Kitchen Mini Makeover: Phase I

I really wish that we had been able to document our expressions when we walked through the door of 932 for the first time.  After seeing nearly every home in our price range within a certain area, and having decided to pull out of a contract that was getting more messy by the day, this house made our eyes pop.  I loved everything about it.  Well, almost everything.  I wasn't entirely thrilled that it only had one bathroom and that that bathroom didn't have a clawfoot tub.  But, more importantly, I was not thrilled with the kitchen.  Granted, compared to the kitchens in the other homes we walked through, this kitchen was awe-inspiring.  Still, I was not awed. 

So, when we bought the house, we did so knowing that a kitchen renovation was lurking around a distant corner.  I resigned myself to dealing with the kitchen, entirely as was, until we could save enough to tackle a big kitchen project.  In other words, I planned hating our kitchen for years. 

But, one day, I stumbled upon a blog called The Hunted Interior by Kristin Jackson.  She had given her kitchen a $100 makeover.  Here are the results:

 

Kristin simply added campaign style hardware to her existing cabinets and, voila.  Isn't it beautiful?  Of course, she also added the chalkboard wall, painted her top cabinets, and added that thrift-store-bowl-turned-pendant-light.

For obvious reasons, I was inspired.  So, I thought I would invite you to check out our kitchen mini-makeover. 

The first step was painting the kitchen.  Because we plan to eventually knock out the wall dividing the kitchen and dining room to create a breakfast bar, I had decided that painting the kitchen was a waste of time and money.  But, as I have begun to realize how long it will be before we are able to take on such a project, painting was the obvious first step.

When we moved in, the entire house was varying shades of cream and white.  The kitchen was no exception.  I'm not sure that we ever included photos of the kitchen, so here are a few from painting day.  Obviously, they were taken rather haphazardly.  I'm still not sure how the vacuum made it into every shot.

After living in the kitchen for the last 5 months, I found that bringing green into the kitchen made it feel less drab, move alive.  I decided to use a sage green, and landed on Spanish Moss by the Martha Stewart Living color line at Home Depot.  So many thanks to my mom for her help.  She not only helped paint the kitchen, but is helping me take on the trim throughout the whole house.  She's awesome.  Here is a glimpse of what the painted kitchen looks like.

Depending on the lighting, I'm finding that the color's bright tones come out and overwhelm the muted tones associated with a sage hue.

If I were to give one piece of advice regarding freshening up a house or a room, it would be to slap on a fresh coat of paint.  I cannot believe the difference that a simple coat of paint has made in the kitchen. 

So, what's next? 

     -- New hardware.  (Handles for the cabinet doors are on their way.  I'm exploring options for          drawer pulls.)

     -- Putting flat corner braces on all 14 doors and 4 drawers to create a campaign style feel.  (Just like Kristen from The Hunted Interior did.)

     -- New light fixture.  

     -- Make faux Roman shades for the windows.  I'm keeping a lookout for fun fabric.

     -- Tear up the awful vinyl floor and find out if the underlying wood floor can be refinished.  If so, we will refinish it.  If not, installing a budget friendly, but more attractive floor.

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading! 

Burlap on the Table

I'm loving burlap right now.  I've always been a "granola" kind of girl, but recently, I have begun to develop an affinity for bold patterns and metallic finishes.  When our dining room started taking shape, my new appreciation of silver, grey, and bold patterns had overpowered my tendency to use muted, warm, neutral colors.  Enter the drop cloth curtains, our antique dry sink, and burlap.

I had been looking around for an inexpensive table runner.  The cheapest I found were almost $20.  I had seen burlap used for everything from reupholstering chairs to pillow covers to wreaths.  It seemed that using burlap to make a table runner would be easy, inexpensive, and beautiful.  (Turns out, as with most of "my" ideas, a slew of other people had already done it. )

This project was SO easy.  It took about five minutes.  All you need is burlap and scissors. 

I found burlap for $3 a yard.  To figure out how much fabric you need, just measure your table, adding about eight ten inches on both sides.  I bought three yards because I wanted to have extra for other projects.
 

The burlap I found already had a slightly fringed edge.  After cutting the width of the runner, I wanted the newly cut side to match the fringed side.  In order to do this, I just grabbed the ends of a few threads and pulled them away from the fabric, a few inches at a time.  I ended up taking out five or six strands.

