If These Floors Could Talk: The Kitchen

Hello Darling,

We’ve all been there, the feeling of constantly chasing after something you don’t necessarily need but you really want it. We follow celebrities and social media stars with their high gloss filters and to-die-for backdrops. It’s intoxicating. It’s obsessive…it’s why we have Pinterest.

I love that inspiration from so many different perspectives can be easily found through social media. Usually, I can turn that admiration into an energy to better myself and my surroundings. I often save ideas for vacations, fashion styles, décor I like or a color pallet that speaks to me. I save DIY ideas for how to make my home feel updated without the expensive price tag. It’s hard sometimes to fight the “but I want it now” feeling, but the satisfaction of working hard & saving up for something makes it that much more worthwhile.

I strive to take action in making my sanctuary really feel like my own. I want to share that love & attention to detail because I’m proud of the work I put into the space. The thing that’s easily missed through a lens, though, is the hard work it takes to get to that finished point. My husband & I work hard at making this house our home. We penny pinch the f*** out of our budget to get what we want. Home ownership isn’t always easy, there are more hurtles than you can ever be prepared for but all of the blood, sweat, tears and money we put into it brings us that much closer to the ultimate vision for our home.

My husband and I have been making yearly lists of goals for the house since we purchased it. Usually this list consists of projects we want to accomplish. Some of the larger jobs have been pushed back multiple times due to other unexpected expenses (and the pandemic hitting last year took out a big chunk of our finances) but overall we try to do what we can on our own. For this year, we had been planning a lot of DIY projects to update our main floor without costing an arm and a leg and a soul.

This was our list:

• Update the kitchen (including attached bonus room space) by doing the following-

  • Paint cabinets a bold blue

  • Update cabinet hardware

  • Paint the walls a more suitable color to match the rest of the house

  • Re-do countertops

• Update the half bath

  • New paint color to better match the rest of the house

  • Add a textured wall (such as wood planks)

  • Replace vanity

  • Update light fixtures

• Install luxury vinyl plank flooring on the entire main floor

It’s been a busy few months balancing renovations and work but we’re halfway through the list.

You can see more images on my Instagram

DIY Kitchen Face Lift

We painted the cabinets Deep Sea Diving and the walls Lilac Muse by Valspar.

The countertops were a DIY kit from Giani in Marble.

Step 1: Cabinet Paint + Hardware

The first hurtle was painting the cabinets. It took three days to complete. We chose a bold blue, Deep Sea Diving by Valspar. The blue turned out beautifully. We swapped the old silver hardware for gold plated brass pulls and knobs from Amazon, which saved us $$$ verses buying overpriced hardware at a big box store.

The door knobs are a hexagon pattern: Hexagon knobs | These knobs are heavy and add a touch of style in a very simple way. The screws that came with the set worked with our existing cabinet doors.

The drawer hardware are a sleek and thin pull bar | These pull bars are lighter in comparison to the hexagon knobs but work perfectly for our DIY project. While the screws this set came with didn’t work for our drawers, we were able to easily opt out to reuse the old screws from the former hardware and it fit perfectly without having to adjust holes.

Step 2: Wall Color

The next step was supposed to be the easiest but admittedly, it’s the largest task we haven’t finished yet.

We chose Lilac Muse by Valspar. The lighter color has brightened up our entire kitchen and made it feel like it was really coming out of the early 2000’s.

Step 3: Epoxy Countertops

The 3rd step was the most nerve wracking. We’ve never worked with epoxy before and we weren’t sure just how easy this process was really going to be for us. Thankfully, Giani gives you literally everything you need from tarps for coverage to every paint tool, practice boards and gloves.

We went with the white Marble Kit because we wanted to brighten up our space and get away from the dark countertops we had. I ordered two kits to ensure we had enough to cover the entire kitchen and spare room but one kit worked perfectly. Return process has been easy but does take a little while to complete.

We went for the three layers of primer as suggested. This was the most satisfying moment because it really gave way to just how much brighter the whole kitchen would feel once our kitchen project was completed.

The veining was also a lot easier to apply than originally anticipated. We worked as a team to accomplish the look: hubby would draw the line and I would go back over to distress and add the “natural” look.

The epoxy went over easier than anticipated and while the longest part of the whole endeavor was waiting for it to cure, it turned out much better than we ever thought. Not only does it give a practical protective layer it makes the entire surface look like actual marble.

The only other wrench in the kitchen plan is our current built-in coat/hook rack on one of the walls. We’re unable to pull the knobs out or the boards without damaging the wall but want to carry over the hexagon knobs to bring the entire space together. Once we have the time to work on fixing drywall, we’ll tackle this project.

Overall, we got much further than we had anticipated but had to postpone continuing our other to-dos because of the unexpected expenses of fixing our sidewalk. The sidewalk process started today but will take almost a week to complete. I’ll share more on that project later!

Until Next Time,

M.E.