Inexpensive Ways to Update Your Kitchen

Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick is having a “show us your kitchen” linky party and I wanted to join the fun so I dug out our kitchen pictures from four years ago.  Our kitchen is a prime example of what you can accomplish with just a can of paint and a screwdriver.

Before, our kitchen looked outdated with dark stained oak cabinets and crazy knobs.  Our first update was the knobs, which didn’t make enough impact so I decided to bite the bullet and paint the cabinets.  Our kitchen really had good bones - a good layout and real wood cabinets - so it didn’t make sense to do a complete overhaul.

Apparently, I didn’t clean up for the before pics and I was actually already in process.  I painted the island first as a test run and you can see I started to fill some holes on those drawers.

The wood actually doesn’t look too bad in the pic below, but this kitchen needed to be awakened!  Oh and look at that fluorescent light box.  So glad to be rid of it!

These pictures were taken about three or four years ago.  I can’t believe how little my kiddies are in this pic!  Oh, there’s the famous clutter counter!!  Ha-ha!  Too funny.

I tossed around the idea of painting the cabinets black, but was a bit nervous until I saw this pic in the July/August 2007 issue of This Old House magazine.  Seeing this pic and reading about how the homeowners transformed their space just by painting their oak cabinets inspired me to go for it.

This is really a project that could probably be completed in a week or less, but it probably took us about a year.  It was actually kind of a joke after a while.

It’s been done for a few years now, so I don’t have step by step pics either.  But the process we took was:

1. Clean the cupboards with TSP
2. Sand (I just sanded by hand, just enough scuffing. I didn’t go down to bare wood)
3. Wipe with tack cloth
4. Prime
5. Paint (two coats)

I used regular latex paint because I refuse to use oil-based paints even if it’s the more durable choice.  I’ve recently come to find out from Centsational Girl & Isabella & Max Rooms that there are water-based paint choices that are a great choice for this type of thing.  My regular old latex paint has actually held up just fine.

For budget purposes, we kept our solid surface Corian counters.  Although I’d love Carrera marble in my fantasy world, these work well in contrast to the black.

Besides painting the cabinets and changing the hardware, we did a few things to customize it a bit.  We took the doors off the cabinets above the microwave and refrigerator to add some openness. 

We also added hooks on the island for towels and oven mitts – love this.  So handy!

Added a Rev-Your-Shelf system (from Lowes) to a cabinet so I could have one of those nifty sliding garbage and recycling centers like new kitchens today.  Love! (Actually my neighbor installed it for me – thanks, Red!  She even helped paint some cabinet doors.  She’s the DIY queen.)

We also removed the wooden scalloped valance above the sink to update it a bit.

I brought in pops of red as an accent color with things like the colander and binder above the microwave and the little rooster on the window sill.  I wanted something red for my serving utensils, but couldn’t find what I wanted in the kitchen department, then I stumbled upon this planter at Home Depot and thought this was perfect!

I picked up wooden letters from Michael’s and painted them red for a little pop on the other side of the room.  It’s a small wall, so the letters work perfectly there.

Every season I change out what goes in those little white vases I picked up from IKEA. And I love the J.R. Watkins hand and dish soap because it’s a green option and the packaging is cute enough to leave out!

Oh, and we made the side of the pantry a chalkboard.  Very handy and fun for the kids.

So for just about $200, our kitchen was transformed with some paint and new knobs.  I didn’t include the new appliances and the lighting because it truly did transform the kitchen even with the old appliances and fluorescent light box.  We finally got the appliances last year and obviously that was a chunk of change.  Yes, it’s even better now with the new appliances, but just wanted you to know you don’t have to spend a bunch for a big impact.

 

And soon, I get to share some more kitchen transformations!  Three of my friends are redoing their kitchens.  One is going my route and a step up by painting the cabinets and installing granite counters.  The other is doing a massive gut job of their entire main floor and the other you saw a peek of over at my sister’s.  I cannot wait to show you their before and afters. 

