Kitchen Re-Do (On a Budget)

Since nothing interesting has happened lately and we had a lazy weekend, besides going to Bass Pro Shop (I LOVE Bass Pro!), and Dexter, my son, pulling the coffee table into his face and onto my foot, I thought I would post our small scale but big impact kitchen renovation.

My poor baby!

Paint

Let me start by saying we got our house for a steal. The inspection came back with a clean bill of health, it had been newly painted and had quite the home-y feel. Plus, we're paying almost half of what we were paying when we were renting. Even though the house did have a home-y feel, it didn't really suit our taste. We decided that the kitchen was our least favorite part of the house and was the room that we would re-do first. We went to Home Depot and checked out some paint colors and decided we wanted a cool, minty green; thinking we were being super smart, we got a small sample can to try on the wall at home before we bought a gallon. Well, we took it home, rolled it on and loved it! The foolish part we didn't realize is that we had no lights on in the kitchen at the time so the paint was quite different when we went to paint the walls. Having paid for the paint, we decided to make the best of it and paint the rest of the room to see if the color would grow on us. My husband promised if I still hated it in a week, he'd go back and get a different color. I have to say the color has grown on me and I love how light the kitchen is now that it is a bright green rather than a dark blue. Especially since our house is on the smaller side, its nice to have bright, light colors rather than dark ones which make it look even smaller. Total cost: $75.

New bright green and counter tops.

Old blue paint and old blue and white counter tops

Counter Tops

After we painted the walls from deep blue to bright green, or maybe we did the counter tops first, my mind fails me often, the blue and white counter tops needed to go. We looked around at the pre-made ones but they were truly all very ugly; I felt that they were all trying to hard to look like granite but just looked like big messes (sorry counter top manufacturers.) We knew what we could afford and the installation and cost of many counter tops were just out of our price range. We looked into Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations and it really was a good option but still a little pricey and I didn't really like the speckled look that they all yielded. I remembered my uncle had re-done his counter tops with regular paint and sponged on another color so I called him to ask how durable it was and how exactly to do it. He said they have had them for over 10 years and they are still very durable and gave me exact instructions on how he painted and sealed his. We followed his directions to a 'T' and they turned out great! He used roll on paint and we decided to use Rust-Oleum spray paint for a more airbrushed look; my husband and I selected a hammered copper and a dark brown. First, we taped off the sink and walls and put protective plastic covering over everything that could possibly get paint on it. We didn't worry much about the floor because that was going to be our next project, this was kind of a bad idea because our feet stuck to the floor and got nasty film on them until we did re- do the floor. So, please, cover your floors. He sanded the original counter top down with 1000 fine grit sand paper just until it was roughed up enough to accept the new pain. Then, he alternated colors applying both until we got the desired look, I think it was about three coats of each. After we achieved the desired paint color, we applied SIX coats of polyurethane, letting it dry in between each coat. This part took a long time but was well worth it because we know our counter tops are nicely sealed and durable. Total cost: $50

Floors

We decided on getting flooring from Lumber Liquidators because of their unbeatable prices as compared to Home Depot and such. We ended up settling on a dark bordered wood laminate. The padding was included under the floor boards so we didn't have to worry about that and it cost about $1.79/sq foot. The only other expense we had for the floor were the siding boards and the water barrier that needed to be put underneath. We chose to install it ourselves because the installation cost was just more money we didn't have to spend. Someone had to watch my son while all of this flooring installation was going on and it most definitely wasn't my husband. I built a make shift barrier in between the living room and the kitchen so my son couldn't get through and my husband called me as he needed me to help click the floors in place. This lasted about 2.5 seconds before my 6'3" 220 pound husband was on the floor freaking out and sweating. He swore he could install it by himself, swore. He had helped his dad lay flooring in his childhood home and thought it would be just the same as that. My father-in-law is quite the handy man and I don't think my husband really knew what he would be in for when installing the floor by himself. Anyway, luckily my husband works with some really great people and two of his co-workers came over to save the day. I may or may not have told them about the mini break down my husband had before they had gotten there. :) Thank God for good people. Total cost: about $700.

Furnishings

Furnishing the new kitchen was my favorite part! Of course I hit up Goodwill and the dollar store to find great things to fill the kitchen with. The two things I splurged on were the clock above the fridge and the shadow box above the microwave. I saw the clock at Tuesday Morning and I thought it would be perfect so a had to get it. The shadow box and faux candles inside are from Hobby Lobby. Total cost: $28.

If I've forgotten any step or if you would like more information, please my all means, ask! 

XoXo

Sara

PS!!! Here is a picture of our old oven. We got a new one of those right away!

Can you say 70's?!?!