In this JOYFUL life: Our work in Progress Kitchen...

When we purchased our home, one of the big selling points was the kitchen. I loved the size of it and loved that it was pretty updated! I have tons of cabinet space, a great island, a place for an eat in table (which is currently housing all things "baby kitchen") granite counter tops, attractive ORB hardware, freshly painted cabinets, and decent appliances.

Things that I don't love but can't/won't change...

(Disclaimer: I live in AMERICA in a BEAUTIFUL home and am BEYOND thankful for EVERY tiny thing. To say what I don't like about my kitchen is actually pretty ridiculous. I'm just putting on my "I love to decorate hat" here. Please take no offense.) This is our first house and we are a one income family so I am INCREDIBLY blessed to have such a great home.

The textured walls. Sure I could probably change these but it would be a lot of work and money that we don't ~~want to spend~~ have. We have to be picky about money that we spend around here, and that just doesn't make the cut.

Super small pantry. I love that I have a pantry but it is very narrow and limited for space.

Popcorn ceilings. Ugh. I really dislike our ugly ceilings all over this house but again, the time and work and money involved is just not happening here. We couldn't afford to hire it out (its on every square foot of our ceilings) and to DIY it.... BIG mess and I have twins :)

Our sink. It is a granite composite sink. Quite Nice. BUT it is impossible for me to keep clean. I don't know if it is the minerals here in the water or what, but there are constantly spots and this sink shows any bit of dirt or food in it. Its just high maintenance and not for me.

Things I would like to eventually change:

Tile floor. I am just not a fan of this tile. At all. It is also the same tile in our half bath, laundry room and master bath. The dark grout and kind of small and not so attractive tile just doesn't win me over. I am thankful that it is real ceramic tile (not linoleum) and that it is neutral. I would love to carry our dark laminate wood floors into the kitchen or do a larger scale, more updated tile.

Replace our dishwasher. Pretty sure it is original with the house (20 years old) and lets just say it has seen better days!

Replace our back door. It has seen better days. The glass is severely scratched from the previous owners dog I am guessing and the paint has bled into the glass in weird places. I will probably paint it the same blue as my front door until we can replace it but I would love to have a beautiful door maybe like this.

Things I am changing soon (well, relatively soon)

Replace our florescent lighting (HATE HATE HATE) with recessed can lighting.

Add lighting above and below our cabinets. Lighting makes such a difference and our kitchen is very dark.

Rework where our trash can goes. We have a pull-out drawer for our trashcan, but it is a really oversized awkward space that just gets really dirty, especially with two sweet ones who miss the trash can constantly. I want to have Luke build a wooden platform inside the drawer where the trashcan can fit into.

Build a bench type/ booth seating under the kitchen windows. We used to have our now dining room table, in the eat in kitchen space. It was large but it worked and I kind of liked it. However we didn't have a dining room table and that room was just totally blank. The real reason we moved it was when my sister in law and her children came to visit us, we needed to add our leaf to our cream and round table. If we added the leaf, it would be too large for the kitchen, so we moved it to the dining room and ended up liking it in there more. We then had a blank spot in there, which is now filled with a tiny table for two and play kitchen where my babies enjoy much of their time. We would to eventually like to build a bench, add a small table with a couple of cool chairs.

I want to paint our black chandelier white. I have the paint for this, I just need to do it. The black just darkens things up.

The space above my exposed shelving is SCREAMING for an accessory. I'm just keeping my eyes peeled for the right one.

Overall Accessorizing. I just haven't done much on this end.

My island has these great shelves built into the side which currently houses our cat food (wah, wah) and nothing else because tiny hands would only be tempted to reach and move any accessories I attempt. One day :)

Things we have already done.

Painted the walls.

Purchased a fridge. (That ended up breaking, and some amazingly precious and generous people helped get us a new one)

Added exposed shelving.

IKEA botanical prints x3

Added pottery barn stools x2. Bought them on craiglist for $20 each. Currently sell for $149 each, so a GREAT deal. They were stained red, so I painted black.

Wreath from Pier one.

Giant chalkboard. This organizes our family. Tutorial here.

As you can see, not much here friends.

So I think that pretty much covers it. Here is our kitchen...