Window Treatment

Last weekend I pulled out my trusty hem tape and the material I bought soooo long ago for the curtains in the kitchen and set to work making a valance for the window in the kitchen. Remember this poor lonely window that looks out on the backyard?

Well it was look a little bit pathetic and left out of the new kitchen reno so I decided it was time to make something pretty to spice it up. I had just bought a new roll of hem tape and had picked up a different brand thinking meh they are all the same. BIG mistake!!!! Apparently the brand I picked up this time (from Walmart) only works with the iron set to SUPER STEAMY. Alas my iron is old and does not cooperate very well on steam... in fact the water boils inside and then starts to bubble out of the steam holes getting the material and everything around wet! VERY annoying!!! BUT I was being stubborn and determined to get this curtain done so I worked around my irons inabilities. And within an hour I had this lovely little valance hanging in the window. I opted for a super short valance because now I have JUST enough fabric left over to make long curtains for the big window in the kitchen!

Isn't it cute!!

I'm off work tomorrow which is VERY exciting for me because I've had a crazy exhausting week and I plan on getting a bunch of Christmas crafts out of the way tomorrow!! I may even share a few with you next week. This weekend = installing heated flooring in the basement bathroom and dry packing the shower floor and possibly taping and mudding the drywall... Not sure how much we'll get accomplished this weekend.

THE BIG KITCHEN REVEAL!!

It has taken a long time and a lot of elbow grease BUT it is finally done!!! Just to recap shortly what we did to the kitchen.

Step 1 was to clean the kitchen top to bottom. Then we installed new flooring. Both of those can be seen here.

Step 2 - We installed wallpaper over the cabinets to add some colour. You can read that here.

Step 3 to 1001 - We added trim, painted and hung the new lovely doors. As well we spray painted the handles a lovely hammered silver. You can read all about that here, here, here and here. (yes it was a long process!!)

To get on with it, here is a reminder of what the kitchen looked like about 2.5 years ago. (Isn't my mommy cute... she was still smiling before she started cleaning that kitchen)

Here is another before picture of the kitchen JUST before the cabinets were done.

AND (drum roll please....) THE FABULOUS AFTER!!!!

Isn't it a FANTASTIC transformation????? We are soooo happy with the outcome!!! A few friends have been over to see it and LOVE it!! It looks like we paid a couple of thousands of dollars for it. AND now comes the total cost....

*Paint = $120 - Should have only been about $85 BUT I did the stupid mistake of buying the wrong colour paint... ARGH oh well it worked out in the end!

* Trim and nails - $100

* Wallpaper - $50

* Carpet and Accessories - $30

That comes to a whooping $300!!!! If you remember back when I was planning out my kitchen reno I had hoped to come in under $400 and I successfully did it!!!!

Kitchen Cupboard Reno Part 4

THEY ARE DONE!!! After yet another frustrating start to yesterday we finally finished the last coat of paint on the cupboards this afternoon!!!


Yesterday I got up out of bed lazily (since I'm on vacation) and eventually made my way outside to paint the first coat of paint on the back of the cabinet doors. I had everything set up and ready to go and I opened up my nice can of supposedly WHITE paint. It looked a little oily and yellow so I thought huh must just need to be stirred.... WELL no amount of stirring could change the paint into white paint... it was yellowy ugly beige. Completely confused because in my mind when you buy a can of paint straight off the shelf it comes only in white I read the front of the can to find that it was NOT white it was called 'Accent Base' which I have discovered is used to tint different colours of paint. ARGH!!! There was plenty of screaming and I believe I kicked something at this point. I was SO frustrated. Especially since I was the only one here and had no car and of course my mom was in town and could have grabbed a can of paint for me while there BUT she NEVER turns her cellphone on. SO I sat down on the ground and waited. And paced and waited.


When my mom showed up her initial response was "why didn't you call me..." then she stopped short and remembered her cellphone is never turned on. SO after putting away the groceries we made the trip back into town (its only 20 minutes BUT its still annoying) to pick up a can of WHITE paint. We managed to still get in a coat of paint on the front and one on the back yesterday so it didn't set us back at all.


Today we finished the last coat on the front and on the back and it feels great. And more importantly it looks FABULOUS!!! I'm SO impressed with the doors!!!


I can't wait to see how they look in the kitchen!! Stay tuned for that on probably Sunday!
To see other phases of the kitchen reno you can find them here, here and here.

Kitchen Cupboard Reno Part 3

Today was a VERY frustrating day! (not to mention I just wrote out this post and then in my tired state I deleted it!! BOOOO) I woke up this morning to find 2 things had happened during the night with my cabinet doors, neither of them good.

