Here is one from before I closed on the house. I repainted the cabinets solid white before I moved in, but you can see the brick that is on the wall beside the dishwasher. That's fake brick, folks. It's also yellowed with age so the entire kitchen has a yellow hue from forty years of cigarette smoke (not me), cooking, and time. And that "retro" countertop? While it looks all nifty and such, it's really a germ factory since it's been scratched, nicked, and dinged for decades upon decades.
And don't even get me started on the sink. Something we cleaned it with when I moved in removed all protective coating from the porcelain, so it's stained from five years of tea, soda, and dirty dishes. It's terrible.
I hate it and I want it gone!
I know the cabinets have "good bones," and that I could just strip and repaint them, but I will not. I want new cabs, probably IKEA for the quality and price plus the promise of additional, better storage space. Right now my wine glasses don't fit in the cabinets anywhere (shelves are too close together), so they are in a box above the cabinets. Consequently, my sister and I drink our wine out of Pizza Express cups all too often. Stay classy, San Diego!
This is probably closest to the style I would choose (via IKEAFans.com). I am not 100% sold on dark, since there is a lot of dark wood in the next room in the built-in cabinet. But I hate how dirty white cabinets get, especially with the dogs (Bristow can reach the counters the mangy mutt!).
I need recommendations on some blogs with kitchen ideas or fixer-upper type stuff. I know about Young House Love (obvs), and loooove their work. But I need more ideas! I used to follow several DIY/fixer-upper/This Old House type blogs when I first moved into my house, but for the most part they stopped blogging after a while. Some got bored with renovating, but most of them had kids and just stopped blogging so darn much. Which is great for them...but I need ideas, how-tos, price ranges, etc.
I read YHL, Apartment Therapy (sometimes), Design Sponge (sometimes), Freckles Chick, and I just found Rambling Renovators.
