Over two years ago we remodeled our 30+ year old Kitchen, but you know how it goes…if you give a girl a paint brush…
And so after a lot of hard work, elbow grease and kids projects, homework, sports and life…we are almost officially finished with our kitchen. Now, I am sure I will continue to make some small changes here and there because, let’s be honest…I really enjoy changing things up, but for the most part we can cross this project off our “to do” list.
When we started 2 years ago, we had plans to just repaint the fronts of the cabinets since we thought they were still in pretty good shape. We knew we also needed to get new countertops. When we moved in the countertops were tiled with large floor tiles and the grout was in terrible condition…and even though I spent hours chlorox-ing every single grout line…I still kind of felt like the grout was filled with germs.
We also had plans to lay down new flooring. We had already sanded down the floors and refinished them when we had first moved in 10 years earlier, but I wanted dark wood flooring and the wood we had would not stain as dark as I had wanted. The other room you can see off to the right of the above picture is my home office/craft room if you are interested in checking that out.
(before)
(before)
We also knew we had to fix a terrible patching job the previous owners had made on the kitchen ceiling. They had removed a panel of cupboards that sat right above this bar but had not done a great job filling in the hole. We knew it was going to take some serious elbow grease to repair and wondered how good the results would be. So we decided to add a wood plank ceiling to hide the ugly and I have LOVED how it turned out.
(before)
When decided to hire out for the countertops and the wood flooring and do all of the tear out and the rest of the remodel ourselves to save as much money as possible. When we tore out the countertops, we realized that half of the cabinets were in terrible condition including the sink and dishwasher cabinets which were rotted out. So we made the decision to replace the cabinets too.
The big boys were great helpers and actually begged to help us with the tearing out process. I think they were enjoying being destructive.
After the flooring was in, the cabinets were put in…we had some drama with this when the guy installing our cabinets was upset about something at work unrelated to our job (we could hear him on the phone) and then stormed out in the middle of the job quitting right on the spot…#awkward. So we had to call the company and work out getting a new installer. Turns out the original installer had made some big mistakes on our install and others and someone had to come in and fix his mistakes.
After finally getting them installed correctly, we were waiting on the countertop to be delivered, we had someone come and replace the kitchen window with a window that would actually open. When the window installer was taking out the old window, he dropped it and it busted one of the top sections of the new sink cabinet. Seriously? So we had to wait for his company to pay the cabinet company and for the cabinet to be remade. Oh…and did I mention that the husband was out of town during the entire floor laying and cabinet breaking fiascos? I really don’t like dealing with stuff like that!
(The opening to the other room (with the brick) is our Family Room. I will be sharing the updates to that room soon as well).
When all of that drama got taken care of we were able to have the countertops installed. The installation of that went flawless and I was so happy to have my kitchen almost back in order. At least we were able to move the refrigerator (which was in the family room) and the stove (which was on the back porch) back into place!
We installed the backsplash by ourselves and went with a very practical and neutral white subway tile. Since I love to change things up we wanted to be sure we had something that would be able to change with us. I also LOVE how bright and clean it makes the kitchen feel.
During the whole process, we kept our eyes open for a kitchen table that would fit our entire family. Our current kitchen table only fit 6 people around it and we needed space for 7. The table had worked fine for us up to that point because we had the youngest in her high chair. She had since outgrown the high chair and so we were forced to pull up an extra chair every meal for her to sit in and it wouldn’t work out much longer. But our kitchen has a weird square space and a door that encroached on the dining area that made it hard to find a table that would be large enough for our family to fit on. The ones we found that would work were WAY out of our budget…so we decided to make one! Knowing our history, we knew we could make one to fit our needs and taste perfectly.
We will be sharing the tutorial for how we made the kitchen table here shortly. I will add the link here when we have it. We picked up the linen chairs from RC Willey (after much searching) and the cross back wood chairs from a small local furniture store who we LOVE! I can email you the information if you are interested. She searched for the perfect chair and special ordered them for us!
We also made the white dish hutch. I had always wanted a hutch to display some colorful dishes but because our space was so limited we couldn’t find anything in our price range that we loved. So…we designed one according to our space and built it to fit our style. I LOVE it! We are also planning on sharing our plans and a tutorial here shortly.
We also built this fresh herbs box that we have in our kitchen window. I shared with you the first phase of that herb box and will update you with the final tutorial in an upcoming post. So you get a little sneak peek of the finished herb box. I also made the herb sign below which I will be sharing in another upcoming tutorial (guess I better get writing some tutorials…). It hangs right as you come in the kitchen from the front door which is to the left of the refrigerator.
The large sign we have hanging by the kitchen table is one that we got from Between You and Me Signs. It has now become one of my favorite areas of the new kitchen.
We put in the wainscoting in one of the earlier phases of our kitchen remodel several years ago which I shared in an earlier post. We also added some crown molding. The paint color is Benjamin Moore’s Quiet Moments which is a nice soft blue with gray undertones. I LOVE it. I LOVED it so much I used it to repaint my daughter’s room.
We bought our stools from Amazon here…Kitchen stools.
The doorway you can see at the end of the above photo is the entrance to our Laundry Room, if you are interested in checking that out.
I made the GROCERY sign that is hanging over our pantry. To see the tutorial for the Grocery Sign go here:
And finally, the sliding doors were replaced a few years earlier with the French Door. We shared how we framed in the door in an earlier post.
The spice rack that you can see in the pictures by the stove is one that I made out of an old Dr. Pepper Soda Crate. The labels on the flour and sugar glass canisters I have on the counter were purchased on Amazon here…Kitchen Labels. But I swear I only paid half that amount…because I would have made my own for that price….
Anyways, I am so happy to finally have it finished. But once, we finished the kitchen, everything else in my house didn’t “fit”. Not the MAJOR expensive home furnishings, you know…but the paint colors. You know…because if you give a mouse a cookie, she is going to want a glass of milk…. So I had to freshen up the other rooms by repainting them. Everything is almost finished and it feels so good. We have been working on our first starter home and this home for about 17 years now and this momma is ready to be done.
Original article and pictures take cf.theidearoom.net site
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