When we moved into the house, I was not a huge fan of the kitchen. Between the cupboards and the layout, nothing seemed right.

After painting the kitchen cabinets and island, it started to come together a little more. Paint can do wondering things to a space and it definitely helped with the kitchen.

However, even with the mini-makeover, I still felt like it wasn’t right; something was off.

Last year, Brett and I refinished our kitchen table. We sanded the entire top, down to the natural wood and after a little back and forth, decided to only paint on a clear top coat so we could see the original grain.

Let me tell you, sanding down a wood table to the original grain is a pain in the ass. And it was only after we got the legs and top done that we realized we missed the two leaves.

Fast forward a year and half later and I finally got the ambition to re-finish those two forgotten pieces.

After putting the entire table together, it looked absolutely wonderful, but completely crammed.

There is this odd cabinet that is acting as our pantry and was cutting off the room and doing nothing for the kitchen layout. I was planning on getting rid of it eventually, but I found some extra motivation this weekend and decided there was no time like the present.

I unloaded the stand-in pantry, did a quick reorganization of the other cupboards and was able to make the table actually look like it wasn’t too over-sized for the space.

I can’t believe how much of a difference it made! Now we have a large table that can comfortably hold more than two people, the ugly stand-in pantry is gone and the kitchen has a more open feeling. All is right…. for now.

Here’s to finally getting around to those things on our to-do list and not settling for a room that just doesn’t feel ‘right.’

All our best,