How to turn your Kitchen into Posh on the cheap!

How to turn your Kitchen into Posh on the cheap!

by Liv | Published on March 27th, 2009, 3:37 pm | Advice

Many people wonder if I've lost my mind. Friends are giving me that look, like I'm completely insane not looking for work and running off to Cardiff. I tell them I'm taking some time off.... and frankly I'm getting a lot done. Walls are patched ready for some paint, some plumbing that was needed is done, did a full synthetic oil change on the "Tortoise" (Taurus) and replaced the thermostat. Ordered and had the new fridge delivered. Installed the new home theater. The last two weeks I've been working on the Kitchen cabinets. It's a lot of work, but it's paying off big time. I have to strip each one, clean it, sand it, re-paint it and then seal it. It's a big change in our Kitchen compared to the "Granny" wood stained cabinet from the 1980s.

Here's the old cabinets and their "Get off my lawn" knobs, handles and hardware.

Here's a finished set of drawers on the other side of the Kitchen with their brushed stainless look hardware. Using a "Ebony" cabinet paint, I really like the new look and can't wait till it's all done!

With it raining, I've had to slow down my assembly line... Here's a couple cabinet doors I'm working on right now.

And of course the new fridge. It's much bigger than the 10 cu. ft. model I was planning to buy, but I couldn't pass up this deal on a stainless look fridge with the same power consumption as the smaller model. Using Lowes 10% mover's coupon, I got the thing for $450 delivered, brand new.

All in all, the cabinet process has been a learning experience. I thought I could do it cheaper then what it's costing but it's still not too bad. Paint, brushes, drop-cloth and mistakes have cost me around $100-$150 dollars. You can really go crazy on the cabinet hardware, as some of the designs are $5.00 a piece and even in my small kitchen, I need 9 knobs, and 12 handles.

I'm so darn glad it's done. Excuse the walls as Shannon has vowed to take over and paint the walls now.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

In addition we were watching the movie "No Reservations" where she had a commercial grade restaurant rack in her home. It made perfect sense, and we found one at Wal-Mart for $50.00

The Situation Room board has found a new home as a home message center to add to the commercial nature of the kitchen.

You'll notice the final touch (which hopefully looks better once the walls are painted) was getting this old photo retouched and framed. It's of my great grandmother who worked as a chef for 18 years in the restaurant kitchen. It was amazing find at Grandma's house... and has already made it's way in to the book. I had no idea it ran in my family....

That looks a lot better. Congrats.

But you do know you'll have to replace the brass colored hinges with black. They stand out a bit.

There not perfect, but under fluorescent light you can't tell the imperfections... for the first time I've ever attempted something like this, it came out well

Shan began the second phase of the kitchen yesterday. The color is "Lion" which we're pronouncing "Lee-On". It was Shan's pick, and honestly I kind of like it. Ren calls it Macaroni and Cheese.... I call it the Hazard tape kitchen... but whatever... it's got a "funk" that all of us really like it....

Now if only I can find a huge stencil of the Welsh Dragon for the living room wall....

This was the kitchen as we cleaned it up and began taping it.

Here's the first coat.

Here, most of the painting is done. I decided to do some last minute patching of an old CATV line I had in the kitchen, and it will be painted over shortly.

Here you can see almost a finished product. Yet another patch of the old curtain rods... and clearly it's time for me to start updating the electrical switches so they match... I've been replacing 1 or 2 every time we hit Wal-Mart but they just stand out now.

Starting to look good! I got to put some of the stuff back on the counters this afternoon. I had been wanting a canister set and found them at Habitat for Humanity last week for $6.00! What a steal! They look really good in there!