Sometimes it takes a lot to see the potential of a space, image or idea. I find this especially true when dealing with living spaces. Every place I have ever lived, since moving out at the age of 18, I have worked hard to make the environment my own.
I recently bought a home and the projects have been endless since day one. The house was on the market for well over a year and was quite a bit of a fixer-upper. It had great solid bones, but it was hard to see past that when taking a tour of the dated, but well preserved, building.
The minute my partner and I walked into our current home, we knew it was supposed to be ours. We had looked at many, many homes over the years and this was the perfect space despite the dated, rundown décor. The kitchen in particular was a deal breaker for most. Half of the appliances were old and broken, the cabinets were dark and dirty, the counter and backsplash were a bright neon tangerine color, and the floors were Mexican-inspired Spanish tiles. This kitchen was a dream come true for someone living in the eighties. Our goal was to update the old fashioned space on a budget.
The first and easiest task was to paint the cabinets and change the hardware. A simple sand paper run and a coat of primer and paint transformed the cabinets into something from this century. A coat of a white paint brightened up the small space and really made it feel fresh and clean. Replacing the matching wood cabinet pulls with simple sleek stainless ones updated the whole feel of the kitchen. This was a great and easy way to inexpensively change the look and feel of the room without major demolition.
We spent most of our budget on new appliances, so replacing the countertops would have to wait. I found a great countertop painting kit that resembles the look of granite. I went with a black granite kit that had specks of metallic silver to tie in with the stainless appliances. I knew this was going to be a temporary fix for the counters, so if it didn’t look as good as the kit promised, this was only going to be something to buy us a few years until we could replace the entire surface.
Next, we focused on changing out the laminate orange backsplash. Without tearing apart the entire kitchen, we found this great wallpaper to plaster right over the laminate. We get more compliments on this then any part of the kitchen. And the funny part is that this was the easiest and fastest fix for any of our projects.
Below is a pic of the before and after. The entire transformation took about two months and the finishing touches are still ongoing!
