Kitchen - before and afters

My last "room by room" post. The kitchen. Kitchens are my favorite spaces to decorate. This room was the most work but the most fun. 

The kitchen was pretty drab. Old appliances, dated laminate, floral wallpaper, and my personal favorite - carpet. 

As always - first thing to go - wallpaper.

"Let me at it." I literally got started on it the day I got the keys to the house.

The wallpaper came off SO easy! It was the glue that was a stubborn. It took about 45 minutes to rip the paper down...it took about 9 hours to scrub all the glue. What a workout!

Next we had to get rid of the upper cabinets so we could work on that bulkhead. I had a hard time deciding whether or not to take it down at first. I wasn't sure if it was worth to time and money to do so. I ended up taking it down because I wanted it to open up the space. I thought the open shelves would look funny under the bulkhead.

The next step was the rest of the cabinets. I had a few friends of mine help with the demo. A tip for you re-modelers -  Hire boys, pay pizza. They were a HUGE help.

The demo was so fun. Have you ever hit something as hard as you could with a hammer?  Fun.

Paint -Many of you have been emailing me for this color. I LOVE this yellow. Yellow is such a hard color. You have to be so careful or it will look green/orange/neon.. This is Benjamin Moore- Filtered Sunlight. 

We pulled up the carpet and pad and put down the underlayment, then the floors. This is a vinyl plank. Shaw - Urbanality - Broadmor. Different, low maintenance, very reasonably priced. This stuff typically runs abut $2.95/sq.ft. Installing ourselves saved us quite a bit. 

After quite a bit of convincing, I got  my Dad to agree with installing it in a herringbone pattern. I LOVE the way it turned out. But be warmed - herringbone installation was very difficult. It was impossible to get the lines completely straight. In fact, when it was all finished, I bought some unsanded grout and grouted any gaps and unevenness. 

The backsplash. Subway tile is my favorite. Timeless, clean, cheap! The open shelves concept actually saved me quite a bit of money because we didn't have to purchase upper cabinets.

 I could have just tiled the botton 18 inches (standard backsplash area) and painted the rest, but I really wanted a clean, continuous look. And at $0.88/sq.ft. and free installation (by me and my Dad) it was doable. 

I will post a little "Tiling for Dummies" excerpt one of these days. If I can do it, you can do it. Seriously.

Great outfit, right?

(Notice how I fit perfectly under the ceiling? 5'4" does have it's advantages!)

Now the fun part. Organizing, decorating, cleaning. I lived in the mess for weeks and was SO excited to get it looking clean. One night right before bed I opened one box...just for fun....6:00a.m. the next morning my entire kitchen was done. Dishes put away, pantry organized, shelves full.

A quick note on the Butcherblock counter tops - Butcherblock countertops can be really expensive if you go to a Butcherblock retailer. I went to Menards, bought two slabs and did the rest myself. My Dad cut them with a table saw and put them in place. Then we installed the sink (Ikea by the way - my FAVORITE thing in this kitchen and the only thing in the house I really splurged on. Money well worth it. I love it). Next I sanded the tops with 400 grit sand paper and oiled them with a food safe polyurethane (Lowes...just tell them it's for Butcherblock and they'll give you the right stuff). I oiled it three times.

Butcherblock is great. I LOVE the look of it. But if you are interested, make sure you are prepared for a little more high maintenance. You have to be careful that you keep water, spills, moisture cleaned up right away. Mine has been in for four months now and it still looks great, but I am very careful with it. I would do it again but I value beauty slightly more than practicality. So make sure you weigh the pros and cons before committing to butcherblock. 

I got all my shelving material at Ikea as well. They have great prices. 

Everything you see on my shelves was purchased at a garage sale or thrift store (except for the jars on the bottom right that I picked up at Hobby Lobby, and the two big white bowls from Marshalls).  I spen under $2 for EVERYTHING else you see in this photo.

I will be sure to post a more detailed excerpt on these shelves and their contents soon.

I got this table for $50. It was oak. I painted it white.

There you have it! 

Have a beautiful day!

Han