My Dream Kitchen - a Makeover

I know this looks like something that

I would do for Halloween - maybe creating

a Haunted House - but no, this has been

real life around Purple Chocolat Home

for a while here.

Over the past two years you have seen me 

redecorate and move to lighter decor.  The living

room used to have dark rich furnishings

and I switched it up to light furnishings.

It was time to do the same in the kitchen.

Although I had loved my kitchen, I was tired of the 

dark decor and ready to lighten everything up 

there too.  The dark island and chairs had to go.

Everything just seemed so dark.

The pizza oven needed a change.

I had hated these hand painted cabinets

from the minute they were finished.  They

never went with the rest of the decor.

This secretary had beautiful lines, but I

was tired of its color too.

I met with the painter and told him that

I had a party that week and he promised that he

could come in and get the island done by

the time of the party.  He was true to his word.

He also promised that I wouldn't have to remove

all of the "stuff" from my cabinets.  Whew! 

That made everything easier.

But as you can see from the tall baking cabinet

on the left, that didn't happen.  His employees

removed everything.  In the end that was a good

thing, as it forced me to de-junk.

I had a garden party the next week

(this started in September) and this was

what my kitchen looked like.  I told everyone

to enter the garden from the outside, but of

course, everyone wanted to see the mess -

thus my "haunted house"

Considering how large and complicated my

kitchen is, it probably went pretty quickly,

but it has definitely thrown my life into a tizzy.

The baking cabinet was the hardest, as it had to 

be removed from the wall and set on the floor 

for the counter to be installed.

Going through all of the junk took forever. 

It was good to get rid of so much.  I purged

five black garbage bags of cookbooks and tons of glassware. 

Now the insides of my cabinets are not over-stuffed. 

I actually breathe a breath of relief as I open 

cabinets now.

I chose this arabesque marble tile with black

dots for my backsplash.  Hubby did the tile work.

This shows it before it was grouted.

This section is now finished, with the

new counter, grouted backsplash and

handles installed.  I chose acrylic and

brushed gold handles.  I love their

clean look.

Even the fridge got acrylic handles.  Such

a difference from the huge metal ones we

had before.

My daughter and I had seen these on a fridge 

at a homeshow.

Here is a shot of the secretary all finished.

She is so elegant, she just had to have 

special jeweled pulls.

On the pizza oven, we chose to keep the

beams a dark rustic color and to keep

the rustic looking stone.  Our other doors

in the kitchen are stained wood so the beams

tie in nicely.  

I tried to take pictures as we went along, but this one

isn't quite current as the baking cabinet now has

the new counter and we have handles everywhere,

but this gives you the picture without all of the

Halloween decor which is now up.

The island still has the dark green stone on it,

which I really like because of the contrast, but

that is something hubby has hated from the 

beginning so it is going too, but we have been

out of town for the last while so it isn't done

yet, but we still have a fully functioning kitchen.

Also I removed the purple crystals from my

chandeliers and friends have thought I had

new chandeliers - funny!!!

I had purchased the barstools for our houseboat,

but they ended up being too short, so I had brought

them home.  I decided to use them in the new kitchen

and I love how they let you see the decorative trim

around the island, which was covered up by

the old barstools.

Just so you can remember what the old

kitchen looked like....

People are wowed by the transformation and it isn't

quite done yet.

So that's what I have been up to - and why I haven't

done any blogging for a while!  Remodeling always

takes more time and effort than you think, but the

results are so nice.

Thanks for stopping by.  I know I have been missing

in action for a while, and I was so charmed by so many

contacting me and wondering if I was all right.  

Overwhelmed, but yes, I am doing great.  Thanks

for caring!

I will be posting this with

 Metamorphosis Monday