Kitchen Facelift {Phase 2}: The Plan

One of our biggest home improvement projects to date was when we did the kitchen facelift just over two years ago. If you remember, we live in a small basic builder home and we painted the basic oak cabinets....which has been so great for our family. I love it because it's not all white, not all black....it's a happy medium and you basically can add any color and/or pattern to a black and white scheme and it just works. When we did the facelift, the footprint of the kitchen remained the same and now that I'm ready to do the second string of updates, once again I'm keeping within the existing footprint. There just isn't a budget for a full gut job so that it why we are doing it in phases/layers and within our means.

This is right after the Phase 1, or better known as the Kitchen Facelift 2 years ago (click HERE to see all the befores and afters):

 Thanks to the beauty of Pinterest, I have collected about 77 pins on dining areas. Naturally, a reoccurring theme emerged.....built in seating. I started thinking about how the eat-in part of our kitchen could be utilized more efficiently, give me more storage, a pantry, and built in seating.

What I like about this picture is the symmetry. Of course I do not have tall ceiling like this, but I like the seating flanked by cabinets with a rectangular table. 

This picture demonstrates another great use of space that I could incorporate. L-shaped seating and a round table. The only thing about this I don't like is that the people sitting on the end of the banquette wouldn't actually be able to access the table. In my small space, this wouldn't quite work. I still love everything in the picture though.

In this picture, even though it's a much bigger house...the door and window are set up nearly like it is here. Another great option...and how cute are the framed flip-flops!

All pictures from HERE

So from this view back, you can see what I have to work with. Beyond the peninsula, it's approximately a 10X11 area. If funds were unlimited, I would bump out the back of that wall, make this whole area the kitchen, get rid of the peninsula, and add some lovely French doors...but that just isn't going to happen-so I am going to work with what is here.

As painful as it may be, I am going to store my hutch for a while. I considered selling it for a while, but I think I'm going to hold on to it for a little while...Justin and I worked really hard on that thing! The reality of it is...there is a lot of wasted space around the hutch.

So here is what I've been toying around with. Keep in mind that the right side of this drawing is the existing kitchen and not changing at all....and yes, I realize that this is old school, doing it on paper ;) So, originally, I thought I would butt up the banquette along the back wall and peninsula and add cabinetry and a pantry on the left. Use a round table and 2 (maybe 3) different chairs. Then I thought it looked too tight even though this is the rough drawing and not to scale-I went back to the drawing board.

This is the final plan to scale. By centering the banquette on the back wall, I can put full base cabinetry (30") on either side, the pantry (24"X72") by the back door and some sort of custom thing in between that I will have to call a cabinet maker in for.

  This also includes new counter tops that I have been patiently waiting for almost 9 years for. I've thought long and hard about what to get, and I originally thought quartz...but in my heart of hearts I want marble, and after pricing both, marble is in our future! I think that it would look fantastic with the base cabs black and the uppers white-as they are. I'm hoping to find a vintage round table or talk Justin's Grandma out of one she has (it's an extra one). 2 or 3 new chairs, I've already listed my existing painted ones on Craigslist.  I want to add in some more pot lights and I found a fantastic vintage fixture that I will be using (see below)

Aside from the counters and the cabinet on the left, we are hoping to do this ourselves. Now that the plan is established, it's time for the real work to begin! It will most likely go pretty slow, and I'm not going to put any time constraints on myself.

Here is the vintage fixture I found-I cannot wait to incorporate this!!

So. On the subject of marble, I want honed but my MIL thinks polished. Do any of you have experience with the pros and cons of marble? I need some input!

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Thank you all for the love and support! I want to talk to you about chemo stuff, but later...

Christmas Kitchen 2011

I was really excited about adding some touches of Christmas to the kitchen because it's the first Christmas since the Kitchen Facelift. Since I did the facelift at the beginning of this year, this is my first Christmas with the black and white cabs. I have really, really enjoyed the changes and adding merry touches have been really fun.

We are in the throws of hot chocolate season here in MO (it's even suppose to snow today!) so I set up a 'hot chocolate' bar. Honestly, this counter is typically our 'catch-all' counter, so I cleaned it off once and for all and vow to keep it clean. What better way to keep it clutter free than to fill it with all the makings of a fine cuppa hot chocolate. The kids really love it, and really, I love it too. About 12 dollars in supplies, and everything else I had on hand.

