Kitchen Remodel Update

It has been a long time since I posted anything about our kitchen remodel. It's been a slow and painful process since we would rather be outside biking then cooped up inside working on our house. We started the kitchen remodel in mid-April. The kitchen has been painted gray and the cabinets have been painted white. Let's take a look...

And currently.....

I honestly didn't even recognize the old kitchen. When I looked at the old photo, I had forgotten how ugly it was. The painting took us forever. It was hard to stay on task and motivated. We did two coats of primer and three coats of Benjamin Moore Advance paint. The paint is pretty awesome. It has a super high gloss finish.


I really love our little chrome knobs. They were less then a dollar each because they were on clearance at Lowes. It's so nice having doors on my cabinets finally!!! I was sick of my house looking like this...

and all the doors taking over my living room...
I'm glad to have my house back now. Things are put away where they should be again. The next projects will be installing new windows and counter-tops. After that we will put up our back-splash! I need to spray paint our light fixture that is hanging over the dining room table also. I have plans for a fun painting as well. We are kinda of putting off the rest of the work till the fall. We are too busy cycling right now to worry about remodeling projects. We figure it's better to do that stuff in the winter months when you are forced to be inside.

Now...


So what do you think? I can't wait to get everything else done.
It's going to be so pretty! Have you or would you paint your kitchen cabinets?

You can see more before photos of the kitchen HERE.

Kitchen Remodel Progress // Painted Walls

A few weeks back I shared photos of my kitchen and the ideas I had for the remodel. I wanted to share our progress so far. Here is a picture of how the kitchen looked as a reminder...


Our first step to remodeling our kitchen was to remove all the ugly wallpaper! We sprayed the walls with vinegar and water to help loosen the paper. This process took us a few days. Getting all the glue off proved to be harder then we thought.


When we removed the wallpaper above the cabinets we found bright orange walls with lots of holes in them. Cody had to do lots of patching in the entire room. I guess it took the previous home owners quite a few tries with a nail before they liked the placement of items! (Poor walls) I painted over the orange with white primer to help hide it. I knew it would bleed threw when I went to paint the room.

Cody ripped out the fake brick paneling next...
After that we painted the ceiling. It needed brightened up!

I decided to paint the kitchen a very light shade of gray. Which was a difficult decision for me since I love bright and bold colors. I was thinking about resale and trying to be practical. The color I picked is called Horizon and it's by Benjamin Moore. However I had it color matched at Home Depot so that I could get BEHR paint.


I do my own stunts, don't worry I'm a professional. HA!

I never thought I would be so happy to see clean/new/bright light switch covers!! The kitchen is already looking a hundred times better. All the trim in the room also got fresh paint. We also picked out cabinet hardware. We scored some cute chrome knobs priced at a little over $1.00 each. It was too good of a deal to pass up.


I plan to share the total cost of the kitchen at the end of the remodel. The kitchen is also getting new windows. The current flooring is staying for now and the appliances will get replaced later. We only buy things that are on sale or clearance usually, so that's when the fridge and oven will be replaced. Here is a before and after photo side by side...



The next step is painting the cabinets. This will be the most time consuming part. We plan to start cleaning the cabinet doors this weekend and if we are lucky start priming them. Once the cabinets are painted I think the room is going to look so much brighter. I can't wait to see it! After the cabinets are painted we will go to IKEA to purchase some wood counter tops. Once the counters are in we can put up our subway tile back splash. It's going to be so pretty. It will be nice to have the kitchen look like "ours". I look forward to bringing color into the room with all my accessories.

You can see before photos of the kitchen along with my design plan HERE.
View all the posts about my home HERE.

Remodeling Our Kitchen {The Plan}

Something about our vacation made us want to come home and start remodeling our house! I am sure part of it is also the spring weather. We decided that we really needed to start doing some of the remodeling and updates to our home now since we don't know what the future holds for us. We could stay in Wyoming for years or we could only be here a few more. Our kitchen and bathrooms have to be updated if we want to make any money when we go to sell our house. Since we spend so much time in our kitchen we thought it would be the best place to start. Here are a few photos of our kitchen the way it looks currently...



Our appliances are all almond/off white colored and will be replaced with brand new white appliances.
We plan to donate them to the Restore American thrift store.
Goodbye fake brick wallpaper,...you will NOT be missed.



We plan to paint all of our cabinets a crisp white with the help of this tutorial from Young House Love.
Counter-tops are still kind of up in the air. We are leaning towards wood counters stained a darker shade.
We believe there are hardwood floors underneath the tile. *fingers crossed*


When it comes to decorating and designing a kitchen I tend to like ultra modern ones. I love all white kitchens with clean lines and chrome accents. Our house doesn't really have an contemporary feel. Since I have to think about resale I don't want to over do the modern style. I am still going to put modern touches but keep it simple. I am thinking about pale gray walls and decorating with chrome and turquoise accents. I want the space to have a bit of a 1950's vibe since the house was built in 1953. Here is my design board for my kitchen....


