Kitchen status

To lighten the mood from my last post, I will give you an update on my kitchen.  We are still in the design phase.  We have settled on a floor plan, which is pretty much the one we have now minus the wall between our kitchen and dining room and minus the window next to the breakfast table -

We are also going to move the oven to below the stove top to create more counter space, take the cabinets to the ceiling and insert a hood that actually vents to the outside.

After looking at these pictures, I don't know why I am stressing so much about the "look" of the kitchen.  Anything NEW would be awesome.  But I do know why I am stressing about it.  I have been dreaming of a new kitchen ever since we moved into this house 9 years ago.

So, after we nailed down the floor plan, I went cabinet shopping.  I decided on white upper cabinets paired with navy or gray lower cabinets and white counter tops.  (I use the word "decided" loosely since I still haven't found the exact shades I want to use.)  When I brought home the samples of cabinets, the navy looked almost black and the gray looked dark brown.  Here they are with some tile and counter top options -

I love marble, but I think it wouldn't last very long in our kitchen.  I am probably going to use white quartz for the counter tops.  I was a little inspired by Jenna Lyons' kitchen -

In an effort to add interest to the kitchen, I decided we should put wallpaper on one wall.  On my first trip to the wallpaper store, this is what I narrowed it down to -

The two on the bottom are my favorites, but they look a little futuristic.  So, I went back to the wallpaper store and came away with one sample in my hand and one on order.  Here is the one I brought home -

I was growing quite attached to it until my husband said, "Absolutely not!"  (Maybe I shouldn't show him the all black sample that's coming in the mail.)  But then he felt bad about shutting down my creative process and told me he would consider it.  My daughter, however, loved it so much that she was disappointed when I said it would only go on one wall.  "Let's cover the entire kitchen in it!"   I like her enthusiasm.  Even after my husband's strong objection to the wallpaper, I was bold enough to tell him about my idea for the other wall - chalkboard paint!  Of course, my daughter loved that idea even more than the wallpaper.  My husband thought I had gone insane.  But look how beautiful Jenna Lyons' bedroom is -

So, that's where we are on the kitchen.  By the way, if you want to browse through some amazing wallpaper, go to www.wallpaperdirect.co.uk or www.walnutwallpaper.com.  I'll let you know when I make a decision on... anything.