Beadboard is Beautiful!! {mini-kitchen remodel series}

Things were pretty busy in August, so I didn't have much time to work on my kitchen. So here is a refresher, since it's been quite a while since I started!! Remember the BEFORE?


Here we are today!!

I absolutely love it. I love the way it looks (please note: I still need to paint the baseboards black!! I'm not leaving them white! And I also need to get some stuff on my walls!) I also love it because we did it in a nice paint that cleans up so easily.

As for my cabinets... well, I haven't had time to truly tackle them. My first two methods of removing the paint were painstakingly slow and discouraging. Once I get preschool underway and life running somewhat smoothly (does that ever happen?), I intend to get working on it again. I'm hoping within the next few weeks to get started on it! I thought I'd share the current progress.

Beadboard in progress! {mini-kitchen remodel series}

So after my dad helped me cut and prime the bead board, I sanded it. Then, last Saturday my BIL (bro-in-law), Jake, came over and sprayed the bead board with this beautiful (and eek - expensive) enamel oil based black paint.

We had it all placed so beautifully outside, dont cha think?

Here it is at it dries. Lovely.

He came and did a second coat Saturday evening. Then it needed a good 24 hours to cure. Tuesday my daddy-o came and put the boards up. We are now waiting for his neighbor (and fixer upper extraordinaire) to come and do the chair rail and base boards. When that is done, I'll show you the final product. It is lookin good so far and I am already lovin it!

As for the cabinets... that is a whole different story {{grrr}} for a different day...

The Bee in My Bonnett {mini Kitchen Remodel Series}

My mother told me I've got a bee in my bonnet.

You've probably forgotten about my the inspiring kitchens I got excited about. But I haven't. It's been brewing in my head for a while now. Finally last weekend I decided it was time to get going on this before school starts (when life becomes total chaos).

I took some "before" pictures - although I took them a little too late because I took most of the stuff off my walls to sell at the yard sale we had 2 weeks ago. When we bought the house 3 1/2 years ago, the kitchen was a light sage green color. I liked it fine, but had ALWAYS dreamed of a red kitchen (my favorite color is red). I've truly enjoyed it, but I was ready for something different. So here is my BEFORE:

I had just begun to decide on which color to paint, and then I remembered to take a "before" picture. That is why you see a blob of paint on the red wall.

This week my Daddy Dearest and I have worked on painting the walls. I painted the table wall "Charro", and did the other 3 walls two shades lighter. It was then I realized that the lighter shade was too light for me. So I repainted the door/window wall the darker shade. I'm glad I did. And I may still just paint everything that color. I'm going to wait until I get the cabinets painted black though. So here is where we are now. My kitchen is a wreck right now, and I was too pooped to clean them for a stinkin picture. So here it is... although most of the mess is paint mess (understandably so, of course).

You can see that my cabinets need a lot of work (a lot of scratched off paint!). I took one of the cabinet doors off and took it to Kwals, my favorite paint store. The paint guy gave me directions to get job done right, and assured me I would have a lot of sanding to do! Clean. Sand, prime. Sand, prime. And sand again! Paint, paint, paint. Sounds fun and exciting, doesn't it!?

So instead of our Friday Night Date, we stayed home and I cleaned the cabinets with ammonia and water. I've NEVER cleaned with ammonia before and am amazed at what a great cleaner it is! As I was painting, I noticed how dirty the ceiling above my stove was - well, the ammonia cleaned that up lickity split! I like ammonia. It's amazing.

Also, today my Dad and I went to Lowes and got the wainscoting (bead board) for my kitchen (remember I'm painting it black I'm so excited!!!). I want to get it done ASAP because I think it'll keep me motivated to get the cabinets done quickly!

So this is what I've been working on this week... little by little. Slower than I prefer, but what can a girl do with a newborn and 5 other kidlets?! (Actually, they've been so busy playing "Frog Snorts" outside all week with cousins, they've stayed out of the way).

AND - I'm happy to report that I'm only one day behind on my Book of Mormon reading! It has been so neat reading it this way... the stories flow together so nicely and things make more sense to me! I love it and I love the Book of Mormon! It has truly been a blessing to me... which makes it a blessing to my family as well, because I know I am a better mom because of it! Alma and Ammon, and Aaron and their "brethren" ROCK!

Off to bed with ya now...