Kitchen Remodel - Two Years Later!

I am currently sitting here in a puppy chow coma... I can't move... I need water... and probably a treadmill.  It is hard to believe our kitchen remodel was finished almost 2 years ago!  I wanted to fill you in on how things are holding up because we DIYed most of it.  Remodeling a kitchen is no joke and I can see why most people hire the job out.  Every time we contemplated a project I would read every blog/article I could find.  It drove Tall Tan Man crazy that I couldn't make any rash fast decisions.   I absolutely LOVE our kitchen and it had set the bar high for future houses.  We only budgeted and spent about $5000 on our kitchen remodel. Pretty awesome, right?!

Why I put a mirror in our kitchen!

Hello!  I caught another change bug and have been changing things in a couple rooms.  Tall Tan Man was out of town all week and left me with too much time on my hands.  I shared our kitchen change on my instastories and I'll quickly recap this incase you missed it.  The wall use to look like this:

My Latest Target Clearance Find: Marble Planter

Ahhh this might be one of my favorite Target clearance finds ever!  {but that might be because I have lost track of all my purchases...}. I am a sucker for the marble look and when I spotted this {canister} I knew I needed it.  Ok Mom, wanted it.  :)

Our bathrooms have almost no counter space so I knew I wanted to use this canister in the kitchen.  I thought about using it to hold our sugar {aka truvia} next to our coffee machine, but then I decided it would be a cute planter!  If you're wondering how much this canister cost me...

Yep, pretty cheap! I should use all that money I saved to buy some lotion for my hands... 

I recently posted about {some of my favorite faux plants}.  I talked about not being able to keep plants alive while also keeping my tiny human alive.  In typical Leslie fashion I changed my mind a week later. :)

So if you ever feel like reminding me to water my plants, please do!  Especially that fern on the tops shelf. ;)  Now I am a little worried about misplacing the top to the canister.  So in a month when I decide I can't keep anything alive I can use it to keep our sugar!  What do you think about this solution? 

Happy Decorating! 

{Leslie}

Tuesday: Turn it up Tuesday, Tutorial & Tips Link Party, Twinkly Tuesday, Tuesday with a Twist, Inspire Me Tuesday, Talk of the Town, Creative Muster Party, Wow us Wednesday, Winter Blues Wednesday 
Wednesday: Penny Pinching Party, Show Me Yours, Link It Up Wednesday, Inspire Me Wednesday, To Grandmas House We Go, Katherine's Corner , Home and Garden Thursday, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

Thursday: Creative Inspiration, Foodie Friday and Everything Else, BFF Open House, Fantastic Friday, Friendship Friday

Friday:  Fan Day Friday, Paula's No Rules Weekend Blog Party, Pretty Pintastic Party,  What to do Weekends, Friday Five Features,  Flaunt It Friday, The Creative Collection,  

Saturday: Saturday Sparks Link Party, Dare to Share, Our Mini Link Party, Sunday Features

Sunday: Your the Star Linky Party

Monday: Inspiration Monday, Meandering Mondays, Thank Goodness It's Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Create Link Inspire, Merry Monday Link Party, Totally Terrific Tuesday Link Party

Adding Open Shelves to the Kitchen!

Hey y'all!  Can you believe it is the middle of JULY?  I am learning that time moves incredibly fast once you have a baby!!!  I know I keep saying this, but our house remodel is almost done.  Our front yard and "garage room" are the only remaining spaces that need major TLC.  Just to make sure you have you remember where the kitchen started:

After about a million labor hours...

I was really nervous about adding the open shelves, but I am so glad we did.  The back corner of our kitchen use to be awkward because it was too small for a cabinet but too big to be empty.  

I LOVE how the shelves turned out!  Tall Tan Man is giving me the kitchen of my dreams :) To make the shelves we used only one 2x10, cut some 45 degree angles and connected the pieces using the Kreg Jig.  We finished the shelves with Jacobean stain by Minawax and a polyurethane.  The shelves are held up with brackets {with drywall anchors} from Home Depot and a few hidden L brackets. 

The shelves are where we will keep our glass cups {no broncos cups, sorry TTM}, coffee pods, and other pretty things from our grandmothers and anthropology.

Here are other post about our kitchen:

Extending the Cabinets
Painting Kitchen Cabinets
Summer Updates

{Leslie}

How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets

Hello!  First off, thank you for all the sweet comments on Facebook and Instagram! :)  We love our cabinets SO much.  The kitchen looks so much bigger, cleaner, and lighter!  

