You guys are awesome!  What started out as a little hobby is now turning into a business.  The good news is that I am keeping busy with interior design and furniture repurposing clientele.  The bad news is that I am finding myself with less time to update my blog (which is really a good thing, I guess).  Either way, I am thrilled and incredibly grateful!  I’m not quite ready to show you any of my current projects, but I thought I would show you how my husband and I updated our kitchen.

I admit, I dream of subway tile backsplashes, custom cabinets and carerra marble counter tops, however, that would also come with a dream budget.  So, my husband and I made the best of what our house already had to offer.  The previous owners of our home already updated the kitchen with granite counter tops, a new backsplash and stainless appliances.  Is the brown granite or beige tumbled stone backsplash my favorite?  Not really.   But, it is still very nice so we made it work.

What we did change were the old pickled oak cabinets.  Getting custom cabinets blew our budget, so we chose to have them refaced.  For those who aren’t familiar with refacing, it’s a process where you keep your existing cabinet boxes, but add new cabinet doors and drawers.  A thick layer of veneer is also installed over the existing cabinet frame. The cost of refacing was 50% cheaper than installing custom cabinetry, so it was a no-brainer.

We now have traditional shaker style cabinets painted in Alabaster by Sherwin-Williams.  I also added brushed nickel hardware which I found on Amazon.com for only about $1 a piece.  I believe the brand is Cosmas.  I’ve never heard of them, but for the price their hardware is top notch.  These little guys have put up with all sorts of abuse from my family of four.  So far, I don’t have a single complaint.

The other big change we made was replacing the old white tile with wood flooring, which is carried throughout the first floor.  The old white tile was chipped, cracked and well, just made the room feel a bit tired.  The wood floors really warmed up the space.

When we removed the old fridge, take a look at what we found.

Yowza!

Turns out the thick Venetian plastered walls in our kitchen were hiding a dirty secret of vine motif wallpaper.  We ended up removing all the wallpaper and Venitian plaster then retextured and painted the walls.  The paint color is Portabello by Sherwin-Williams.  I never thought I’d paint my kitchen walls brown, but it works well.

So, there you have it.  The before & after transformation of our kitchen.  I feel very blessed and grateful to have what I have and I love my kitchen.  It’s not perfect, but neither am I so I think we are an excellent match.