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The beauty of small decisions

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With any renovation there are big decisions and little decisions. I find the big decisions to be nerve-wracking exercises in self-doubt. There is nothing like knowing you are spending a lot of money on something that is not easily changed—the layout, counters, etc—to give you a good case of decision paralysis. Because we sort of fast-tracked our mini kitchen renovation there wasn’t a lot of time to linger over decisions, but that doesn’t mean they can’t come back to haunt you at 3 a.m.

Small decisions, though, are the best. That is totally in my wheelhouse. If I could find a job as an official small decisionmaker, I’d be thrilled. Because it’s fun to make decisions when there aren’t serious consequences to being wrong. Those of you who follow me on Facebook have seen a few of these ridiculous decisions (yes, some are ridiculous, but that’s kind of the fun of small decisions, isn’t it?) in real-time.

So, in honor of small decisions, here are a few pictures of a lot of the small decisions that went into the kitchen.

Cabinet glass options

Counters count as a big decision, but just so you can see how bad it got, those are all the countertop samples I purchased. That does not include all the samples I hauled home from the showroom. By the way, at some point I’ll make a list of all the samples I now own that I have laying around that I’ll send to blog readers if they need them, but drop me a line if you’re looking for something specific, particularly in Caesarstone or Bendheim glass.
LED light colors. I know, really?
And if that wasn’t bad enough, how about light switch/outlet plate colors? 

It actually shouldn’t be too long before I find out if some of the big decisions I made for the kitchen were the right call or not. I did get the ceiling painted this past weekend and honestly, it was easier to brush it on than it was to roll it on like I did the first time. And it looks much better. I’ve been unpacking the insane amounts of stuff that were hiding in our cabinets and the cabinets will be coming out this week. I approved the cabinet paint color on Monday and the new cabinets should be installed on Sunday, followed quickly by countertop templating the next day.

My push to get this kitchen project finished before it was time to garden turns out be somewhat in vain, given that we just got MORE snow and the last bunch has barely started to melt. For the day before spring, it sure looks a lot like winter out there.

What would you like to know? Search, or jump to categories below. 

9 Responses

  1. See, now you have got me wanting to change my knobs and outlet covers. Girl! I love LED lights under cabinets. I have an electrician coming to repair some lights and I might have to get a quote.

    I personally like the counter top that is exactly in the middle–the white with lots of different specks of color. It will camouflage more dirt and crumbs, which I know some people don't like but if I can't see it, then it is not there.

    To answer your question–I sent in the photos to Apartment Therapy, fully anticipating that they would send me back a rejection email. I don't know if they ever emailed me to let me know that they featured me, it might be in my overactive spam folder. I actually just stumbled across my home office on there by accident.

    1. Hi Katie – I was featured on Apartment Therapy a while back. Didn't submit it but somehow it landed up there. Couldn't figure out why there were so many visitors to my blog on this one particular day until I looked at the stats. There is was…..source: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com. I just about fell off my chair.

      So in answer to your question: no, I don't think they let people know when they are featuring their projects. Kind of a cool surprise though.

    2. We looked closely at that countertop that you like Katie. In the end we decided that one was a little busy to go with the 1-inch backsplash tile so we went with something a little more solid looking. I'm actually surprised by that decision but I'm good with it (and it was actually much cheaper and that almost NEVER happens to me!)

  2. Oh, so exciting! I just loved redoing the small, and large, details of our kitchen… in fact,. we just had the crown molding installed on the cabinets last week (this after living here for two years!) It all does take time! Look forward to seeing more pictures!

    1. Oh I bet the crown makes a big difference! But you have to do projects when you can. I'm still calling this the slowest kitchen remodel in history because it actually started 10 years ago when we bought a new range.

  3. Small decisions are what makes a project "work". The knobs, the backsplash, even the LED lighting colour all work together to create the look you want. It's SO exciting.

    Oh and now I know who I can blame for all this horrid weather. If you weren't pushing your contractors to get everything done before gardening season, we'd be basking in last year's temps of 70+. Ridiculous – last year at this time my magnolia was opening. But I'd rather wait till May when it's supposed to open in these parts.

    P.S. Which glass did you choose for the cabinets? And I totally got what you were saying on FB about the "no upper cabinets" look – so open!!

    1. Ha! I'll take the blame for the weather. Someone has to, right?

      We ended up going with the glass on the far right. We had several other samples to look at too. I didn't want clear glass because I thought that showed a little TOO much of what was going on in the cabinets and the regular seeded glass looked, well, sort of fake to me. I wanted a little bit of texture, but not a lot. The one we chose is just very slightly seeded and far more clear than the regular seeded one and it is also mouth blown so the glass itself is a little wavy and antique-y looking. It was significantly more than the regular seeded glass but I sort of fell in love with it.

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