Kitchen Makeover

 I've been wanting to give my kitchen a "new look" for quite some time now. When we bought our Colonial-style home over 24 years ago, I had big plans to "update" the kitchen almost immediately. But, being newly-weds, we had little money to invest and so our kitchen didn't see any changes for MANY years. Except for removing the linoleum to find hard wood underneath, adding a new sink area and 1 set of cabinets (the original kitchen had NO cabinets), it has looked pretty much the same as it did when we first walked through those doors the week before we got married in August of 88'. The wood finish throughout had a heavily-lacquered, shiny-look to it that was "all the rage" back then. Ugh!  I lived with it for YEARS because, well, no one paints over beautiful, natural wood that's "original" to the home that was built in 1904....right?

Well...I took back my kitchen!!! (It only took me 24 years)!
With a can of paint & primer, several tubes of caulking and a few other things in my bag of tricks,
here's the transformation that began last Fall....... 

In my excitement to get started painting, I did not take a "before" wide shot picture of the kitchen. I know, "Before and After Projects 101". But here's a picture taken about 10 years ago. It will give you a good idea of what that lovely, heavily-lacquered wood looked like....

Then......

Now....

I DID take "before" pictures of the rest of my kitchen projects though. 

My kitchen island before.....

...and after....

Swinging door from kitchen to dining room "before"....

...and "after"....

We have several "doors" in the kitchen....1 from the kitchen to the dining room, 1 down to the basement and 1 is the door of our food pantry. That's a whole lotta plain, creamy white paint to look at so I decided to add some "texture" by using these panels of faux pressed tin.

You can buy them by the sheet at your local hardware store/home design center. I found mine at Loewe's.

Using the heavy-duty double-sided adhesive tape that is sold with the sheets, I taped them, patch-work-style to the doors.....

...a coat of primer....

...and 2 coats of paint.....

...and ouila!

(Food Pantry Door)

(Door to basement)

...and random photos of the entire kitchen.... 

Primer: "Kilz 2"...no need to sand even the heaviest-laquered finishes.

Trim Paint: "Bone White" by Ben Moore....semi-gloss finish.

Wall Paint: "Pony Tail" by Ben Moore...egg shell finish.