Whenever David is gone I like to do home projects. So this time I did a little surprise one... It took me less than three hours after he left before I had completely ripped the kitchen apart. Our kitchen before was so dark and depressing. It was fun for a while having the chalkboard paint, but I wanted it to feel bright and happy!
Soooo dark!
After pulling the cabinets off the wall, it already felt SO much brighter!!
Time to get serious...
At this point I was about half way done. I had taken down the cabinets & micromave, put up bead boards on the wall where they used to be, put up the shelves, and primed the counters.
After!! So bright, and welcoming, I'm in love with my new kitchen. It went from the room I didn't want to look at, to the spot when I spend most of my time. It was totally worth the hardwork, and paint in my hair for days.
So here's what I did...
Started by taking down the cabinets adn microwave. I definitely recommend having someone help you with this. I was very determined, and managed to get them down myself but it could have easily gone bad.
Once the cabinets were down the gross old wallpaper was revealed. So I went to home depot and bought pre-painted wall panels that look like beadboard. We have this around the rest of our kitchen and I love it! It's also soooo much easier than taking down wallpaper. I cut these with a circular saw and nailed them up. Next I used poly filler in all the cracks, sanded down the bumps and did a coat of paint on top.
Next the shelves went up. These shelves were actually left in the house by the last people that lived here, I found them in the back of a closet. I bought those brackets at Ikea for $6 each. I really love the exposed shelving look, and I was surprised that I actually didn't loose that much space for storing dishes. Almost everything that was in the cabinets is on the shelves.
Then the counters! I really wanted to change the counters but wasn't sure If I was going to able to without spending a lot. I went to Home Depot and asked the woman in the paint section for countertop paint, she talked to me like I was 5 and explained how you can't paint a kitchen counter it's not safe! So, I went home and did some research. I ended up painting them with a primer, then painting them with a generic interior paint that I got mixed at walmart. Then did a coat of the Rustoleum Stone Effects Countertop Epoxy. They turned out way better than I thought they would, they look like they were made that color!
Lastly I painted the cupboards, I just painted them all white to keep it looking bright!
The whole project took about 3 days and cost me about $200 (Minus the new fridge obviously)! Woo!! I already had the white paint, primer, shelves, and trim so that saved me some $$.
My original plan was to just get a new small stainless steel microwave that we would keep on the counter, because i was so done with that huge old white one. But after doing some research I decided to not replace the microwave, and so far I'm not missing it!
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