In yesterday’s blog post I shared with you my favorite unique wall decor idea and announced that today I would introduce you to my Ugly Kitchen! This introduction is long overdue. I seriously thought by now she would get the face lift that she deserves! But, life throws its curveballs and sometimes expectations are not met. It has been four years since we moved into our dream home (circa 1980) and our ugly kitchen renovation is still on the back burner.
Albert and I decided to take our limited funds when we moved in towards adding an additional 1100 square feet of living space to our existing home. This space is contemporary, inspiring, and functional. I can’t wait to share more of this space with you. My home office, adjoining bathroom (where many of my beauty blog photos are captured) and glass wall staircase makes me soul happy! Our girls have moved into the new wing and love the space. We are so blessed!
However, because the addition construction took longer than expected and more money that we had anticipated ( of course) our ugly kitchen, well, remains ugly! But, no more hiding her. Today, I am going to show you her in all of its glory and you will see why I affectionately call it my Ugly Kitchen!
Cooking, baking, entertaining, and food in general are a huge part of my life, culture, and family traditions. I keep thinking as soon as I get my dream kitchen I will start sharing this part of me with you. Well, it seems silly to wait on something like this and we are all friends! It has seriously been an insecurity of me for the longest time. But, I am going to embrace it. This is real life. My kitchen is not picture perfect but serves it purpose even though it is literally falling apart! My dear friends, I would like you to meet my Ugly Kitchen!
P.S. Before, I forget please stop by tomorrow where I share my first food recipe in my Ugly Kitchen! I don’t want you to miss it and I would love your support! I am so excited!
I do love a kitchen island! It definitely balances the space and functionally of an effective kitchen design. However, I miss our gas stove from our previous home in Dana Point and one of the burners is dead! In, my new kitchen design I would love to have 6 burners because I love having several entrees cooking at the same time.
The oven exhaust in the middle of the burners is a poor design feature. Food gets stuck or falls through the vents all of the time. Because the knob is so hard to activate, we don’t often use it.
This is a quick peek into our dining room which adjoins our kitchen area. When we moved in, it served as my office, then a dining room. When we decided to sell our old dining room set, it has become a miscellaneous space and a magnet for random pieces and junk. The two laundry baskets there hold items that I need to photograph and sell on Poshmark! Anyone want to help? In this dining room is a beautiful crystal chandelier that has made three moves! It is a definitely a keeper!
I love all of the beautiful windows in my kitchen. The view into our backyard is perfect and unobstructed. The kitchen faucet we have replaced two times. The dishwasher has been broken forever! Unfortunately, there is a lot of hand washing to do. The trash-compacter may it RIP! We have never used it and takes up precious storage space.
The hideous tiles will never grown on me as well as the brown grout!
We hired a contractor to reroute our pipes for our new tankless water heater. My husband specifically asked to not drill through our newly discovered beam….well, he did! Let’s just say Albert was not happy!! And, it still remains a sad reminder!
Sharing this photo with is a big deal!!! I am feeling so vulnerable right now…like I am letting you see my intimate underwear drawer! This is our pantry in all its glory! I am terrible at organizing and everything gets lost in here! Not to mention, every time I do try to create order in this abyss – it gets ruined by the many little hands in my family! LOL! But, it does offer a lot of space to house our goods.
This is our first time having a fridge that has an outside water and ice dispenser. I wasn’t sure I would love it but we use it on the hour! The only thing I would change is that I wish the water and ice dispenser had a removable tray on the bottom to catch water dripples. This spot can get wets wet and makes our floors slippery. We have a towel on hand to catch the spills.
Our wooden cabinets are so worn! Each cabinet is stuffed to the gills with decor and party platters I love to use when I host parties and dinners with family and friends. Don’t you just love more of the brown color in the base molding!
I love my knife rack! I grew up using butcher knives as a girl cooking along side my mother and grandmother, so knives don’t scare me! The bigger the better! Some of the original kitchen knobs were replaced because they kept pinching our fingers. I got a few random whimsical knobs from TJ Maxx to replace them and to add some cuteness to this unattractive space; but, I don’t think it is working!
