Sunday, May 6, 2012

Kitchen Makeover ~ Update 1

Happy Sunday everyone!

Wow it's been a while since I posted anything. My husband and I started our kitchen makeover and I've been terrible with time management since we started. I'm going to have to start organizing my days better so I have time for painting, cleaning, cooking AND blogging.

As I said, we started our kitchen makeover, and it is going slowly....and that is fine. We don't have any set date when we want things to be finished, so we just do some here and there as time and weather allows.

One of the major changes we are making is to paint our dark, 1970's cabinets...white.
This intimidates me to no end, so I decided to start with something easier, the opposite side of the kitchen, which is the little dining table area.
Here is a before shot:

It's very...uh....brown.
Everything is original. Ray's mom purchased the mobile home brand new back in 1974, I believe it was, and there were not many changes made. Original paneling, windows, flooring, lighting, cabinets...pretty much everything in the kitchen with the exception of the refrigerator and stove were original when we moved in.
And surprisingly....everything is in really good condition. 
But like I said....it's brown, and from the 1970's.

So here is where we pretty much are today:



It was not in our budget to re-drywall, so I filled the grooves in the paneling, and primed and painted the top portion of the wall. You can see the rough joint from where 2 sections of paneling met on the right side, but other than that, the wall came out pretty smooth, and with the decor and things that will be up on the wall, it won't be all that noticeable. 
Also, the color is much prettier than it is showing up. We have had no sunshine for DAYS, and I can't use a camera properly, so it is what it is...haha!
I got the paint at Walmart, it's called Spanish Olive, and I got it in a satin finish. I just love it!
Here is a closer shot of the wall in contrast with the wainscoting:

Ah the wainscoting!
I have always loved this stuff.
I painted all of it in a bright white, semi-gloss, and it has made such a difference in the room already.
I bought it from Home Depot's website.
I was VERY happy with Home Depot. Ordering was easy, shipping was within like 3 days, and nothing was damaged upon arrival. If we are in need of other supplies, etc that we can't purchase in town, I will definitely be ordering from them again.
PLUS....if you spend over $45, shipping is FREE! So I saved about $56 on shipping.
Happy dance!
It was $46.00 a bundle...each bundle came with an 8-foot baseboad, an 8-foot chair rail, and enough of the bead board planks to cover 8 feet.
I bought 4 bundles....and it was enough to cover the entire side of the kitchen, plus the little partition that we boxed in on the right side of this photo:


and we had enough to cover the living room side of the island.


Originally, according to my husband, the side of the island was carpeted with orange shag carpeting, which used to be through the entire living room (oh my), and was later carpeted with the blue/grey which we still have in the living room.
After tearing the carpet off the island, we discovered....surprise...more brown paneling:

(My daughter.
I tell her not to act a fool when I'm taking pictures, because I WILL use them.
She doesn't listen.)

Here is the island after Ray put up the wainscoting (this still needs to be painted white):

What I still need to do to the dining area wall:
Put up corner molding and ceiling trim.
Find a narrow strip of molding that will match to put directly under the window.
Paint window frame (white)
Stencil wall on left side.
Put up new outlets, switches, switch plates.
Hang curtains.
Decide on and hang wall decor.

 So far this has been a lot of fun. Every day we work on it, it changes and looks better, even though it is a slow process.
I'll take more photos as we progress..and post another update soon.

Have a great week everyone!


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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

More Giveaway Wins

Hi everyone!

Within the past couple weeks I was lucky enough to win 2 different giveaways that I entered.  :)

The first giveaway I won was hosted by Mostly Food and Crafts. It was for 2 coupons for 8 O'Clock Coffee plus a travel mug.
I took the coupons to Walmart and was able to get two 12-ounce bags of coffee with them.
Love the travel mug also...it's a nice size, and keeps my coffee nice and hot.  :)




The second giveaway I won was hosted by At Home With K and was for a $50 credit towards a wall stencil at Cutting Edge Stencils. It was so hard to choose from all of the wonderful stencils that were available, but I decided on the Spring Songbirds one...and will be putting this on my kitchen wall once painting is done.
stencil-tree-branch

I want to thank everyone for hosting the giveaways and supplying the prizes.
I was so happy to win, and I love everything!!

Have you won any giveaways lately?

Have a wonderful day!



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April 2012 Recap

Hi everyone!

I can't believe that it's May already....it just seems like I was celebrating my daughter's 18th birthday on April 5th, and now the whole month is over already?

Here's what I was up to in April, in case you missed anything.


I posted detailed cleaning lists for the bedroom, living room and dining room.
(I still need to post the detailed list for the kitchen, which will be one day this week, so check back)





Sterilite 12-Quart Dish Pan, Red,12-Pack
I shared a little tip on how to hide your dirty dishes.





I showed how I took an old lazy susan and a candle holder and made a 'new' accent piece for my kitchen.




I turned a thrifted spice rack into a cute set of vases.




I updated a bottle of vanilla with a reused bottle and a printed label.




Our Grass Is The Greenest illustrated Art Print
I won the cutest art print in a giveaway.




I made some cute shaped soaps using cookie cutters and bar soap from the dollar store.

I'm hoping to have more to blog about this month, as my husband and I have started our kitchen makeover, and I've been taking lots of photos of the progress.

Have a great week!


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