kitchen beauty makeover

Well lookie, lookie who jumped on the decorating bandwagon.

( My brother and mom at his graduation)

My mother and brother have watched me the last couple of months fix up my little apartment and fix things around the house…and now they want a piece of the action! I knew they would be a fan of my DIY attitude sooner or later.

The family kitchen is a mess. Pumpkin colored walls, falling apart cabinets and clutter is just the tip of the iceberg. We have a lot of work to do, and only 2 weeks to do it. Why the time limit? Well, my grandparents live with us (the joy of Hispanic traditions lol) and they go on vacation every year for 2 weeks. They are totally against change and updating, so instead of fighting passionately arguing with them and convincing them that a little paint here and there is good, we always just wait until we drop them off at O’Hare to do anything. I think they’ve already gotten used to it though…I’m sure they’re just wondering what crazy shenanigans we’re up to this time.

But going back in time, a couple of weeks ago I was telling my mom we should give the kitchen a beauty makeover. Nothing drastic. No need to gut the kitchen because with this economy, who has the money?! But a little paint here, a little sanding there would make the kitchen look brand new.

So here’s our game plan…

1. Paint the kitchen

• We’re saying “so long suckaaaaaa” to those pumpkin walls and painting the kitchen the ever classic, Black & White. 3 Walls black 1 Wall white. Our reason for picking such a dark color is my grandma. She is primarily the reason for the kitchen update to begin with. She’s a “hardcore cooker” meaning….she makes a mess whenever she cooks! And with all the grease build up we think it would just make more sense to mask it.

2. Paint the Island/Stools

• The Island has a pecan color wood backing on it right now, so I’ll be sanding that down and painting it black. And the stools are going to be black too. I’m thinking I might do a design on them though…I don’t want too much black in there.

3. Cabinets

• In my family, storage cabinets=junkyard. There are some cabinets in the kitchen we don’t really use because none of us can really reach them, except my brother..he's actually tall. Curse the short gene! So they’ll just put junk in there. To avoid that I’m taking 2 cabinet doors off and putting decorative vases in that spot. When you walk in it will be a focal point.

4. Kitchen skirt

• The sink area is gross. More than a couple of times the sink has overflowed with water by people not paying attention (I have to admit I’ve done it more than 3 times lol) and the water has damaged the cabinets. More particularly, the faux drawer right under the sink. What is the point of that anyway?? Well instead of just replacing the 2 cabinets & the faux drawer I’m thinking of just making a skirt for it. The cabinets aren’t real wood, they’re white laminate and I can’t find them anywhere, and I think if I try and put wood cabinets they’re going to stick out like a sore thumb. So, I’ll find some nice black/white fabric and a skirt tutorial and make it. I’m hoping it looks as cool as it does in my head lol.

5. Paint the refrigerator

• Yes, you read right. I’m going to paint the fridge….and I’m painting it with black chalkboard paint!!! All of our appliances are stainless steel except the refrigerator, so it doesn’t quite fit in with the appliance family. Since we’re not buying a new fridge anytime soon I asked my mom if we could just paint it with the chalk board paint. She has been dying to use that paint, so she jumped at the chance. It will be put to good use when my little cousins come over. I’m also going to paint the door with the chalkboard paint….maybe. I’m not sure yet. I think I may need to keep them white to break the black up.

6. Window treatments

• Not sure about this one yet. I gotta go shopping and see if anything speaks to me. :)

7. Cork board Update

• We have a tiny corkboard swarming with menus, flyers, phone numbers, etc. that just doesn’t do the job. We needed a HUGE one….but with the prices being $50+ we decided we didn’t need one that badly lol. Well as you know it, a couple months ago my job was going to throw out this enormous corkboard….and as usual I asked “can I have it?” :)  It’s going to look perfectly on the bright white wall. I think I’ll paint/design it though. Maybe paint in some cutlery silhouettes so it doesn’t look so boring when it’s not filled.

I’m starting the little things today and I'll buy the paint sometime this week…so “before” pics of my kitchen will be coming soon. (I’m at work and I’m trying to be slick, so uploading kitchen photos might be frowned upon.)

For now, look at my inspiration…

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Check back for updates!
~ginny