One Room Challenge - I'm Making Over My Kitchen!

The One Room Challenge, masterminded by the brilliant Linda at Calling It Home is kicking off today and I'm so incredibly excited/honored/humbled to have been given this amazing opportunity to participate - again! If you missed my family room makeover, you can read about it here.

And I'm in good company.  Take a look at the other participants.  Do you know how this all plays out?   I, along with the talented ladies listed above, am going to make over a room from start to finish in the allotted six week timeframe posting updates on my progress every Wednesday.  

This time I've got my sights set on my own kitchen.  And a sad little kitchen it is.  Here's how the kitchen looked before we closed on the house.

These photos don't adequately capture the layers of bacon grease and and grime that coated every surface in this kitchen.  You'll have to trust me on that. 

And in case you're thinking - "Yay! Kitchen makeover!!" and imagining this type of reveal

then you should probably reel in those expectations.  Because true to my typical MO, I'm working with a lot of the existing elements in the kitchen.  Yep, we're going to shine up the turd - and we also have some things to address from a functionality standpoint.

1.  Like storage.  I have no pantry in my kitchen so all of my cookware, dinnerware, and everything (including groceries) is in my kitchen cabinets.  And for the most part that's fine.  The problem is that my brooms, mops, big sack of dog food and bottled drinks don't fit in the cabinets. 

2.  Lighting.  In the second image of my kitchen you can just see the tips of the pull chains from the disgusting ceiling fan with attached light kit that was the main source of light for the space.  It's an inadequate way to light a kitchen, at best.

3.  Look at it.  It's not the most inspiring space to cook in, so some hard core decorating needs to happen.  Did you take note of those circa 1989 whitish tile floors???   Yeah, those are staying. 

And so now I think you have a pretty clear picture of the task at hand.  And I'm going to leave you with a few inspiration photos that I find appealing. 

The work party starts next week.  Come on back and check on my progress.  

And you must visit the other participants.  Here's where you'll find them.

Calling it Home 

Chinoiserie Chic 

Classic Casual Home 

Cottage and Vine 

Design Addict Mom 

Design Crisis 

Design Indulgence 

Design Manifest 

The English Room 

Henhurst Interiors 

Little Black Door 

Maddie's Nest 

Mix And Chic 

My Notting Hill 

Pawleys Island Posh 

The Pink Pagoda 

Shelter 

Simple Details 

The Vault Files