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A Total Kitchen Make-over From a Vision In My Head
From the moment we bought our Idaho home and I sat pondering what I would do to the kitchen, I developed a vision in my head. This vision was born of countless issues of "Tradional Home" and "Architectural Digest" magazines that have changed how I look at decorating in general.
The kitchen started as an outdated country kitchen with ugly wood cabinets and a funky island that just didn't work. Upper cabinets were simply particle board shelves and the counter was purple laminate. How I hated even being in that kitchen!
I dreamt of something more elegant, a more soothing color palet, a space more suited to relaxation and gatherings. So the task began and I began to plan.
I hated those cabinets. But with 3 mortgages, we just didn't have the funds to replace them along with everything else we wanted to do. Besides, they were custom built and ultra sturdy. What did I do? I gave them a make-over with paint and plaster.
I filled the recesses of the doors with plaster, sanded it smooth, primed and painted the doors and added resin ornaments to give them some class. Resin ornaments can become quite expensive. These cost me $200.00. But you can do less expensive designs by using pourable casting resin from dickblick.com and smaller designs from our Plaster Mold collection. You can make all the ornamental pieces you need from just one mold and the savings is huge!
Pantry doors got more detail.
I sanded and painted the base of the cabinets as well and we removed the purple formica. Choosing a light palet of cream and sand beige, I knew the room would take on a soothing and relaxed feel.
The island was re-fashioned with a flat, arched top (removing the riser and adding more working surface) and we installed slab granite. I could have faux finished the purple counters, but my dream has always been to have real granite counter tops so we splurged.
We chose a granite style that was light in background, but would pick up the accent color of "sand beige" in the paint color I used for the cabinet trim.
If you want actual granite, do know that manufacturers now have come up with a much thinner granite that slips right over your existing counters in most cases. So check in to it. There is also the option of doing granite tiles. At only $13.00 per square foot, and self installed, it's much cheaper than slab granite yet still just as beautiful.
We ditched the ugly black appliances and replaced them with new brushed silver models. We replaced the cheap printed laminate floors with laminate hardwoods. Hardwood laminate has 1/4" natural wood so they can actually be re-finished if need be and hold up just like solid wood floors.
Adding touches such as ornamental corbels really did the trick in bringing elegance to the kitchen. You can find Resin or Composite corbels on Ebay or at websites such as wishihadthat.com for cheap! So don't hesitate to consider them in your decorating. I put mine under the front of the granite on the island and in my Washington home, am considering them mounted to the under side of the upper kitchen cabinets.
The kitchen now feels open, airy and elegant. The light colors and ornamentals brought new life to the dark space. Open upper shelving rather than cabinets simply added to the spacious feel and appearance.
All labor except the granite was done by us and I must say, we are proud of our achievement, of our design capabilities and of our willingness to jump in and do it ourselves!
This is the very reason for this blog. To learn to "Decorate with Class" on a budget. To decorate by yourself by adopting easy principals of light and space and learning the techniques to achieving changes with paint, plaster and design.