 

This post is linked up to the following Linky Parties:

Thrifty Decor Chick, 30 Days, Not JUST a Housewife, Tater Tots & Jello, Randee's Organized Chaos, Don't Mess With My Tutus!,  Ask Anna and Bubbly Nature Creations

One Thing Leads to Another

I’m making progress on the playroom, painted below the chair rail yesterday.  The walls were sucking up the paint like crazy.  I think I actually need to do a third coat.  Didn’t expect that.  Or maybe I won’t since I’m putting storage units in front of the wall anyway.

Which got me thinking about my storage options.  Originally, I was thinking about Expedit cubbies from IKEA, but was worried that the square cubbies would limit my storage options.

I was going to put a bunch of my craft supplies, now living in my kitchen cabinets there.  They are stored in plastic shoebox style containers which doesn’t maximize the square cubbies very well.

Then I thought about taking my son’s dressers and using them.  The drawers fall out all the time, so I would take them out and create shelves.  See how well my son is using them.  I don’t think he’d miss them.  There’s one shirt in that bottom drawer.

Then I reevaluated the supplies and realized I need to store them in my hallway crap craft closet instead.  The only items the kids really need and use often are pencils, crayons, markers, tape, rulers, glue and scissors.

So I’m back to the Expedit cubbies.  I do love them.  These ones are in my son’s bedroom and I have another set of two white ones in my daughter’s room.  I love how you can store stuff in them, but also use the top for display or counter space if needed.

All the paint and paper punches will go in my hall closet.  And the hall closet is screaming for a redo too!  Which I’ve had my wheels spinning about for a while now, but this just pushes it up on the list.

 

I’ve reorganized this closet a thousand times and it never remains functional.  My son’s dresser may work better in here or maybe some shelving.  So as usual, one thing leads to another and now I’ve got two projects going at once.  Actually three because I need to reorg the kitchen cupboards that will soon be free of craft stuff.  That will probably lead to yet another project and another.

Project Playroom

In the next few months we will be hosting several gatherings, Easter, my daughter’s birthday and First Communion and my son’s birthday.  That’s got me zoning in on refreshing some spaces, namely the playroom.  I gave you a glimpse of it in this post and it’s finally time to tackle it.  There will be a few phases to this project.

Phase One:     Patch and refresh the walls

Phase Two:     The floors

Phase Three:  The details – kid art gallery wall, storage…

Sometimes I find that because I live in my space day in and day out, some things go unnoticed until somebody comes over and I start to notice them with eyes of a visitor and think how embarrassing (ie: my carpets and my walls)!  Or sometimes I don’t notice things because I’m not at that level, like the lower part of my walls.  The other day I was wiping something off the kitchen floor and looked at the wall next to me to discover splats of something all over it.  Yick.

That brings me to the bottom portion of our playroom wall.  It used to have magnet boards for the kids to mess around with, which later became white boards, which then led to the pictures below.

 

 

So that is why Phase One is to refresh the walls.  I need to patch the holes from the magnet boards and paint it with a fresh coat of crisp white and 28 inches above the chair rail will become chalkboard, leaving the last third of the wall for the art gallery portion.  And because I’m lazy, I will be leaving the yellow in the top portion as is.

And for as much as I love 3M hooks, don’t let your kids help take them down because this is what will happen.  Please note, they do work perfectly when taken down correctly.  So that’s another couple spackle spots to tackle.

I’ve probably rearranged our playroom at least 10 times.  And I’m hoping to make this next time a more permanent set up.  Hoping.  So today the transformation begins.  I will show you results of Phase One next week, I hope!!!  Wish me luck!

Popcorn, Bags & a Table

Happy Friday, everyone!!  Just a couple fun things to share.  I just spent the afternoon with my sister, the one tearing down the walls at her house.  Anyhow, found out she’s been doing the popcorn in a lunch bag thing for 5 years now!  She said she just puts a pat of butter and some salt right into the bag with the kernels and it seasons the entire bag perfectly.  Yes, your bag will get a bit greasy, but she said it’s not so bad.  So there you go.