Supplies:

180 and 220 Sandpaper
Sandpaper Holder {like this}
Lots of Rags
Cheap Brush for the Primer
Oil Based Primer {Zinsser Cover Stain}
Dixie Cups
Benjamin Moore ADVANCE {Dove White}
*Benjamin Moore Ultra {Dove White, for the inside of the cabinets}
Mini Foam Roller and Low Nap Rolls
Nice Brush {purdy -  all day, every day} 

Directions:

Day 1 {or a couple late nights}:  Empty out the entire kitchen.  We had tables and baskets where we kept everything.  Remove all the drawer and cabinet pulls.  Keep all the screws organized because they should be the correct length for your new hardware! Label all your cabinets and drawers with numbers and make a key of your kitchen.  You will have to move the numbers around as you paint.  Remove all the drawers and the tracks from the drawers.  Tall Tan Man and my Momma thought removing the tracks was overkill, but I thought it would make it look more professional.  

Day 2 {all day}:  We sanded the drawers and all the cabinet doors lightly with 180 grit sand paper.  Our cabinets hardly had any varnish left on them so we did not have to do a lot of sanding.  You really want to make sure that you rough up the surface and there is no grease left behind.  You might need to buy a de-greaser from Home Depot if you notice a lot of grease on your cabinets.

Wipe down all your cabinets to get the dust off and get ready to do some priming!

We primed the drawers and the front of all the doors at the same time.  The re-coat time on this primer is 1 hour.  We did two coats of primer. 

 

 

We were not done yet!  Yes, we had a very looong day.  We removed all the doors {and hardware} from the cabinet faces.  Next we primed the back of the cabinets doors once then rested the doors on pixie cups. 

Day 3: VERY lightly sand all the primed doors and drawers.  We sanded a little too much primer off which unfortunately allowed old stain to bleed through the paint.  It was terrible...I might of cried and cussed multiple times.   Lesson learned.  Our cabinets could not have any brown showing through for the paint to stay white. 

I am sooo thankful we had so much help on this day.  My wonderful Mother-in-law sanded the ENTIRE rest of the kitchen with 180 grit sandpaper.  She was a sanding machine!

My Momma came through after with a damp cloth to wipe off the dust.  Then painted everything with the oil based primer using same cheap brush from yesterday.  To keep our brushes fresh we wrapped them in plastic wrap and kept them in the fridge {we weren't doing any cooking anyway!}.   

Outside Tall Tan Man began painting the back of the doors and drawers with our paint sprayer.  We have {this} one, we got super lucky and found it on clearance at Lowe's!

If you do not have paint sprayer then I would recommend using a mini roller.  The Benjamin Moore paint is self leveling, aka awesome, and all roller marks will level out over time.  The only terrible part about this paint is the dry time 15 hours!  Holy cow!  This puts watching the paint dry into perspective!

Back inside after we waited the one hour for the primer to dry on the cabinet faces we sanded them down with 220 VERY LIGHTLY.  I was a LITTLE paranoid at this point about sanding.  Next we painted the inside with the BM Ultra and the outside of the cabinets with the BM Advance.  The mini paint roller made this go super quick!

Day 4: Now that the 15 hour dry time is done we lightly sanded everything {doors, drawers, and cabinet faces} down with 220.  You are mainly checking for bumps or drips in the paint. 

Tall Tan Man sprayed the front of the doors & drawers outside.  The drawers were DONE! Make sure you check them for drips! I did the second and final coat on the cabinet faces.  I also painted the inside of the cabinets again! 

Day 5:  We did our last light sanding of all the cabinet door fronts and Tall Tan Man did the second and final coat of paint.  I also put our things back into the kitchen, because the inside of the cabinet paint was the "cheaper" paint. It was really nice to be able to organize everything without the doors on.  :)

Day 6: Let the paint cure!

Day 7: Let the paint cure!!

Day 8: Let the paint cure!!!

Day 9: Let the paint cure!!!!

Day 10: Let the paint cure!!!!!

Day 11: Let the paint cure!!!!!!

Day 12: Put the hardware back on your drawers and doors.  We found ours at Target! Now using your handy dandy key put the doors/drawers back where they belong. 

So. Much. Better.  

