My Kitchen: 'Making it Livable'

I mentioned that I made some quick and really inexpensive changes to my kitchen that I wanted to share. This is by no means a makeover. But I like to call it 'MAKING IT LIVABLE'. My before kitchen was not so livable to me... yes I am strictly talking about aesthetics..but hey that's important too. I just couldn't stand looking at it. And we are not going to be able to remodel any time soon. So these small changes were just making my kitchen livable to me!!!!!

(Before from NJMLS)
Things to notice in the BEFORE shots:
*** FAUX laminate wood cabinets.... they don't look anything close to real, trust me
** Flower Stained glass panels at the end cabinets..(yikes)
** Country border around ceiling..(le sigh*)
** Country switch plates
** Notice NO backsplash....(WTH)
** Ugly ceiling fan (oh no)
** Hospital- like blinds on sliding doors...($%^*&)
OMG!!

(we took out the wall you see below on right, between dining and kitchen to open it up)

When we moved in...I should mention the only thing we did... which was kinda big was knock out this wall between dining room and kitchen to open it up!!! Then I painted the kitchen a neutral color and REMOVED the country border. And it stayed that way for over a year. (also note, husband didn't want me to paint the cabinets)....

So now here we are today..

I made 5 small changes-
1. Black Faux leather contact paper for Backsplash
2. Cork board to cover stained glass
3. Black switch plates to replace country ones
4. More Black Contact paper on Upper cabinets
5. Curtains to replace, hospital blinds

I had some Black Faux leather contact paper lying around and one Sunday I thought about covering that backwall where the Backsplash was....just to have some contrast with that SEA of BEIGE. So I tried it since the paper is completely removable, And I really liked it!!!! Loved it actually. Cost: a roll is $6.74.

Next I needed to cover those Stained Glass Panels ASAP...there were only 2...so I thought CORK would be great and they could be used to pin notes,pictures or grocery list, etc (probably not the one near the stove, but the other end, YES) . I just bought that 4 pack of cork squares and cut them to size...(cost around $6.99 on sale).

Next I added the black contact paper to the upper cabinets only.... just to see.. And I liked the results. Already it just feels more modern and less 60ish.

Next to go were those Hospital blinds....pretty ugly. And they were missing half of them. I thought why not curtains? ...for now I reused the same track and just replaced the slats with curtains I already had. LOVE IT!!!! (cost = zero)

The last little thing I did was replace all those Country outlet plates with black ones..they are under 1 each... I had no idea they were so cheap. ($3.00)

That's it! For me it makes a big difference and will help hold me over a little bit longer. There are a few things I still want to do, such as paint the Hardware on the cabinets. Get rid of ceiling fan.
and maybe DIY some kind of island from our of old kitchen table.

But for under $25 bucks, I'm pretty happy until then!

OK this last one is not part of update, but I had to share my Missoni serving tray!