It is nice to have a double oven! The top oven also was a microwave until we killed it. Though, they are old and super unappealing, they do work like a charm and bake the most delicious food!
Leaning against our bar that we don’t use! We don’t drink, so it is a big waste of space! It will be so nice to remove this huge monstrosity! I was thinking of putting a built desk here where we can charge our phones and have a laptop for looking up recipes. What do you think?
One thing I am grateful for is the size of our kitchen! When we get it redesigned, it is going to be fabulous! I see two large islands for cooking, homework, and crafts! We love spending time in the kitchen! Chloe (11) sure loves cooking with me and sometimes Emi (14) will join us! LOL! Elijah (7) loves to skip in and grab a snack to eat and Albert loves peeking into to see what is on the menu for the evening! I love my family! 
This IKEA chair has made many moves and it always the preferred seating choice for Elijah and his little friends!
My family loves to hang out here while I cook and it is nice to have the kitchen open to the family room.
This beautiful cabinet is a Craiglist find! Love it! We got rid of TV over a year ago and watch a lot of videos during our free time over the weekend.
So, there you have it! I have given you a full tour of my Ugly Kitchen! What do you think? Ha ha! There is a lot of BROWN isn’t there? If anything, I am happy to have this post to remind me that a home is built around the memories we make in them not how posh it is (though I wouldn’t mind that!). Our family has had so many special memories in our Ugly Kitchen…and many more to create!
If you have any design ideas, do share them with me! I cant wait to hear because our future kitchen redesign will be major! Don’t forget to visit me tomorrow for my first recipe in my Ugly Kitchen featuring an easy Easter Appetizer using Pearls® Specialties!
As always, thank you so much for stopping by! See you tomorrow!
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This is such a creative idea for a post Debbie! I love it! And your kitchen isn’t ugly at all. I imagine when it was built it was somebody’s dream kitchen!
Yes, it was definitely the first home owner’s dream come true! Our home was the model home for the development. We are the second owners and have already put so much love into this place that we have already worn it out! LOL!
Debbie I love that you shared your home with us! There’s so many bloggers with beautiful feeds that only share the beautiful parts of their lives. I love that you shared who you truly and were so honest and real. You are such a wonderful soul and inspira
Thank you so much Jen! This is seriously my real life! You are my inspiration and we go way back and that is what I love about us!
I feel the same way about my master bathroom as you do about your kitchen. There is so much potential, and it could be beautiful, but that’s not where we are focusing our budget at this time. There are things I would love to change in my kitchen as well, but the kitchen was one of the selling points in this home for us since I am always in the kitchen and it works even better now that I have a food blog!
Hi Stephanie! You do have a lovely kitchen and it is a perfect match for you as you are a food blogger! Our master bathroom is also in need of help too. But, that is another story! LOL!
This is a great post Debbie. You may not like your kitchen in the current state, but at one time it was brand new. It looks very loved and shows a lot of character!
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Thank you so much! It is definitely loved and shows a lot of character! I love your perspective on this. It is helping me a lot! xo
I wish I had your ugly kitchen. You would abhore mine. I only have about 3 ft of counter space to work on and no pantry closet. Hardly any storage and very narrow cabinets that a cereal box doesn’t even fit into. So, be grateful. I think your kitchen is beautiful!!
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Thank you so much for coming by and reading my blog post! This makes me so happy! Oh, only 3 feet of counter space would be so hard and also no pantry closet! I have seen your kitchen and I wouldn’t of never guessed! Thank you for thinking my kitchen is beautiful. It has taken sometime for me to embrace it!
Thank you for keeping it real! So many people show the “perfect” things in their life. I can appredite this. ❤️
Hi Tonya! Thank you so much for your support because my kitchen is far from being perfect I was hesitant in posting. But, now I am really glad I did. xo
Your kitchen looks great. Not everything has to be brand new. Readers would rather you post your articles and include your current kitchen. Then you’ll have so much more to write about if you remodel. Thanks for sharing.
You have such a great perspective. Love this. It’s important to remember that everything doesn’t have to be modern…it just has to work for your family!
