Phase one of our kitchen plan is complete! Admittedly, this is probably going to be the easiest step, but it’s the first step in the right direction and I am crazy excited. The walls are painted and already breathing new life into our kitchen. Life that I had no idea it was lacking.
We brought the dark brown that was already in the family room all the way into the kitchen. It’s one massive wall that is finally finished in Chocolate Sparkle by Behr.
It looks like chocolate pudding. It is not.
Because the wall runs the width of our home, it is impossible to accurately photograph the entire area. For funsies, Evan helped me snap a few pics with my iPhone Panorama feature. We live in a split level so here is the wall from the kitchen… weird lighting and all.
And here is the same wall from the family room.
We also brought the taupe in from the formal living room and dining room. It’s Pronghorn by Behr and we had it color matched since it’s from an old line. How about a little “before & after” action, shall we?
Hmmm… that’s not looking super-dramatic. Maybe from the other corner of the kitchen?
Yeah… not so much. In fact, that sound you hear is the air escaping my excitement over having this step accomplished. Bummer.
In real life, you can definitely see a difference. Painting the room has married the colors from the two main living areas that are connected by the kitchen.
The good news: Even with just paint, the space is already feeling more like “us”. I’m not sure I know exactly what that means, but I know it when I see it.
All of the high spaces are complete and look fresh and clean. This required a lot of time for Tyson on a very high ladder and me below loading the brushes and rollers with paint to pass back up to him.
The bad news: We are living with A LOT of brown. We are so happy with the paint, but it screams to have the cabinets and molding updated in white to balance out all the brown and orange tones.
The two arrows point to the same paint color in two different areas of our home. Once the cabinets are painted white, there will be a lot more contrast and a lot less brown/orange. I just have to remember the transition has begun and none of this is permanent.
How do you stay inspired when a big project is in progress? What color have you painted that has created the most drama in your home? Could your friends see a difference when you showed them what you’ve been working on? Well, the next set of pictures will have a little more contrast. Promise.
I love that deep brown! It will look even richer once you have the cabinets painted… I think that will really set it off.
I love dark wall colors, but I think you need pretty much a solid wall of giant windows like you have, to balance it out… Or, maybe that’s just my personal allergy after living in my house-of-many-colors. Dark purple will leave you with an altered color perception…
Looks good… can’t wait to see the finished product!
We have a crazy colorful house and I’m very much beginning to wonder if I have an altered color perception. I recently realized that we have 16 different paint colors in our house. 16!! We might have a problem. I’m such a sucker for dark color next to crisp white… I can’t help myself! I know that’s not for everyone so we are slowly trying to tone things down when we can. We actually just eliminated one paint color, so now we only have 15. Sheesh!
It looks great. White cabinets will be beautiful with that chocolate!!
Thanks so much! I’m equal parts excited to get the white paint going and a intimidated by the big project ahead. Luckily my husband is feeling the same way so we can take turns; one of us panics, while the other plays cheerleader. Looking forward to having it all done.
Looks FABULOUS!! I just love your color choices!
Thanks, my sweet friend! Look for a Menzel family cameo on the blog next week.
i love it! i was concerned at first since it’s such a dark color, but the kitchen is so big and open that i think the brown looks amazing. well done.
Thanks so much! Originally I wanted to use the dark brown throughout the kitchen, but my husband was really against it. So glad we went with the lighter color. It would’ve been WAY too dark, even in the large space.
The layout of your kitchen to your living room is amazing. I would love to have my kitchen sit above it like yours. It gives the house such a nice flow. The colour flows really nicely and seriously you’re giving me a kick in the ass to go get started on ours.
Ha… glad you are feeling the “encouragement” to get started on your own kitchen, but trust me, everything has now come to a screeching halt as Tyson is slammed again with work. That’s just the reality of our lives… so when we have a window to get something done, we power through before we are left with crazy living conditions. Cause those are ALWAYS tons of fun.