A Kitchen Transformation

After having a contractor come and give an estimate on how much it would cost to knock down a wall and give a little space in this cramped kitchen, it was quickly realized funds were not available. This didn't take away the issues with the look of it. But, it also seemed ridiculous to spend a bunch of money on new cabinets and countertops for a kitchen that would still be very cramped.

So, I really think that Rustoleum should get a decent amount of credit for the changes that were made in this dingy old kitchen. Without their kits (Cabinet Transformation Kit and Countertop Transformation paint), not sure we would have been this brave. The cabinets and countertops were in comparatively good condition. You know sturdy, that whole bit. But, the cabinets were an old dingy oak, the countertops had a few stains on it, and the fluorescent light (Rustoleum doesn't get credit for the removal of that awful thing). Here are the before pictures:

I will not admit this to be a "easy" project. If you only have a day or two to devote to it, it is a big pill to swallow. Kelly and I finished this whole project in 4 days.

Things we had to just to get started:

• Remove all the doors and drawers and lay them all out nicely in the garage
• Remove all hinges and knobs (we spray painted the brass hinges stainless steel colored)
• Scrub any dirty, grimy spots 
• Tape the walls 

The process:

• Luckily no sanding involved!!
• Scrub each door, drawer, and base with the Rustoleum deglosser
• Let it dry
• Because we were going from oak to white, it took 4 coats! The package says it should only take 2 and granted it could have been our lack of real painting skills, but yes it took us 4 coats. 
• let it dry x 4
• The kit comes with an option for a decorative glaze, but we were happy with the look without it.
• Last coat is the protective top coat. This gives it back the glossy finish. 

Between coats on the cabinets, we also painted the counter top with a Rustoleum Countertop paint.

• Clean the counter with an abrasive cleaner
• Sand the counter
• Apply coat with a really nice roller and brush. My expert paint skills left some brush and roll marks, but it evens itself out pretty well. It is really surprising.
• Again, the paint says you should really only need 2 coats, I needed 3 and this could be a me problem. But, I was a lot happier after the third coat. 

And this is the finished product! It makes the stainless steel appliances look so much nicer in this room. 

The fluorescent light also came out and was replaced with a simple, black three droplet light fixture. Instead of buying new shades, we cleaned up some mason jars and used them. Just had to cut a hole big enough into the metal lid and it screws in easily. 

It is hard to get a good view of the light fixture in the room without the lights washing it out. Here is a view a little farther back. The best part of pulling it back this far is you get to see the awesome wine rack the lovely Erika and Jamie designed and built for us. It really is a great touch to have the dark wood next to the light cabinets. Very creative and amazing addition!

So, the kitchen remains the same size, but at least with the lighter color it feels bigger somehow. Or, at least we tell ourselves that!

Reflection on Last Year

Last year, Kelly and I moved back into the house and came down with a new addiction to DIY projects around the house. Here is the link to last Fall's post and projects 1-6:

Back in the House DIY Projects

It definitely became an addiction and when we aren't traveling, it is DIY time.

Since the last posting, I have been busy and have not been able to get out some more pictures. I am sure you have all been holding your breath. But for a little recap on why, just because I feel it is necessary, Kelly is in the process of getting her second Masters. In January, I also started back to school and a new job. Since the last post, have been out of the country twice and a lot of other various travels. I will never get caught up on those posts. Except Italy, I did do that:

7 Days in Tuscany

Anywho... here goes.

Rejuvenated Bathroom

So, I have been staring at one of the bathrooms for as long as I have owned this house and saying, "I hate you." I really wanted to like it, but I just couldn't. It felt so outdated. Here is an old picture I have of it, the first time around:

Sadly, this doesn't do it justice for the tile and vanity. Oh here we go... this was right before I painted the tile.

Yes, you heard me right, I painted the tile. First, I scrub cleaned the floor. Then, I used a hand sanding pad to rough the tile up a little, but to be honest the tile didn't feel any rougher after this step. So, I proceeded with a tile primer, let it dry and then used a special paint from Lowe's for floors: Valspar Latex Porch and Floor paint, I think it was called something real exotic like...Concrete Gray...

