The whole Kitchen caboodle

As I am staring into the face of a major kitchen overhaul, I am feeling overwhelmed!  I know, I know...that is normal.  I am just surprised at how MUCH I don't know.  As we start this project I know I'll be spending a lot of time in the home improvement stores asking a lot of annoying questions!  Of course, I have my mom too.  Thank you Jesus for a mother who is all about the DIY and does a lot of stuff all on her own.  She'll be my rock during this project!

The step I am on now is picking out paint.  It is SO hard for me!!  I want the kitchen to be yellow - but it needs to be the perfect yellow!  Our walls on our first floor are a tannish-camel color with some red accent walls.  Bright red.  We love the colors, they were here when we moved in.  Actually we painted the red accent walls a little brighter to match our big red couch, but it's basically the some color scheme.  Anyways, the yellow that I pick has to be the RIGHT yellow so that it goes with those colors - not clashes.  I hate all the yellows I've brought home so far.  Seriously, you should see our kitchen.  I have this one wall where I keep testing the colors, there are probably 7 shades of yellow there and I hate them all.  I know that I know that I KNOW I want yellow though.  Our theme in there is, or will be, Tuscan Italian Kitchen.  So it just has to be yellow!  I looked at other colors and I don't like them...or I do but they definitely wouldn't match!

I want yellow walls, and creamy white cabinets with oil rubbed bronzed hardware, and beautiful butcher block counter tops.  Possibly a back splash too - and lots of red and bronze or wrought iron accents.  I can see it in my head and it's lovely.  Here are some inspirational pics, stolen from Pinterest...one of my greatest loves and obsessions;)

This one is beautiful but a little too country for me, I want my yellow to be less buttery, more bright and brownish in a burnt, Italian way;)   Its all about the accents too - our accent will be more Italian...



In this next one, I love the yellow of these tiles, it's close the the color I want if I can ever find it!!!  Our hardware (already purchased) is bronze though...



and this one with darker butcher block - I don't know if I want to go that dark because it wouldn't match our floors but it's still beautiful, I love the bronze hardware:



Tonight my friend Katie (HOLLA!) and I went to Lowes and I bought two more little sample cans of yellows...I have to have the samples to actually paint on my wall - because they are SO different on those little cards then they are in real life.  I agonized, yet again, over the perfect color.  It's out there somewhere!!  Hopefully one of these two will be it.

 I had a bad experience at Home Depot last week, so I am boycotting them this time around with buying paint.  I stood at the counter for about 20 minutes while the guy there was just helping EVERYONE else around me...totally ignoring me even though I had already asked him a question and he knew I needed samples.  What is worse, is that the people around me KNEW I had been there for a while, yet not one of them said, "Oh this lady was here first, you can help her..." which is totally something I would say if a clerk tried to help me first.  The world is a selfish place sometimes, isn't it?  I was not a happy customer...but I am not one to make a big stink to anyone, I'll just take my business else for now.  I'm sure I'll be back again for other things, but the paint section won't be seeing me for a while!

As I make the list of what needs to be done, I am struggling with what needs to be done first, second, etc.  Plus, I have to take $ into account.  We don't have a few extra grand laying around right now for the countertops or a back splash.  I don't know how much all that is going to cost, but I know it's going to be the most expensive part of the project.  Should we wait until we can afford it or go on with what we can afford and take care of the $$$ parts later.  Here is the list of to-dos:

1.  Rip up linoleum floor and replace with our extra Pergo flooring to match the rest of the 1st level
2.  Clean, sand, and paint the cabinets - we are refinishing them ourselves.  I've seen it done on Young House Love and I am convinced we can make them look like thousand dollar cabinets.
3.  Paint the walls
4.  Find and install a backsplash
5.  Install open shelves on our small empty wall for decor and use of space
6.  Add Italian accents (pops or red and wrought iron and rustic looking pieces)
7.  Paint the ceiling
8.  Replace the lighting - we have super awful fluorescent in there - GROSS.  I am envisioning a bronze type pendant(s) in there
9.  Add hardware to cabinets (already purchased from O.com)
10.  Add some sort of decor or interest to the soffits - I loathe all that empty wasted space (maybe old wine bottles on shelves?)
11.  add crown molding, possibly
12.  Eventually, down the road, replace all the appliances.  Right now they are all white and boring.  We want stainless steel

It's a long, expensive list.  It's overwhelming and exciting all at the same time.  I've never done this before, it's so huge that I scream a little in my head when I think about it!  But I am itching to get started on SOMETHING.  That's why I am obsessing over the paint a little bit.  I have picked out the paint for the trim and the cabinets - I happy with those colors.  Now I just need to find that elusive yellow...I'll keep you posted!!


Night!