Kitchen decorating - wood floor, pewter plates and valance

I've been in my home for about 7 years and I've enjoyed decorating the majority of the house, but the kitchen has been hard for me to decorate.  First I couldn't decide whether to paint the cabinets or not. Then I started looking for curtains for the two large windows above the bench.  So, 7 years later, I am finally tackling the job. These are my move in pictures.

Beige tiled floors, bland, flat beige walls. In fact, the whole house was painted in the flat (hard to clean!) beige walls.  

Next came the appliances.  The counter top is black with green specks. It's not too overpowering I think.  The appliances are black with chrome/silver. 

From another post on my blog, I posted pictures that showed the change to the backsplash and the area above the windows.  The letters were vinyl that were cut using my Cricut machine with the exception of the Bon Appetit.  Since we decided we needed to repaint the living room, we decided to also paint the kitchen since it is a somewhat open floor plan.  All one color so it ~flows~.  In other words, I didn't know what color I wanted for the kitchen.  

We ripped out the carpeting (thank you dogs for using my living room as your personal toilet!) and installed laminate wood.  Let me stop here and say I LOVE my floor.  The only exception being that the dark wood shows every speck of grass, paper, etc.  Easy to clean and maintain!.  

We went from this...

to this!

Ok, I hate the pillows and that will be my next project. The walls are not the green like it shows in the picture.  The are painted a warm beige with a satin finish.  The paint has a tint of pink in it which changes around sunset each day. One of those things you don't know about until you have the entire room painted. 

Here is the kitchen with the wood floor.  What a beautiful change from the tile!

I still do not like the light wood cabinets but I am putting up with them until I can figure out whether to install veneer or paint.

Back to my dilemma about the valance.  I've searched the web and I do mean, I searched the web for curtains.  I've also shopped Bed Bath and Beyond, Marshalls, JC Penneys, Macy's, Dillards, Target, Walmart, etc.  I could not find a valance I wanted. One, it had to go with the silver appliances and two, it couldn't be frilly or lacy.  I wanted something tailored.  

So, after 7 years and an endless search, I found a valance on ebay.  I ordered three valances for $30 (not a bad deal).  Two for the window and one to make pillows for the bench. 

I'm not really liking the fringe so that may have to be cut off.  I taped the valances to the window frame to see if I liked them. (why tape?  because I haven't bought rods yet).

I'm not sure if the pewter plates are staying there or if I am going to move them to above the cabinets and put my silver platters in their place. I'm also not sure whether I want a floating shelf or just hang the platters. 

$30-$50 for a curtain rod? Nope, not for me.  Besides, from the way I wanted to hang the valance, no one would see the rod anyway. So I purchased a conduit rod at Lowes for $6.  They even cut it for me for free.  92 inches of strong metal which was really stronger than what I actually needed.  I purchased a shower curtain rod hanger (does that sound right?) to hang the rod.  One screw for each end and I was done.  

To be continued.