kitchen cabinets stage one......done

the last two days i have been working very hard to get my kitchen redo into gear.

yesterday, the place was a mess....

it kinda sorta looked like this

one half started cabinet paint job....

the whole house was a mess because i worked all day on this project and then austen had baseball in the evening at a baseball field 45 minutes away.

the garage was paint central

don had started painting the cabinet doors with a brush...icky brush strokes

my new love is a foam roller..

painting was a breeze and it went way faster than painting with a brush.

this morning,  the kitchen looked like this.......

ugh....don't judge me!!!  this is why i don't have glass doors on any of my cabinets....lol

this afternoon, stage one is done

i still have to put up the moulding because we added wood between the cabinet top and the crown moulding to give the builders grade cabinets a little height and elegance....

you can see the gap here a little better....

the trim is in the garage drying right now....

spray painted with dark gray and will be dry brushed with the same paint as the cabinets.

nice and bright!!!

and i am loving the change in the space.
i am sure that you noticed that i have 3 different colors of appliances.

someday, i will find my killer craigslist deal on a new stainless steel set of appliances that actually match...but for now, they are all working and in good condition so i can live with the variety.

let's call it "eclectic" shall we? 

this is what it looked like two days ago....

and what it looked like one month ago

quite a change, i think......

i still need to paint the bottom cabinets, but i can live with this until i get the energy to finish.  

right now, i need to clean my house....

uh-oh......

it all started out so innocently....

i wanted to lighten things up in my kitchen.  

it's a little dark even though we get a nice southern light in this space all year long.  

lots and lots of natural light made us not afraid to paint our kitchen cupboards black about 5 years ago. 

it kinda scared my dad though, because when he first saw them he asked me if we were 

"going goth"..... 

the cupboards started out your typical builders grade oak....

boring.....

so during my pottery barn phase of house decor, we painted them black.  we also painted our kitchen table and chairs. they used to be a dark oak which wasn't bad, but i thought they looked much better in black.  which they did...except that dust shows up on every black surface 3.7 seconds after you dust them....so i used tablecloths a lot.

but now i am in my light and bright phase of decorating and i wanted to change things up a bit.  

so i painted that table and chair set....

it's not finished yet because i haven't sanded or waxed them yet but i am 

already loving how they lighten the space up.  

and we were both amazed at how the detail in the chair backs showed up with the new lighter paint.

here is a chair in paint progress....note the cool dragon thingys in the corners of the chair backs....

even thought i have had this table and chair set for almost 30 years

(10yrs really, cuz i'm not that old)

i never noticed the detail in the backs of the chairs.  when i bought the set, i bought one of each of the styles of chairs that they had so each has a different design.

 because i'm weird like that....

i will be distressing the table and chairs lightly.  and yes that is paint on the floor under the table leg but we already have this

 new flooring for our kitchen waiting to be installed.

so we also decided that we are going to lighten up the cupboards too.  my plan was to paint the upper cabinets white (or off white) and the bottom cupboards a medium gray.  

i think that if i paint both the uppers and the lowers white, the countertop will make it look 

like just too much white. and i am sure that we don't have plans to change the countertops out

in the very near future.  not that i don't want new ones because i do and i have even 

plotted setting a hot pan on them and burning them to get new ones...

but i am don is much more practical than that.....

so......

since we decided to paint the top cabinets white, don decided to get started on them....

while i wasn't home to supervise....

and i came home to this...

painted with this.....

(insert long, loud scream here)

i had been extolling the benefits of this paint (which i used on the table and chairs) to don 

and excitedly told him how you can paint over any type of finish

without having to prime, sand or prep your surface first.  

in his mr. oblivious  mind, 

this was the perfect medium for the cupboards....

i had to do a lot of double talking to get him to understand that this was not the best medium to use unless he wanted to pay way more coughcoughthirtyfivedollarsaquartcoughcough than he intended to for this little project without actually telling him how much more!!!

so, it's back to regular paint and primer for this job....

phew!!! that was close.

five dollars never looked so good!!!!

the chair started out in really good shape. it's a nice heavy cast iron.  not a bad paint job and the cushion was in great condition.  the paint job was a little beat up, but that's to be expected with it's age.  the original fabric for the seat cover under this tapestry was an olive green velvet.
 i posted about where it came from here.

the tapestry seat cover was pretty but a little old-fashioned looking.
the legs were gracefully curved and
the back had a pretty flower and vase detail.

but it was a little a lot dated and grandma-ish.

the gold detail is always the first clue that something is dated.
i felt that it needed a dose of fun and modern
so
i sprayed it a glossy white paint

and recovered the seat in a fun, modern and graphic fabric.

i love this print....

it feels younger and grown up all at the same time......and way more hip....

chair: craigslist $5.00
fabric: hobby lobby about $2.50
spray paint: home depot $3.50
total: $11.00

for sale......

(scroll down for today's "14 days of valentine")

my first craigslist listing...

end table for sale on craigslist

i've never sold anything on craigslist before, but i figured, what the heck....

i'll put the table in the garage and make sure the dog is with me if someone comes to see it.  

what do you think???

goodwill hexagon end table....hob knobbing....

hobby lobby had their knobs half off this week.  so of course, i was there on monday

and i picked out some knobs to finish the white end table.  

i would like you to help me choose which one goes best with the piece....

here are the three i picked out...

 

 a pretty drop pull

this classic embossed knob

or this colorful knob...

once i put it on the table, it was my least favorite...i was going for a pop of color 

but i think they look like eyes....

which do you like best???

snowpocalyps 2011.......

well that is what the weathermen called it anyway.....

we did get a lot of snow yesterday, and there was no school and school was closed today as well.

 don also scored a day off, but 

this is what we saw when we opened the garage door...

so he had to do this

twice

 because we got as much snow during the day as we had gotten during the night

this picture was taken at about 8:30 am

this one was taken at about 1:30 pm.

the boys played football

and i actually saw someone on cross country skis going down the street....

 all in all, it was great to have my family home with me.  

don went back to work and today, like yesterday, the house will be filled with boys and x-box and snowy clothes and water melting on the floor....just how it should be!!!

have a great thursday!!!