It has been SO long since I’ve posted, what with graduations, family vacations, prepping my home to put on the market, etc., that I thought I’d better make this post a really BIG one!  Are you ready for a lot of pictures?

I’m SO happy to finally share with you my Budget Kitchen Makeover!  It’s been a long time in the making and I only just finished up the final details of the transformation.  It’s funny, and kind of sad, that it took finding out that we’re going to move to motivate me to finally wrap things up.  Is there anyone else out there who moves mountains to accomplish big projects, but leaves the little details undone?  It’s a character defect of some sort, I’m sure!

This is my kitchen before we began tearing things up.  We had already added the stainless steel fridge and dishwasher when the old black ones gave up the ghost.  You can only imagine how much darker those two black boxes made this room feel.

As I’ve said before, my house isn’t large and my kitchen island is my only crafting space.  Mr. OTN was bound and determined to provide me with a larger (and prettier) counter space to work on.  Not to mention that he might just get a few more gourmet type meals out of me if my kitchen was a more appealing place to cook!

It is hard to see here, but the counter top was black tile, with white trim and the island was only about two feet deep with a raised bar.  This main living space in my home includes the kitchen, a dining area, a small sitting area behind the kitchen counter and the living room.

The raised bar was higher then in the above picture and only served to separate it from the living room, making the kitchen feel darker,  and limiting counter space.  It also blocked some of the view from the kitchen out toward the lake, especially for a shorter gal like me.

We planned and shopped and planned some more to make this the most budget friendly kitchen makeover we possibly could.  I’ll be sharing my secrets for shopping for appliances, how to get high-end granite slab for much less than what you see on the display room floors, painting your own cabinets, customizing an existing kitchen island, creating your own mirror and tile back splash online, and other tips for saving tons of money on a kitchen makeover.  All that for another post though.  Today, I will just show you some after pics.

This is it!  Can you believe it?  You might want to scroll up again to that first picture and look at that dark and dingy old kitchen before going any further.  That’s what I keep doing and I’m the one writing this post!

So much lighter and brighter.  So much more open to the rest of the living area.  So much more crafting . . . er . . . cooking space with the lowered bar and extended length of the island.

The original cabinets were solid and in good condition so I decided to paint over them with Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White.  I love that this paint doesn’t require stripping, sanding or (in most cases) priming.

I chose to distress my cabinets some because I happen to like the look, Farmhouse Glam girl that I am.  The added bonus to that is that, over time, you won’t notice the normal wear and tear as much.   I then added a bit of greyish color wash in the cabinet insets to add an additional aged appearance.

I sealed my cabinets with soft wax and buffed them for a nice glow.

When the morning sun comes in through the windows the light color cabinets reflect light all around the room!

Next is my kitchen island which was nothing but a square box with drawers and cupboards.

I added legs and corbels and painted it with Annie Sloan’s Graphite to ground the room.

More distressing (and staining of the distressed areas)

More buffing and waxing

I was really glad that I invested in an electric buffer for this job.

Next was my granite slab.  I wanted it to be white like marble.  I love marble but it doesn’t react well to acidic foods.  My master bath has marble and I’ve experienced the heart sinking feeling of seeing what vinegar and water cleaner does when sprayed on its surface (I’m still trying to figure out how to fix that mistake, short of hiring someone to come in and professionally buff out the spotty areas and reseal the marble).

This piece (Glacier White) has “sparkles” in it when the light shines just right (I HEART sparkles) and small red garnets imbedded within the metamorphosed granitic rock.

I’m constantly moving things people place on top of the sparkles so they aren’t hidden from my view!

I also wanted a piece of granite that had “waves”, to give it a feeling of movement.

You’ll have to come back for the post that shows you how to find beautiful granite for less than you’d pay for granite tile!

On to my back splash.   More sparkle, of course, from polished marble tiles.

I wasn’t as worried about using marble on the back splash because it isn’t heavily exposed to acidic food, especially since I do all of my chopping on the island.

The light from the windows shines in and reflects back off these small mosaic tiles, which I also happened to find at a great price!

On to the custom back splash for my stove area.  I found a site online where you can choose your own tiles in any color and material and they will mount your design on netting.  This makes it easy to adhere in the area where you want a special pop of color.  Since I love blues and greens I mixed and matched mirrored and glass tiles in various shades of the same colors that I see when I look outside my windows.

To finish things off we added a new oil rubbed bronze faucet to match the new cabinet hardware,

and some new mercury glass light fixtures for more sparkle.

The new blue green paint color makes my creamy white cabinets and the new crown moulding “pop”.

I placed a few new items placed atop the cabinets,

while some of the old things remain.

We bought this mirror at an antique store when we first purchased our home.  I prefer a sink with a window over it but this is the next best thing as I can look at the lake behind me while I’m washing my dishes.

I added a little coffee station to this counter,

and my collection of special oils and vinegar in the corner area near the stove.

The new double oven and gas range combo is great and I’ll be sharing tips with you soon on getting the best price possible for appliances.  The tile floor was in the kitchen when we purchased our home ten years ago and is still in good shape.  I like it, as it reminds me of a floor that might be found in a French Country Farmhouse.  So . . . no change needed here . . . except maybe a little bleaching of the grout!  That could be a future post as well as it certainly will need to be done before we put our home on the market!

Now for a few final pictures with the beautiful roses our Freedom Session Facilitators and Participants presented us with at their graduation ceremony last night.

How beautiful these creamy white flowers look in my kitchen.

My friends know the things that please me.

This is the view looking out toward my little sitting area with the lake beyond.

It is sort of strange that now that my kitchen is just the way I always wanted it, we have to turn around and sell our home.  As I look online at homes in the Greenville area I haven’t seen a single kitchen that looks like this, the one that was my dream kitchen for so long before we actually made it a reality.

Perhaps we’ll buy a home that needs a kitchen makeover.  If we do you better believe that I’ll be using the same materials again . . .  if I can find them.  Or perhaps we’ll find a home with a kitchen that is already updated and I’ll fall in love with something new . . . ???

I can’t know what the future holds but I CAN walk into the future without fear, knowing that my paths are prepared before me, by the One who cares about every single detail of my life . . . even kitchens!

Blessings,

PART 2 and PART 3 of this kitchen makeover can be seen HERE and HERE.

PART 4, where I’ll share my shopping secrets, is yet to come!