Kitchen Remodel / Redecorate

DRUM ROLL PLEASE…..
Kitchen remodeling project is finally complete! And it only took a year! We had most of the work done within the first month, but we had finishing touches to complete and we took our time doing so. So much happened at once with the bathroom and family room remodel that as soon as spring arrived we needed a break from all of it. Then in the fall we ordered our new front door and did a lot of sprucing up landscaping and such outside. Most recently, we ordered new blinds and we just hung those last month.

In case you missed them, here are the posts from the other rooms.

Family Room Remodel
Half Bathroom Remodel
Front Door installation

KITCHEN REMODELING PROJECT

We could actually play the game….can you spot the differences? The answer would be pretty much everything was replaced except for the cabinets, windows, light fixtures, and woodwork trim. We also haven’t replaced the stools around the island yet because anything we would buy would be much bigger and we wouldn’t be able to fit six stools around the island and the kids all still like to eat there.

.: before photos :.

Country decor, blue laminate countertops, white appliances, vinyl floor, wall paper that took forever to hang (and even longer to remove!)

This cabinet was the first purchase we made when we built our house 10 years ago. It has sentimental value just for that reason, so even though it’s country-ish, we didn’t part with it. I painted it black instead!  You’ll see later…

This is after we tore down all the wallpaper and were spraying knock down on all the walls to match the rest of our house. That was quite the experience. Ken bought some tool that you connect to an air compressor that sprays the knockdown. It was a riot, we had knockdown all over the place. One time the part that was filled with the knockdown material fell off the sprayer and it was all over the floor. It was a comical day to say the very least.

Ken had to move the electrical box for the light fixture over our kitchen table.  We bought a much bigger table and the light was no longer going to be entered. That was a treat too, replacing the dry wall and spraying knock down to match the rest of the ceiling so you couldn’t see where the light previously was. I did all the painting…including the ceiling, not fun.

Once the knockdown was completed I painted the entire kitchen except for the space under the cabinets because we knew we would be getting tile for the wall. I painted everything a light beige, except for the 3 walls of the pantry and the sliding glass door area, which I painted a dark red.

Here Ken is laying the new tile floor. First we thought it was ceramic tile, then we looked it up and it said it was porcelain…so I am not really sure. The thing I love about the tile most is the edges are imperfect, which also came in handy for Ken and our friend who helped him lay the floor because even if their grout lines were off a smidge, you really couldn’t tell.  Also, we laid the floor right over our vinyl floor. Some say not to do this in case the vinyl floor would shift or lift, but we had only a couple seams in the original floor and after 9 years- no problem with lifting. To be safe Ken nailed down the old vinyl floor all over the place which gets rid of any creaking and prevents lifting as well. Then we laid the Durock over the vinyl floor.

Here is how things looked after we finished the floor and bought new appliances and granite countertops. Our granite countertops are 2 different colors; the island is Coffee Brown and the other is Autumn Leaf.   The appliances are Whirlpool Gold, which I have a love/hate relationship with. The refrigerator is awesome, I love everything about it. Even though the first one Lowe’s delivered had a dent in the side and they had to take it back!  The stove is fine, except it is suppose to lay flush with the countertop and because we raised our floor by adding the Durock and tile, the sides of the stove are like 1/2 inch above the countertop. It bothered me at first, but now I don’t even think about it. Also, we had only used the stove a few times and it started having this bubble appearance under the cooktop. Lowe’s replaced that without question as well. Still the stove drives me crazy because the cooktop is all black and after a couple of days you see dust on the surface and it shows every little drop of water! Drives me crazy! So keep that in mind if you buy a new stove- all black is a pain to keep clean! I also have to mention (because you can see my clothes washer in this photo) that not even 3 months after we purchased everything you see here…my dryer died, so we ended up buying front loaders from Lowe’s. We got to know the delivery guys pretty well by that point! I love the front loaders (we went with Samsung), they hold so much and are so quiet. Oh, speaking of quiet- that is my other complaint, my new dishwasher is not as quiet as the GE white one that I had. Bummer!

