My new kitchen!

When we decided to redo our kitchen I started going crazy looking at pictures, blogs, more pictures, of kitchens so that I knew exactly what I wanted. We started debating in January over painting our cabinets white. We kept deciding that since we have white appliances and off white tile that white would be way to much white. We bought a ton of sample paints and non were quite right.
I wanted a kitchen that felt loved, vintage, cottage like, farm ish, etc. The kind of kitchen that you can picture someone baking an apple pie in or a Mom making her children's lunches for the day while she sips on her morning coffee and sings. I wanted a kitchen that looked like it had been in the home for years. I wanted a kitchen that I LOVED and felt like the heart of the home. Light, airy and full of life.
I decided to go and see what the cost of new cabinet doors would be that I could add over the cabinet bases we already have. I was shocked when they said around $8000. Holy cow! I did however on this trip fall head over heals in love with a cabinet made by Martha Stewart. I loved the color. The color made me think if the kind of kitchen I wanted. I had to have that color. A little detective work and I was able to find the paint name and color code to have a gallon of it made. Yup, I fell in love with a discontinued color. Go figure. The color is called Ocean floor by Martha Stewart and they can look it up in the computer at Home depot.
Here is the drab 1980's before picture complete with oak, oak and more oak.I hated that the floor was a different color from the cabinets. I hated that it was dark, worn out, dirty and just old.

Sorry about the no doors in this picture. I really need to remember to do before pictures. 

And..........Here is our new and beautiful kitchen and TONS of pictures of all her glory. I still need to add rugs and cute stuff but I want to find the perfect things instead of just getting stuff that works but I don't love. What I love most is that the cabinets have a neutral feel so we can change the decor color based on the season. I can't wait to see it in the fall with pops of orange and red. I am thinking spring will be a deep teal and maybe winter will be navy. 

Who doesn't love a farm table?

The wainscoting adds such a statement and custom looks.  Not to mention how light and bright it makes it feel. 

Chalkboard cabinets. The kids love them. 

A few kitchen towels tucked into a little basket and of course live plants. Adds a cared for feel while still looking used. 

The birds and the bees:)

My plan is to add a conversion chart in the cabinet for oz, cups, tablespoons, etc. I hate having to pull out my cookbook (iphone) to look up how many oz. are in a cup. 

Looking for the perfect rug but so far I have no idea what to add that will look great. For now wood floors are fine. 

One of my very favorite pieces in the kitchen is an antique plate that I love. I also have a special love for my cutting board. Did I mention I made it in college? 

It doesn't even feel like my kitchen. I feel like I am on vacation in someone else's house. It's so pretty and makes the feel of the open concept part of our house feel totally different. Of course it makes me want to redo more stuff to get that feel in the entire house. 

We tried 6 different curtains and nothing had the feel we wanted. For now we will use the tie back  Pottery Barn knock off's. 

Would you ever know that the light switch cover is spray painted plastic? They look like a million bucks. We screwed some big cup hooks into the underside of the cabinet to hold a few of my favorite Polish mugs. 

Our converted drawer to store sink stuff. $10 and I love it!

I can't believe how much of a difference a few knobs can make. How did we ever live without them? 

and a few side by sides of the before and after. 

and one more

Here is the price break down for our kitchen.
Wainscoting back splash - $30.00 One sheet of wainscoting, one tube of adhesive and we had to convert the outlets to stick out a little more for $1 each.
Paint on the kitchen cabinets - $27.00 and we only used half of the gallon.
we had primer and all of the tools already so no cost there.
I got my knobs in contractors packs at Home Depot and did all 27 cabinets and 12 drawers for under $100. Who knew knobs we so darn expensive?
We spray painted all of the switch plate and light switch covers, hinges and the oven hood with a bottle of left over spray paint from another project.I love the Rustolium Oil rubbed bronze, what a huge money saver.
The curtains are the same thing I did in the master bedroom with the $5 Walmart flat sheet and some cheap ribbon.I sewed these ones since I knew I would want to wash them more often.
We also converted our old and worn out table into an amazing little farm table for $15 by adding a new wood top.You can still look from the underneath side and see the vintage window we used the first time around.
The kids favorite part is the $10 we spent on chalkboard paint to convert a few cabinets into chalk boards for our market list and weekly schedule.
Total for the entire project was under $200.00!!! Take that $8000 Martha Cabinets!
It did however take us 9 days and a ton of hours to complete the look but I am THRILLED with the final look. It is exactly what I wanted. My kitchen makes my heart go pitter patter and I keep doing a happy dance when I see it.

Thanks for looking,
Ali

We are linked up over at

Kitchen day 3

We have a new backsplash! The kitchen is coming along awesome. Tomorrow primer on the cabinets and this weekend paint! Also question for you guys. Which curtain do you like? Or neither? So many fun choices. The best part is my mom is giving me an antique plate with daffodils that I love so much I have a tattoo of it. Best news ever! Ahh, I'm so excited.

