House Progress: Kitchen and Dining Room

Hello! Remember me?

I am finally coming out of crazy holiday mode and look forward to lots of blogging, scrapping, and catching up with Project Life. Which I'm two weeks behind on (not to mention the 6 week hole I'm still trying to catch up). Ahem.

Today, I'm popping in to share some progress we've made on the house. We still have a LOT to do (hello, putting hardware on kitchen cabinets!) but I think things are coming together, although s-l-o-w-l-y.

First, up the kitchen. If you recall, when we bought the house, the kitchen looked like this:

There were good bones, but I was not a fan of: the cabinets, the dark wood color, the curtains, the carpet, and the wallpaper. Oh, and the backsplash.

Since we were on a tight budget, we avoided most big changes, keeping the cabinets, appliances and countertops. We did change out the backsplash, install floor where the carpet was, and paint the cabinets, trim and walls. It made a huge difference!

Here's the kitchen now (still in progress, of course):

I chose Benjamin Moore's Antiguan Sky for the walls and Dove Wing for the cabinets and trim. I had LONG inner debates about Dove Wing vs. White Dove and even woke Steve up one night to discuss it. He didn't seem to understand.

I picked up the farmhouse table from Target, surprisingly. I would like to have more farm-y chairs, but these work for now.

The butler's pantry has been SO nice to have in this house. It holds all of my important life items, including the coffee machine:)

Here it is before:

And now after:

Oh, paint. Best thing ever.

The dining room changes are less dramatic, but I know it will come together wonderfully in the end!  Here is the before:

The room was a bit dark to me, and I didn't like the wallpaper.

Again, not terribly different, but brightened up a lot. For the walls I used Benjamin Moore's Moonshine on top and a softer teal below the chair rail. I have grand plans for this room, but it's a bit "blah" for my liking right now.

So tell me, what house projects are YOU working on right now?