BEFORE & AFTER: Karen's Kitchen Makeover

Here’s what Karen wanted to do with her kitchen prior to getting started:

“Update an outdated kitchen. Painting the cabinets, decluttering the cabinets. Ditching the computer that does not work. Replacing it with a BISTRO table. Update window treatments and half bath of kitchen.” ~Karen

BEFORE

Karen's Kitchen 4

Karen's Kitchen 6

AFTER!

Here’s what Karen had to say afterwards:

My January goal was to clean de-clutter and paint my kitchen breakfast nook and half bath. I finished most of the painting and de-cluttered the bath. Here my kitchen and bath are after. This was a huge amount of work. I removed all the doors, cleaned and sanded doors, drawers, and frames. then installed paintable wallpaper to the centers of all the doors.

Next I painted with Valspar paint and primer flat. I waxed the doors in the bathroom but decided it would take me forever to wax all the cabinets and my research told me that I would have to wax every 6 months or so to maintain the look! Um no thank you. DID SAY THIS WAS A LOT OF WORK? I’m not touching them again…I’ll sell first!

So I used a water clean up poly and did three coats of poly on everything. Oh I also did three coats of paint on everything both sides of doors. My hubby was guilted into painting the ceilings and doing the trim for me because I am not at all neat and he hates having irregular lines between the walls and ceilings. I am extremely happy with the results.

I will use my February challenge to finish up the breakfast nook(we have not painted it yet), make curtains for the 1/2 bath and sink window, de-clutter the kitchen cabinets, and install the door pulls, install new counter and backsplash (or paint both). I need new screws for my pulls the one that came with the knobs are 1″ long my doors are 1 1/8″ thick! I spent $90 on paint $30 on poly $50 on wallpaper and $156 on knobs. So a completely new looking kitchen for around $375.

Thanks for letting me participate in this challenge, I may have never had the drive to finish such a big project if I didn’t have this challenge to motivate me.