Lighten up busy-looking baltic brown/travertine kitchen on a budget
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
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- 3 years ago
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Kitchen backspash is too busy. What can i do??
Comments (21)The big offender is the deco strip. That takes the variation and ups it to over the top. Remove that and then take a look at what remains. I think you will be surprised at how much less busy it looks. If you still don't care for it, then a tiny bit of oil based whitewash with artists tints (Titanium white mixed with mineral spirits and will take a long time to dry) will lighten up the dark ones and then you can reseal. Don't use acrylics as they don't really bond with the stone that well. But you can use a bit of white acrylic paint on a leftover to get an idea of what I'm talking about. A light touch will work much better than a heavy hand. The goal is to only lighten slightly, and leave them the darker variation....See MoreOver-budget budget yellow kitchen reveal
Comments (35)Awww, you are all so sweet. Lol laughable - dh now reads the paper at the TABLE! One of the deep drawers near the table is for newspaper recycling so the paper doesn't pile up. Beth - love love love the Super Susans. The shelves are not adjustable, but are very deep and they hold so much. I was surprised to find that the lid holder fit so well. The really big stockpot lids are on top of the pots to which they belong. It is nice to not have to dig for lids in a lower cabinet. The baking ss easily holds canisters with 10 lbs. of flour, 10 lbs. of sugar, brown sugar, xxx sugar, measuring spoons & cups, lots of bowls, etc. The bottom shelf of that one also holds serving trays, serving bowls, vases, and tons of other stuff. My cabinet maker had only done lazy Susans, but said he would try the ss. Dan is a true miracle worker and does beautiful work. He took a weird, old, uneven-walled kitchen and turned it into a miracle of storage. Other than a few 1/2" fillers, there is no wasted space. The toe kicks were built on site and everything was scribed to the walls. The finish is beautiful, durable yet soft looking. We almost went with Kraftmaid (it was a little cheaper) but to me it looked too shiny. I am soooo glad I asked raee who did her kitchen. I also was so lucky with Scott from Tuscarawas Valley Construction. He made our lumpy old plaster walls perfectly smooth and untangled a truly terrifying nest of electrical. We will be hiring him to build our deck once the finances are better. He is also the only person who has ever noticed that in our hall bathroom the toilet handle (chrome) does not match the other ORB fixtures. He is very detail oriented and a perfectionist. The soapstone fabricator was a bit of a disappointment. There a few minor uh-ohs with the soapstone, but we can live with it. The entire ordeal, from demo to kitchen sink install, took 4 1/2 weeks. Scott left the kitchen sink intact for the first week of that time. I had scheduled everyone so as to finish in 3 weeks, but the 4th of July and too much work coming in for the soapstone people interfered with the schedule....See MoreHelp me lighten up my kitchen
Comments (24)Thanks for all the suggestions. Bette P, I really had not thought of drywalling those arches. Great idea. We do have some drywall repair that needs to be done so maybe I will have them do that as well. In Florida they used to make wall shelves out of drywall. This was when large screen TV's were just coming in to style. We knew enough that we didn't want the whole wall to have permanent built ins so it was left blank and we had a large entertainment center in there for a long time. I appreciate your suggestion about the shelving and dust. After reading here recently we have decide to do just what you suggested and do primarily bottom storage drawers and bookshelves. I think we will do some picture frame molding around the tv and on each side. That cut out is over 17' I will check out Ikea Besta, not sure I have heard of it. When we moved here 15 years ago the "in" style was "Mediterranean", while I never went full in I did embrace the colors and tried to add some tropical too. I had two of the walls in the kitchen a burnt orange color. One of the upscale furniture stores is now advertising "de-Tuscanizing" We were joking the other night that is what a bunch of us are doing now. Would LG Vietra Clarino be the tone of counter top I should be looking at?http://www.lgviaterausa.com/products/289/213 Thanks again for the help. It is greatly appreciated. I'm so happy to have found Gardenweb again..I thought you were gone....See MoreLooking for ideas for a brown/cream and white kitchen update
Comments (31)This is the name and manufacturer of the countertop. https://www.lghausysusa.com/viatera/color/view.do?pid=2020011011194700708 I honestly hadn't thought of replicating the same wood as the entrance for the fireplace floor but could certainly consider it. I'm not sure that we would be able to find the same wood color and plank size now 15 years later which is the same concern we would have with adding the wood floor to the kitchen. If we chose wood, we would wait until we could replace both the kitchen and the entry floors at the same time. One question regarding the wood floor option for the kitchen - the kitchen also connects directly to our door from the garage, laundry room, and a 1/2 bath so they currently all have the same tile flooring. I have some reservations about durability for a wood floor in a laundry room and garage entrance that has potential for water on the floor. The kitchen also has doors to go to our deck and backyard which the kids and dog are constantly coming in and out of also bringing in dirt and wet feet/shoes. Obviously we use rugs in these places but we live in a climate with snow and ice and winter is just messy. Is that a legitimate concern or am I just underestimating the functionality of wood? I would say our current wood floor must be a softer wood because we have some scratches on it that are very frustrating considering that area of our house isn't really very high traffic use. The short answer as to why we are looking at changing the fireplace because the surround now is the same tile as the kitchen floor. We had picked a ledger stone for there at time of construction but the installer couldn't get the stone to lay right (at that time it was larger stones) and because of construction timelines we eventually just had to put that tile around it. I love my mantle but I have never loved the tile surround. The long answer is a very frustrating and complicated story that I won't bore you with here but in general the fireplace has never worked properly and if we want an actual functional fireplace our choices right now are to take out and repair the current one or take out and replace it. Either option requires removal of the tile surround....See MoreRelated Professionals
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