Decisions, Decisions...

So guess who did not show up to the house yesterday?!?!  Yup, that's right...our contractor and plumbers were a no show, again.  Major bummer.  That means I unfortunately have no progress post for today like I had hoped for.  However, we did receive confirmation that they are there working today.  BBM whew face {remember....my upgrade to the iPhone isn't until November 1st}!

Since I have no progress post for today I decided to give a little insight into about a couple things that I've been pondering for our kitchen reno.

The first thing was discussed in my earlier post "Baby Steps".  That decision has been made, with no flip-flopping in sight...dark hardwood floors it is.

The second thing revolves around the backsplash.  I have already made up my mind to go with white 3 x 6 subway tiles for a clean and classic look in the kitchen.  What I have been questioning is whether or not to accent the white subway tiles with a row of oceany (yes, I know that is not grammatically correct) blue and green glass tiles.  The top contender to use for an accent stripe is the Tao Beach Glass Tile from Glass Tile Store.com.



Tao Beach Glass Tile



Glass Tile Store.com customer submitted photo of the Tao Beach Glass Tile installed in their kitchen.

Most of the colors in the open kitchen/dining/living room area will be grays, blues and greens.  I even want to use two of these pendant lights (the aqua one) from Shades of Light to go over our kitchen island/bar area. 

Having a row of accent tiles in the backsplash might tie this color scheme and the pendant lights into the kitchen.

But it may also cause us to be married to a color scheme.  This might not be a bad thing…let's be serious, I do tend to gravitate towards oceany, calming colors all the time.  Plus, we will most likely re-do the kitchen in maybe 10 years when we have enough money to purchase new cabinets.  At that point in time, we can also change the backsplash to reflect our future personal style.

So do we go with the glass tile, or should we keep it simple with the subway tile???  I have not been able to make up my mind on this one, AT ALL.  Who would have thought this married girl would have commitment issues with tile?!?!

One of the reasons I keep flip-flopping on accent or no accent is due to the images I am visually drawn to around the web.  Most of the pictures on my Pinterest "Kitchen Inspiration" board (some seen below) have no accent in the backsplash.  They are simple and clean.


Taken from heartbeatoz.tumblr.com



Taken from summerour.net



Taken from House*Tweaking


I'm afraid if I add this accent I'll regret making the accent a smidge busy.  Or will I love the added pop of color with my white upper cabinets, white subway tiles and white solid surface countertop?

Which brings me to my third issue...the lower cabinet color.  Since it's just not in the budget to replace the original-to-the-house cabinetry, we decided that we are going paint the solid wood cabinets and replace the hardware.  I was totally set on painting the uppers white and the lowers espresso.  And to help transform the country looking cabinet door style, we chose modern stainless steel bar pulls to replace the white porcelain knobs that originally existed.  Here is a little reminder of what the cabinets look like.

Original solid wood cabinets 

Cabinetry to be turned 90 degrees, and used as the kitchen island.

Kitchen drawer with original hardware.

Kitchen cabinets with hardware removed and filled with wood filler.

So you're probably wondering what the other color is that I'm considering for the lower cabinets.  Well, taking a cue from our shutters and front steps, I was thinking that a dark charcoal gray could be a possibility.  I'm not completely sold on this due to the fact that I think the living/dining room walls will be some sort of soft grey color.  I do not want to have a grey overload in the great room.  It could end up feeling cold, which is the exact opposite of the cozy and warm home we are trying to create.

Another option would be to paint them white as well.  The dark hardwood floors would give some contrast, along with the stainless steel appliances we are getting and other pops of color by way of towels, small countertop appliances and other decorative items.  If I painted the lowers white, I would certainly be painting the island piece of cabinetry an espresso color.  I am a very big fan of switching up cabinetry colors in some way, shape or form.

So as you can see, I have quite a few ideas floating around in my head.  As we get closer to actually working on the kitchen I'll be forced to nail down the details.  Until then, I'll probably be flip-flopping until the last possible second!

Happy Friday! :)