I love many things about our 1953 ranch home, but the kitchen isn't one of them. Aside from a couple appliances and the faucet, this room hasn't changed since Elvis topped the charts. I know it could be way worse, but c'mon. Look at that vent hood.

Although my husband and I have been toying with the idea of renovating this space, we haven't quite committed. In the meantime, we've began to make small improvements like removing the giant spotlight that used to hang above the sink and selecting new hardware for the cabinets.

Our most recent (and free!) change came about rather impulsively one night. After an evening of perusing beautiful images of modern kitchens with open upper shelving online, I decided that removing a few of our nearly orange upper cabinet doors might be an improvement. And if not, hey, I could just put them back up.

Turns out, this was a good move.

Blue! Yes, some awesome person who lived in this house before me painted the cabinet interiors a beautiful pale blue. Of course, I knew this from using my cabinets daily, but it really didn't make an impression on me until I removed the doors. I love love love that this color was randomly here and we are merely embracing someone else's creative color choice from who knows how long ago.

I recently painted the walls of the eat-in part of the kitchen Sherwin Williams Evergreens, which I'm obsessed with. Obviously, I did not take the pale blue cabinets into consideration when making this paint selection, but I'm strangely happy about this unexpected color combination.

I removed the cabinet doors purely for aesthetic reasons; however, I have to say, as a person who has never had open shelving before, I'm really enjoying the convenience. Who knew that opening a cabinet door was so dang annoying? My husband feels the same way.

Our kitchen still has a long way to go, but this small, simple update made a large and immediate impact on how I feel about the space. A little more open, a little more charming–all from removing sixteen screws. Doesn't get much better than that.

-Palmer