One Room Challenge {Guest}: Carriage House Kitchen - Week 1

If this is your 1st visit to HGL, welcome!  I started blogging in 2008, and HOLLY GOES LIGHTLY survived loads of change in my life - much backing and forthing over the Atlantic and upping and downing of the east coast.  But during that time, I became more and more enamored of the immediacy of Instagram (@seasaltinterieurs) and other forms of social media.  HOLLY GOES LIGHTLY went on sabbatical.

Recently, though, I bought a 19th c. carriage house in Newport, Rhode Island, that needed some work to make it my own.  Wanting a means to document the changes, I remembered my old blog. Today's kick-off of the Fall 2016 One Room Challenge (ORC) was just the push I needed to bring it back. (In case you're unfamiliar, ORC is the biannual design-fest / brainchild of Linda from Calling it Home that challenges design junkies to make over a space in 6 weeks.)

For my first go, I've decided on the kitchen.  The before is just below - exactly as it looked when i first viewed it with my r/e agent.  Perfectly respectable and a decent layout, but definitely not living up to its full potential.

{photo courtesy of Sotheby's International - Gustave White}

{photo courtesy of Sotheby's International - Gustave White}

 And after the initial demo day...

 

Over the next six weeks, I'll tweak various aspects to create a lighter, brighter, more open space.  My new kitchen will (hopefully) optimize the existing footprint, better reflect the historic aspects of the carriage house, and blend more coherently with the adjoining living areas.  Wish me luck!

To Wallpaper or Not to Wallpaper?

My dining room needs oomph.  And while I love white, both the kitchen and living room, which this room bridges, are also white. I need more in this space.

I've been looking @ these 3 from Farrow & Ball. 

Thoughts?