Reclaiming Our Home–The Final Chapter

You may recall, I went on my quest of Reclaiming Our Home last year.   This started off with a little painting in the living room, that then turned into a complete kitchen make over (in two parts) and finished up with the master bedroom and Lindsey’s room.

By the time I’d done all of that I had depleted my energy, enthusiasm and funds.   I promised Olivia I’d do her room this summer.   This project was at the top of my things to do list for the summer.  

When we first bought the house in 2008, I put up this border, to cover the existing border and viola!, Olivia’s room was ready.

It was the perfect princessy, little girl room.   Who knew seven years would race by and my little girl would suddenly be a “tween”?

The first thing to go was the border, and under it was this border.   The princessy room had previously housed a boy.

Once the borders were down, I painted KILZ on the green to make it easier to cover with the light new color.  For the record, one can get quite the buzz from working with KILZ in a closed room, ahem.

I’m a huge fan of Valspar paints.   Olivia picked “Beach Sparkle” for her walls and then “Icy Blue” for the contrast color.   Once she picked the colors, I decided to do all the walls in the Beach Sparkle, and then do the furniture and shelves in the Ice Blue.

The Icy Blue is VERY light blue, almost more of a mint than a blue.  However, when the furniture was finished and placed in the room, it picked up on the other blue, and gave the furniture a bit of a glow in the dark look.

This old dresser has a story of it’s own.  Check it out here.

I decided to keep the fuchsia curtains and I think it adds a nice pop of color to contrast the blues.   I’ll be keeping my eyes open for a new comforter set on the clearance racks.

I say this is the final chapter, but who knows. Neither bathroom has been updated, yet, ahem.

Reclaiming Our Home–The Kitchen, Phase 2

Remember back a few months ago, when my kitchen looked like this?

Then after some elbow grease, and a lot of paint, it looked like this?

Well, now we’ve moved onto Phase 2 (which SHOULD be the final stage) of the kitchen makeover.   It started out with some free, used cabinets…in a pile.

And then…there was a bar made of pieces parts.

Hanging the wall cabinets was a challenge since I had to hold them in place until he secured them.   Yep, my upper back is sore already.   Once he had a couple of screws in the wall, I was able to break away and take some photos.

Then it was time to work on the counter top.   This doesn’t match the other counters, but I think once I paint the bar, it’ll really look cool.

Now it’s time for more painting.  I knew I wanted the wall cabinets white, to match all the others.  I wasn’t so sure about the bar.

First I painted on a couple layer of Kilz to cover the “pickle” finish, and the oak grain in the cabinets.  Let me just say, Kilz gives you quite the buzz…and headache.

Then I painted the wall cabinets and the support brackets on the bar in the same shade of white as the rest of the kitchen cabinets.

This is where I got nervous.   I decided to go ahead and paint the bar peacock blue.  After the first two coats of paint, it was looking like this. 

Then the husband went to Lowe’s and stumbled across some bead board, on clearance, yes!   Then it looked like this.

I decided I really liked the white beadboard on the bar.  I had the husband go ahead and trim it our and get it all finished up.  We added bar stools that totally contrast, but for $25 for the two, you can’t beat the price.  I may change the finish on them at some point. 

The front of the bar is currently blue.  I kind of like it, but haven’t made up my mind completely. 

Things I’d like to do in the future include:

~new lighting above the bar & sink
~add some greenery above the new wall cabinets
~new flooring.

But for now, we’re done.  And I’m good with that. 

A Little Pop of Color

This whole painting thing seems to be a bit addictive.  I think this is the last little pop of color I’m adding for a while though.

I bought this used makeup table 20 years ago, and it went into storage for a long time.  Then it became my printer table in the basement.

I suddenly decided to bring it into the sun porch as an accent piece, but the color just didn’t work at all.  I just happen to have a lot of paint on hand these days, ahem.

I think it turned out pretty good, don’t you?

