We began our kitchen makeover at the beginning of July.
It was done in phases, mostly because we had to wait for certain things to get complete before we could move on to the next thing, but as of Friday night, our kitchen is complete. YAY!
I am thrilled it is complete!
This is a long, picture heavy post, SORRY, but I wanted to warn you!
This was our kitchen when we moved into our house.
Literally when we moved in- see that giant mess?! lol
Oak cabinets, dark laminate counters, linoleum floors in a faux brown tiles, and yellow, or well mustard walls.
It was all… VERY BROWN and totally lopsided!!
EVERYTHING was on this end of the kitchen and to the left of this photo was nothing at all even though there was room for something.
This area of the kitchen was the only somewhat bright spot with white bead board on the wall where the table sits. I wish the previous owners carried the bead board onto the left side of the kitchen but nope just plain painted yellow walls.
And here is the kitchen now.
Still the oak cabinets and linoleum floor, though I would LOVE to change it, but much brighter and still a big difference. The biggest difference comes to the wall that you don’t see.
But before I show you everything as a whole, let me show you what we did to get to this point.
We began with the walls.
Here is a better shot of the breakfast nook area before.
It has the real wood version of bead board but it was super beat up and really didn’t look that good in person.
Here is a shot of the other side of the room. Totally plain and empty.
So we ripped that all off the wall for a whole new wall treatment plan.
We also painted the upper portion of the walls.
It was then time to install our new wall treatment, board and batten, throughout the whole room.
We began by replacing the base boards back in the nook area and then we placed a piece of 1×2 an inch from the top of the baseboards all the way around the room where we were doing the board and batten.
This was our tricky way of not having to replace the old baseboards.
Then the fun began of doing all the board and batten itself.
We began by installing the top board all the way around at the height we wanted, 70 in. high.
Then we installed a second row of boards down 10 in. from the top board.
And we finished it out with the battens down the wall spaced the 17 3/4 in. apart. Why we picked such a random number I haven’t the faintest at this stage but that is what we did. lol
Once the boards were all attached, it was my turn to take over. I caulked around all the boards and primed them with 2 coats of primer.
Then the whole room got painted with a few coats of ultra white paint to make it nice and bright in the room.
The unified look throughout the room looks so much better and the room isn’t quite so lopsided anymore.
Once the walls were complete, it was time to move on to the lighting.
These were the old pendant lights above the island. There were 3 of them and they weren’t that great.
I knew what I wanted to replace them with , it was just a matter of finding them for the price I wanted.
After searching EVERYWHERE, I finally found this version, of all chrome or nickel or whatever they are and snagged them in a heartbeat. I spent slightly more than I wanted since we had to buy three but still got them for a good deal.
Have you ever had to look for lights for the same room the coordinate and goes with the idea you have in your head? Holy cow, that is a heck of a feat!!
Then I found this handsome fella to go with the pretty ladies for over our table.
The old light was a fake stained glass looking light, it was plastic, and gave off terrible light. I found this light for the best price and ordered immediately!
It has a white bottom on the inside so it gives off much better light and we can actually see our food now, which is good!
Then came cabinet hardware.
The previous owners had these round white knobs on the cabinets.
Their kitchen was decorated VERY country and these knobs went with their decor but NOT mine!
They stood our from the cabinets immediately when you looked at the kitchen and I hated that.
I found these great hexagon nickel knobs at Wal-Mart, yep, Wal-Mart and snatched them up. I needed 42 so I needed a lot for a good price and they are so much better!
Once the walls were complete, knobs were changed and the lights were installed, we had to play the waiting game.
We ordered new counter tops and they weren’t going to be stalled until mid August which meant everything else had to be stalled.
Finally counter install day was here so we took out our old sink and removed the old counters the night before.
So the counter guys arrive, we ordered a white quartz from Home Depot, and as they are bringing them in and they placed the large sink piece in place, the sink hole was cut in the completely wrong place!! AHHHH! So they had to take the entire main part of the counters and recut them.
This was the only section that was installed that day which meant that we were without a sink or a counter in our kitchen for another week.
Thank goodness for a small bar sink in our island.
Here is a super up close shot of our quartz. I can’t remember the name for the life of me but it was in Group A. We wanted to upgrade the counters but didn’t want to pay the price we paid in our old house, especially knowing that we had more counters in this house. We are both really happy with how this one looks in our kitchen.
And a week later, the rest of the kitchen counters and our sink was finally installed, the right way this time.
Next up, giving our island a little makeover to make it different from the rest of the cabinets.
The counter on the island was already actually a nice counter, I think possibly plain white quartz but not sure since the previous owners installed it, so since the top is different then the rest we wanted the island to completely make it different from the rest.
Travis installed bead board to the back side of the island since it was just plain.
We also replaced the old pointy corbels that we would always smack our knees on it these, much smoother corbels.
Then I gave the entire island 2 coats of gray primer. Thank goodness the Olympics were on during this so I had something to watch and listen to in the background during my multiple coats!
Next it got painted 3 times with the dark gray main coat of paint. Turned out great!
And the very last thing we added was we put in a bead board back splash throughout the main kitchen as well as on the island back splash. We bought 2 large pieces of bead board from Home Depot for $30 a piece and we had enough for the back of the island and all of the back splash.
I gave it the a few coats of the same ultra white as the board and batten and it looks fantastic!
I love how it looks and so happy it is complete!
I will say that I would change the floors in a heartbeat but we just don’t have the time, money, and we probably wouldn’t get the money back when selling the house, so that did not get done. All well.
And we had debated on painting all the cabinets but once the back splash was installed we decided it looked good as it so we weren’t going to spend more time on money on that either.
I’m thrilled with how much brighter the room is now and of course less brown!
We kept our old table and chairs and rugs in the space. The table and chairs did get a little messed up on our move here to WI so they may get a makeover as well but we’ll see!
I may change out the rugs at some point as well but that will be if I find something I really like for a good price.
I still enjoy walking in here and taking in the room.
The island turned out great.
The bar stools were left by the previous owner and I hope to redo those at some point. We’ll see if I get to that this winter.
The board and batten helps balance out the room.
We moved our bar over under my vintage plate wall and it made this side of the room really come together.
This bar has been on the makeover list since we bought it 6 yrs ago. Perhaps some day I will get to it! lol
The new lights go so well above the newly painted island.
I love the new counters and the new sink.
The old sink was, well, I have no idea what it was made from, but I hated it! I’m so happy to have a stainless steel sink again.
We even got ourselves a new stove.
Our previous stove had a black faced door and still the coil elements on top which makes it so hard to clean so we found this at Home Depot and decided to bring it home as well.
I even sewed new valances for all the windows.
I found this fabric at my local Wal-Mart and immediately knew I wanted to use it in the kitchen! I love them! 🙂
We probably won’t be in this house much longer but I am so happy this project is complete and we can enjoy it until it is time to move on once again.
