You can’t always get what you want (back to the kitchen-centric drawing board)
In advance of actually listing our house, our real estate agent sent in his house stager to poke around just a bit the other day. Which was awesome and exciting, but terrifying just the same (cue nervous pillow-fluffing.) The visit started out amazingly – Ms Stager walked in, took off her boots, and declared that she absolutely loved our little living room – the colours, the pillows, the fireplace mantel, everything – and wouldn’t change a thing about it. Woo! We were elated – a design-expert had just proclaimed that we have good decorating skills. Big shiny gold star for us! I almost high-five-ed Sweetie when she turned her back (but didn’t – I’m really not a high-five-ing sorta girl, and Sweetie’s definitely not a high-five-receiving kinda guy.)
But then Ms Stager (who, despite my grumblings, was really really nice) turned to our kitchen. And, of course, she scowled a little while she looked at our floor and counters. At which point, to put her obviously distressed mind at ease, I proudly brought out my little floor sample (Allure Trafficmaster flooring in Hickory), and my chosen countertop sample too (Formica’s pretty Ivory Kashmire), and waited for her approval to rain over us for a second time.
Her approval did not come. In fact, she poo-poo-ed my countertop choice, saying it wasn’t gray enough or dark enough or something equally disappointing. We needed something with more grays or something slate-y, she said, to go with all the grays in our kitchen and living room. We could install my beloved Ivory Kashmire granite-look Formica in our next house, she quipped, but here? Here we needed to work on resale.
I won’t lie: my heart broke into a gazillion pieces. For anyone who knows me well, I’m decision-dysfunctional. Committing to anything is a long and tedious process, normally involving hours upon hours of research and debate over various options and careful weighing of pros and cons and alternatives.
Yep. Ms Stager told me that, despite my careful consideration, I had chosen wrong.
Sigh. I was sad.
So I wandered back to the drawing board with her tips fresh in my head. I visited all the big box home stores in our area for ideas and inspiration. And, after much deliberation, here’s what I’ve come up with…
…our same Allure flooring choice in Hickory (just because I love it so much, and also because it should be easy for me to put down on my own some day while Sweetie is at work) and Jamocha Granite laminate countertops from Formica. It’s not EXACTLY what I wanted for my pretty little kitchen, but it could work. And I think it could even, possibly, look really nice. Perhaps Ms Stager was right.
So, there’s your update on where things are so far! How fitting to find ourselves once again standing in the kitchen, trying to make decisions. Hopefully this time we’ve got it right. :)
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Nervous nellies never get new floors (yet another kitchen floor post)
Let’s chat about my kitchen floor again, shall we? I mean, it’s been at least a good month since I last obsessed over my floor (publicly at least…) So, all thing considered, I’m actually way overdue for a kitchen floor post. :)
Today’s kitchen flooring option for consideration?
Checkerboard.
Yep. I’m thinking about going with classic black and white tiles now. Why? In all honesty? Cost. I found peel and stick solid black and solid white linoleum (or whatever peel and stick-ers are made out of) tiles at Home Depot a couple days ago for about 50 cents each. At that price, I could redo my entire floor for about 50 buckeroonies! As you can imagine, my head has been a-whirlin with the possibilities.
Just to remind you of how dire my floor situation is, here’s a shot of my kitchen as of this morning (in all her ugly-floored glory)…
I’m not necessarily looking at the peel and stick checkerboard option as a permanent solution, but it would be a super cheap fix while we’re saving up for (and, well, deciding on) whatever our permanent floor will be. And it would be EASY to put down. If I don’t go on a diagonal with the tiles (or anything fancy-pants like that) and just stick to a plain old grid pattern, I could simply use the existing peel and stick tiles as a guide. I’m guessing… two hours tops to put the entire floor down. Maybe. If that. We’re talking instant gratification to the tune of $50.
BUT, (as always) I have some reservations.
Reservation #1: I’ve read that the checkboard pattern shows EVERY spec of dirt that falls on the floor. And I can imagine this is very true (particularly with the white squares.) Not that I’m against religious sweeping and washing of my floors – just call me Susie Homemaker because I’m a little OCD about that sort of thing. But I’m wondering if floors that show every single crumb (or piece of cat fur) that falls might push me over the edge.
Reservation #2: My kitchen is PRETTY. And I want it to stay a pretty little spot (it makes me happy!) The black and white checkerboard might be a little too… busy and loud for me. The last thing I want is a floor that screams “Helloooo! Welcome to our house! Look at me! I’m a checkerboard floor!” every time someone walks through our front door. (Nobody likes being hollered at by an overbearing floor.)
