Kitchen Renovation

We are in the midst of remodeling our kitchen.  It's something I've been wanting to do since we moved in last Fall.

When we first moved in, we painted the entire living room, kitchen walls, and hallways SW's "Macadamia," and I love it (no more teal in the kitchen).  I often like stained cabinets that are unpainted, but these dark oak cabinets just didn't jive with the rest of the house, and they seemed to make the kitchen feel enclosed.  

We looked into new tile, and that was way our of our budget, so then we decided to look at new formica (which was the existing countertop and backsplash).  But even that was more than what we wanted to pay for something we weren't crazy about. 

So I thought and thought, until I realized that we could use beadboard for the backsplash.  It's under $20 for a 4'x8' panel (of the fake stuff), which is so cheap that we decided to take it up to the ceiling above the cabinets.  

Almost done beadboarding (is that a word?).

Every professional I spoke with, however, said DO NOT use beadboard behind the stove top for two reasons: 1) water vapor, and 2) fire!  So, as you can see, I decided to leave a space above the range to tile, and since it is such a small area, I was able to splurge a little on my tile :)  It should be finished by the weekend.

We're also doing beadboard on the island below.  I think that is water damage at the bottom... not sure, but it totally justifies all this painting and beadboarding in my mind.

My mom has beadboard on the ceiling in one of her bathrooms.  She warned me that it looks awful before the caulk, and it does.  So, I'm holding my breath and keeping the faith that it will all be seamless after a little caulk.

Oh, and Gordon has been really good through it all.  So far, he's only eaten one small piece of quarter-round.

Below are the colors I am considering.  (I bought samples at SW, and painted poster board.)  The bottom is "Stampede" (BM 979), which is the dark color we used on our fire place.  The cream color at the top is "Pale Almond" (OC-2).  The plan is to paint all the beadboard and upper cabinets the same cream color.  We aren't doing anything to the countertops.  Note: I ended up not going with "Pale Almond," but rather SW's "Softer Tan" for the upper cabinets and beadboard.

That's it so far.  I'll update as we make progress, and hopefully, by this time next week we'll be finished with our brand new kitchen!