Kitchen - Before & After

I have another makeover that I did at our previous home. Currently, I am finishing up another building project that H and I have taken on. I am hoping to share it with you by the end of this week. *fingers crossed*

As with my previous post on the Bathroom - Before and After, the cabinets in the kitchen were the standard honey oak, as well. The kitchen also had very bland linoleum. The appliances were white (I prefer stainless) and very worn. The stainless steel refrigerator we put in because the previous owners took the other fridge. Luckily, the purplish tile you see in the kitchen was faux. While it is not my style, I can very much appreciate the time and effort the previous owner had in painting this tile look on the wall. The kitchen and dining area had ivy wallpaper border and the dining area had the ever popular brass light fixture that one can find in any thrift store. By the way, there are some amazing transformations of these lights on many blogs.

Here are some before photos. As you can see, we had just moved in. We pretty much had no furniture. We used that blue card table (in first photo) as our dining table for a few months. Oh, and those accordion blinds had to go! I truly think they had never been cleaned or vacuumed. I tried cleaning them. I ended up have a allergy attack due to all the dust that were on them. They were ridiculously filthy.

Kitchen and Dining - Before (view from entry hallway)

Kitchen and Dining - Before (view from dining area)

Kitchen - Before (view from living room area)

I really wanted to paint the cabinets, but H wanted them stained. It was not until I started the whole process that I think he realized how much work it would take. Before I break down the entire process, lets take a look at some after pictures. Those are fun! :)

Kitchen - After (view from living room area)

Kitchen and Dining - After (view from living room area)

Huge difference, huh? It was a lot of work. Unfortunately, I cringe and pout whenever I have to sand something now. :(

Okay, here is the breakdown of the kitchen remodel. Please bare with me.

• Strip! Striping those cabinets of whatever industrial finish that was on them, was a pain! I could not get all the finish off.
• Sand, sand and more sanding! Since striping the cabinets did not work I decided to sand them. After taking off all the doors and drawers, I sanded all the cabinets.  It took me ALL day and I was a complete mess when I was done. I used an electric sander, which later broke. During the sanding process I used 60 grit sandpaper first, then 160 grit and finished with 220 grit sandpaper for a smooth as a baby's bottom finish.
• After wiping all the cabinets down and making sure no saw dust remained, it was time to stain. Because H likes deep burgundy / cherry colors, that is the stain color we went with. However, at the time, the only stain I could find that matched the color I was going for was a water based stain (I prefer oil). I used General Finishes water based stain in Rosewood. Because the cabinets are oak, no wood conditioner was needed. It took about three coats of stain to achieve the deep burgundy color.
• Because the stain is water based, I knew I needed to add a protectant on it immediately. Any drops of water (because it is the kitchen) would start to smear the stain. I sealed the cabinets with Minwax Fast Drying Polyurethane.
• Next came the drawers and door fronts. The drawers were easy to sand away any finish they had. The doors (my nightmare) were not easy. In fact, I could NOT get that hard as a rock finish off the whole door. Especially in the corners and creases. I tried sanding and striping. There was no way stain was going to soak into the wood on these doors. I did not want to pay to have them dipped in stripper and I did not want to have to buy new door fronts. Paint?
• Paint the drawers and doors it is! While I did not necessarily want a two tone finish on the kitchen cabinets, I just wanted to be done! The kitchen drawers and doors were painted black and had satin nickel pulls added to them.
• H added crown molding and bottom trim to all upper cabinets. I had to use wood conditioner on them first and then stain. Crown molding and trim is made of pine wood, not oak.
• We added Frigidaire stainless steel appliances to the rest of the kitchen.
• We left the Formica counter top since it was in good condition and the gray color blended well with the rest of the color scheme.
• Ivy wallpaper border removed. That took about 2 hours.
• Neutral brown paint was added to the walls in the kitchen, dining and living area.
• All baseboards were painted ultra white, by BHER paint.
• New window blinds were installed.
• All brass lighting was replaced with Hampton Bay, Bercello Estates lighting. Available at the Home Depot.
• New stainless steel sink and faucet were installed.
• Marble flooring was installed. Found it at Lowes (clearance section) for $1.35 a square foot! Our son was with us at Lowes and he was being silly as usual. The worker ringing up our large order (we did the laundry room and entry way in this tile, too) thought our son was adorable and hilarious and gave us an additional .20 cents off! A $1.15 a square foot for marble tile. Yay!
• Pantry door (flat panel) was replaced with a six panel door. These are very inexpensive and available at the Home Depot. A satin nickel lever (Brooklane Collection, by Kwikset) replaced the brass knob. Satin nickel hinges were also added. Door painted ultra white, by BEHR paint.

Whew! Am I done? No. For those that have had standard builder kitchen islands, the side that faces away from the kitchen is usually finished in a paper veneer of some kind. Yes, that side of the island you see below is not actual wood grain. It is fancy paper stuff. Stuff that can not be stained. Woes, me. :( 

Kitchen Island - Mocking me because I can not stain that side of it.

The challenge was on! Beadboard? Paint? Wallpaper? Wood veneer in oak? Yes, to oak wood veneer! It is super thin and can be stained. Add some plinth blocks and fancy trim to the island and voila! 

Here is a close up shot.

I really, really wanted to be done, so contact cement was used to attached everything! Veneer, plinth blocks and trim. Probably not the best or first choice for most woodworkers, but it worked. A standard "J" roller was used to apply the veneer to the island. This helped to ensure no air bubbles.

Here is a side by side of the kitchens before and after.

Kitchen - Before and After

Kitchen and Dining - Before and After

What do you think of the kitchen makeover?

Thankfully, our new home does not need to have any cabinets stained or painted (that was a criteria for me). Course now I am building furniture with my husband, and those need to be painted and sometimes sanded. My arms are sore tonight from manually sanding our latest building project. *sigh*

Julie

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