Before & After: This Totally Cute Kitchen Is About to Get Way More Fun

Sometimes distance from completing a renovation can give you a different perspective — loving things you were only so-so on, or maybe wishing you’d have done something differently. Tina Bousu had that feeling in her kitchen: Although she’d redone the cook space four years prior, she’d ultimately settled on a neutral gray stain for the cabinetry that was weighing her down. “It was my biggest regret!” she says. “Other than the color of the cabinetry I loved every permanent aspect of the kitchen — it just needed an injection of fun and color.”

While the gray was a safe choice, Tina says, it made the kitchen feel smaller and, in a word, “blah.”

“I needed something fun and uplifting as we spend the most time in here by far and it needed to reflect our personality like the rest of our home does!” says Tina, a color- and plant-lover.

The after definitely packs personality! Tina and her husband did all the work themselves, starting with the cabinet painting. Tina chose pale pink for the cabinets (Annie Sloan’s Antoinette), and used a sprayer to get an even finish. ” The pink color is so soft and subtle. It reads almost as a neutral,” Tina says. For some overhead wow, they installed a peel-and-stick mural in an oversized leaf print. The new geometric pendants over the island are from Hudson Valley Lighting.

The island redo was one of Tina’s boldest design decisions. To get the living-hedge look, she stapled faux hedge panels — left over from another project — to the sides of the island. (Ghost chairs at the counter keep the greenery in full view.) Then, just to make sure she got some living plants in, Tina use macrame hangers to house a collection of hanging plants by the windows.

“I LOVE the after!” Tina says. “It feels 10 times bigger — but it also feels fresh, bright, and happy now.” The upgrades help highlight the things Tina loved about her kitchen already, including the copper hood and the blue range. “All of those elements I brought in four years ago are now given the attention I wanted back then,” Tina says. “I only wish I had done this four years ago! “

This post originally ran on Apartment Therapy. See it there: Before and After: This Gray-Cabinetted Kitchen Is About to Get WAY More Fun