Third time is a charm?

We're still chugging along with homeschool, work and a kitchen renovation. This week I'd already painted my kitchen twice but it just wasn't working for me. The first time was too dark, the second time too light and neither time did the color really relate to the connecting family room. Sure they could have worked, but after all the time, effort, and money, I wanted to be happier with the color. Fortunately, right before I was about to attempt to buy paint #3, a fellow homeschool mom came to pick up her kids who'd been over to play and that's when I learned that she'd been a designer for years! I had no idea, but was glad that she was happy to rescue me :) She loves color and grabbed my Benjamin Moore fan deck and started thumbing through. Thanks, Michelle, you're a life saver.

We still have odds and ends like painting the window and door trim in the breakfast nook to match the cabinets, painting the ceiling, window treatments, possibly tweaking the lighting, possibly replacing the table and chairs. I'm happy with the progress and see an end in sight :)

Here are some pictures I snapped this afternoon:

My three paint color attempts this week.

Crown moulding up and painted...and walls painted!

Andy did a great job with the crown moulding, didn't he?!

The old pantry has been replaced with cabinets to the left of the fridge and the new pantry (to the right) replaced our old unused desk.

We pained the old cabinet boxes in the main U, covered the ends with wainscoating, replaced the doors and drawers with painted maple ones from Schrock (Menards), replaced laminate counters with granite, and updated the sink and faucet. Oh, and Andy disguised the ugly soffits with crown moulding. It all looks bright white here, but it's actually a Dover, grayish white.