Looking in to the living room:

On the dining table, just a simple centerpiece with cylinder vases and cedar. I raised one up on a vintage milk glass pedestal and tied some fun stripped ribbon around the glass. You might remember the linen table runner I made for my Thanksgiving table. I really love the look of it for Christmas too, I think it adds a little elegance to an otherwise whimsical look.

Little Christmas touches on the other counter too, the green (leaf green from Krylon) I use all through the year looks nice with Christmas red.

Cute little musical snowman I received last year as a gift, so cute! His little gumdrops light up too! :)


I jazzed up the chalkboard door with a wreath and a merry Santa face, handcrafted felt poinsettias and gingerbread men.
If you have ever considered doing a chalkboard door, do it, we have really loved it.

The kitchen is not super big at all, the door leads to the garage and the laundry room is in the corner past the fridge. I'm hoping to give it a little facelift of it's own next month.

The centerpiece from the Yuletide Christmas tablescape found a home on top of the hutch. I wanted a little bit of greenery and that really did the job. With the super long branches, I was able to hang some paper stars. I hope to show you how to make the stars next week.

Looking in to the kitchen.

My little collection of Waterless Snow Globes are in the window sill, behind all that sunshine. :)

I recently made over an old painting into a chalk board, check out the 'before' HERE. I hung some paper punched and bottlecap garland over the corner and added a paper star. Logan is only tall enough to draw on the bottom, it's been a fun addition.

I hope you have enjoyed the little tour. Have questions? Just ask in the comments.

Joining Layla @ The Lettered Cottage

Need a design boost? For advice and guidance on style, contact me!

How I Did The Chairs

Well thank you all for all the loverly comments on the new-to-me chair transformations, they are already a great help to our family, I didn't even realize how much we needed them! I wanted to get into the deets of how I did them. For the primer, I used Rustoleum Clean Metal primer. Yes, you read that right...primer for metal. Why? Just cuz. No. I'm kidding....I discovered metal primer covers all sorts of slick surfaces from ceramics to well, chairs. It covers like a dream. You'll see. I get it at Walmart and it will be next to the 'Rusty Metal' primer, don't get that, get 'Clean Metal' primer, it's white. For the paint I used Valspar Gloss white. Have you seen that Valspar has a line of spray paints at Lowe's now? It's not a super new thing, I just think it makes sense, I use the Valspar line of paints often and now I like the spray paint too. I'm glad they've dabbled in the spray paint realm. If you are a spray paint fanatic like me, go check out all the different colors.

I considered buying a paint sprayer, but honestly, I just don't paint enough furniture to justify the expense. I did invest in a spray paint handle though, this baby is a gem! It was practically like using a sprayer! This really saved my hands, I think it was under three dollars. I highly recommend grabbing one.

Now typically I'm a Krylon girl, all the way, but this is a little different than spraying my latest knick knack. These are chairs that will be used, moved, hit, scraped, kicked, knocked over, dragged, jumped in, etc, because I live with a bunch of heathens boys. They are rough on furniture, especially that little one. I have used the Valspar spray paint before and noticed that the finish seems thicker, for lack of better word. It says that it is quick drying, I have to disagree with that....compared to Krylon, it took twice as long to dry. But that's ok, in my opinion, I traded dry time for durability. Oh, and look at the shine. That's what I was after. It says it has the 'perfect finish', I do agree with that.

On to the seats. The foam on the existing seats were pretty wimpy so I wanted to add some foam to beef the seats up. I bought the foam at Hobby Lobby, but I saw it at Walmart as well. I bought the 1" roll of foam and cut it out using the wood as a template.

I used linen to cover the seats in an oatmeal color. It's neutral but has lots of personality with texture. The only real challenge is making sure it is straight, but it wasn't too bad. I used the original fabric as a pattern and used a staple gun to attach. The corners were a bear...I tried to get them as neat and straight as I could and stapled a lot.

The piping, for me, made this project really special. I use a lot of green and when I found this fabric, I was really excited to figure out how to incorporate it with the chairs.
However, out of everything....this was my problem area. See, I'm not a seamstress. There is a reason why the word STRESS is in the word seamstress, because it can be stressful!

At first, I cut the green fabric on the bias. After doing some research I found that fabric goes around corners better if it is cut on the bias, so that's what I did. Plus, I thought the weave of the linen would be contrasted beautifully if the piping was biased. So I cut all my fabric, joined all the ends together, and proceeded to sew the piping.

