Kitchen Dreams

As I said yesterday, my house is a major work in progress. So far way have done little things like painting (we only have one room left!), some chair rail in the baby's room, changing the outdoor shutter color....and that's all I can think of right now. This winter we are planning to do a budget friendly mini-make over in our kitchen, with the exception of changing the hideous flooring. That will have to wait until next year once Claudia can walk (Wow, it's weird to think she will be walking this time next year) and once we have more money of course.
                                                    The problems:
Although our kitchen is big, it doesn't really have a lot of usable space or cabinetry/counter top space.
The cabinets are ugly (not the worst, but just not my taste)
The counter tops.....hmmm ugly too.
Sink...ugly + too small.


The only thing I like is my pendant light above the sink that I purchased from Farmhouse Wares, the hardware on the cabinets and our current stainless steel appliances. If I were starting from scratch I would probably not have gone with stainless steel because it is so difficult to keep clean, but oh well for now.
                                                          The plan:

Paint the cabinets a creamy, warm  white color.









New counter top....something neutral and a farmhouse sink with new faucet.




And for the back splash I am completely torn between doing wainscoting or a simple subway tile. Any opinions or suggestions?











Putting up a half wall with a pillar and more counter space in order to break up the openness and make it look more like a room rather than a bowling alley (you'll see what I mean in the "before" pictures.)

We also want to add some cabinetry on the empty wall in our kitchen to achieve a "built in hutch" look with open cabinetry on the top to display some of my collectibles.

My husband and I have a date planned to drop the kids off at gigi's house and look through the expensive kitchen magazines for inspiration!