BEFORE & AFTER: Cape Cod Kitchen :)

As many of you know, Mike & I purchased a summer home on Cape Cod.  It is a sweet, sweet, sweet Cape located in the quaint town of Brewster, where both my hubby and I spent summers as a child. 

The home is located around the corner from the church we were married in, and close by to the historic Brewster Herring Run.  It is about 1.8 miles from my parents home, my sister's summer house, and our absolute favorite beach.   It is also only about 2.5 miles from Mike's sister's summer home. Great, great, great locale for us :) 

While the structure and layout of our new purchase was small but every bit adorable, our new vacation home definitely needed some updating!!  Being the crazy builder's daughter that I am, I was excited for the opportunity to make this home "ours"!! 

I will be running a series of posts on this BLOG of the updates we have done.  I hope it will be fun to read, and also helpful with any projects you may be undertaking!!

Let's start with the kitchen!   Here is a before photo:

 

The "old" kitchen was "fine"...but certainly not fabulous!  Loved the skylight, but the kitchen itself lacked style and cottage appeal!!! 

One day, while out shopping for our new home, I stumbled upon the most WONDERFUL, BEACHY, CHEERY, STYLISH, FABULOUS fabric ever!! This discovery dictated the colors for the entire home!! (drum roll, please...!)

(P. Kaufman Harbor Island Coral Beach Shell)

SIGH....! I love it! 

NOTE: I found this fabric FIRST and then picked the wall colors and accessories for the entire house!

With a fun fabric in hand, and a plan in my head, it was time to stop shopping get to WORK!!

First on the list of to-do's were the counters, trim, wall color and....okay so maybe there were a ZILLION things on the to-do list!! But I was up for the challenge!! And my dad couldn't help but get involved :) THANKS DAD!!

We replaced the counters and had granite installed by a local kitchen company - our one splurge because my dad and I were doing EVERYTHING ELSE ourselves!! 

It pays to do your own work if you can!! We saved THOUSANDS!!!! Seriously, THOUSANDS!!!

We also sanded, primed, and painted all of the trim, doorways, and window casings Super White by Benjamin Moore. 

The walls were then painted Lady Finger by Benjamin Moore. I wanted to keep the wall color neutral and use pops of color in the accents - curtains, accessories, etc...that way if I choose to redecorate down the road, it would be an easier undertaking.

(Lady Finger #1045 Benjamin Moore)

I am proud to say that I sanded, primed and painted all of the kitchen cabinets MYSELF!! White, of course! I am a sucker for white cabinets at a beach house :) Also, our appliances are white, and changing the cabinets to the same color helped to blend the appliances into the kitchen. Previously, the appliances stuck out. When you walk into our kitchen, I want you to notice the decor, not the white appliances :)

I also changed all of the cabinet knobs to bronze (finally an easy task!!!), installed a new fabulous bronze faucet (Thanks Honey!), along with a bronze towel holder (Estate Towel Holder by Willow House of course!) and a fantastic bronze nautical lantern that hangs over our kitchen table.

With the fabric dictating all of my choices, things were really coming together!!  The pale background coral shells in the fabric are the same Lady Finger color of my walls.  The fabric also has a nice white background which matches our cabinets and trim work, and has fun coral, blues and greens which are so beachy!!  The fabric also has some darker bronze which matches the new faucet, cabinet knobs, towel rack, and nautical light. PERFECT!!

No kitchen would be complete without a few Willow House items!  So I stalked my kitchen with the Italian Stitch Dinnerware by Mario Batali (now in our OUTLET!!), Hyancinth Mixing bowls, Hyancinth Measuring Cups, Hyancinth Casseroles, Tuscan Glassware (my absolute favorite!!), Napa Cookbook Holder, Galveston Square Serving Stand, Verde Mugs, and Red Mountain Entertaining Bucket and Stand.   ALL items available at http://lynndoherty.willowhouse.com (Check out the NEW Spring Catalog at my website too!!) 

And now....the end result.....VOILA!



 And there you have it!  Our new cottage kitchen :) 

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