The Kitchen - Phase One

If you have followed this blog for long, you know that we've been working on "Phase 1" in our kitchen for just over a year.  Seriously.  We are not fast moving project people, obviously.  This was even part of my "Simplify" project last year that never got done but, guess what?  It is finished.  When this project started, there were no "phases" but life happens and I realized that I need to break this project up into phases or it would never, ever get done.   Phase One ended up consisting of:
1. Painting the cabinets
2. Putting on new hardware
3. Painting the Steps
4. Hanging decor
5. Hanging Curtains
6. Putting up trim (that was cut and painted 6 years ago but we were waiting until we did the kitchen to put it up. . .. geesh!)

To give you just a little background before I share the before and afters.  When we bought this house I said that I wanted to update the kitchen first.  This house has a pretty decent kitchen for the size that it is but it lacked any style.  Well, then our toilet flooded and ruined the flooring in the dining room so we redid the dining room.  Then our hot water heater exploded and ruined tons of stuff in the basement so we started working on that project.  Next, we decided to move our office into the smallest bedroom and we redid the guest room as our next project.  After that - kids.  Enough said.  To make it even funnier - 4 years ago I took almost everything off of the walls in the kitchen because we were going to finally redo that room.  I wanted it done before our son was born so we had a nice entrance to the house. .. then both my husband and I ended up on some sort of "bedrest" for weeks - he had back surgery at the same time I was already on bedrest and then I went into the hospital.  Needless to say it did not get done.  Finally, last March I decided to start by painting one cabinet at a time until they were done.  I was moving along great when the summer of holy hotness happened and I did nothing.  (Remember how horrid it was???) I finally picked up the project in January and my goal was to have it finished by today, Saturday May 5th and we finished a whole week early!!!

Without further ado - here are those photos!!  I'll start with a few before shots:

 Ok, first of all, yes, the cat is licking the hot dog package.  I was too busy taking photos not notice that until after the fact HA!  Back to the real story.  This is a very dated kitchen with the oak cabinets, fake wood looking counter tops and blue, yes blue, walls.  The walls were a super light shade of blue so sometimes they looked white but there were really blue!!

 The other side of the kitchen with lots of clutter, our old stove.  Some of the doors are missing because I had already started my project before I remembered to take photos!

 The stairwell wall and banister - nothing too pretty to look at. 

 Our ugly steps.  These were carpeted when we moved in - we ripped out the carpet because it was so gross and have lived with naked steps for years. 

This photo just shows some of the progress on the cabinets. 

Now, for the afters!

 Don't you just love this arrangement?  I'd see the inspiration all over on the Internet with people using plates but I had my wonderful strawberry knick knacks that have been in hiding for several years so I went to Walmart and found those wooden boxes.  There were three frames in each set for $14.00 so I was pretty happy.  Everything else I already owned.  I used Zots (scrapbooking "glue" on the bottoms of the stuff in the shelves to keep them from slipping. The color on the walls is from Lowes and is Green Apple.  It was not the "right" color.  We had been living with the color painted behind the stove for over a year.  I grabbed the paint card and headed to the store.  When I got home and started painting I discovered that I had grabbed the wrong card - it was the shade lighter then the original color but I LOVE this and am thrilled with my mistake!

 Seriously, I am so proud of this project.  I saw this idea years in a commercial, no less, for how to "finish" your steps.  Just simple paint but it looks like a carpet runner.  The green matches the wall color and the brick red matches the strawberries (The best part - it was leftover paint from when we painted our garage door so it was FREE!!)  I absolutely love how it turned out.  We are going to live with it for awhile and see how it wears . If it starts to chip, we'll touch it up and then use something to seal it but I'm hoping it wears well and we won't have to do that. 

 This wall is the one you see as you enter our house (it's above the stairs).  Don't you love those hanging candle holders?  I earned them by hosting a PartyLite show in October 2010.  I knew I wanted them in my kitchen and they are perfect.  In past posts I've mentioned about wanted to have a set of family rules in our home so I ordered this Vinyl from Sassy Sites and we just love it.  I want to give "Sassy" a shout out because working with her was so easy and I had my pieces within days of ordering them.  Anytime I want to order pieces like this I will go through her because I know that she does a great job. 

