Hill to DIY On... Kitchen Part 2

Last week, I put  part 1 of making over my ugly duckling of a kitchen.  In part 1, I talked about flooring we ended up not like and ripping up and in this post, we are going to talk about another project I immediately regretted.

6. 

After much deliberation, we finally decided to replace the backsplash instead of painting it. I am so glad we did. Subway tile is ridiculously affordable and it made the kitchen look just a little bit more modern. Yes, I do realize that subway tile has been around since the turn of the 20th century. And yes, I didn't actually know that. I looked up that factoid.

One thing we did that really helped the process was using an adhesive mat to stick the tile on. The adhesive is strong! That's obviously what you want, however once you place a tile down, it is really hard to move it. It took no time at all. I chose a black grout because I love the contrast of black and white. It's really good at showing mistakes.

What lied beneath the old tile. I thought about framing it, but it was too damaged. Be gone yellow and brown!

So here is what the kitchen looks like with the new backsplash and the first coat of paint on the cabinets. The cabinet doors were either still getting painted or drying. I am sure open shelving looks good in other people's kitchens, but I am not an organized enough person to display all my gadgets and gizmos. 

This picture actually becomes clearer if you shake your head.

7. Aaron took a break from grad school for a little bit because we were moving, but he had to get back to it and so did all the renovation money. I got creative and came up with a project that would take zero money and keep me off the street. 

I de-popcorned the ceiling with a putty knife. They make kits that make it a lot easier and a lot less messy but that would cost money. We also didn't have a working vaccum at the time and despite my efforts to put plastic down, it still made a mess. Fortunately someone from our church let us borrow their shop vac which honestly saved us.

Fun fact: it is much easier to take down popcorn ceiling when it is not painted than when it is. The ceiling, of course, was painted beige, which is why the house looked so dark. So that was an added bonus to the project. It took forever and I lost my wedding ring in the process (again). But it was down-right cathartic and I listened to a lot of audiobooks. 

8. Per our request to Santa, we got a lot of Lowe's gift cards, which we spent on paint. We painted the ceiling Extra White in Sherwin Williams, because our mantra in renovating this house is "make it brighter make it brighter." Let me tell you, the extra white paint and the de-popcorned ceiling immediately made the house look more modern.

We were having game night with a friend and I loved the paint color on her walls. She said it was this bluish-grey color called Krypton and it was easy to remember because we bonded over how it sounds like kryptonite. So I knew that is exactly what I wanted.

I was in the paint section at Lowes forever trying to find that color, or at least a similar color and came down with nine different colors. I looked at those samples in different light and in different areas. I had Aaron give me his opinion, and even after all that work.

OUR HOUSE IS PURPLE.

I was going for grey, but I got purple! How did Monica Geller get away with it?

Violet, you're turning Violet, Violet!

Why didn't I just find the paint color I knew worked in my friends house, I don't know. I don't know. but we already spent the Lowe's gift cards and so I had to just live with it. I mean, I didn't live with it quietly. With the combination of the purple walls and now white cabinets, it looked like a nursing home.

Remember, Aaron is still in grad school at this point and the only way we were able to afford paint was because of Christmas presents so...


9. I found a small project that didn't cost a whole lot. I also saw this project at the same friend's house that had the krypton paint. Two steps. Stain a board and stick a measuring stick decal you can order from Amazon, and you're done!

I went to hang the growth chart and the wood paneling kept caused it to jet out of the wall. Through attempting to take the top part of the paneling off, I discovered that there is sheetrock beneath the paneling, which means it really wouldn't be a whole lot work to fix the walls after taking the paneling off. So...

10. I took all the paneling off. It was in both the kitchen and living room. I loved the look so much! Aaron had to be convinced a little bit more than me because all he saw was a wall where half was painted purple and half was not painted at all and needed to be texturized. Not that it would have made a difference because I already had half the paneling off the wall when he came home from work. I'm very grateful I am married to the world's most patient man.

Look for next week's post when I reveal the final (for now) kitchen.