The Kitchen Transformation

After having tile pulled up in the kitchen and putting down the same hardwood that was in the living room, I couldn't stand how matchy matchy the kitchen cabinets were to the floor. I definitely did not want to spend a bunch of money replacing the cabinets so I decided to paint them. Annie Sloan's chalk paint is amazing!! It took about 3 cans. Don't worry about the first coat, it looks horrible! But after you apply the second you'll see the light :)

So of course the "domino effect" kicked in. The cabinets looked better which made our counter tops look horrible. We decided to use our Amex points to get Home Depot cards and install the preformed counter tops. Installing counter tops is a DIY project but definitely one of the hardest ones we have taken on. We also removed the original backsplash and added a great peel and stick metal tile.

At this point I thought we were done but my husband convinced me to upgrade our appliances to stainless steel. Geez! Have you seen the prices of appliances these days??? I couldn't deal. So, I got on Craigslist and found a local appliance refurbishing company- we were able to buy our stove which retails for over $2,000 for $499 including delivery, installation and warranty. We sold our stove for $200 so we technically were only out of pocket $299. Woo hoo! We did the same for the refrigerator and dishwasher.

Because our kitchen is small, I wanted to have an island but I knew we would need to have something narrow. I found this Ikea kitchen island on Craigslist and painted it (again with chalk paint)

To top it all off we replaced the big fluorescent light in the middle of the kitchen with track lights and our kitchen was complete!!!

Old Copper Utensils

I found these vintage copper utensils at a thrift store. After some quick research, I learned that they sell for $50-75. Although they were in really bad shape, I figured at $5 for the lot they were worth a shot. Here's how they turned out.