for now!)

Still gotta to something about those lights, but they are functional right now and I have a long to do list. The green looks a little minty in the morning sun photos, but it really isn't.

Also on the to-do list... the adjacent utility room. Ugh. I have NO pantry space, so the utility room is going to need to be a pantry combo.

Very nice knobs you found -- it's a great kitchen -- best of luck in the new house.

Beautiful! I am planning white cabinets and waterloxed butcherblock counters. Your kitchen looks great, especially with the paint!

And I am envious of your laundry room right off the kitchen.

Thanks, guys. It's a very easy kitchen to work in. For pure function, it's hard to beat a galley, but all that extra counter and cabinets means I have room to spread out for big projects.

Only problem is, I'm reluctant to put anything on those counters!

Quickl thought about the laundry room- can you stack your W/D? I have huge front loaders and limited space, so we stacked them (I am short too, and it isn't a problem). It could give you ALOT more space.

I had stacked FL's before and I *hated* it. It was especially annoying that the washer door opened one way and the dryer the other, and one door opened into a wall. And then there was nowhere to put things down to fold them.

It was the only option in the other house, though, so I lived with it. Sometimes you gotta.

The kitchen looks great - I *love* the knobs you found! I mean, seriously - they're gorgeous! Really good with the green paint. Can't wait to see what you choose for light fixtures.

Great thread. I don't know what's funnier - the idea that this was originally a TKO kitchen now into its second owner, or the labeled booze cabinet.

ALSO - need photo of the cat. Preferably on the bar stool.

Knobs: Lowes, ~$3.25/each. (And I needed 39 of them, so price was a serious consideration!)

Question is... which cat?

The lights will change when I am passing by a clearance table and see the right ones. Always happens that way if I don't push it. :)

Another change that needs to happen is the sink and faucet. I really don't like stainless steel, and while part of me enjoys the minimalism of a simple pantry faucet... I need spray. And a spigot for my RO machine which is living in one of the sink bowls right now. No tap water for the fishies, I'm afraid. Also the faucet does reach far enough, so I end up splashing behind the counters a lot. I'm thinking a sink bowl brown granite composite and a single handle pull-out faucet in satin nickel.

Should read: "DOESN'T reach far enough."

That faucet looks like it was meant for a prep sink! I totally get wanting to change it, and the sink too (I'm not fond of stainless sinks either). The kitchen, itself, is lovely! I missed this thread while I was only frantically working on moving back into kitchen for the holiday. The green is terrific!! Congrats on the new house. And at least it's a good kitchen, even if it wasn't your kitchen. Galleys are very efficient to cook in. I could be very happy there. I hope you will be too!!!

Thanks, plllog! I kid you not, the owners manual calls it a "pantry faucet." (Yes, the previous owner kept *everything*... it's an engineer thing.) Cute, but just not enough ooomph.

I am looking forward to hosting my first party in this house. Gotta get a few things straight first. Like the electrical wiring!

In my defense, the "booze" cabinet also has coffee, tea and hot chocolate. :)

Nicole:
I like the stainless sinks, but maybe you'd prefer something that matched the copper-ish look. I know you are great with color and sewing (from the decorating forum), so I can imagine you have it all planned out with the new sink and a new faucet.

Maybe you can recycle your pantry faucet to the utility room when you re-do that!

I think you ended up with a wonderfully workable kitchen--the galley kitchens appeal to my linear aesthetic. Love symmetry :) For such small changes, you will have an amazing kitchen. Lucky you! Some of us inherited 1950s sorry looking ones.....

Once some updated lighting goes in too, I think the pic down the galley will be so pretty!

That's not me in the decorating forum; there must be another Nicole over there?

I would love a faucet in the utility room, but there's just no room. As I posted in my layout thread for that room, I have too much stuff I need to organize in that room, and not enough space to do it in, so I have to prioritize. If I had done the kitchen myself, a lot of those items (like a recycle center and pantry) would be integrated into the kitchen.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pantry/utility room layout

it looks great! i'm laughing out loud because BM Sherwood forest is the color of the exterior of our house!

I think a great finishing touch would be to add some more interesting lighting fixtures. Such as one nice pendant over your sink and maybe a more modern track in the center. Or even a chandelier?

Amy

Alabamanicole and Plllog,

Is it possible it's a weird fauctet because the faucet is SO close to the back wall and the window sill sticks out so far it makes a more full size faucet harder to work with?

It's hard to get a real sense of size but it didn't look like there was that much clearance behind the faucet.

M.

That's a good point, morgne. I think there's enough room -- not for a giant faucet but at least for a normal sized-faucet. That window sill is very shallow (I don't think I'd want a faucet where you had to reach behind it to turn it on -- there might be some busted knuckles. But one with the control on the side should be fine.

I think. :)

Amy - I'm not really a chandelier gal and neither is the house. A pendant with some character over the sink would be nice. The fixture in the kitchen proper might stay since it's a shallow space. As for the two things in the dining rom, I dunno. Ceiling fans are always a possibility.