This is a sight I've been waiting to see for eight years: demolishing the 30-year-old tile in our kitchen, wha-hoo!
Which means we've started the last stages of our kitchen remodel which was begun when we sprayed everything with white paint in 2004 right after buying our house and was continued when we retrofitted a cabinet to hold an over-the-stove microwave.
And yes, it was started a long time ago - sigh. Such is the life of DIY-ers, where we've learned all about patience.
Here's a list of what we've done in the kitchen since moving in:
(most accomplished in the first year)
- Painted all the dark brown cabinets white
- Removed wallpaper from backsplash and textured to match walls (not recommended, by the way - it's been a bear to clean with the added texture)
- Replaced antique brass hinges with silver hinges
- Replaced small ceramic knobs with silver bin-pulls and glass knobs
- Cut out the centers of 6 upper cabinet doors and replaced the wood with glass
- Replaced outdated hanging light fixture with a vintage light from ebay
- Converted the can-light over the sink to a vintage pendant light fixture
- Replaced almond dishwasher with a stainless version when it broke
- money {...ah-hem}
- time to drive to the Portland Ikea store to purchase the wood counters we knew we wanted.
By last summer we had saved enough money to complete the remodel and were ready to make the trip to Portland. We hauled our trailer to Ikea, only to find they didn't have the counters we wanted in stock and they wouldn't until October because of a manufacturing problem. For us, a winter remodel when I was teaching just wouldn't work, so we decided to wait another year. I was majorly bummed.
Well.
Sadly, ALL the cabinets need to be repainted, including the decorative backs that look out to the living room, not just touched up from the first time they were painted. Why?
Because all the paint we paid $500+ for was the wrong color...which we found out after spending a week painting the entire inside of our new house. Sigh.
How did that happen? Well...let me tell you my pitiful story:
I had used a creamy white paint from a certain paint store (which I will not name, just because...) for all our trim in our city bungalow. I liked it, and if any of you have tried to choose a white paint, you know there are a ton of shades and it's not always so easy to decide which is best.
So when we needed to paint everything white in our new house, I just went to the same store I had used for years and ordered 80 million gallons (ok, 15 gallons...) in different sheens of my preferred color (that, I probably should mention, I hadn't bought in a couple of years).
Only to realize after spraying pretty much everything in our house and moving our furniture in (some of which had been painted with the white from the previous house...) that they had changed the color formula.
Seriously. It was NOT the same color. It was more tan and dull than I remembered (and was confirmed when we placed bookshelves painted in the color from years past up against the walls). And when I tried to paint other colors next to the trim, my "white" trim actually began to look beige. Ugh.
I have now spent the last 7 years slowly repainting the trim, doors, and molding with a new white I found that I LOVE: Creamy White by Behr. It's bright and crisp, but with a warm undertone that keeps it from being too stark. The kitchen is one of the biggest repainting projects left in the house. After that I'll only have the living room and hallway left.
Since I'll be blogging and updating on Facebook about our progress, I thought I'd share with you all that we hope to get done in the next few weeks (months?). Plus, there's nothing like having a list and getting to check things off to help keep motivated, is there?
Master "to-do" list to complete our kitchen remodel:
- Sand all cabinet doors and bases (filling holes and sanding as necessary)
- Demolish remaining tile counters
- Cover openings left in a cabinet from an unused breadboard with molding (and a few other places to finish cabinets) - caulk and paint
- Use a jigsaw to even up the underside of one cabinet that had been cut out by previous owners
- Move small cabinet by fridge over a couple inches to gain space between stove and corner cabinet (?)
- Paint all cabinets and doors
- Add beadboard as a backsplash - trim all edges, caulk/fill and paint
- Measure and cut wood counters
- Stain and finish counters
- Install counters
- Install new sink
- Install new faucet
- Install rod for hanging utensils behind stove
- Replace old off-white electrical outlets with new white ones
- Sew a new curtain for sink cabinet
Whew. Maybe I should've waited until after we'd accomplished most of this before writing it out...
Have any of you tackled a kitchen remodel? Do you have any suggestions for us?
This is linked to Saturday Nite Special.
Diane Smith says
I can hardly believe the new dining room! Absolutely wonderful. Did I miss the before picture of the great room?
Jami says
Thank you, Diane! You can get links to a lot of before-and-afters of our remodel in this house tour: https://anoregoncottage.com/house-tour/
ariely powery says
love it
betsy justis says
Love Behr Creamy White! I have used in our kitchen, too.
Our kitchen arrangement is similar to yours. We removed the overhead cabinets over the long counter the day we moved in. I am so glad we did! It opens up the kitchen and I don't really miss the ton of storage. We are planning to add pendant light s- maybe - someday. Thye might just get in the way and we don't really need the lighting.
How did the Ikea wood counter tops hold up? I think they look great in the store, but wonder about the longevity.
Jami says
So our kitchens are twins, eh? 🙂 If our cabinets over the breakfast bar were lower, we would've removed them, too, but they are high - we can easily talk to folks and see everywhere with them. They are also very nicely made with inset panels and crown molding on the dining room side, which give the room a bit more character.
As for the counters...a-hem...they just now got installed, so will have to let you know. 🙂 However, we installed DIY pine counters in our last house (no Ikea close to us back then) and I LOVED them and they held up great for the three years we were there after putting them in. Hopefully these will do as well.
Janee says
Sounds like more than a few weeks worth of work. We've done DIY remodels in multiple houses since we can never afford to pay anybody else and we are both able bodied and capable of learning. My only advice is to paint before putting in new stuff so that any accidents can be easily covered up or removed rather than having to live with paint drips on new wood countertops... :-O. Most of all....have fun!
Jami says
Paint drips would NOT be good on the counters - you're right, Janee. 🙂
Anne says
How disappointing that they changed the formula on you! OMG after all that work!! I'm ready to paint my kitchen cabinets but have decided instead to finish all those lovely projects that I began and lost interest in - lol! Good thing we never run out of projects or we wouldn't have anything to blog about 🙂
Cheers!
[email protected] says
You have made so much AMAZING progress! Good luck with the next step!
Lisa Lynn says
Good luck with your ongoing remodeling project! I need to do something with our kitchen too. But I'm afraid to start 🙂
I look forward to seeing the new kitchen when you have it finished!
[email protected] says
Wow, that's a huge project! We're still plugging away on a bathroom remodel that began last January. We're both teachers and I thought for sure we'd get it done this summer, but no. I do remember how great it felt to smash tile though!
Sharon O says
You have way more energy than I do. It will look good when it is all done.
I think white paint is similar to red, there are many shades and few match.