 Here is another of the lettering pieces.  Yes, that is the side of my dishwasher - the side that faces the patio door so when people enter our home, they see that statement.

 The picture above and the one below give you the full view of our kitchen.  I need to mention that our kitchen IS our entrance so when anyone comes to our home, this is the room they see first.  I love how light and bright the whole room is with the green, white, and stainless steel.  I also love how uncluttered the counter tops are now too - trust me, that was no easy feat but I did it and am working on keeping them that way! 

 A few more decor items - the saying on the wall I purchased years ago from one of those home parties.  I didn't even know if we could get it on the wall due to the age but, thanks to my husband, we did it.  Notice the flower hanging in the window?  That is what I purchased recently for my birthday.  I have decided not to hang a valance at this window - it seems to make it feel more open.  (And my husband even scrubbed the window inside and out for me too :-) )

 Do you remember this little project?  I love how the faux zebra print adds a little whimsy to the room.  

 This is my new calendar board from Creative Memories.  For years I had an oak board hung here but I wanted something clean - this is perfect :-)

 This is the area for the boys - coats and shows.  (That is a basket I got FREE from my recent Thirty-One party!)  I'm missing a few command hooks - I still have to pick those up and I think I want to get some vinyl lettering to put up that says something whitty :-)

 The view of the stairwell wall and the Bannister (it used to be brown but now disappears since it is white!)  Excuse the toys on the floor - I took pictures during prime play time.  I hung up white curtains on the patio door - they are more like sheers so now, in the heat of the summer, I can close them to help keep the blaring sun out but the light will still come through!  I would really like to do something on the patio door for decor too but other than my "Once in awhile" wreaths haven't come up with anything.

One more photo that includes that long wall with the family rules on it.

You may have noticed missing outlet covers - that is also part of Phase 1 but, my dad is our electrician and we are waiting for him to come over and put new outlets, switches and covers on :-)  This just happened to be a really busy time of year so we have to wait a few more weeks on that but I can still count this project as done since my part is done HA! 

What are the next phases?  Let me tell you!

Phase 2 - Cosmetic Things
We have quite a few cosmetic things that need to be done:
1. A new handrail on the wall to the basement (I can hear my parents cheering as they read this)
2. The strips that go on the floor between rooms and at the top of the stairs to make the edges all look nice (we also will do the bathroom strip at the same time!!)
3. A trash can holder that slides out from the cupboard  - it actually holds two cans, one for trash and one for cans.  (I want to get lettering that says "Trash Cans" to go on the cupboard door . . just for fun :-) )
4.  Draw pulls - we did the handles on the cabinets but chose to wait on the drawer pulls.  Now that the painting and all that is done, we really want the pulls after all.
5. I want to put up a shelf under a cabinet near the stove to house my recipe binder to keep it up off the counter
6. Hang the paper towels on the side of the cupboard above the sink and, on the other side, hang a spice rack to get the spices off the counter also.
7. I have a couple of cupboards that need some organizational help - I.e. the pots and pans - so I just need to get the storage solutions for those.

Phase 3- Counter top
Just one thing - we plan on doing a counter top paint to update those ugly faux wood counter tops.  I've seen it done on many blogs and "talked" to several of them about the process and feel confidant that this is the way to go for us at this time.  The counter tops will be a black surface - probably done to look like granite so it will have "movement".

Phase 4- Flooring
Again, just one thing - we are not 100% sure what we will go with yet other then I want black.  We are planning on having the flooring put in professionally (it is a small area so it won't cost much).  We feel this will be better than us trying to do it and ending up with it off center or something weird.

Phase 5 - the Bonus phase :-)
This is that phase that I don't know if I really want until we are done. Then I'll decide.  A back splash.  I have a few ideas in mind but I also just like the look of paint.  Maybe we'll do something just behind the stove . . .or maybe not.  I'd also like to get new light fixtures eventually.  What I have now is very practical and gives off tons of light . . but I want something pretty :-)

So, now we are going to begin on phase 2 - one item at a time.  We also have a few other house projects to do like decorating the boys bedrooms and updating our bedroom as well.  Just about the time I think I'm done - we start over :-)