Grocery Shrink

I really do love my house now, expecially after adding some fresh paint inside.  I need to take updated pictures of the living room, a lot has changed! Now my kitchen needs a little TLC.  We have been saving our pennies for a complete gut and redo on the kitchen with new floor, custom cabinets, and counters etc.  But now I'm thinking that I should save some of those pennies and just paint the old cabinets with new hardware.  I found some good advice on painting cabinets here:  ttp://www.doityourself.com/stry/paintkitchencabinets

I know a good decluttering and organizing would help!  But I'm not afraid to show you that I'm human too.  Here are some before pictures of my kitchen: 

I've used a black and white and brown theme with splashes of red in my living room. I really like it and I'm thinking about bringing the ideas from the living room into the kitchen.  I love how white cabinets pop with a darker wall color and dark countertops.  (Will my kitchen chairs look all wrong? I could dress them, but the kids are such messy eaters I'd always be washing the covers.) The floors could stay wood, or we could tile them.  Insurance is paying for the new floor due to an accident that happened last year with our dishwasher. I'd also like to put white French doors on the laundry room with curtains behind them. I'm thinking a dark tan on the walls that is a couple of shades lighter than what is in my living room and white trim around the windows and doors too. 

Are there any readers with good design sense out there?  If so leave a comment and prevent me from making a terrible mistake!

P.S.  Here are some photos from Rate My Space that I like:

When I was in college, my parents helped me buy a used Ford escort.  It was white and clean and cute and I loved it…for awhile.  Then I got used to it.  A couple of years later, It was small and dirty and not so cute.  I finally decided I would sell it and buy something different.  I washed it and detailed it myself in preparation to list it for sale.  The next day I decided to drive to the store, but I couldn’t find my car in the campus parking lot.  After exhausting all possibilities, I finally discovered that it was the cute little clean white car I had been walking past over and over. I fell in love with that car all over again. I was shocked how much a little elbow grease helped me be content with what I already had.

Recently I have been feeling a similar discontent with my house.  It’s not tiny, but 5 children playing tag and strewing their things about can shrink the 1800 square feet we have.  The best artwork in it was original crayon, marker and pencil drawings all over the walls.  The art was even signed—with fingerprints.  I dreamed about moving, but the expense was overwhelming.  Instead, I went to the hardware store and bought a $15 gallon of wall paint and $15 of black spray paint.  I used a touch of blue wall paint left over from our basement makeover—detailed here:  http://groceryshrink.typepad.com/the_grocery_shrink_blog/2009/05/basement-makeover-pictures.html

I painted the living room walls brown, the hallway and entry blue, and spray painted the curtain rods, end table, and gold filing cabinet black. It took me 11 hours to do the wall painting including patching, sanding, priming, taping and moving the furniture. My husband helped with the spray painting and moving the piano.  To complete the makeover I plan to paint all my picture frames black to match, sew some simple window treatments and paint the trim and doors white. (I have that paint on hand leftover from the basement makeover too.)  I also want to recover my couch pillows and make a chocolate slip cover for the little stuffed green chair.  A new ceiling fan and area rug would be nice, but they can wait while I save up for things.  After a little bit of paint and removing a ton of clutter,  I love my house again!