Kitchen Inspiration

I wanted to tell you about the outdoor pillow covers and curtains I sewed, but it wasn't until my camera died that I realized I left the charger plugged into the wall at a San Fran hotel.  Total bummer.  Anyhow, Rob ordered a battery charger for the camera from Amazon so I should be able to fill you in on these projects within several days - once I juice my battery back up. 

In the meantime, I've been taking pictures with my iPhone.  Although I think the iPhone takes pretty good pictures, they're not the best photos to enlarge.  The iPhone is the only thing I have to work with right now so forgive my not-so-perfect shots.

Tonight I want to share my kitchen inspiration for our Kitchen Makeover - Part II.  One of the first rooms we tackled when we moved into our town house almost two years ago was the kitchen, found here. 

When we decided to install "Kashmir White" granite countertops, I began searching images on Google to see what other people did.  I knew that I wanted a lighter, more modern, cleaner and sophisticated look.  We talked about painting the kitchen white to open it up and make it feel more airy.  Personally, I wasn't crazy about the "white" idea.  White reveals smudges and dirt -- and with a 60 lb. English Bully brushing up against the walls all day long, smearing who know what along the way, white was definitely a no-go.  What I had in mind (which I had to convince Rob of since he has a hard time visualizing) was a cool, light grey color that tied in nicely with the Kashmir counters. 

Anyhow, here's some inspiration images I found on the internet that caught my eye:



We knew we wanted to install a backsplash.  I was thinking white subway tiles, but I was afraid the kitchen would be too white.  After numerous trips to Lowe's and Home Depot, and about six different backsplash samples, we decided to stick with a subway tile...just not white.  The slate backsplash we chose can be seen in the images below. 

One thing I have to add as part of Kitchen Makeover - Part II is a chandelier, which will most certainly bring in the sophistication I'm looking for.  We pondered buying a chandelier from Lowe's for around $139.  But I remembered seeing amazing DIY chandeliers online two years ago while scowering the internet for all sorts of inspiration, and before I started my blog. 

Check out these awesome chandeliers:

I KNEW I could score a basic chandelier from a thrift store with no problem -- I spot them on my thrifty travels ALL. THE. TIME.  I wonder if the people who throw them out wish they wouldn't have if they saw what they looked like after these quick DIY transformations.

So when I saw this sassy brassy beauty below, you know I had to snatch er' up.  Take a look at our old new kitchen chandelier!!

I had to have Rob hold her up there so I could see how awesome she'll look.

Anyhow, I will post the full before and after of our Kitchen Makeover - Part II as soon as my camera battery arrives in the mail.  As for the chandelier, I can't wait to make it over. 

Have a good night.

Chalkboard Paint

I spent my Saturday night playing around with Chalkboard paint and creating my front door bling.  Hey, I had fun!  

I've been wanting to use chalkboard paint for awhile but held off because I wasn't sure what wall was best to paint.  There were several factors that led to my final decision, such as the wall's visibility, usage, and size...matters.

This is a small wall which is good because when I'm over the chalkboard paint and want something new, painting over it will be a breeze.  Also, there are always people congregating in the kitchen and we always play board games at the dinette table so this is perfect for taking score and to keep guests busy.  Finally, I hate to scramble for a pen and paper when I want to take note of something - so this wall proved to be perfecto!

Here it was before.  You can see more pictures of our kitchen, here.




And after just two thick coats of this paint, priced around $11.00, and some chalk I picked up for a $1.00...

 

 I created this awesome chalkboard...

  

The possibilities are endless. I'm so happy with how it turned out. I'll use this wall to create a fun sign for my sister's baby shower (being held at my house), and to also welcome my family coming to visit for the holidays, to take score during our next Taboo gathering, to jot down notes and SO MUCH MORE!!!

There's Roxy Gurrrls chillin' against the wall.  She almost always finds a way into my pictures :)

I purchased a pint of the chalkboard paint and after I painted two thick coats there was still about 2/3 left.  I used the left over paint on something else too - but I'll save those pictures for another night. 

Thanks for reading.  Have a good night!

This project is partying with the best of them at:



Kitchen Makeover

Yikes!  It's hard to believe that this was our kitchen one year ago.  When we bought our town house this is exactly what it looked like- the horrible border, two layers of caked-on wallpaper (hard to see in pics), 21 year-old blinds, stale cabinets, and oh yeah, the gi-NORMOUS light fixture.  How can you miss that thing?

Our kitchen was the second project we tackled once we moved in.  The first room that we worked on was our living room. 



The knobs were actually pretty decent so we kept them





Just your standard maple cabinets...



And here's how the kitchen looks today!  This project was a BIG one for us...our biggest yet.  All said and done, I'd say we worked on this extreme makeover for about a month- maybe a little longer.  But hey, well worth it in my book. 



I LOVE, love, LoVe, lOvE how it turned out.  We get so much sunlight in here and the feeling is super airy and open. 



The two corner glass front cabinets and light fixture is new. 




I'm happy with the way the knobs look against the Valspar Swiss Coffee paint. 

 



New Blinds!!!  What a DIFFERENCE blinds make people.



We peeled and ripped wallpaper and argued and sweat and peeled wallpaper and almost gave up and ripped more wallpaper.  The wallpaper just kept appearing. 

We've mastered the art of sanding, smoothing, priming, painting and drying.  

Today, Rob has quite an extensive handyman list of accomplishments- but a year ago, installing a new dishwasher was a pretty impressive task (for a city boy) to do himself, to say the least.  Thank goodness for handy hubbies! Muah.