kitchen update

So far the kitchen is about the only room in our house that I feel like is almost complete.
Most of our walls are bare because I am having serious commitment issues regarding art and accessories.
The kitchen still isn't totally finished but I have to say that it has quickly become one of my favorite spaces in our house since we painted.

I'm not sure what it is right now but I am slightly in love with white.
I just feel like it is so fresh and clean.
When I told my mom over the phone I was going to paint the majority of our walls in the house white I swear I heard her jaw hit the floor.
I was the girl who converted my white-wall-loving parents to color enthusiasts and they now have a house full of non-white walls.
My sophomore year of high school I pulled out a picture of a startling orange room from a Pottery Barn catalog and told my parents that this was the color I'd like to paint my new room.
My jaw probably hit the floor when the two of them agreed and my dad spent a day painting it with me.

And now, more than 10 years later, here I am with a house full of white walls.
Interesting how the tables turn, eh?
But gosh, isn't a white kitchen just the prettiest thing you've ever seen?
The beige motif going on before we painted the walls and the cabinets was more than I could handle.
Those light oak cabinets? Bleh!
And whoever invented cabinets without handles or knobs should be sued immediately.

I'm still not in love with the backsplash, the counters or the floor but ever since we painted everything white they all somehow seem a lot less beige and a lot more palatable.
They are all still on our "when we have more money we'll change this" list but I don't mind them for now.
I also am not a big fan of our old, white appliances, but they also fit on the list I mentioned above.
I'll be dreaming of stainless steal until then.

The one thing I was especially nervous about with our kitchen was the lack of counter space.
As you can see in the before picture there was a little eat-in counter under the window but it was so narrow and weird and was way too low to provide any additional counter space.
I scoured KSL classifieds for an island of some sort to come to our rescue and by some miracle we found this white one for $40.
Those things don't typically sell for less than $100 (and that's if you're lucky) but I was the first one to call the seller and even though he had dozens of callers after me offering even more than $40, that gem of a man held to his word and kept it for me for $40.
And the thing has worked perfectly for the space and I couldn't imagine our kitchen without it.
The huge window above it lets so much light in and makes the space feel so much bigger and brighter.
And the fact that there's a bit of a mountain and lake view doesn't hurt too much either.

So after so many more paragraphs than I ever intended to write about our kitchen...here she is in all her glory.
I am so happy with the finished product and can't wait to share more home updates once I finally bite the bullet and start hammering some nails in the walls to get all our pictures up.