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I feel like everything I picked out goes well together, but I don't really know if it's any particular style? I love the big glass canisters! How cool would they be filled with coffee beans? Plus I can reuse jars that I have or find some thrifting and just buy chalkboard labels. The "Make Tea Not War" print I designed on Photoshop. I thought it would add a cute touch to the room. I am also leaning towards doing maybe artwork that is vegan related instead. I have so many ideas!! You may have noticed that there is white subway tile in some of the photos of the kitchens. I love white subway tile used as kitchen back-splashes. I think it's so classic and it never goes out of style. The paint color on my board is more of a beige gray. It may work better in my house since the living room (located next to the kitchen) is bright yellow. Here are some photos that I found inspiring...


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I love the contrast of wood counter-tops with white cabinets. The wood adds such a great warmth to the space. Plus if we do have the guts to tear up the vinyl flooring that is currently in the kitchen the counters would match the wood floors. I decided on painting the cabinets because they are in great condition. No need to tear them out and go buy new white cabinets. I am glad that we can reuse what we have. We also plan to revamp our current light fixture and maybe even the fan. We plan to do the kitchen remodel in this order:

Step 1: Tear down all wallpaper, patch walls and remove chair rail.
Step 2: Paint baseboards, window trim and walls
Step 3: Paint the kitchen cabinets
Step 4: Install new kitchen counters
Step 5: Do tile back-splash

We may replace all three windows as well. If we do the floor it will be later on. Appliances will be purchased last due to cost. Our stove and fridge work fine. I'm all about waiting to get something on sale or in the scratch and dent section if I can. Our new dishwasher is coming this week however! Since we cook a lot, the dishes really pile up on us. Can't wait to not have all the clutter laying around!


So what do you think? Any advise or suggestions? This is our second kitchen remodel so we are pretty excited!
See my Kitchen Inspiration board on Pinterest HERE.

Inspiration: Kitchens

I am dreaming of having my own kitchen again someday! (non-rental kitchen) I would love to do another IKEA kitchen remodel. I still love really modern kitchens, but I also do like the mixture of vintage pieces in the kitchen decor. I love turquoise and pink kitchens but hold a special place in my heart for all white kitchens. If I was remodeling a kitchen today it would have to have white subway tile and white cabinets. I also am loving open wall shelves with pretty dishes and canisters sitting out! Here are some kitchens that I found inspiring....

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What would your dream kitchen look like?

ORGANIZATION: For The Kitchen

I can't stand NOT being organized. With our new diet, we are loving cooking again! We are planning a trip to IKEA soon and hope to get things like spice jars and food savers. Eating a plant based diet and whole foods you need lots of canisters to make everything look pretty and stay fresh! Here are some things that I found that would help anyone get more organized in the kitchen....
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My Kitchen & Dining Area

Yesterday made 1 week since we moved in! I have been unpacking and decorating as fast as I can. I decided I wanted to keep the same theme for our new kitchen that I used at our apartment. I liked my Pyrex and Alice in Wonderland stuff displayed together. I also decided to put my large bookcase in the dining area...
I love all the colors together!The cabinet was a perfect place to display teapots, Pyrex and my Alice collectibles. I plan to get some 11X14 picture frames to put behind the displays that look empty. I have some great photos of Cody and I from our Disney vacation.The floral teapot set is one of my favorite thrift store fines EVER! I paid $15 for it. I placed the creamer and sugar jar that matches it in the kitchen area to help spread out the color scheme. I love the way my Alice Vinylmations look in the bookcase! I may also add some fabric or wrapping paper to the back of the bookcase to help everything stand out better.
For the first time in years, I am displaying the Hall Autumn Leaf pieces that belonged to my grandmother. I finally felt like I was able to work it into my decorating. Another awesome thing happening in the dining area is our new chairs...We purchased them from Big Lots for $30 each! We bought 3 chairs at one store and were lucky enough to get one more at another store. I was so worried I wouldn't end up with 4! They aren't my dream Panton Chairs, but I do love the color they bring to the room. They do sell them in PINK, so of course you know I tried to talk Cody into letting me buy the pink ones. He would say yes, but then pretty much beg me to get any other color. The blue really pops! Now I hope to find a buffet/dresser to paint bright yellow and place on this wall...I have many plans for artwork to hang on the walls. I just need money to do so. lol As far as painting goes, I am undecided. I would love to paint the walls a light aqua turquoise shade. I have to have it "approved" by the housing office on base. BLAH! I thought I could just paint. It's not that big of a deal, I guess I am just scared they will say NO to my color choices. I'm not a neutral kinda girl so I may scare them with my swatches. I am going to live here a few months before deciding to paint. I feel like we are probably going to be living here a while, so painting may be worth while.Okay, there is my 1980's kitchen. Why were these cabinets EVER stylish? Or were they? I would LOVE LOVE to paint these WHITE. I am pretty sure Cody would go to Air Force jail if I did that. lol Besides the cabinets though, I love the layout of the kitchen. It's great that Cody and I both can be in our kitchen together now. At our apartment all we did was bump into each other. It was very frustrating!

I will be searching for more goodies to put in the kitchen. It's a cheerful little place.

I plan to replace my actual cookbooks with vintage ones for decoration. It's way to difficult for me to have to get those down every time I need to use one. My kitchen is super cutesy, but that's what happens when you collect toys and vintage items.
I can't wait to just keep adding to it!
If you would like to see my design board that I made for my dining area go {HERE}!