DIY Kitchen Renovation

For nearly a year now Josh & I have been living in a house in Deadwood. It's one of the best locations in town (with the exception of the Hill in winter) with the National Forest at our backs and just a few neighbors. We have a lot of privacy and room for the dogs to run around. Another thing we have is a really terrible kitchen.

For those of you who have seen it, I'm sure you can't forget. For everyone else- let me explain. Our kitchen is very small and a crossroads of our house. There is little counter space and the walls are textured (who puts a textured wall next to a stove-top?). At some point, someone had the idea to paint the cabinets sunshine yellow. Not necessarily to paint them well but they did succeed in making the cabinets yellow. Then the walls had to be a sea foam green. I think sea foam is a nice color but something had wrong awry here. And as icing on the cake, the trim was painted a neon form of John Deere green. All together it had a "Wow" factor but not the kind we were looking for. Our kitchen looked liked like a clown had exploded.

Halfway there...

Over the last year we have had some ideas of what we would like to change in the kitchen but since it's a rental we waited. It turns out our waiting had a shelf life because on Monday we had to make a change. One can only live in a Beehive for so long. We picked up some chalkboard paint and a creamy beige to put on the cabinets and went to town.

Josh and I are such a good team when it comes to projects like this. Some couples can't do projects and bicker but we cruise right along complimenting each other and nearly moving in sync. It's kinda amazing how well we flow when we work. It's one reason why we would like to work together again someday.

Before too long the cabinets were drying from their first coat in that nice beige and we applied a second coat. Both coats went so quickly that we were able to apply a coat of chalkboard paint to the cabinet doors. Chalkboard paint is amazing. It goes on a little differently than regular paint (as you would expect), is easy to spread and it evens itself out somehow. As it began to dry Josh worked on the trim. It was just an experiment but with each stroke the intense-ness of our kitchen began to diminish. It was like a Christmas miracle and we decided to call it a night.

The next morning I set to work on applying to second coat to the cabinet doors. It went quickly, there's only 14 doors and 3 drawers, and before long I was watching it dry. It was at this moment that I realized the changes were going to be mind blowing.

After work I picked up some paint for the walls. It had to be done and if 20 bucks would do it then we were in. The paint is called Colonial White and hopefully would compliment the cabinetry and make the kitchen a little warmer.

When Josh got home from work we set upon the walls. With the textured surface it was a little interesting trying to cover the surface but I think we did well. After we got most of the kitchen walls painted with a first coat we decided to call it quits and set upon coloring our new cabinet doors.

After starting the update on the kitchen on Monday we had made a lot of progress by mid-week. By Thursday we seemed to have hit a roadblock. Work was keeping us too busy and tired to put time in on painting the kitchen. But on Sunday, we were on fire!

On Friday we were admiring the changes when we realized that the the ceiling has also been painted a shade of green. Apparently the walls and cabinets had kept our eyes so busy that we had overlooked this. At first, we thought we could probably live with it but then I set to changing Josh's mind and with our trip on Sunday to Walmart even he couldn't deny that even the ceiling would need a change.

To save some money we checked out the returned and mis-tinted paint aisle. For $5.48 we purchased some flat white interior paint. It turned out that it was just what we were looking for. We also bought another brush and roller to speed up our progress.

When we set to work it was well into the afternoon but we had a vision and we set upon getting the room completed. We finished the walls, putting a first coat in a few spots and applying 2nd coats all around. After draping the room with sheets we set to painting the ceiling. I attached the rollers to broom handles and we rolled it in no time. It's a small kitchen, so it went pretty quick. After edging it we put the fan on and took a break.

DIY Done!

After everything was dried Josh and I finished the trim, let it dry and then touched up all the spots we had messed up along the way. After cleaning up we realized that we had gotten some paint on the floor and worked getting them off. Within an hour everything was clean and put away and the tape was good to come off.

It looks amazing! For out 1st DIY project with just ourselves we really did a great job. The whole feeling of the kitchen is different. The cabinets aren't recognizable. The ceiling is crisp and white. The wall are creamy and warm. We love it!