1) It was so humid last night that the doors did NOT dry... AT ALL!! When I touched them this morning they were just as wet as when I had painted them more than 12 hours before. Set back... ARGH!

But worse than that!!!

2) A STUPID RACCOON got into the tent (which we had sealed off) and decided it would walk all over half of the doors leaving its muddy paw prints all over!!! AHHHHHHHHH This is what the doors looked like this morning... can't you see the thrilled look on my moms face!


So we opened up the tent and hoped the humidity would lift and the doors would dry at some point during the day. This set me back a half a day because I knew I would only get to prime one side of the doors today. In the meantime I relaxed and read my book and went for a nice walk with my mom. By the afternoon the paint had finally dried so it was time to get to work.

Since the footprints had been left in the paint this meant sanding down the foot prints as to make them disappear. My mom took on this task as well as filling any nail holes and other anomalies with Polyfil to hide it.

While she was doing that I decided it was time to pull out the spray paint and get to work on the handles. I had chosen this hammered look spray paint for the cabinet handles and had no idea what to expect!
I have to say it turned out PERFECTLY! I LOVE the new handles!! I did 2 coats of this letting it dry in between coats for about 2 hours. Don't they look fantastic!!! I can't wait to put them on the doors!!!!

After my mom had sanded down a few doors I was ready to start painting. Now this proved to be just as frustrating (to add to the day). There was a slight breeze blowing and it caused the needles on the trees to fly into my freshly primed doors. So every 5 seconds I had to stop to pick it out of the paint. After this went on for about an hour I finally gave up. Well no it wasn't JUST that that made me change everything. A chipmunk decided to run into the tent and although it didn't walk on the freshly painted doors it DID decide to kick up the dirt ALL OVER my freshly painted door. To which I had to completely repaint those doors! ANNOYING!!!

At this point my mom and I were frustrated beyond belief! SO we pulled out the fold out tables (no idea why we didn't think of this before) and put the doors that were giving us problems up on the tables out of reach of raccoons and chipmunks. This made things 10 times faster as I didn't constantly have to stop and pick out chunks of stuff from the paint.

Anyway... it took FOREVER to do the second coat of primer today and when it was finally done it was swim time. The doors look great so far (even though they are super frustrating).

Tomorrow I will start the day off by painting the first coat of paint on the back of the doors and then letting them dry. Then later in the day I will hopefully be able to paint the first coat on the front of the doors... of course that depends on the humidity!! Keeping my fingers crossed!!!

To see the other phases of the kitchen reno you can find them here and here

Kitchen Cupboard Reno Part 2

Today was day 1 million and 83 of the kitchen reno project! haahaa! No not really... just feels that way. I am not a patient person so its taking too long already! haahaa!! Anyway, today I primed the front and back of the doors and primed the handles as well.

We started by priming the back of the doors first. Since it is so humid up here (94% humidity today) I knew it would take forever to dry. So we primed the back first thing this morning and then headed into town to run some errands. Then later on this afternoon (after the big rain storm that delayed my painting yet again) we (my dad and I) primed the front of the doors. The primer went on the back of the doors fabulously.

After the rain we got out and started priming the front of the doors. We found that the primer didn't cover as well as it did on the back of the doors because the front had a high gloss finish on it. SO yet another set back, we're going to have to do 2 coats of primer on the front of the doors. BUT don't they look GREAT so far!!!

Then it was time to prime my handles. My mom came up with a brilliant idea to put them on the ends of shish kabob skewers and shove them into some foam. My dad pulled out a piece of foam that he had lying around and it worked perfectly! I could spray the top and the bottom all at once.

Being a little bit pregnant I was a good girl and wore my mask. (PS there is no belly yet... I was wearing Ryan's shirt to paint because my paint clothes hadn't been washed yet). My mom was supervising! :-)

All in all the doors look GREAT and I expect to be finished by Thursday afternoon with everything!! WOOHOO!!!!

Kitchen Cupboard Reno Part 1

I AM ON VACATION!! Its been fabulous so far!! Ryan and I had a great relaxing long weekend up at the cottage with the family and my cousins and their 1 year old son were here too. It was a great long weekend! Ryan had to head back home to work this week so its just me and my parents relaxing up here. Yesterday we went into town and bought the trim for the kitchen cabinets.. AND A CRIB for the blueberry!!!!!! Stay tuned for that post probably next week when we get it set up.

Just before we start remember this is what my cabinet doors/kitchen looked like originally. As you can see the cabinet doors are just slab doors. There was nothing wrong with them, I just decided the kitchen needed an upgrade so we're adding trim and going white!!

