San Francisco Apartment - Kitchen

There are two main additions to the kitchen that I'm pretty proud of. First, the IKEA island. I went back and forth about what size and style of island to get, but ended up getting the unfinished Groland island from IKEA. The initial plan was to stain the legs a shade of walnut, but the wood didn't take the stain very well. My mom worked all day on it, and neither of us were happy with the end result. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I didn't like it after she spent so much time and work on it, but by the end of the night, she suggested that we start over and paint the legs instead. So she bought black paint and painted over what she had stained. The final product was a perfect complement to the maple cabinets and black appliances that came with the apartment.

I had sold my old table and chairs before the move, knowing that they were too big for this smaller apartment. But I was happy to realize that a smaller round table and chairs would fit. I found this set on Craigslist for only $200! It's all Room & Board that usually sells for well over $500. She only had 3 chairs, but they are almost identical to the chair I have at my desk, which I will just add to the table if I have more than 2 people over.