Reclaiming Our Home–Punky Brewster’s Room

Lindsey has earned the nick-name of “Punky” as in “Punky Brewster”.  If you grew up in the 80’s, you know what I’m talking about.   Once you see her room, you’ll understand why the name suits her.

The entire Reclaiming Our Home thing has taken on a life of it’s own.  After removing the door that went from the kitchen into Lindsey’s room, I was forced to paint her room.  It wasn’t on my list for the summer, but it had to be done.  See what I mean?

Interestingly enough, I also found out, that after 6 years of living here…Lindsey hates yellow.  Who knew?

She picked a lively color of paint called “Watermelon Splash”.  Can’t you just see the glee in her face?

This is a wow kind of color.  She loves it.

The room had to be done in stages.  First we completed the “Watermelon Splash”, and let it dry for a couple of days.  The waiting process looked like this.

I then realized that the new wall didn’t look as good on this side as it did on the kitchen side.   The husband said let it go…but that’s just not how I roll.   I then broke out the electric sander.

The electric sander created a lovely pink dust cloud that landed on every single thing in the room.   It was just oh.so.fun cleaning that up, not.  I washed the walls down, and the floor, and the dresser…you get the point.  But it looked MUCH better after it was repainted.

Then we added some “Fashion Flame” circles, because really this room needs more color, right?

Lindsey helped to trace the circles onto the wall.  We used the largest mixing bowl I own for this step.   Then came the time consuming job of taping off each circle.

A little “Fashion Flame”….and tada!

The circles were then painted with dry erase.  Two weeks from now there will be writing on the walls.    Grins.

Reclaiming Our Home–The Kitchen

The kitchen was the biggest task in Reclaiming Our Home.  When we bought our house  in 2008, the kitchen was the one thing I hated and vowed to changed right away.   Six years later and I finally kept my word.

I consulted with the hubby and got him to agree to a pretty drastic color change.   Once I had him semi on board, I consulted with my best friend Donna, and she gave me some great ideas of ways to do things, and ways to make the colors work.

Phase 1 of the make over was to remove all the overly busy wallpaper.   I used a mixture of fabric softener and hot water in a spray bottle to loosen the paper.  This took three days.  Below are the “before photos”.

Phase 2- remove the door in the above photo and replace it with a wall.  This took an entire week, start to finish.  You can read about that task here.

Phase 3 was to remove the cabinet doors/drawers and hardware and repaint all the cabinets.  Here’s a photo to show you the contrast in the old and new colors.

Instead of buying new hardware I used Rustoleum 2X Ultra Cover spray paint in “Metallic Oil Rubbed Bronze” to  paint all the old hardware. This step alone saved me $100.   The first photo is before, the 2nd is the after.

Phase 4 – applying the wall color.  Above the cabinets, and on the newly installed bead board, I used Glidden’s Peacock Blue.  The remaining walls were painted Pebble Gray (by Glidden) and the cabinets and trim were painted Winter White, also by Glidden.   Typically, I prefer Valspar paints, but they didn’t have anything comparable to the peacock blue.

Here’s a shot of the bead board with the first coat of paint on it.

My husband did an amazing job of cutting the bead board and making it fit perfectly, even around the funny edges!

The color in the “after” photos is off.  The blue on the soffit looks like a navy blue, but it’s not.  If you look at the color on the bead board above the stove, you can see the true color.  The lighting just isn’t working with me.

I still need to add another set of cabinets, along the grey wall above, change the overhead light fixture and the light fixture above the sink.  Those will have to wait a bit.  In the meantime, I’ll work on finding some finishing touch decorations.

Total Makeover Cost:  $152

Bead board $15 (from the Restore)
Drywall & Joint Compound $36
Paint $98
Spray pain $4

The Beauty Around Me

I’ve been swamped with this kitchen makeover.  Hours and hours each day I toil away trying to make it all come together.   I realized today, that while I’m working on things like this…..

…I’m missing things like this.

So I spent some time outside today, soaking up the sunshine and the beauty of God’s creation..and enjoying the company of my faithful sidekick.