Yesterday afternoon my dad and I got to work sanding the cabinet doors. We set up my workstation for the next week and a half. Isn't it awesome!!! It keeps out the rain but definitely does NOT help with the humidity. We set up the tent to keep the bugs and rain off of the cabinets which has worked!!

Yesterday we set everything up and I started to sand the cabinet doors down while my dad took the side strips off the cabinet doors. We decided to take them off because of 2 reasons: #1 - they were half peeled off anyway and looked awful and #2 They weren't on ALL of the cabinets... someone had only put it on the spots they thought it was needed so it looked funny. After peeling them off we had to scrap off the glue and sand down the edges to make them smooth. I got to get out the power sander!! :-)

I would like to note that it was about 40 degrees with the humidity yesterday and my dad and I were dripping in sweat!!! SO today I was smarter... I did it all in my bathing suit and periodically jumped in the lake to cool off!! This morning (while my dad was golfing) I got to work finishing up the sanding. My mom worked on marking where the trim would be added. We decided on adding the trim 3 inches in on all sides to make sure everything is even and when hung looks symmetrical. Since every cabinet door is a different size (don't ask.. I think a 5 year old cut our cabinets) this is the best way to make sure it looks good and not wonky. It took my mom and I about 2 hours to finish up the sanding and mark all of the cabinet doors.

When Dad came back it was time to get to work cutting the trim. We measured the pieces and Dad and I cut them out. We were at it for about an hour before a big thunderstorm rolled in and forced us inside. Which was just fine with me because I'm JUST about finished a book I'm reading and am DYING to find out the ending! (once again I was working in a bathing suit and a towel... probably not the safest outfit BUT when its this hot there are NO alternatives!!)

After 2 rain storms interrupted us we finally had all of the pieces cut and placed in place. That's 21 doors we had to cut trim for!! BUT it looks GREAT so far!!!!

Don't they look fantastic already???? Tomorrow we plan on sanding down the trim edges and if we have time gluing and nailing the pieces in place. I have to head back tomorrow so hopefully we can fit it in. Then next week we will be painting them white!!! I wanted to paint the hardware BUT since its soooo humid there is NO point in painting because it will never dry!!! Alas the weather is a set back. More on my kitchen cupboard reno probably next week!!!

Weekend Wallpapering and Hallway Heaven!

This morning I woke up and did NOT want to deal with the wallpaper... SO I did what anyone would do on a Sunday morning... I went back to bed! Best decision ever!! PLUS Ryan had gone grocery shopping so I was able to go back to bed without being disturbed.

Then when I woke up I felt more relaxed and rested. It was time to tackle the wallpaper. Now I have to admit I have NEVER hung wallpaper before!! I have only ever peeled it off walls. So this was a new experience for me!! Now cutting the first piece was the easiest. I just measured the space and then using a ruler and Exacto knife I cut my piece. It worked perfectly!! The second piece however took me about 3 cuts to get it right. Now it would have probably been smart to start off with NON PATTERNED wallpaper for my first try... BUT alas I didn't think it would be an issue. Cutting my second piece proved difficult because not only did I have to match up the pattern on the one side BUT it was a funny piece that had to go around the cabinet so it had too many edges. BUT eventually I did it! Then it was smooth sailing after that because the rest of the pieces were the same size so I cut them all (making sure I had the pattern matching along the way). And tah dah!! My wallpapered walls!!!

Now remember my cabinet doors will be painted white soon enough! Its going to look FABULOUS!!!!! I'm sooo excited about it!! Oh just a note, to smooth the wallpaper on the walls so there were now creases and it was stuck to the walls I used a rolling pin. There is a devise you can buy specifically for wallpapering... but I found the rolling pin worked just fine!! Just to remind you here is the before the wallpaper...

And here is the after! Its such a simple thing but it adds some zing to the room!! I love it!!

Here it is with the new rug!

Now in this picture you might notice we have our table in the hallway!!! YEAH!!! We visited my parents last night and picked up the table that my dad made for us. Doesn't it look fabulous!!!!!

And just a close up, here is our hallway table! It is so completely perfect!! I looks fantastic and I'm so excited about it!!!!!!

The rest of the kitchen won't be tackled until August. But I have a few other projects on the go at the moment! The fun never ends!!!!!

