christineo's Profile

Congrats on the condo!

I bought my first place a couple of years ago and the kitchen was in need of sprucing. Since, like you, the kitchen wall of cabinets can be seen from another room, I made a radical decision to remove the wall cabinets. I painted the wall a bright color and did a clean row of open shelving - stainless shelving with some bamboo bowls to mirror the front of the lower cabinets would look great. It was a really inexpensive way to have a more modern looking kitchen. All my plates, bowls and glassware look great on the open shelving.

I have never been a big fan of parquet floors....until I recently saw them stained very dark, they looked GORGEOUS and expensive. I was shocked.

I subscribe to a very "work with what you have" decorating sense so, I'm with Curtis, Velochic and Sofia - keep them and go dark.

Or, someone else had suggested great rugs. I was wanting a dark floor and ended up using Flor carpet tiles in Gerbil - I love it. Gave me the dark look I was after and I can reuse them elsewhere when I'm ready to redo the floor underneath.