How $50 Gave Our Kitchen A New Look

A couple of days ago, I read an article that certain colours can add value to your home.  That’s not surprising considering that colour has a huge impact not only on the way a space looks but also how it makes us feel.  According to the article, when choosing a colour for the kitchen “warm neutrals like yellow or light gray are stylish and clean, signaling that the home is well cared for, or that previous owners had an eye for design that may translate to other areas within the house…Other wall colors you may not want to use include dark or style-specific wall colours, like…terra-cotta.”  While I’m not a fan of yellow, I LOVE grey and as luck would have it, I was just about to repaint our apartment kitchen which was…terra-cotta.

When we first bought our house, it was yellow inside and out.  I’m pretty sure the previous owners used the same paint for both.  Neither my husband and I are fans of yellow but the outside was (still is) a huge job so to this day that has stayed the same.  Inside, however, every room got painted.  We had some leftover terra-cotta paint and used it to paint the apartment kitchen.  It worked just fine for many years but since it was time to repaint, I decided to lighten up the colour and picked Benjamin Moore Spanish Olive.

The first words out of my husband’s mouth were “more grey!?” but it’s actually on the green side and really picks up the colours in the countertop well.  And yes, if you want to get technical it IS a shade of grey but it’s warm and earthy which is why it pairs perfectly with the maple tones in the kitchen cabinets and the (grey) paint in the adjoining living/dining room.

If you want to make a quick and easy update on a budget, nothing beats a fresh coat of paint.  Our apartment kitchen isn’t very big and since most of the wall space is taken up by cabinets and appliances, 2 quarts were enough to paint the whole thing with a bit left over for touch ups.  I chose Benjamin Moore Aura in Matte because it not only covered in one coat (so I didn’t spend all day painting) but also because it’s washable without being shiny.

So what does my kitchen look like now?  First let’s see where we started.

And this is what it looks like now!

If you have a bit more room in your budget also consider replacing old cabinet hardware.  Last month I spent around $100 to replace all the pulls and it made a HUGE difference.

The next big project will be to paint the cabinet white but that is definitely a bigger job that required more prep while it’s on my do-to list it will have to wait.

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HAPPY PAINTING!