A little black paint...

I have not truly loved my kitchen since we moved in. It was horribly mustard yellow, although husband will point out that he bought me a house with my dream of a yellow kitchen. I just failed to specify what shade of yellow. We repainted that about a month after moving in. I loved the yellow, but didn't like the gray or the oak. I have wanted to paint the cabinets white, but Husband is not a fan of that look. We debated this a few weeks ago while my sister was in town. Without really meaning to, I have (somewhat haphazardly) put black accents all over our great room. Which has turned out pretty nice. So my sister said "What about black?" I said "perfect!" Husband nodded and said that would look nice, but the look on his face said "I am not going to that much work, though!"
Husband has been away at Scout Camp this week. He is a faithful and loyal Scout Master. While he was away, with the much needed and much appreciated help of my other sister and her husband, we sanded, painted, sanded some more, and finally finished off with the cleanup today. Everything that was oak in my kitchen/family room area is now painted black. I love it. It works with the yellow, and now I actually like the gray, too! It seems that it was always meant to be that color. It brings out all the other black accents and makes it look like I totally planned the whole thing to coordinated. Which is not remotely the case. But I digress. We also ordered a new couch a couple weeks ago because ours was not comfy, and that arrived today. Husband gets home tonight - think he'll like it?

kitchen - before

kitchen - during (yikes!)

kitchen - after

family room with mantle - when we first moved in

family room - during

mantle - after

railing - before (With those fabulous stockings my amazing friend made us - you know you want one, too!)

railing - after

A couple cozy kiddos on the new couch!