Reservation #3: Maybe I should just hold out for the floors I really want (you know, the ones that I haven’t yet decided on) rather than settling for a temporary fix for the time being. Although, that said, with potentially only a two hour and a 50 loonie investment, why not make things BETTER for the next little bit while waiting for the flooring I really want?
Hmmmm… Sigh. I’m undecided. Of course.
But, in lieu of an actual decision, here are some black and white floors that I do indeed love!
From Brown Button…
…this gives me hope that a black and white checkered floor could indeed look serene (and not screamy!) in my space. :)
And I love this diagonally-laid floor, courtesy of the Marion House Book…
…coupled with the older cupboards, this makes me think a checkerboard floor could in fact work in my space!
And here is a different take on the traditional checkerboard pattern that I love, from my fellow Canucks over at The Sweetest Digs…
…they used the exact same inexpensive peel-em-and-stick-em tiles that I’m contemplating from Home Depot. It’s not a traditional checkerboard pattern, but I absolutely adore how their floor turned out!
So… all that loveliness aside, will a black and white floor be in my future? I’m undecided. (Yes, big surprise.) I adore all of the above floors (A LOT) but I’m just not sure if it’ll look as nice in my space.
(Do you see yet another kitchen floor post coming in the future? Yep. Me too. This is definitely not the last time we’ll be chatting about my floor…)
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Hello sunshine! (Adding a wee bit of yellow to my happy little kitchen)
I have a love/hate relationship with the colour yellow. I love it in other people’s houses, but I’ve never had much of a hankering for adding it to my own. My friend Jess LOVES yellow (her eldest son’s nursery was yellow and it was such a cheery little room!) My friend Shawn (who is an absolutely fantastic photographer and artist btw – check out some of his amazing work here and here) has been telling me that yellow is the way to go for years. Being the rather awesome friend that I am, I’ve pretty much ignored all yellow yammerings from either of them in the past. (I’m a bit stubborn like that.) But then I found this…
…and realized that this lovely gray, yellow and teal rug (courtesy of Urban Outfitters) would look pretty darn good in my little gray kitchen. Which, consequently, would mean bidding the red accents adieu. And, well, maybe replacing them with something… sunnier.
Just as a reminder (just because my kitchen, even sans new rug, makes me happy!) here’s what I’m starting with…
Don’t get me wrong – I actually rather like the red. But see the bananas in the background? See how pretty the yellow looks against the gray? Yep. I’m thinking it’s most definitely a sign. (While I don’t necessarily listen to my friends, when fruit makes a suggestion I’m all ears.)
And really, all I’d have to do is switch out the carpet (and I’ve already found the replacement!) and the tea towels (Etsy has lots of cheap and cheerful yellow tea towels) and maybe the print above the stove too (I really do miss having a mirror over my stove, so I’m thinking I’d like to try that again… maybe one with a white wooden frame this time.)
And, if I’m feeling extra fancy, maybe I’ll get a yellow kettle. Maybe. :)
My other motive for the new rug? I’m kinda hoping that the teal colour in the rug will make the icky teal peel-and-stick tile floors look a little better. Maybe even like they were a deliberate and fashionable choice or something like that (even though we all know I can’t wait to replace them. Eventually.)
It’s wishful thinking, I know.
Regardless, my kitchen is a happy place, and yellow is most definitely a happy colour! All in all it seems like a pretty good match to me. And I’m guessing that my bananas would likely agree.
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The kitchen floor debate rages on (in my own head at least) (is it weird to debate with oneself?)
Could we please talk about my kitchen floor a wee bit more? Just a little? I know. I KNOW. We’ve talked about my floor A LOT (here, and here, and here, to be exact.) One more, k?
Need a reminder? It has been a good, oh, couple of weeks since I’ve obsessed about my kitchen. Here’s the current state of my wee little kitchen (please note the uuugly floor!)
Gross eh?
So what’s this big ongoing internal dialogue all about? Painted plywood floors. Again. Yeppers. Just when I thought I’d made a decision on which flooring would be most cheap and most cheerful for my humble little kitchen, I saw a Pinterest pic that made me pine for something else. But rather than the patterned floors I drooled over the last time I pondered plywood potential, I’ve now switched gears (me? really? go figure…) and my newest obsession is checkerboard.