Kitchen day two

Its a slow process but it will get done soon. We decided to save $80 and reuse our hinges from the cabinets. Why spend the money if ours are perfectly fine? Only problem is they are brass. Nothing a little spray paint can't fix. The fun part was spraying all the screws. I also ripped out our backsplash to get it ready for our new one. Am I leaving you in suspense?

Kitchen redo start

                                 Before - 1980's oak, dated green and just a tired kitchen. 

We started by getting rid of the green. We painted it the same tan that we are using in the rest of the house

The new paint made the oak cabinets stand out ever more, awesome! not! So the cabinets need to go. 

Remove all the cabinets and prep for painting. The bad part is you get to clearly see in all of your cabinets and now clean them.

More to come......

Have you heard of ReStores?

I have a hidden secret I am going to share with you. I love this place. It is a mess and most of the stuff is used but you can get great deals if you are willing to dig and maybe clean the things when you get home.
There is a place called ReStore. It is owned and ran by Habitat for Humanity.

What ReStore is, is a store where they sell anything from lights, doors, tiles for your roof, old kitchen cabinets, desks, couches, old appliances, fabric, sinks, windows, screens, knobs, old windows, stair rails, everything that goes into building a house. Most (about 95%) of the stuff is used. When they acquire and old house that they are going to redo for a needy family they take all the old stuff out of the house and sell it. I am talking EVERYTHING.
I have gone to the local ones around here for the last 4 or so years and I am never disappointed. I always find something and it is usually dirt cheap. A little elbow grease and imagination and you get great stuff. Best of all is that almost all of the money you spend goes back to building more houses. Go to this link to see if there is one local to you http://www.habitat.org/cd/env/restoreUS.aspx
My latest trip I actually tried a newer to the area one and I didn't love it as much as the one I typically go to. If you are in my area the one in Azusa is great. Montclair, not as much. I did however some home with a new lock and handle for out back sliding door that I spent $2 on and it was brand new. The coolest thing in my treasure hunt was a new to our house old screen door. It is the real deal. It is all metal screen and in pretty good condition. I got it for $5. I need to fix a few screws but nothing hard to do at all. So my projects for the day were fixing our door handle and when it cools down a bit I will get the new screen up and working. I wasn't sure if it was the right size but it is spot on exact once I got it home. So now that I gave away one of my hidden gems go check it out. If you do, share what you found.

Living room small redo and my Mother's day gift.

One of the benefits of people knowing you redo and fix furniture is they give you stuff. Sometimes this backfires and you get crap but today my neighbor gave me this little white dresser. It was filthy and has paint scratches and a broken drawer but it was exactly the right size to put next to our couch and happened to be a place we have been looking for something anyways.So here it is. This was after a good scrub down. 

Also tell me how great of a match it is to the dresser we got from our good friends? Funny, right? 

For Mother's day my kids and hubby got me a new rug. I loved our other rug a ton but it was a braided rug and was falling apart. I was over sewing it with fishing line to try to save it so the new one was a welcome treat. The bad and good thing was I HAD to buy new pillow to go with it, right? Yes, the answer is yes. So when I was out getting new pillows I found a cute little ottoman for $30 on clearance. It fits great as a little extra seat on the wall. Love! But this evil little thing lead me to a room redo of sorts. New pillows, a new little end table freebie, new pillows that were on clearance and the rug of course and I have a new feeling room. Isn't it pretty? We also painted the coffee table a few weeks back, as well as the little table on the side of the couch. All of the furniture matches now and I think it looks great. The best part is I have a new pretty room for my recovery time in July. 

Last but not lease I had to show off my laundry room since I updated it a bit. I found this sign at Kirkland's for super cheap and decided I had to replace the vinyl. The vinyl was cute but Ali didn't think about water and moisture going with stickers. Much better to be framed. I also added an old place mat to cap off the cute stuff. Nothing major but it is something. 

Mothers day fun, putting my kids to work.

Love the after. No more 1980's orange oak. The splinters and peeling varnish are gone. I wish I had a before close up of the rail, it was downright unsafe. You couldn't grad the first section without getting wood in your hand.

What a difference a few hours and a bunch of paint can make. or Mother's day my boys, Hubby and I spent the day painting all of my stair spindles, stairs, railing, cabinets and trim in the entire stair area and upstairs hall. I am so tired but the result is so clean and pretty. To have my kids help was of course interesting but they are so much fun. Now the stairs are totally ready for our wood stair project. That carpet will be GONE!!!

We added hooks in the hall by the kids rooms so they have coat hooks. 

We added new hinges and knobs to out linen closet. Now if the stupid hermit crab didn't live in my hall I would be a happy person. I would love some vintage mason jars in the pale teal on that little shelf or a vintage pitcher and other cute trinkets. Oh and the carpet. I cleaned it a week ago with a steam cleaner and it is beyond nasty. The hubby and I both agree it needs to go. Now to start saving the $1000 plus that it will take to do it. I can't wait to get the stairs done, the rest of the doors done upstairs and clean, fresh, non stained, non smelling carpet. Hey, at least the walls and rails, etc. look Amazing! Happy Mothers day to me:)