Design, interior and Decoration: January 2011

I have to interject a little something before the post...I was honored today to be mentioned at the Cozy Little House Welcome Wagon Friday! Thanks so much! I've also hooked up to Met Monday at Between Naps on the Porch & Make Your Monday at Twice Remembered & The DIY Showoff & The Lettered Cottage room re-do.

I have been working on this post for a while now. It's the before and after (and how to) of my kitchen cabinets, but you can see the before and after of the whole kitchen in the pics. :) Let me say we started with these.......UGH! (not my honey, he's definitely not an UGH, he's my sweety!)

Someone had taken some kind of gel stain and smeared (for lack of a better word or technique) all over the kitchen cabinets. Well, not all the kitchen cabinets, there were two with nothing on them........I guess they ran out of stain. ?? :-/ ANWAY, we decided it was time to tackle that mess. Instead of sanding down all those cabinets we used this......

This one is called paint deglosser, but the one we actually used was called liquid sandpaper. (pretty much the same thing) It works like a charm! :)

We primed the cabinets with Zinser Primer. (sorry, no picture of the primer, I used every last drop) :) I can honestly say that was the stinkiest, thinnest stuff I've ever used, but it did work. If you have a primer you like better, then go ahead and use it...this stuff was like water....but like I said, it did the job just fine.

I was going to show you the front of my paint can so you could see the name of the paint, but.....it was totally covered in white paint, do you paint like that too? By the time I get finished you can't see the label anymore! :) I did manage to get a couple of shots to show you what kind we used. It's from Sherwin Williams and it's called Pro Classic Bright White. It goes on like an oil based paint and self levels to a nice hard, non yellowing finish. I love this stuff!

Here's the back of the can....I actually didn't paint over this part!

Okay, here we go.....here's some more before pictures. These two photos were taken through the window BEFORE we got the keys to the house.... yes, I peeked in the windows almost daily to decorate in my mind. :) If you'll notice the ceiling's, the previous owners took everything when they moved, even the light fixtures. That ceiling fan in the living room was the ONLY light fixture in the entire downstairs! (but don't get me started on everything they took......like all the appliances! Except that microwave they couldn't figure out how to get off the wall!) You need to take note of the cabinets, backsplash and wallcolor. :) (cause it's gonna change!!!)

This picture was taken after we moved in and put in new appliances and LIGHT FIXTURES! LOL

This is a pic of the cabinets with a straight on view. Please pay close attention to what we did to the upper cabinets. (you're gonna like it, I guarantee it!) LOL Also, just so you know, I had to move the cabinet by the door, over by about 3 inches. The stove area wasn't centered under the microwave........who does such a thing!!? It's centered now.....I'm too OCD to leave something like that! :)

Before we started painting, we decided to do something cool to the top doors on a couple of the cabinets. We took a router and cut out the inside panel, it wasn't too hard either. We just routered close to the edge and then the part of the panel inside the groove of the door pulled on out. Then we set the router to a more shallow depth and went around the inside of the door, leaving the outside untouched. This was so the glass would have an indention to set into.

Here a picture of the inside of one of the doors before glass. (actually this is a finished door we didn't put glass in, that's why it's painted. I just wanted to give you a before shot.) :-D

Here's a pic of the inside of a door panel after we routed it out and put the glass in. We painted the doors BEFORE we put the glass in, then we used a clear silicone to hold the glass in place.
Notice the little lip we left in tact on the front of the door......you can see it if you look through the glass. This is obviously the back of the door your looking at.

Here's a pic of the upper cabinet with the glass in place! :)

These are the knobs I chose. I got them from Ebay! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ebay! :) (if you read this blog, you probably already know that! LOL)

Here's another shot of the two upper cabinets we put glass in, these are the only two that got glass. I thought it gave it a look like matching built in hutches. :)

Inside each of the cabinets I took out the shelves and cut out sheets of beadboard that fit perfectly into the back of the cabinets. I didn't attach them with anything so I could take them out and repaint them at a later date if needed......when the shelves are replaced, they hold the back in place perfectly! I painted it a lovely powdery, pastel pink...........what other color is there?! :)

Here's the other cabinet with glass.......I use it for some of my favorite dishes and glassware. Oh and my antique glass rolling pin filled with pink rose potpourri. :-)

Here's the backsplash we put in.......you can find the post for the backsplash here. The backsplash changed the kitchen almost as much as painting the cabinets. Go back and look at the photos to see what was on the wall BEFORE the tin backsplash. EGADS, not very cottage-y! The total price for the backsplash was about $110-$120.00 at Lowes. You can find it in the cabinet department.

Here's some more backsplash pictures.

We also got new countertops..........I picked a nice neutral gray color. Wish we could have gotten a gray granite, but the budget didn't allow it this time. (something we can do later when funds allow)

AND here's some final photos of our finished kitchen! Yay, hooray, yipee.....can you tell I'm a wee bit excited it's all done. Well, I'm sure I'll tweak it some more, but the major stuff is complete!