Kitchen Renovation:Part 1 Painting the Cabinets

Im backkkkk after a very long hiatus with the biggest transformation ever. If you have followed me for any length of time you know how much I despised my kitchen. The space was there but it was so dark and didnt fit with the style of the rest of the house at ALL. Builder grade madness I tell you.

After a year of it like this we decided to change the counters, which, in itself was a massive improvement...

but it still was too dark for my liking and with inspiration pictures like these...

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I knew painting was the only option but it felt so overwhelming so I kept putting it off. Finally, one day last month I decided to do something to the island. Start small to get some guts. My mom was down visiting and together we shiplaped the backside of the island and over the course of a few days I painted it white.

I LOVED how much brighter the kitchen seemed already so I decided to go for it and do the rest of the kitchen. I knew I couldnt do it all by hand so I went online and ordered a paint sprayer and got to work.

I wanted to break it into sections, simply because it was too much to do at once and too much to keep track of too. I started with the upper cabinets. I removed all the doors, labeled the cabinet doors and put their hardware into plastic cups with the corresponding number. Next, I wiped everything down with Dawn and a wet cloth and let dry. Then I used my mouse sander and gave everything a quick roughing up before wiping it down again and letting it dry. I also taped off all the shelves and anywhere a cabinet met a wall.

After that, I sprayed on a single coat of primer on the doors-I used actual spray paint for this- on the backs first, let dry overnight then sprayed the fronts and let dry overnight again. At the same time, I rolled on a single layer of primer on the frames with leftover primer from the other cabinets in the house

FINALLY came the paint. I used Valspar Swiss Coffee in an eggshell finish, I should probably have used satin as they dried very matte but they still scrub up very well and look great. I did two coats on the backs first, let dry completely then did three coats on the fronts of the doors and rolled 3 coats on the frames.

I let dry overnight then I rehung them and was very careful not to mess with them too much for a couple days so they could fully cure, then I added the hardware (found on Amazon). I used this awesome tool to make sure I got all the knobs and pulls in the exact same location every time. It sped up the process so much, I highly recommend it.

So much better already.

All I had to do now was repeat the process on the base cabinets using Valspar Ocean Storm.

If your'e thinking of painting your cabinets heres a few tips I learned along the way!

1. Use a paint sprayer!- this one from Amazon is what I got and I loved it. Just dont water your paint down too much! I used 20 oz of paint then 4 tsp of warm water and it worked perfectly.

2. Label which hinge is the top! I used a simple dot with a permanent marker so that I knew which was which. I didnt do this on the uppers and it took so much longer to hang the cabinets because I had to keep adjusting them to get the doors to hang straight. The base cabinets went so fast and were already adjusted perfectly because i put the right hinge in the right place.

3. Use satin or semi gloss paint. The matte finish is ok but satin would have been better for sure.

4. Lay your doors on plastic cups or old paint/stain containers to lift them off the ground and allow the sprayer to get all the crevices.

Next up: vent hood build

---Jackie

Kitchen Renovation : Part 2 The Vent Hood

A lot of homes have microwaves over the stove and find it a good space saver, I however, hated it. It wasnt effecient at venting, it was up too high for me to clean it without standing on a step stool and also, it just wasnt pretty. I dreamed of a beautiful wood vent hood like these:

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So, it took a bit of convincing but I got Zack on board. First, we removed the microwave with the intention of just keeping it and putting it on the counter but once we got it down we realized it was WAY too big and had mounting hardware attached to the top that looked quite unpleasant on the counter. So we sold it and bought something much more manageable.

With that part out of the picture we turned our attention to venting. Our stove sits on an exterior wall so it was pretty straightforward: cut a hole in the wall to the exterior, attach a vent, attach the pipe to the vent hoof and attach the vent hood to the cabinet. It took a couple hours and several trips to Home Depot but we got it done.

We decided to do the venting before painting the uppers so as soon as this was over I got to work painting the cabinets and on Zacks next day off we built the frame around the hood. We followed this tutorial almost exactly and honestly, it was the easiest part of the the whole kitchen.

I stained everything with Varathane Briarsmoke, its my new favorite color. So good.

Next, I cut all my trim pieces to fit and stained them before attaching with Liquid Nails and lots of clamps.

Aint she a beaut?! I love how this kitchen has turned out all thats left to do now is tiling the backsplash which, I think, Ill be leaving to a professional. Hopefully soon we can be calling this an "after" instead of an "in progress", for now though, I am enjoying my light, bright kitchen.

---Jackie

2019 Project List

There's been so many projects on my mind for so long. We are coming up on our two year anniversary of owning this home and I think its high time we get some of these things checked off. So, for 2019 my plan is this:

Paint the kitchen cabinets
If you've followed me for any amount of time you know that I've been wanting to repaint these cabinets since day one. Every time I think I'm getting ready to do it something holds me back, right now, its the weather. We plan to use a paint sprayer to speed up the process and right now its too cold to do that so come spring I'm gonna be checking this one off.

Replace the blinds with bamboo shades
I am one of those people that makes decisions quickly. Sometimes thats a good thing, other times it bites me in the butt. Before we moved in I thought I wanted bamboo shades, I even sent away for several samples but non matched the hardwoods well so I gave up and went with white and I have regret it every day since. This year though, the blinds are coming down and the woven shades are going up!

Replace the rest of the counter tops.
If you remember, back in September we replaced the kitchen counters with a gorgeous calacatta formica and I want to replace the bathrooms (2 full 1 half) and the laundry room with the same kind.

New flooring in the guest bathroom
I'm hoping to try my hand at some peel and stick tiles in here!

Re-organized the garage and add more storage
When we first moved in we coated the floors, built a work bench and peg board and shelving and it looked ok. Since then, however, we removed the peg board because it wasn't functional for us, bought a huge tool box and started storing way too much junk in here. We're getting it cleaned out though, and we're coming up with better storage solutions in the process

Decorate the front porch
I love my rocking chairs out front but basically that's it. I want to spruce up the landscaping with some pretty lavender bushes, add a new table, some seat cushions maybe, I'm not quite sure what I want yet but I'm working on it!

Of course there's going to be lots of little projects in the meantime so check back soon!

---Jackie

Dining Room Makeover

Ive been wanting to add some sort of chair rail or board and batten on the two window walls but I couldnt picture what it'd look like so I grabbed a roll of painters tape and went to town creating a plan.

When Zack got home the next day I had him help me frame out the windows with baseboard trim and add 1x4 MDF boards around the walls.

Then, I painted the lower half of the wall Valspar Swiss Coffee

About a week later I decided I really did want to add the vertical boards for a more board and batten look so I picked up some simple flat trim from Lowes. I marked all my studs and then cut the trim to fit

After everything was attached with the nail gun I caulked the seams and filled the holes and did a quick coat of paint.

Im hoping to replace the blinds fairly soon and then this will be another project off the list!

---Jackie