Let The Renovations Begin!

This past weekend we started our kitchen renovation with the most fun part...painting cabinets! (Thats sarcasm, by the way).  Despite that fact that painting cabinets is sucky, I was stoked to get started. So here is a photo bomb post covering the process. It mostly consists of  a SUPER messy kitchen, me looking less than awesome, and my husbands back. And now that I have you all on the edge of your seat, lets begin.

Saturday morning - bright and early - the destruction begins. We started out by removing the drawers and doors, sanding, and priming. Elijah began the day by stuffing screws into the back of the oven.

Next we have photos of me painting. I also realize that this is the first time I've posted a picture of myself on this blog, and I can't have the first picture you see of me be a paint covered, no make-up, crazy hair disaster. First impressions are very important after all. So here is a good picture of me before I post all the terrible ones.

and now back to business...

Oh, and something else most of you didn't know...I'm pregnant. Significantly pregnant. I'm 30 weeks on the nose in these pics.

Here is the grey/blue slowly going on. We used Sherwin Williams Duration paint (in satin) and I was super impressed. It was really thin and didn't show brushstrokes, but also covered really well. I only had to do one coat of primer and two coats of paint. It dried super quick too.

but still, I spent allllll dayyyy painting.

We also bought new hinges. The old ones were a dirty brass and covered in this nasty clear resign. Of course, the new hinges used different holes, so rehanging doors took awhile.

That was Saturday...it was about 16 hours long.  Doing a kitchen remodel while working the toddler rodeo (while pregnant) makes for a very long day.

Sunday we started in on the upper cabinets. A while back I posted our inspiration photo for our upper cabinets. I wanted them to be ceiling height, but didn't want to spend the money for new ones. I also really like the look of open shelving, but an entire kitchen of open shelves just isn't practical. Hmmm, what to do? And then I came across this photo, and I was sold. We could use our current cabinets, add a lower shelf...custom look, minimal expense. Perfect.

While on the topic of inspiration photos, here is the photo that made me fall in love with the idea of stormy blue lowers.

Sunday morning our kitchen looked like this...

(I warned you about all the messy kitchen pics!)

Adam and his dad started removing the upper cabinets...this was way easier than I thought it would be. Did you know that a cabinet is literally just held on by four screws?

Elijah watched the destruction over a bowl of oatmeal...eaten with his hands, of course.

Here is the kitchen without any upper cabinets. I actually really liked the feel of this - if only that was a wall of windows...

There are the cabinets...waiting for me...

Once sanded and primed, they go right back up...

Way up. The small gap left at the top will eventually be covered with molding.

Then I did something totally unexpected...

That's right, I started painting. 

You may be wondering if I am wearing the same clothes two days in  a row. Why yes, yes I am. They're my painting clothes, I was painting. I'm not one of those people that can paint in nice clothes and come out of it unscathed. I'm messy. Normal people, take my husband for example, paint in regular clothes and then when they get a little drip somewhere they have to stop what they're doing, go get a rag, blah blah blah. ME? I wipe the drip up with my hand, wipe it on my clothes and keep going. Genius.

We also decided to raise the microwave so that the bottom will be even with the floating shelves. It only went up like two inches, so we can still reach it, no worries.

Let's not forget about the boy. Someone had to be on toddler duty...here is Uncle Taylor rockin some peek-a-boo.

This is what what we looked like Sunday evening. We couldn't hang the doors yet because I was still painting them. The white wasn't nearly as good to me as the blue was. It took five coats on those babies to have them look decent. That's five on each side, so it felt like ten. I didn't finish until yesterday (Tuesday) night. 

This is what it looks like Wednesday morning! Not an after picture by any means, but a huge improvement nonetheless.

Above the microwave we are going to do bead board and open shelving. 

There are two missing drawers because that cabinet is a sink base cabinet, which means the drawers were fake. Why? I have no idea...builders cutting corners I guess. Anyway, we're in the process of making drawers. Also, none of the lower cabinets had shelves (no pics, sorry) and everything has precariously balanced since we moved in. Now we have shelves...so nice!

I'm not going to paint where the cabinets used to be - that will all eventually be covered up by bead board. I can't show you a picture of the other side of the kitchen, that's where I had to push all the mess so that I could take pictures of this side :)

And that's where were at! I'm really loving the grey/blue lowers, I think it gonna look great once its all pulled together. Isn't it amazing that a coat of paint (well, a lot of coats of paint) can take crappy old cabinets to sleek and modern?

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