Tuesday, May 02, 2006

My weekend=My "new" kitchen!

So...this post is to inform you of how Patrick and I, along with our dear friends Britani and Kevin, spent our weekend--redoing the kitchen!!! Please indulge me with some before and after photos:
Ok, so notice the beautiful fruit wallpaper, the mongo fan/light fixture, the overwhelming 80's feel... (If you can't tell, click the image so that you can see it all on a detailed level.) Now, let me just preface all these details by emphasizing how grateful I am to have a house, a kitchen, etc... I was determined to not jump in and change anything when we first bought the house because of several reasons: 1)Most of our available funds went toward the down payment; 2) My sister got married a month later; 3)I then planned a wedding and got married. In addition, I wanted to spend some time in the house and decide what was important to me and unimportant. The kitchen was fine and spacious, but as the months went on, I became certain of one thing: The fruit had to go! So, our weekend went as follows:

1. Choosing a paint color: Home Depot's "Shy Blossom," a pleasant green hue that both brightens and calms the room.

2. Removing the existing wall fungus (consisting of 4, and in some places 5, layers of wallpaper). This process consisted of renting a steamer, scraping, sanding, using emulsifying glue, spacling (sp), sanding some more, and, sigh, FINALLY painting. Actually, the painting turned out to be the easiest part...

3. Replacing our white ceramic plastic knobs with knobs with a dull nickel finish.

4. Changing out light fixtures (Patrick, again, impressed me with his handyman skills).

5. Purchasing new kitchen chairs (on sale at Pier 1) to go with our lovely hand-me-down ratan table base from the beloved parentals

6. Purchasing chair cushions (again at Pier 1)

7. Purchasing a curtain valance

8. Purchasing some wall art to complete the overall mood of the room... And TADA!!!













Well, it may not be quite Trading Spaces, but we are very pleased. Come over, and we'll cook you dinner! One note: We definitely underestimated how long this project would take... so if you ever consider putting up wallpaper, call me so that I can talk you out of it. We are going to take some time off before Project number 2...

5 comments:

Cary said...

Very nice. Sure beats my old card table and folding chairs.

I'd love to make dinner reservations some time.

Katie said...

I love the kitchen! You guys did a great job and I really like the color you chose!

khovater said...

Well done, it looks great. After you talk to those folks that are wanting to hang wallpaper, send them to me. The kitchen and all 3 bathrooms had hidious wall paper that was glued straight to the sheetrock. Wallpaper=crap.

Jesse Faris said...

Yea! It looks GREAT! Love the color!

Ashley @ pure and lovely said...

sweeeeeet. looks like the green in our house a little!