Problem. The fabric kept twisting...it wasn't smooth, and was not tight around the piping. I was sick to my stomach not to mention mad. I did some more research. Found out that I should be using a piping foot on my machine. Along with doing research, I emailed Suzanne. She suggested that I might be pulling and stretching the fabric while sewing, causing it to twist. Well, I didn't want to invest in a piping foot (30.00) for a little bit of piping for six chairs. SO. I decided to re cut all the fabric NOT on the bias. Don't worry, I've come up with an idea to use up all of the fabric I didn't use...So here is how I sewed the piping, not on the bias, and with a zipper foot. :)
Cut 2 1/2-3" of fabric:

Fold piping into the center of the fabric and slip under zipper foot:

I found that letting it sew a little on the angle got it tight enough. With the fabric just cut (not on the bias) there was no stretching and the fabric didn't twist.

To attach the piping to the seat, I used the staple gun, right over the linen. I started at the back and stapled around. I used my hand to feel the edges and flipped it over every so often to make sure it was looking good.






And look at this, the corners turned just fine! The bias cut wasn't even needed anyway! Although, I am trying to stop being so anal about the piping weave and the linen weave not contrasting like I wanted...I know no one would have noticed but me! :)

It turned out great and I love how it gave it a really finished look, and of course a great pop of color.

I was concerned about getting the piping to fit around the arms on the captains chairs, but it was completely fine! I just had to push it down a little bit and it looks really natural.

The groove in the wood looks like it wanted some piping! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have any additional questions, let me know in the comments.



6 Chairs...........Goodwill
Spray Primer.......Walmart
Spray Paint...........Lowe's
Spray Paint Handle...............Lowe's
Cotton cording for piping......Walmart from Wrights

Foam..............Hobby Lobby
Linen..........Fabric.com (click HERE)
Green Fabric...........Walmart



Did you miss the 'Before' pictures? Click HERE.

Wanna see a video on creating piping with a piping foot? Click HERE.

Pfister Review And Giveaway

Do you remember the Kitchen Facelift that I conquered at the beginning of the year? If you do, than you also remember the list of things that I had on my wish list.....back splash, counter top, sink and new faucet. Well, I get to mark two of those things off my list, thanks in part to Pfister Faucets.

When they wrote to me and asked if I would do a product review, I gladly accepted, knowing that this opportunity was really a blessing, a new faucet was not in the near future for us. Just to give you an idea of what we had before.....A cruddy, leaky faucet and a stained and chipped sink.....hello reality! :)

....and this is what we have now. A beautiful new sink and beautiful faucet to match. A new faucet deserves a new sink right? :) So we went shopping for a new sink. Pfister gave me a choice of four faucets to choose from and I chose the Elevate model. Not too modern and not too traditional either.

We have lived with the Elevate for over a month now and there are two features that really stand out to me. First of all, my favorite feature is the pull out sprayer. I can't get over the ease of use and the button easily switches the water from stream to spray. I guess I like the integration of it, it's extremely functional, and it has a toggle so it moves around easy too. So now instead of looking at a sprayer head on the side of the sink, I get to enjoy the convience of the hand soap dispenser instead (another nice feature).

Of course when Logan found out about the sprayer, he just thought it was fun to press the button!

The second thing I like about the Elevate is the location of the handle. I can't really explain why it's much more functional on the side, but it is just easier to use. Maybe it's because you're not reaching over the faucet to turn on the water, at any rate, who ever thought of putting it on the side is genius.

This is another interesting feature the Elevate has (though I keep it on the lowest setting) you can adjust the height, if you are, say, filling large pots, or need the faucet up out of the way. It has a button on the front and you just pull up on it, but like I said, I have hardly used that feature.

I am tickled with the new additions to the Kitchen Facelift and I want to thank Pfister Faucets for giving me this opporutinity to use and review one of their faucets, it is top quality!

Wait, don't go! It's not over yet! Would you like a chance to receive an Elevate Faucet for yourself?

Pfister Faucets is sponsoring a giveaway too! I think this is fantastic, I can recall from reading some of your comments (from the facelift) that this kind of upgrade would be a dream too. As you might know, I am still recovering from my recent surgery, so I want to keep this super simple....leave a comment on this post. Yep, that's it, I don't feel like running around so I don't want you to have to either ;) But, if you would like to become a follower, that's great too, no pressure. :)

If you want your name in the hat, just leave me a comment. Just to be clear, the giveaway is for the faucet only. I will let random.org select a lucky name next Monday (May 16). I'm going to leave this giveaway open all week, join in!

P.S. Have a wonderful Mother's Day!