Oh and the vanity and the countertop and the walls, they all got a new pretty paint job too. For the vanity, I used the Rustoleum Cabinet Kit. It has everything you need, you don't have to sand anything, and it turns out looking really nice. Kelly, has been pretty forgiving to me, because if you look really closely the cabinet isn't white, it is a frosty light blue. It is called "Frost," it looked like a really pretty white in the picture. Nope, it is blue. I should have known I was choosing a weird color based on the look on the Home Depot paint mixer guy's face. Lesson learned... but, it surprisingly looks nice in there.

I believe the countertop is formica and it was probably creme colored originally (don't have any pictures, I think I was always avoiding looking at it), but it was yellowing really bad.It's really hard to tell in the picture how much better these look than they did. But, the countertops were painted with a tub and sink refinisher. It was called Homax Tough As Tile Tub and Sink Refinishing Kit. I am not a pro and you can see my brush marks, but it gives it texture and I like it. I had thought about using the Rustoleum countertop kits, but they are mainly only made for laminate counters, so I was out of luck.

I should give a shout out to my amazing neighbors Marty and Shawna because they made a guest appearance at this DIY show in my time of dire need. I got myself in really deep with changing out the faucets. I had to change all the valves and supply lines because they were old and rusty. I was able to remove two of the four old valves with no problem, but the other two would not budge for me. Well, I mean one of them budged and the rusty supply line broke off. This left me in quite a predicament, I could not just put the valves back on, I now had a broken piece. Did I mention it was almost 8pm on a Saturday night? If I didn't figure it out, we were going without water for the night. NO GOOD! I had fought with it for hours, and finally sent a panic text to Shawna that I needed help. Marty, Shawna and the boys came over and saved the day. We didn't have to participate in camp water rituals in our own house for the night!!

And...... It was a nice little facelift. Now, sometimes I just go back to that bathroom just to look at it and say, "I don't hate you anymore, you are pretty!"

Once the Bathroom got a Makeover, This Room was Jealous

This is the bedroom that is connected to the newly made over bathroom you should have seen in the previous post. Does it look like these two rooms could co-exist together? At least not touching right? Well, that was Kelly's thoughts exactly. Once we painted the bathroom, this room had to be painted and updated immediately. And it really was immediately.  

We made an extra trip to Home Depot for the paint late in the evening right before they closed and we painted into the wee hours of the night. The idea of these two rooms touching and not looking good together was out of the question. Oh, I guess I should have mentioned, there was an old flowery duvet cover just laying around waiting and begging to be used. 

So, there are two original art projects in this room. By original, I mean le Artiste Kelly created them with the idea coming from the great idea box, "Pinterest." No one person could be pinned down to give full credit too for the idea. But, Kelly for sure went with it and made it her own masterpiece.

The Crayon Melt was created in October 2012 by Kelly Owen with a black picture frame (glass removed and cardboard backing painted white), a box of Crayola crayons, a hot glue gun, and a hair dryer.  Magical combination...

The Canvas Box Collection was created in March 2013, again, by the talented Kelly Owen. The colors in this picture do not do it the justice it needs to show how cool it is.... but I wanted to give you a closer look at these beauties.

Can't Forget the TuTus!

The DIY didn't stop at the house. Halloween was around the corner and it was time to figure out a costume. Kelly got it in her head no matter what she was, it was going to include a tutu. So... she got online and figured out how to make one... which turned into three. I decided I needed a tutu halloween costume too. And, Jamie Stacy had she not been called in to work last minute would have also participated in a tutu halloween. We decided to be the angry birds.  

Here is one of the blogs we pulled the directions from: How to Make a TuTu: A Tutorial. It was very informative and made it very easy. Yes, the blog is written about making it for a little kid. But, who said adults can't wear tutus every once in a while.

Happy Halloween!