Even though the kitchen has to still wait till I’ll be able to begin any renovation, as my Mom’s bedroom is first on the list, I does not stop me from thinking a lot about it. It will be a huge project, as I have to combine it with the living room make over. It will take a lot of time, effort and probably money, so I guess I will get to it someday in the early spring.
But to sweeten the waiting time, I will share some ideas that pop up in my head. First, what it is like now:
old kitchen
The cupboards are older than me… But we can’t afford getting new ones, so it will be a lot of playing around it, using what we have and making smart choices. I want to get rid of everything above the counter.
old kitchen
To the right is a very strange, wasted space leading to my Mom’s bedroom. The division from the rest of the living room made some sense 20 years ago, but not anymore.
old kitchen
The other side of this weird room/hallway next to the kitchen, DIY-ed by my Mom with furniture… all of it has to go!
And now some examples of spaces that make me smile and inspire me:
Open shelving
I would like to use as much open shelving as possible. It opens up the small space, forces you to edit your stuff and makes even ordinary things into decorating objects. I am not sure if the under-counter open shelving will be an option in our situation, but for sure wall shelves are realistic.
Open shelving
I love how the open shelving and glass doors open up the space. I also like the nice crisp whiteness of the shelves contrasted with darker wall’s color. I am planning on painting walls in the kitchen vibrant, red (with slight terracotta shade).
dining nook
But what I am missing the most is a nice, cozy dining space. I want to use the space by the window, to create a place for four diners. A round table would probably work best, but this one above is also beautiful. I am still not sure what style I want, that will probably come up later.
dining nook by a window
I love this clean, inviting dining place. I would love to create something like this in my space.
Let’s see a few more photos of inspiring kitchen spaces:
Open shelving and dining nook
Open shelving and vibrant colors
Simply stunning! I wish I could use such dark colors, but I am not living alone ;-)
Just add color :)
I can't stand the color, but love the lively vibe
slavic revolutions 
I love the look of the open shelves, but i think that so much of the aesthetic comes from having complementary and well-suited things on the shelves. then, there’s the whole issue of maintaining the tidiness. i think that i need cupboard doors just because i could never keep things stacked completely neatly!
It’s not so difficult with things like plates, glasses etc., and I had open shelving with nice looking tea boxes and coffee jars… Even spices looked nice. It forces you to edit your stuff and choose a good way to present it :)
I also liked to have nice boxes/baskets for the small items that can get messy very easily.
Don’t things get sticky on open shelves, especially above the level of the oven/stove? My parents’ cabinets are all sticky from oil floating in the air, and an open spice rack is a mess of sticky oil with dust sticking to it. Maybe in your old place, you didn’t live long enough or fry/bake meat enough to get the oil into the air, but even I have some things that have sat out in the open air that got sticky from air-borne oil.
I don’t plan to have the open shelves right next/around the stove. The stove in on one end and the shelving would be on the other wall. I hope to have a good hood over it to limit vapors spreading around… My Mom has one long shelf now on this wall and it’s covered in dust but no sticky mess. So I hope that would be the case later on as well :)