Take a nice look at those counter tops...they will be hopefully gone the next time you see this kitchen. :)

{Leslie}

Linking Up To:  
Artsy Fartsy Mam 
The Idea Box
Thrifty Thursday
The Blissful Bee
Gingerly Made
Pieced Pastimes
The Party Bunch
It's Overflowing
Monday Funday
DIY Showoff

Kitchen Transformation

Happpppppy FRIDAY y'all!!!  I have been asked {by my Momma} to share some pictures of our painted kitchen cabinets.  What do you think?!

The before picture is almost unrecognizable!  I am working on two posts on how we went about painting the cabinets.  This was not a small {or easy} process, but I think the results are totally worth it!  

As you can see, we still have a little work to do.  Installing the counter tops is our next big project, and I am anxious to get started! 

I hope you have a fabulous weekend filled with lots of sunshine, hamburgers, and SLEEP {that's what I am hoping for, at least}!

{Leslie}

Linking Up To:
Shabbilicious Link Party
DIY Vintage Chic
I Heart Nap Time 
Gingerly Made 
Whipper Berry 
DIY Showoff 
It's Overflowing 
Karen's Up on the Hill
Monday Funday 
Crafty Blog Stalker
The Blissful Bee
The Idea Box
Thrifty Thursday

Extending Kitchen Cabinets to the Ceiling

We have some REALLY EXCITING things going on in the kitchen right now!!!  I can barely contain my excitement.  :)  I showed you that picture to make sure you remembered where we started...  

Removing the island made the room look so much more open. You can see more detailed progress posts {here and here}.  Unfortunately, I still felt like there was something missing from the room.  After a couple debates and a lot of google searching we decided to extended the cabinets to the ceiling.  Tall Tan Man started by attaching wood blocks {he used a 2x2} 3/4 inch away from the edge of the cabinet. 

He also attached blocks to the ceiling that were the same distance from the edge of the cabinet.  

Next he used his favorite new tool, a nail gun, to attach 1x10's to the wood blocks.  We were really lucky, because we had exactly 10 inches above the cabinets to the ceiling. 

For the first time since we moved in our kitchen actually felt like it was coming together {even if it was just a tiny bit}!

Up next he added trim to hide the seam between the cabinets and the new wood.  

We bought the trim at Home Depot, AND for the first time in my life the trim I wanted was the cheapest one.  :)  We also bought the crown molding at Home Depot.

Tall Tan Man loved every moment of it...

That stud muffin only messed up on one cut {and it was his first cut}!!! 

  
Lastly, TTM went through and caulked the trim and molding. 

Guess what...  Everything is getting painted over SPRING BREAK!  Guess what...  I am on SPRING BREAK!  I really love being a teacher {seriously, I do}.  I have been telling people that we are painting the cabinets white and I have gotten two reactions.  

Oh, they are going to look amazing!!!

&

You are painting the wood?

Yes, I am PAINTING the wood and it is going to look AMAZING!  Please let me know if you have any questions about this post.  I hope you have the happiest of Fridays!   

UPDATE!  Check out our {kitchen} now! 

   

{LJ}

linking up with:
Shabby Art Boutique 
Pieced Pastimes
Gingerly Made 
DIY Showoff 
It's Overflowing 
Karen's Up on the Hill
Monday Funday
The Blissful Bee
Artsy Fartsy Mama

Built in Trashcan

Hello!  If you follow me on {instagram} then you know we have been working on our kitchen this weekend.  Before I start talking about our EXCITING "new" trashcan I want to show you our progress in the kitchen.  First off, let's not forget how this all started...

For the post on all the previous projects we have done in the kitchen, click {here}.   Since moving the gas line we needed to decide if we were going to keep the lazy susan.  TTM loved it, I thought it was an eye sore. 

Can you guess who won?  :) 

We have also re-textured the ceiling and added some height to the cabinets.  We still need to add molding to the top of the new wood, paint the cabinets, add back splash... we still have a BUNCH to do but the room already looks 10 times better, in my humble opinion. 

 Now back to our fancy trashcan.  I had seen a couple of trashcan cabinet kits at Lowe's that I originally thought we would use, but Tall Tan Man thought he could  build it himself {and save us $80}.  Here is the cabinet with our newly installed gas line in the back {we had plenty of room to fit the trashcan}. 

Tall Tan Man was able to use the existing cabinet door and build this short drawer with gliders out of the leftover materials from the Island. 

Fits perfect! 

 I am headed to do some trash removal {not related to trash can above :)} and paint the kitchen ceiling!  I know you are jealous.  I hope you have a fabulous week with no work on Monday!

{LJ}

Linking Up with:
By Stephanie Lynn