Ah yes, DIY kitchen remodeling. Scary, yes? To tell you the truth, we are terrified of ours. How in the world are we supposed to go from this:
to something along the lines of this:
We’re crazy right? Can to relatively intelligent and moderately crafty people do this solo? Why would we even try? I’m delusional and the Mr. believes in my grand delusions. We are armed with watching way too much HGTV, just enough knowledge to be dangerous, Google, and YouTube (you’d really be amazed at how much you can learn watching YouTube tutorials!).
OK, so to be less overwhelmed by everything that eventually had to be done, we have (or are at least trying) to be happy knowing that the kitchen will get done, but it won’t be fast. We’ll take it one weekend at a time and one paycheck at a time. We’ve done remodeling before and it quickly becomes a money pit and it has gotten us into debt that we’d rather not have again. So flat out – if we don’t currently have the money in our pocket or the designated bank account, it just isn’t happening. If we want it we have to earn it. It’s kind of like being a kid again. If you want to buy a toy, you have to do your chores, earn the money and save it so that you can afford it. So simple, yet so hard for most adults.
Anyway, weekend number one is here! What can we accomplish in one weekend??
Goals:
~ Get the colors and design ideas ready
~ Replace all the drawer pulls
~ Replace the old light fixture
Not so bad right? Totally realistic for a weekend.
So what are we shooting for? Here are a few things that we would like to accomplish:
A classy, cheery white kitchen with black counters and dark floors
Open shelving to display all of our Fiesta dishes and hang coffee cups
Painted inner cabinets Paintable wallpaper backsplash
A cheery place to eat with bright contrasting decorations.
So there you have it! It seems like a lot of things that don’t go together, but I promise I at least *think* I know what I’m doing … famous last words.
So that’s the GOAL – let’s get to work!
First project – get rid of the light fixtures, that we think has been hanging there since around circa 1960. Here are the originals and their new replacements!
Exhibit A:
Yes that’s just an exposed light bulb. Not sure why, but we found more than one of those in our house so it must have been intentional.
Exhibit B (plus exhibit A in the background):
How about that from outdated to fresh and cheery? You can even see a sneak peak of weekend #2 projects because I’m terrible at getting pictures taken in a timely manner.
Next up – new drawer pulls! You have no idea how much they can change a room. Ours actually were so old, they are now considered retro. They actually were a pretty nice shape, but they were quite worn and just didn’t match what we were looking for. So out with the old and in with the new!
One last project that was by far the nicest change, I have no idea why we didn’t do it sooner. You won’t even believe it … we cleaned the cabinets – gasp!!!! Yes a good old soap and sponge to wash 60 years of kitchen grease and sticky fingers off the white cabinets. I think they still need a good coat of … something on the top to seal them a little bit, but what a world of difference! Dirt be gone!
So that was weekend #1. To be honest, the Mr. hung the new light fixture in about an hour while short stuff napped. The rest we did in about 3 hours after he went to bed. Total cost of weekend #1?
$174.07
We spent $80 on the chandelier, $94 on 47 new drawer pulls and the third light fixture we already had from a previous remodeling project.
Not bad for some pretty big changes and just a few hours of work.
Until the next time …
The girl behind the lama
~LMM
2 comments:
You'll love the painted-interior cabinets! Painting was the only thing we could afford to do to our kitchen, and I painted the doors white and the front of the frame (you know, the part you see in between the doors - don't know how else to explain it) the same purple tone I painted the walls. My husband was skeptical, but I LOVE how it turned out! I also painted the inside of a glass-doored hutch a charcoal gray and the outside a lightened version of the same purple. I love it, but it's still at my parents' waiting for us to move it, so hopefully I'll still love it IN my kitchen! :)
It looks great, Laura. I really admire you two for taking it on yourself. We payed someone to do our kitchen :( You are inspiring me to tackle our bathroom - I want to do it cheaply. By the way, I LOVE Fiestaware!! I had them in Milw in blue, rose and white (80s colors) and now I have them in scarlet, sunflower and lemongrass. They always make me smile!
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