Our Kitchen Makeover (a more detailed look)

We have been blessed with two beautiful, healthy girls who light up our lives.I started decorating my bedroom as a young girl and it wasn’t until I was on my own, married, and in my own space that I really became aware of this passion to beautify
the space I live in.

Once we were able to get into our first house it was as if a tidal wave of inspiration and ideas flooded my heart.

I became passionate about decor and found it very rewarding to go with my gut and try new things.We were just starting out…me as a substitute teacher/nanny, and my husband as a painter/law school student.

Funds were tight, so we learned how to make updates on our own to save $.

Here we are many years (and experiences) later in a home that has so much charm, but still needed lots of love.

Even though I have shared our kitchen previously, I decided to give it another shot since I have more experience with the camera.

I hope you will feel inspired after you read about the easy, affordable, and sometimes innovative ways I decorated our kitchen!

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The kitchen is where we spend the majority of our family time.

When I look at these pictures now, I am in shock at how orange the kitchen was, and to think we still wanted this house!I was drawn to it and must have had some decorating fairy waving her magic wand over me…

The first step we took to get to this:

Is you guessed it…paint!

I have learned that to get the most out of life, you have to take risks…

Don’t be afraid, I promise you painting the cabinets is not that difficult.  I am not a professional painter.

I was in my pj’s standing on a chair when I did most of these.

I got out the brush, got the paint, put down a drop cloth, and just went for it, and I did not remove the doors.

We used black Polyshades, by Minwax, but I now know I could have used black paint with primer in it called Behr Ultra that you can find at Home Depot.

I used Behr Ultra in Swiss Coffee for the white buffet, white pantry, and white shelves along side the fireplace..

I also decided to distress the edges of the black cabinets with sand paper to add some edge.

No pun intended.

Changing the knobs was easy as pie (found on-line or at Home Depot).  This is where you can let your personality shine through.  Mix them up, it’s okay not to match.

I love finding pretty dishes for less.  They make wonderful decorations for any room.  Plate hangers are found at Home Depot for around $3.  They can transform any plate into a piece of art for your wall.  I “leaned” these plates from Target up against the wall.  I found the shiny one in the middle at Joanne Fabric’s in clearance for $3!  The creamer or mini pitcher was found at Salvation Army.

A great tip for decorating any room, is to stick to 2 or 3 colors.  Then mix up the patterns.  I love stripes with floral.  I made the striped valance above the sink with a kit from Joanne Fabric’s.  I picked out the fabric and put it together on my kitchen table.  I am not a sewer, so this valance kit was very helpful.  Lots of tucking involved, but very affordable.  I believe I have changed that fabric 5 times so if your indecisive like me, it’s perfect.

The indoor/outdoor rug is from Home Depot…  it truly is the best rug I have ever owned… and so affordable.The best asset this kitchen holds…
is the island.

When we walked into the kitchen for the first time, the island spoke to me.It said…”Julie…please use me and love me.  I am so lonely!”
I said…

“ok!”

We knew there was oak under all of that weird plastic coating.Rick stripped this with a non-toxic orange stripper and then sanded it down to the original oak (not fun).

My little ones and I decided to distress it a little with a hammer & screw driver…you should have seen Rick’s face!  My only regret is that we didn’t put our initials in it.

We then stained it with cherry to match my dining room table and polyurethaned it.

Before I go any further, I wanted to mention that we purchased the pendant lights that were originally white on line, installed them, and realized they were way to bright (blinding).  We decided to spray paint the glass and then distress the creases with a razor blade.  Hello vintage!

After the painting and staining was complete I had visions of a column in the middle of this huge island!Rick thought it was a bit crazy but I told him it will be ok!!

Ha!  I was terrified and had no clue if it could really work!

One of our best friend’s is a very experienced builder (Scott!).  We asked Scott to make a “beam” for the island out of pine.  Rick stained it, polyurethaned it, I spray painted some brackets (found on e-bay) with oil rubbed spray paint and then a splash of copper spray paint.Holy cow this beauty brings the kitchen together.  It’s almost like it pulls everything in to surround the island.

The granite we had done professionally, but actually had a terrible experience.  Before you have granite installed, please read our “Granite Nightmare” story.The x moldings in the window replaced traditional style muntin bars.  I did this one afternoon by using moldings from Home Depot.  I measured the length, asked the nice man to cut them for me, painted them, and stuck them in.  They are tightly fit so they stay nicely.  I did the same in my office that you can see to the right.

The copper knobs are oil rubbed bronze handles I found at Home Depot and sanded them down to the copper for a cool effect.  I polyurethane them so they will stay copper.

I hope you enjoyed my new kitchen pictures…There are several items I did not cover on this post but feel free to ask me any questions you have!

Love,
Julie