Cosmetic Home Improvements

For anyone who saw my post from this past Monday (before I took it down)---- I was clearly having a bad day!  Thank goodness it passed.  That's the blessing about bad days; they pass.

On a much lighter note, I thought I would share a few minor home improvements Scott and I have been working on.  Nothing major.  Just cosmetic stuff.

First up:  change in lighting.  Previous owner had a dated hanging light over the island in the kitchen.  You can see it in this picture that I took during the inspection prior to finalizing the purchase of the home.  

Here is the light we replaced it with.  The photo is taken from a different angle, but I think it still shows the improvement.  This is a pretty cool light!  And, of course, Scott put it on a dimmer switch for me.   

I absolutely love the lay-out of this kitchen and there are so many features that, like the new refrigerator, make me tingle.  With the white washed cabinets and floors, it does have somewhat of a dated feel though.  My friend, Stefanie, is the best decorator I know.  Bar none.  When she saw pictures of the kitchen, she suggested replacing the hardware with large, stainless steel, square knobs.  I knew I wanted to replace the knobs, but I hadn't thought of getting square ones.  I decided to try it.  Score!  As usual, Stefanie was right.  Here is the before:

And after:

About a million times better, right?  More befores and afters.....

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

And before:

And after:

Not the greatest pictures and not the greatest angles for shots.  I still think the improvement shows though.  What an amazing difference some new lighting and hardware makes.  Changing lighting and hardware is relatively low cost and relatively high impact.  Gotta love that.  (tingle, tingle, tingle, tingle)