How moody can you make a kitchen? (part 1)

Slowly but surely my husband and i are working on our house and for a few weeks now (with the holidays), have been starting on our kitchen. Now as you can see by the title, I bet that you can guess that we want our kitchen to be moody and very dark. How moody? How about black? Black walls, black cabinets, black appliances, black almost everything.

For the most part we like our kitchen. There is a lot of storage and place for cooking. The thing that was bothering us about it was the colors and fixtures in it.

So this is what it looked like when we bought the house. It is really a nice looking kitchen. We are just wanting it to start to look like our kitchen, not the previous owners. One of the main things that I really didn't like was the mint walls with the navy and white cabinets. For my husband and I, it was just too much color and too bright. The worse part, was that they painted the brick veneer the same mint color. I hated this. I wanted nothing more than to see the actual brick, in all its glory, in the kitchen. I would have loved to have that be the focal point in the space. Since it had been painted, I wanted nothing more than to remove the brick in its entirety. There was a whole section of brick that was missing by the sink where the the original cabinets ended. I didn't know how to deal with all of it.

So when my husband and I started to talk about what we wanted to kitchen to be like, one of the main things we talked about was the veneer and what we wanted to do with it. After much deliberation, and talk about cost, we decided to keep the veneer and paint it the same color as the rest of the walls. Once we figured that out, I was happy with our decision. We also decided to grout in between the veneer. It was then, that I realized why I hated the veneer so much (besides the color). When the veneer was originally put on the wall, it was put on like tile, but it wasn't finished like tile or regular brick. There was a lot of space in between the individual "bricks." It made the wall look unfinished and messy. There was no grout!

So we came up with a plan and a mood board for what we are wanting.

On the mood board we have ideas of what we are wanting in the space. On the left, we have an inspiration picture. The island will have a butcher block top, while the rest of the countertops will be some type of stone in either white or black. We have not decided yet. We will have a black sink and a brass faucet. Over the island will be an industrial/ modern style light.

We picked the paint color Dark Kettle Black in a satin sheen for all the walls including the brick. We were able to get all the walls painted, including the brick, in one weekend. It did take a while to get the brick painted and covered but it was well worth the time. When we are ready we will be painting the cabinets in the same color.

Over this past weekend we worked on a couple of things. One of the things we were able to get done was adding the new brick to the blank space by the sink. I was able to find brick veneer that I could buy by the sheet and not an entire box at Floor and Decor. I took them off the sheet that they came on and stuck them on individually. I put a bunch of liquid nails on the back of each brick and positioned it onto the wall. Once they are dry, they will be wiped off and painted to match the rest of the bricks. I know it is not super perfect, but when they are painted and grouted, it will look a lot better and blend into the rest of them.

The other part of the kitchen we accomplished, was the laundry nook. We took all the shelving down and removed the dryer piping and moved the washer and dryer. We filled holes and painted in the nook. It took 2 coats to cover the last of the mint. Once it dried, we added some small baseboard around the nook. Then we put the vent and shelving back up and made sure everything was cleaned and neat. The last thing we did to finish the laundry nook was hanging a curtain. Unfortunately, there isn't enough space in the entry of the nook for doors. So we wanted to hang a curtain so we could hide the laundry when we are not using it.

Overall the start of the kitchen is going really well. I am excited to continue and slowly make our kitchen our own.

Stay tuned for part 2!

Stay creative,

Lindsay