Lighten up busy-looking baltic brown/travertine kitchen on a budget
Debi L.
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
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Debi L.
2 years agoRelated Discussions
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 MoreNew home, want to lighten up kitchen on a budget
Comments (21)I'd leave the cabinets alone right now not because they're OK but because you want to eventually remodel and painting is NOT an easy quick fix. It's a ton of tedious work for the homeowner with probably poor results and/or $$$ to have it done professionally. A DIY paint job can result in textural probs, paint wearing off, cracking within a year or so depending upon the finish, the prep, the products used and the technique/exp employed. I've done my share of painting cabs including our current one and I'm OK with it but it's not a pro finish so I try hard not to stare too hard! I will say I've never painted NICE cabs such as yours and I probably wouldn't. We wanted to gut our current kitchen but a new heating system and several other more critcal redos bounced it out of our top 5 projects so we settled for DIY new cabinet doors/drawers and paint. My second comment is based on the fact you just moved in. You're going through the normal "I want to" thing we all go through initially after moving in. Your wife is in the dream stage because she's already thinking of gold rose hardware...lol. But, please take it from someone who's lived in and remodeled/gutted 6 homes. If possible I have never redone a kitchen or made major paint decisions in the first year of living anywhere and it's always, ALWAYS been the right decision (unless I throw some white paint on a crazy color wall) What I think intially is much different one year later and a lot of that has to do with exposure. Do you realize right now, that June is the darkest this kitchen will appear? It's the summer solstice and that means the sun is high...therefore not coming in the windows as much as when it's lower. Decidious trees will also shade the house. Concentrate on the cosmetic and take some of the advice already given re: lighting, the backsplash perhaps (I wouldn't bother to replace with tile though...go cheaper) We supplemented our undercab lighting with IKEA inexpensive LED tape lights that plug in so you might try that first if there's none currently. And congrats!...See MoreBaltic Brown Countertops: Painting the Kitchen Island
Comments (55)Tia: I wish I could tell you. This was ten years ago. I'm pretty sure this particular style is 'out of date' like so many things go by the wayside after ten years, alas. I can say that I would upgrade. These floors take vigilant work and if I had children at home, there is no way. I have a grandchild who is a frequent visitor and not hard on floors. I have one cat; if I had a dog, these floors would take a beating. That said, I still love the color, its richness, and no regrets for us....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 MoreDebi L.
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