home tour #1: adventures in a [not so] simple kitchen remodel...

It really did start with paint. Benjamin Moore Yarmouth Blue (HC-150), to be precise.

The adventure began in the fall of 2010. After tolerating my early-90’s-style-builder-grade-cabinet-and-hunter-green-laminate-counter-kitchen for 15 years, I was ready for a change.

Change of color, that is. I didn’t have $20,000-100,000 for a complete overhaul.

Paint, however, was within my budget – and I knew I could do it myself.

It was a sad little kitchen before in sad little camera phone photos

I grabbed paint chips and samples and taped and brushed various colors on the walls.  I stood back and realized the wall colors I wanted made my cabinets look even uglier than before.

The cabinets must go!

This was not an option, but designers have always preached that paint can transform anything....

This put me 2 cans of paint away from my fabulous, new, diy remodel on the cheap:  a gallon of BM Yarmouth Blue for the walls and a gallon of BM oil-based Bittersweet Chocolate Satin Alkyd (2114-10) for the cabinets.

The major flaw in my logic:

dark cabinets + hunter green counter + no window = A CAVE

The countertops must go!

And go I went to Home Depot with my Home Depot credit card burning a hole in my purse. I chose a bright white quartz Silestone solid surface countertop in Zeus white. I signed the contract, handed over my credit card, and assured my Home Depot design rep that my kitchen cabinets were perfectly level.

My kitchen cabinets weren’t perfectly level. Nothing in my house – with its 1905 foundation – is level.

Thus started a two-month project that involved a revolving door of carpenters, plumbers, and electricians. Oh, and throw in a few new appliances and a new glass tile backsplash.

So much for my planned DIY kitchen on a budget!

Though, I did do my fair share of work on the project: I painted the walls and the cabinets/drawers (I give a how to on the cabinets here), a time consuming project in its own right. And I tiled the table and made custom slipcovers for the bar-height chairs. You can find the tiling the table post here ... and the parson chair wannabe chair post here.


In the end, the kitchen makeover cost a great deal more than 2 cans of paint – coming in just under $7,000 – but I couldn’t be happier with the results.

We've lived with it for a year now and I'm still very happy ...

… although, I really really want a stainless fridge and range.  It’s just not in the budget – and probably won’t happen until the kids are done with college …

… and I’m already thinking about the kitchen’s next progression. Perhaps I could enlist Mike and our new nail gun to install molding a la The Lettered Cottage blog to heighten the top cabinets and perhaps do a similar white & gray paint treatment on the uppers and lowers …

Just for fun, here are a few shots of much earlier incarnations of the kitchen:

 

This is a few months after we moved in.  Don't be fooled by that innocent look on Topper's face.  A few months later he ate a giant hole in the laminate flooring.  I guess he found it just as ugly as I did ...

We didn't think through the black and white check.  They were a nightmare with a tri-colored dog.  And no we didn't abuse our child. He thought it was fun to play in the dog's crate.  By the way, that baby is now a well-adjusted high school freshman ...

Let’s keep in touch … 

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And be sure to come back on May 29 to link up at our multi-blog "The Great Outdoors" link party.  Click on the blue folder for more ...




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Linking up with:
Finding Fabulous
Thrifty Decor Chic
Funky Junk Interiors
Lolly Jane Boutique
Tatertots & Jello
Under the Table and Dreaming
Homemaker on a Dime
Between Naps on the Porch
The DIY Showoff
Home Stories A 2 Z
Savvy Southern Style
The Shabby Nest
The Shabby Creek Cottage
Remodelaholic
Sisters of the Wild West
Addicted 2 Decorating
The 36th Avenue
My 1929 Charmer

and for fun, I'm linking this up internationally ....  since they so kindly invited me ...
The Rosegarden in Malevik

... and in Australia where Meg invited me to join her VERY FIRST LINK PARTY EVER ...
Meg and Mum's

You know how Jerry Lewis is huge in France?  Maybe I can be big in Sweden ... or Australia!