Shortly after we moved in we painted the walls Sherwin Williams mindful grey. Just to break up the sea of yellow and orange.

We hadn’t planned on doing anything else in the kitchen for a couple years so that we could work to pay off our mortgage early and be financially free.

That all went down the drain one day (about 2 months after moving in) when I was trying to make dinner on a day when everything already was going wrong. My husband got home and I was a little short with him. Being the awesome guy he is, he tried to figure out what was wrong. Well, instead of telling him all the things that went wrong and moving on, what came out was “I HATE THIS KITCHEN”.

In all honesty, the kitchen was not that bad. It had plenty of cupboard space and an island with seating. The appliances were stainless steel and functioned well. BUT the sink was not well maintained and not functional (e.g. it had one small side that was about 5 inches wide and 5-6 inches deep and one larger side). The faucet leaked and the laminate counter around it was peeling. The sink was in the island (which I liked) but the island was two levels and left minimal space for food prep and dish washing. As a dietitian and having a background in food safety, it frankly grossed me out to cook in this kitchen.

So back to my husband (Tyler). Being the person he is, he jumped into action. He asked me more questions and what I thought would work better. We talked about our budget. That night we started planning. I got out my graph paper, took measurements and consulted my dream kitchen pin board.

A week later we were meeting with our contractor and the rest is history. Tyler definitely knows that a happy wife, means a happy life.

Here’s what we did:

• Painted the wall cabinets (more details coming soon!).
• Replaced the Island with a custom one (designed by me and executed by our amazing contractor).
• Replaced the countertops with granite (splurge) in Colonial White from Capital Granite in St. Cloud, MN.
• We kept the appliances since they were not the issue here. We did get a Kraus Undermount Single Bowl Stainless Steel Sink and this amazing Kohler faucet (splurge).

I love how it turned out. My style is very clean with a little farmhouse flair. I like to keep the big things (i.e. expensive or take a lot of work to replace) neutral and add in color and texture with accents.