DIY Kitchen Makeover

Happy New Year Everyone! I was going to make my first post on the actual first day of the year, but I got sidetracked – OOHH SHINY!!! 

Stone and Rose Kitchen Inspiration

I’ve been ogling gorgeous white kitchens for many months now - in magazines, on Pinterest, on HGTV.  Inspirations like this one from StoneandRose.com. 

Original Kitchen Redo - 13 years ago

When Rock Star and I moved into our little ranch, it was only four years old but the original owners had no pride of ownership. They had installed absolutely the cheapest surfaces and appliances available. And then they didn’t take care of them. We found burn holes in both the floors and countertops and a half inch layer of grease had to be scraped out from under stove burners, above the cabinets and off the oven floor – after only four years!! I will spare you more gross visuals. I changed the lighting in the kitchen to match the breakfast room chandelier (this chandelier has since appeared in at least three different kitchen episodes on HGTV – you know,  “get rid of the dated lighting” episodes, but I’m saving lighting for another time.   I added a wallpaper backsplash, new fridge, replaced the burned tile flooring and made new window treatments. 

New Countertops - Granite Transformation

A few years later, we made our builder grade cabinets look a little more custom by adding some crown moldings and trim. I could not get the stain to match so I painted the trim black to go with the new countertops we had Granite Transformations install. It is actually crushed granite in some kind of polymer. It look and acts exactly like solid granite, but it doesn’t have to be sealed every couple of years or polished nearly as often. I love it. At this point I removed the wallpaper and added a row of tumbled marble tiles as a backsplash (they're not in this photo). 

Kitchen Before - 2013

My golden oak cabinets are structurally sound but dated, and new cabinets are simply not in the budget. In order to retain my crown as a Queen of DIY (at least at my house), my first project for 2013 is a cabinet redo. I’ve decided to use Rustoleum’s cabinet kit from Lowes and do it myself. Follow me and find out who falls apart first, me or my trusty Purdy paint brush. By the way, if you've done this before, I'm open to suggestions!