After fixing the bathroom in our small 2 bedroom ranch home, the 210 square foot kitchen and dining area was the next room that seriously needed renovation. My plan was for simple, inexpensive updates - new curtains, new hardware, and fresh paint.

John, my boyfriend, did most of the work, although I helped with taping and painting. We painted everything using Sherwin Williams SuperPaint: Mountain Stream for the blue walls, Alabaster for the trim, cabinets, and doors, and white for the ceiling. We replaced all of the hideous gold cabinet pulls and hinges with nickel/stainless hardware including new doorknobs, and got a new white range hood to match our existing appliances and cabinet color.

John busted out the ugly ornate trim around the windows and replaced it with a plain, clean wood border. I removed the ugly orange/red valance curtains in the kitchen area altogether, and we installed white cordless cellular blinds for all the windows in the room.

We left the floor to the professionals. We had Armstrong Alterna engineered stone tiles (Enchanted Forest "Night Owl") installed by Monadnock Flooring in a herringbone pattern with contrasting grout ("Mist"). John then installed new baseboards over the new floor.

Our last and final step is to deal with the outside door - it needs sanding and painting, new hardware, and an updated blind.