It kinda started with this floor from Better Homes and Gardens (which, if you’ll recall, was indeed a contender for my floor future the last time we all discussed this)…
It’s just so PRETTY! And that gray on the walls could very well be the Stonington Gray that’s on our kitchen walls. Which is perfect alongside those white cupboards (hey – we have white cupboards too!) Yep. This is the exact colour scheme of our current kitchen. (Well, sorta… If you completely disregard our sad looking countertops.) And just look at how pretty and serene that all looks with the checkerboard floor. Sigh.
I’m a little obsessed.
Here’s a second gray and white checkboard floor from Northern Light. Just as lovely. The pattern is a classic, like the black and white staple, but the gray and white is less in-your-face…
And here’s a third (yes really!) gray and white sample (this one via Southern Living.) (I might truly be onto something with this whole gray and white obsession!) This one is ALSO lovely…
And then there are indeed non-gray options. For example, could I interest you in a little yellow perhaps? A la Makin’ It in Memphis …
Yep. If a floor could be happy, I bet it’d look just like that! (Albeit, Makin’ It In Memphis’ floor is genuine marmoleum, not painted, but a yellow and white painted checkerboard would be equally cheery methinks!)
I might very well be sold on the checkerboard floors. Especially the gray and cream versions (again, it’s just so pretty with the gray wall paint.) (Please excuse me while I swoon.) What’s holding me back? The truth? It looks like a lot of work. Not necessarily the painting part. I’m sure that’s pretty straight forward. It’s the TAPING that looks like quite the chore. (And, being both slightly OCD and somewhat of a perfectionist, I’m guessing this is the type of project that could truly push my buttons.)
So will I have painted checkerboard floors in my happy little 1940s kitchen one day? Perhaps. Once I’m a gazillion percent sure that it’s really the right choice for my kitchen. Since, well, I’m only going to (very precisely) tape off forty-seven 12″ squares once.
OK. Twice. Tops.
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Who’s the big fish in the kitchen? (I am! I am!)
Hello! Sooooo… I’m flip flopping around here like a perch in the woods. As explanatory background information, let’s take a look at my existing kitchen for just a sec, k?
Ah. There she is. In all her ugly-floored glory.
Remember this post where I ooooohed and aaaaahed about how much I looooove butchers’ block countertops? Yep. Me too.
But then, THEN I discovered inexpensive easily-installed hickory-look Allure flooring. Which led me to thinking (in THIS post) that maybe a black countertop could be in my future, a la my inspiration image (since, in my head at least, wood-look floors plus a wood countertop just seemed a little too… woody.)
But yesterday, I flopped. Or flipped. Or flip flopped. Whatever. I changed my mind (let’s go with that!) yet again. You see, I found a post about painted plywood floors. Yeppers. And after just a few seconds with my buddies at Pinterest, I’d found a plethora of painted plywood prettiness.
Need proof? Lookie here…
Painted and stencilled plywood from Creek Bed Threads. Sweetie and I could totally do this. Love!!!
Or there’s this one too (from smart the folk at Back to Domestics.) Also painted plywood. Also stencilled. Also fantastic!
These are actual hardwood floors, I think (not plywood) (brave souls!) but I looooove the gray and cream checkerboard pattern (from Better Homes and Gardens)…
Oooooh. And I adore this honeycomb patterned painted floor from Apartment Therapy…
And just look (omg LOOK!) at this simple and lovely painted plank plywood floor from Frugal Farmhouse Design…
Swoon, eh?
So I brought this all up with Sweetie (who, being a boy, is indeed a big fan of plywood) and after a brief chat and a few pics, he’s on board. It’d be even cheaper than the inexpensive Allure hickory-look flooring I’d found. And, well, despite that the Allure flooring claims to be easy-peasy to put down (and I’ve read many testimonials agreeing with this) my experience with installing it at our last house was neither easy nor peasy at all. Once it was down, it was awesome. But getting it all down with the seams snug and everything stuck together with the uber sticky glue strips while cats were circling helping the whole time? Bad combo. So painted plywood is my new plan, even if just temporarily (ie: a few years) until we can afford nicer flooring for the kitchen (at which point we’ll have a nice sturdy plywood subfloor to lay everything on!) The perfect plan? I think so! :)
And you know what this all means, right? If we go with the plywood floors, my butchers’ block countertops are back in. At least for now. Unless I change my mind again. Which could happen. Maybe. Or maybe not. We’ll see. (Earlier perch reference? Yup. That’s me.)
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