Honestly I dislike beige or tan. I super don’t like orange shaker cupboards. This kitchen needed to shine more brightly, maybe ‘show off’ just a little. But this refresh was all about working with what I had.

As the wood cabs were in pretty good shape, (plus I had no big dollars to replace them), I refurbished instead by painting them in Ben Moore’s Oxford White. It’s a really soft peaceful kinda white, one that really works in older, period houses.

The faux marble backsplash tiles was an eyesore. It had to go. As I pulled down the ghastly tiles, the wall crumbled, giving way to an ugly den of moldy black gyp, and yes gasp, bare electric wires.

I sighed. Black mold. Damn it. Removing that invasion is a carefully planned but necessary operation. Dressed in full body overalls, face mask, rubber gloves and spray gun, I looked like I was robbing a bank. It took 3 days of planning and closing off the kitchen with plastic drapes (mold spores spread). Then I zapped the whole darn area with mold control remover and heaps of bleach. It was not pretty and smelled friggin’ awful, but it worked. Once it had fully dried, it was time for the Electo gang.

While Chris and his team rewired the entire kitchen, it gave me a much needed break, especially after prepping and painting 25 cupboard doors. Updating the faucet and hardware in matte black acted like great mascara, making the eyes, or in this case, kitchen cupboards and sink, really pop.

Now with my electricity all safe and sound, it was time to tile. Finding a perfect little black dress is hard. Finding the perfect little black tile even harder. I looked at hundreds. Too big, too small, too geo, too subway. I eventually fell for a sweet hexagonal mosaic. Little did I know it’d be a B..TCH to install. A massive learning curve, as a virgin super newbie tiler, my fingers took a beating from the cuts, snips and sharp tile shards. But once up and grouted, I love, loved my bold hex backsplash. It even made the old countertops feel fresher (or was I imagining that?).

Next were the walls. More white? Phhff.. too bland. Grey?, much too obvious. So I tried four different blacks. After much ‘tester pot’ deliberation, a soft deep smoky black by Ben Moore called Anthracite won. Once on, it emboldened the cupboards and helped create a perfect union, merging the kitchen, dining & lounge all together.