Kitchen Updates (not decorated and before my things arrive)

Hey ya'll! How are you doing today?? I am trying to re-paint our house before all of our furniture arrives from the states. I have created an inspiration board to give you all an idea of the future "feel" of our kitchen when we finally complete  it.  Below is the picture of our home that we saw on the housing site. The quality of the next few pictures isn't great, but you get the idea.

This next picture is of my home right when we moved in. The walls were painted a purple/grey color with stenciling and, the other walls in the room were a bright buttery yellow. I do love the beam lights (that is a custom creation by my landlord) and the wooden counter tops which add a nice bit of rustic-ness to the ultra contemporary cabinets and floors. I typically go for more classic looking kitchens but am really enjoying the sleek contemporary look while I am in Germany. I will be adding vintage touches to soften things up a bit.

We removed the glass back-splash above the sink and will hopefully be installing a real tile back-splash soon. 

Like I mentioned before, I have none of my decorative things from home, no real furniture, nothing, so the picture below is by no means my "after"....just an "In the design process" picture. We painted the accent walls a deep greige (grey-beige) color and the same lighter greige we used for our stripes in the hall. 

*The darker greige is from Hornbach and the color number is:

F6.05.50

In the states this color is most similar to Kelly Moore "Granite Cliff" KM3933-2

*The lighter color is also from Hornbach and is:

F6.05.70

In the states this color is most similar to Kelly Moore "Jute" KM3940-1

Once again, I chose to paint neutral colors so I can decorate with warm deep colors in the Fall and Winter, and fresh light colors in the Spring and Summer.

Here is our un-decorated and Incomplete kitchen! I can't wait to add some special touches to warm the place up!

The plant balls above my oven are all over the place here in Europe...I love them! These can be found at most design shops but were purchased at Mobel Martin.

You can't tell a huge difference in the colors of grey unless you are standing in the room. This color has brown undertones instead of purple undertones so, it feels much warmer in here. As you can see, in the first few pictures, there isn't a ton of storage or prep space. We decided to get an island from Ikea. It actually matched our kitchen beautifully even though our kitchen is from Mobel Martin. We added some high gloss shelves to the corner near the stove because, if it's done right,  I just love the look of open shelving. We needed some temporary dishes (since my nice ones are on a boat somewhere in the Atlantic) so I got these at Mobel Martin for less than 1 Euro a piece. I found the gorgeous goblets below at Ikea for just a couple Euro each. The best part is, they look similar to a set I wanted from Barney's that cost over $125!! These give close to the same amount of bang, for a lot less buck. See the originals here.

The awesome Persian style horse was from my wonderful neighbors as a gift.

The metal espresso set was also a steal from Ikea and remind me of something from a swanky Italian coffee bar in Milano. 

I love my new wooden chippy crate, it was a gift from my aunt Pat. It was purchased from a gorgeous design shop in the town of Leigh "by the sea" in England. I adore it and think it would look great full of fruits and veggies. Below is a picture standing in the kitchen looking into our empty (newly painted hall).

I found the roman shade lying on the floor in our loft from the previous tenant....I dusted it off and hung it up. I plan on adding some kind of trim to make it look custom. I found out you can get this shade at Hornbach for 19 Euro. In the states, Target has a similar looking one that ties up and has a very classic and clean look for under $20.

I would like to find an antique metal tray to hang above my stove-top and magnet recipes on it. I was also considering getting an old wooden tray to put spices and recipes on. I guess I will get whatever I happen to stumble on first. I am thinking I may fill the shelves on my island with vintage crates and baskets or, maybe I'll do cake pedestals or my copper collection. I can hardly wait for all of our decorative things to come. I am dying to get this place feeling like home. 

Are you working on any major projects this weekend??