I love real posts like this!!! You have an awesome perspective!! I dont own my own home yet but I know it takes a lot of money for an update so it takes time!! I am proud of you for sharing this!
AWWW! It’s not ugly! It has character! Haha! You brighten it up anyways. ;o)
Your home is absolutely lovely and so welcoming when I visited! The kitchen is not ugly, that’s character and you bring a sparkle to it! And you have such a big space which many people would kill for. So excited to read your recipe! xoxo – Marilyn
I wish our kitchen had an island too, it’s just too small to fit one the way it is currently set up! Our kitchen is outdated, but renovating it isn’t in the plans for now. I hope you get your dream kitchen!
I have always hated tile countertops. I had it somewhere and just hated it. It reminded me of a bathroom. But your kitchen is very clean, so you have that going for you. Honestly, one could say it has character. Enjoy the memories you make in it.
The scratches on cabinets can bug me sometimes. Normally I don’t notice much but those I do notice. Ha! I think that your home, well at least your kitchen, looks “lived in” which is so wonderful in many ways. That dress and your shoes, though? I love them very much!
Those windows are gorgeous! I remember those ovens, my friend had the same ones. I’m sure your new kitchen will be amazing when you get it.
I love how spacious your kitchen is! The island is great and I like the open area to look into the other room. Your kitchen will be fun to slowly update!!
I don’t think it’s as ugly as all of that. But I guess it’s not as functional as you would like it to be. Especially with things like a bar you will never use. Although I think we had a bar area and used to use it for a little while. It ended up being overrun by other things eventually and non fucntional. And we never did use it for alcohol.
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Hi David! I cleaned it up for the photos but it is definitely a junk magnet! Thanks for the awesome comment!
I also think it could be a lot worse! And yes, I get hating the tiles, but hey, great window view can help make up for that, yes? (And yes islands are amazing for food prep, aren’t they?)
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Thank you so much Firenze! The tiles stink….but the windows do make up for it! xo
I love your kitchen 🙂 it is not ugly. I Everything are perfect especially your window and kitchen island.
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Thank you so much Rose Ann!
It has so much character to it! And you have a lifetime to remodel the entire house, there’s always no rush! Lovely pics dear!
x. kritsida
http://aperfectcanvas.net/getting-financial-smart/
Thanks for sharing your kitchen tour! It looks like a spacious kitchen with so much natural lighting. I think changing the counter top and back-splash to white marble would give it some style.
I think you’d faint if you saw my kitchen! I would call mine “the ugliest kitchen.” Haha, Seriously, The kitchen is where most memories are made. I close my eyes and i can vividly remember three little smiling faces every time I took cookies out of the oven! A kitchen island is always a good idea.
Home is definitely built around the memories, there are parts of everyone’s home’s that they may not love, the windows and lighting are great!
~xo Sheree
poshclassymom.com
Even though the kitchen feels straight out of the 80s, it has so much potential. Can’t wait to see how you transform it one day in the future. We all have things about our home that we would like to change, which is nothing to feel bad about.
I can’t wait to see how you change it in the future but I don’t think its too bad right now.
I love everything about this post debbie. Just because something might be a tad ugly on the outside, doesn’t mean it isn’t perfect in so many ways. So many amazing memories are being made in that brown kitchen. I’d rather have a brown kitchen full of love than a sterile white one any day.
Xo
Jenny
Thesensibleshopaholic.com
Your kitchen looks great ! I believe there are a lot of great memories and it is an area filled with love ! thank you so much for sharing
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You are a hoot! Loved the tour of your so called Ugly Kitchen. I bet there is so much love, laughter, and good eats that come forth from you being in there! I am excited to see the before and after pics whenever you do get around to renovating it though! I always love a good before and after picture!
xx Kristina || http://www.dearnovemberdays.com
Oh friend! I love that you’re so real and transparent. And honestly though, you’re kitchen really isn’t ugly. It looks so homey and can already smell your delicious family meals!
This was such a fun tour, you are so brave!! Thank you for sharing and opening your home and self like that. It’s so refreshing to see not everyone’s house is an hgtv exclusive! Love the size of your kitchen. Can’t wait to see more of your home❤️