 

I realize this isn't the best shot of the dining room or the runner, for that matter, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.  I feel it really helped draw together the silver/grey tones, the rug's pattern, and the natural tones of the curtains and the dry sink. 

Since this photo was taken, we've hung a few things on the walls and added a centerpiece.   Stay tuned.  We're planning on giving you all a video tour of the house in the coming weeks.

The Story of An Abandoned Desk

Let me tell you a story about a desk.  It had been left by the side of the street, unwanted, tossed aside, fated for destruction.  But one day, a girl was driving by and spotted the forsaken desk.  Having spent the last months entirely absorbed by Pinterest and DIY blogs, she saw in the desk a beauty just waiting to be revealed.  All it needed was a little elbow grease and paint.

The girl asked her boy if he would help her get it home.  The sad desk had been abandoned only a few blocks from their house.  Unable to fit it in their car, the pair carried it home at nine o'clock that night.  We can all be sure the neighbors had a good chuckle watching the new couple on the street lug the desk down the middle of the road.

I was that girl, and this is my desk.  Before the transformation that is...

We went to work as soon as we could.  To do something like this, one only needs sandpaper (admittedly, an orbital sander would make the project a million times easier), a few tools, primer, and paint.  

There was an ugly and broken rubber trim around the top of the desk.  I spent about fifteen minutes trying to get a tiny piece off and had nearly given up hope when Jordan came to my rescue.  He spent at least an hour prying that stuff off using a hammer and a flat head screwdriver.  

At this point, I had already sanded down the desk's bones.  So, while he worked on the trim, I sanded down the drawers.  

I read a lot of different opinions regarding sanding.  Some people feel that to get the smoothest finish, you should sand down to the bare wood.  Others say that it is only necessary to get the sheen off of the varnish.  The primer that I bought said that no sanding was necessary.  Because the desk was old and had been well used, the varnish was already peeling and made for a very bumpy surface.  It was actually really easy for me to get down to the wood, so I did.

Well, except for the top, which is covered with some sort of laminate.  I just scuffed it up as much as I could to make sure the primer and paint would stick.

The desk had a taken a bit of a beating and had a few bumps and scratches here and there.  I grabbed a container of Elmer's wood filler and filled it in and smoothed it out.  I applied this stuff around the trim as well to fill the space the rubber once occupied.  The great thing about this product is that it is easy to use and can be sanded down once it dries.  You don't have to get it just right when you apply it. 

After another good sanding, two coats of primer, another sanding, two coats of paint, and a coat of Minwax Polycrylic Protective Finish, and another light sanding...we had a desk.  

A note about primer and paint: I chose to use Olympic's Tailspin Linen for the "bones" of the desk and Allen + Roth's Rain Puddle for the drawers and top.  Both are available at Lowes.  I bought a quart of each for this project and still have plenty left.  I followed the instructions of John and Sherry over at YoungHouseLove and used an oil based primer.  You CAN use latex paint over an oil based primer, just not over oil based paint.  It is important to apply two or three THIN coats of primer to ensure a more smooth final finish.  

Without further ado...here is our beloved desk:

I wanted some fun hardware for the desk and just happened to find some over at Rule 42 on Byers Street.  The owner, Dawn, does an amazing job salvaging and painting old furniture and has a friend who refinishes pieces.  She also carries a lot of fun decorative items as well as paint, hardware, and other helpful DIY stuff.  To keep the cost down, I decided to only get four and utilize the hardware that was on the desk when we found it.

A few last shots...The oval mirror and the banjo-back chair are other items we got at the yardsale.  I plan to cover the chair seat with new fabric.  Any suggestions for colors?

A quick cost breakdown:

Desk -- FREEBEE

Primer -- $10 (we have 3/4 of the quart left, so this will go a long way)

Paint -- $25 (again, we have a lot left.  Also, a big thanks to my parents as they bought the paint for us!)

Minwax -- $10 (this stuff is pricey, but again, you only use a little bit at a a time.  It will preserve the furniture much better than the paint alone so, while it is not absolutely necessary, I recommend it.

Hardware: $21 (Each knob was actually $6 a piece, but Dawn offers a 15% discount to MBC students!)

Total: $66 that will go a lot further when I use leftovers for other projects!