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Home » Home

Effortless Updates // Our Kitchen

Dec 8, 2014 ·

Kitchen_Update_1

This is the very unlikely, albeit true, story of how we saw our house the very first day we went out looking for houses with our realtor, put an offer on it a few hours later, won the bidding war and moved in three months later.  Pretty undramatic for house hunting in LA.  However, the day we saw it, we were so excited and caught up in the moment that we forgot to take any photos and so were left to look at the listing photos over and over and over again for the next three months.  However, there was no photo of the kitchen and my memory was failing me.  I remembered the black and white tile but not a single other detail.  We decided that it must be awful for them to opt out of putting a photo in the listing, but were pleasantly surprised when we finally saw the house again three months later.  It was new enough, simple and didn't need any immediate updates.  Over the last three years, though, all of the white began to get monotonous and I've been dying to make it my own and spice it up with color!  In lieu of totally gutting it and entering into a renovation that would have cost tens of thousands of dollars, we did three small projects that made a big impact!

Kitchen_Update_2

First, it was time to add some color.  I have been dreaming of adding a backsplash to the kitchen for some time, but could never quite find what I was looking for.  The choices at the big box stores can often times be a little lackluster and my trips to the big tile and stone wholesalers were overwhelming.  One serendipitous night I was googling kitchen tile and found Modwalls.  You guys.  This online tile boutique is a total game changer.  It's a precisely curated selection of modern tiles, so there's no digging through the riff raff and each tile has so much personality!  I chose this 3x6 glass tile in Surf and am obsessed with the color!  It instantly brought so much life and energy into our kitchen!  See for yourself:

Kitchen_Update_3

Kitchen_Update_3a

Kitchen_Update_4

Project number 2:  As soon as the backsplash was complete, suddenly the shiny chrome hardware on our cabinets was giving me a retro diner vibe that I couldn't handle.  I knew they had to go, but didn't want to invest in thirty new knobs, so I invested in a can of copper spray paint instead and got to work.  Five dollars and one hours later, I was pretty thrilled with the result!

Kitchen_Update_5 Kitchen_Update_6

Lastly, the kitchen needed some accessory updates to bring the whole thing together.  I repurposed a lot of things I already had that were hiding in cabinets like the cookbooks, the blue colander, cutting boards and ceramic vases and then picked up a few new things from West Elm like the copper bowls, wooden scrub brushes, and new white silicone utensils.  Oh and I swapped out our neutral dish towels that we've had since our wedding with these brighter ones.

Kitchen_Update_7

Here's the pre-accessorized kitchen and some of the items I used:

Kitchen-Accessories

01. / 02. / 03. / 04. / 05. / 06. / 07. / 08.

Kitchen_Update_9 Kitchen_Update_10

Kitchen_Update_9

Photography by Melissa Valladares

Tile for the backsplash by Modwalls-- the absolute best source for tile!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Melva says

    April 24, 2016 at 5:34 am

    Lv it, I'm using those colors in my guess bathroom ,the green is a overfol from the bedroom/office.great

  2. Annette Wyper says

    February 21, 2016 at 5:44 pm

    Looks fabulous

  3. Ashley says

    February 19, 2016 at 7:09 pm

    What type of spray paint did you use? Just wondering how quickly it fade or chip off. Thanks!

  4. Lymari Navarro says

    September 29, 2015 at 1:04 pm

    I love this kitchen. Those knobs!!!!!

  5. Tanya from Dans le Lakehouse says

    September 16, 2015 at 9:08 am

    Your kitchen is gorgeous! I absolutely love the aqua tile!!! I long for an aqua backsplash but I painted my kitchen cabinets aqua so it might be a bit much, haha, but one day I'd love a sunny white kitchen with this backsplash. Pinned to Pinterest!

  6. NDuke says

    September 15, 2015 at 6:29 am

    More important than the changes is the simple act of turning on a light. Tbe changes are nice but the light gives the greatest impact. Design pics do this. Lighting low in "before"...high "after". This one if way too obvious and gives the reader pause.

    • Jen Pinkston says

      September 15, 2015 at 6:49 am

      It's true the lighting is different, albeit unintentionally. I just don't pay a professional photographer for the before photos, I typically take them myself. The pros are much better with light!

  7. Glorianna says

    January 12, 2015 at 10:06 pm

    Love this! We JUST bought hardware for our kitchen cabinets, there weren't any before, and it was about $130 on the cheap! This is a lovely idea for when we want to refresh or change it up!

  8. Jamie says

    December 08, 2014 at 9:25 pm

    So, you have the best kitchen, and my dream floor! One day I will have a checkerboard floor in my kitchen, and there will be lots of dancing on it.

  9. Linda says

    December 08, 2014 at 6:54 pm

    Simply Beautiful

  10. Chel says

    December 08, 2014 at 3:20 pm

    Love it Jen!!!!

  11. Rebecca Lonergan says

    December 08, 2014 at 8:39 am

    Love what you've done with our tile! You kitchen redo is perfection!

  12. Anna @Annabode says

    December 08, 2014 at 6:20 am

    It looks great! Your 'before' kitchen definitely needed some color to break up all the white--love the backsplash you've chosen. And I'd never know your hardware was spray painted! Beautiful job.

  13. Marla says

    December 08, 2014 at 5:01 am

    I like it!! I'm wanting to redo my floor, do you like your black and white tiles on the floor?

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