We finally upgraded from our tiny kitchen table that we had. I went with a darker wood to mix it up a bit. Actually I wish my cabinets were this color, but that another whole project that is just not going to happen.  Ken wanted to paint the cabinets white, I wanted to strip them and stain them darker- so we agreed to just leave them the same.

Several months later we bought the tile for the walls. We picked out a Travertine tile which is also has an imperfect edge to it. The nice thing about this tile is you spread the grout all over the tile and the seams so you can be as messy as you want.  Then you wipe the tile down and then seal it for protection. We had 2 different colors of Travertine tile which Ken randomly placed. We placed the outer tiles square and then the inner tiles like diamonds. This resulted in more cutting, but I think it turned out so nice. Ken did a great job on the tile and he had so many outlets and switches to cut around!

.: after photos :.

It’s finished!!! The tiles under the cabinets were my favorite addition. I especially love the coffee brown pieces of granite, to match the island, that we placed throughout to add some extra design. I love the design that we came up with for above the stove. Other changes you can see here are the new blinds, which are from blinds.com a woven wood shade, color: Tapera #68. I love these so much. They are super lightweight and only partial shade which I wanted the light to shine through.
There is trim added to the top of our cabinets, which Ken bought the pieces separate wood pieces from Kencraft (local store for us, but they ship as well) and constructed himself which saved us about $700 because of the dental strip that goes through the center. You can see the detail better in other photos below.
There are new knobs on all the cabinets which are two different kinds of knobs on the cupboards and drawers, we found those at The Andersons.

Here is a good shot of the tiles above the stove….LOVE!

Other little touches: small flat screen tv I got free through our bank’s debit card rewards. Chrome spice rack – Bed Bath and Beyond, utensil canister- Sears going out of business sale.

This angle never turns out because of the sun shining through! New chrome clock- Target, table decor- Bed Bath & Beyond

Can you find one of our dogs in this photo?

Decorative iron G above the door was from ebay.

I saved the cabinet! I painted it a semigloss black and it turned out pretty nice.  Good enough to keep! Art above cabinet from Bed Bath and Beyond. Wood wine rack from Target. Plant- amazingly I have kept this plant alive for 11 years! It was a wedding gift from a dear friend of mine.

When we had the granite countertops installed we also got a new stainless steel sink. We also got a Delta Touch 2O technology faucet. You only have to touch any part of the handle or spout to turn the water on or off.  Our last faucet was Delta and anytime we needed a new part for the faucet we would call Delta and we would receive a free replacement within 2 days. We knew we wanted to buy another Delta and we are not disappointed with this new technology. We’ve had for a year and have yet to replace the battery for the sensor.

Here is a good close up of the trim.

Can’t forget the stuff hidden on the side of the refrigerator. I can’t recall what store I bought the toaster from. The snow cone machine is Chase’s, one of his Christmas gifts! Old breadbox. Keurig single cup coffeepot and chrome carousel to hold the k-cups. (I’m not a coffee drinker and Ken only has an occasional cup.) Large wooden bowl to hold keys and stuff, from Target.

Art from Walmart!

Close up of floor…Shhhh, don’t tell anyone that I went from mopping my floors weekly to at least biweekly. Isn’t that terrible?! But the floors never look dirty!

Close up of blinds…

Also there were a couple of additions to the family room since my original post.
I ended up purchasing this storage shelf for the kids video games and controllers. It took me forever to find one that I liked. I found this one the Walmart website, however they shipped directly from some container company. It had to be put together, but is surprisingly really good quality for the cost.
Winsome Espresso Wide 3 Section Storage Shelf with Baskets

I also bought new blinds for the family room because I just didn’t feel like the white blinds looked very well with rest of the decor. I ordered the blinds from Blinds.com and the color is Spice Route #100. I added the white privacy liner to the back because they were only considered a partial shade blind and I didn’t want the sun shining in on the television. I love them, they are really light-weight and go up and down very easily.