The Kitchen Plan

I have been saying for awhile that I want to update our kitchen. BUT kitchens are EXPENSIVE and there is nothing wrong with our current kitchen. In fact I love our kitchen! We have SO much cupboard space! I have accepted the fact that I will probably never have this much cupboard space in the kitchen in ANY other house we ever live in! Considering our house is 900 square feet and 1/3 of that is the kitchen I think we're doing pretty well! My kitchen has the cupboard side and then the eat in dinning side. This is what my kitchen looks like currently on the cooking side (this is an older picture but it looks like this still other than we have a different light fixture and it doesn't have a box in the middle of the floor!) There is also a window to the left that looks out back. (I'll take a new picture before I start the project so you can get the true kitchen picture)

And this is the other half of the kitchen (once again an older picture... we have a different table in the kitchen now as well there is a large dark wood mirror on the wall on the right that we snagged from The Brick for $1!!! YES that is correct $1!!! ) I'm going to have to make a post of things in the house we have bought for fantastic deals... sorry that was a side note to myself!! I will take a better photo of our dining area too before I start the process!

We painted the kitchen bright yellow and I LOVE IT!! It brightens up the house and since our bedroom is just off the kitchen (on the right of this picture) I wake up in the morning to my SUNSHINE kitchen!! Anyway enough blabbering.. onto the kitchen plan!!!

Task #1 - The Counter Tops/Back Splash

I knew that changing the countertop and backsplash weren't in the budget and since it is a grey blue floor tile I actually have no problems leaving it the way it is. The reasoning behind this is #1 its floor tile and I can put a hot pot right on the tile and have no worries of it cracking or melting etc. #2 its a neutral colour with blue undertones so it will tie VERY nicely into my overall plan! The only thing I may do is reseal the grout to keep foods from staining it fun colours! I'm all for bright fun colours just not on my counter tops! This will cost us somewhere from $5-$10 depending on the type of sealer we get (which can be bought at any home improvement store)

Task #2 - The Cupboards

WE'RE GOING WHITE!!! Now there is nothing wrong with our current cupboards so we're just going to give them a face lift! The plan is to take off all of the doors and paint them white... WE'RE NOT DONE YET!! Next we are going to add moulding to the current doors to give them a nice clean updated look! They will be somewhat similar to this door except instead of a groove it will be moulding sticking out. Get the idea? (I couldn't find a better picture to describe it. Plus I don't entirely know how its going to look yet in my head it looks FABULOUS!) This will probably cost me the most. There are 25 cupboard doors that I will need moulding for plus paint. I'm going to estimate this at around $150 (on the high end).

Task #3 - Hardware
Our current cabinet hardware are similar to these which sell for $3.49 EACH! WOW hardware is expensive. Now there is nothing wrong with our hardware BUT after painting the kitchen cabinets white its going to be too much to have white hardware. SO the plan is to clean them up and spray paint them in a chrome or brass finish (haven't decided which one yet). We'll do this by first spray painting them with a primer and then adding the colour we want after. We are just going to paint the handles. The hinges I want to blend in so they will be staying white.

Task #4 - WALLPAPER

This is the part I'm VERY excited about!! I didn't want the kitchen to look completely white on one side and bright yellow on the other side SO I'm adding a little FLAIR above the kitchen cabinets in the way of wallpaper. As you can see from the picture of the kitchen there is only a bit of space above the cupboards so the wallpaper won't over power the kitchen but I wanted to bring out the blue in the countertop. SO here is the wallpaper I plan on using!Isn't it BRIGHT and fun and fabulous!!! I don't know if it will have the leaves growing up or sidesways just yet... we'll see how much of a pain it is to install first!

Task #5 - Blend the 2 rooms

Now even though I have described our kitchen as 2 seperate rooms they really are one big room and you might be thinking OMG they are going to have a bright yellow side and a bright blue side HOW DOES THAT WORK?? WELL this is where the blending and accessorizing comes in!! I will be bringing some blue to the eat in side and some yellow to the blue side! I plan on crocheting(or knitting) a blue and yellow rug similar to this one (in colours that match the kitchen of course)In addition I plan on making curtains for the window in the kitchen (the one that you can't see in the picture) in yellow and white. NOW onto my light fixture project! I plan on making this light fixture to hang over the kitchen table in blues and yellows. I discovered that the Capiz beads that these are made out of are fairly expensive BUT I have a plan to make it out of a substitute... Stay tuned for that wonderful project in the weeks to come!!!

And finally I will be bringing in yellow and blue tea towels (which we already have tonnes of) and other pieces of are to brighten up and blend the rooms! I am estimating this entire Kitchen remodel at a WHOOPING $400 (but I may get lucky and find a great deal on things and reduce that budget drastically!!!)

This project will be in the works over the next few months so stay tuned for the big reveal sometime in August!!!!