My sis agreed to join me on my trip to the Salvation Army this afternoon to drop off 6 bags towards my 40 bags quest.  YAY!  Feels so good to get them out of here! 

I know March is already half over, but don’t worry, I have more than 6 bags to get rid of.  See those bins behind the bags, I just need to sort through them to make sure everything has their pieces and parts before they can go.  So that will probably be at least 3-4 more bags!  Finding all the parts to toys drive me nutso, but I can’t deliver them incomplete if I can help it.

And here are about 3-4 bags worth of stuff that I’m giving to one of my friends. 

So that will get me up to about 14 bags + the bag of socks I threw out + a couple bags of garbage.  I think I’m around 17 bags now.  I may have missed some, only 23 to go.  I actually don’t think the problem is getting 23 more, it’s doing it before Easter.  When you have three growing kids, there are always toys and clothes that need to move on.  Not sure that I’ll make it in time.  We’ll see.

And lastly, when my sis and I dropped the bags, we of course, had to stop in and shop for a minute.  Right when we walked in I knew I was leaving with this table.  I have been looking for a round table to go between my two couches for a while, but most of them were running in the $500 zone.  I scored this baby for $45!  Ain’t she purty? 

There’s a whole lot of brown going on here, so I think I’ll have to do a little whitewashing of some sort.

And I need to touch up the wood chipping on the inlay anyhow.

I was so excited when I found this table.  I literally hugged my sister at least three times throughout our shopping trip.  So fun!  I’ll be sure to share updates a year from now .  Hopefully I will get to it sooner, but you never know with me.  So slow.

Have a super duper St. Patrick’s Day!!! I had dreams of doing all kinds of cool recipes like Guinness brownies or pudding and other fun stuff, but time has gotten the best of me and I’m just sticking with some Lucky Charms, mint chip ice cream, green licorice, green veggies, green mac and cheese.  If you need St. Pat’s ideas, check out my St. Patrick's Day pinboard.  If I can’t try them, I hope you can.  There’s always next year.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Kim

Finally Tried Some Pins

I don’t know about you, but I pin away all these fantastic recipes and that is where it stops.  So after being inspired by my sis at Prep Like a Chef to prep for the week, I was armed at the grocery store with a plan.  What a different feeling it was actually going in with a plan!

I definitely started small, only two meals on the plan this week.  We have a busy weekend.  Friday night we are going out to eat before we go see Mythbusters LIVE at the FOX Theatre in Downtown Detroit.  Should be a “blast” – pun intended.  Saturday we are having some Irish fare and Sunday we’ll just have something simple, maybe our standby spaghetti.

Anyhow, Tuesday night we tried a cashew chicken recipe that I found pinning and it brought me over to The Letter 4 blog.  You can get the recipe there.

And last night my daughter and I had Irish dance so I needed something easy.  So I made a salsa egg bake I found over at Crafty Scrappy Happy.  (forgot to take a pic) The great thing about this dish is that you can prepare it ahead of time and just throw it in the oven when you’re ready.  This was a perfect option because my dad hangs at my house on Wednesdays while my mom runs errands and we end the night together with dinner.

But the pin that I’ve been wanting to try for a while, got me all giddy, so I have to share.  You might be like, whoa, this is what makes you giddy?  Yes, yes, it is.   Anyhow, it was popping popcorn in a lunch bag.  I love this tip because I know exactly what is in my popcorn, no weird chemicals, just good old popcorn.  And to my delight, it worked!!  Bye-bye store bought microwave, chemical laden popcorn! I found this genius idea from a pin that led me to Squawk Fox.  If you go there and read all the comments, you’ll find everyone’s different approaches and what worked for them.

I’ve just done it once and followed the directions presented, but I will be tweaking it a bit to make sure every kernel is popped and to get my butter and salt well dispersed.  Please note: keep an eye on it to ensure no burnt popcorn until you find the correct timing for your microwave.  The directions are as easy as one, two, three.

1. Get a lunch bag
2. Put a 1/4 cup – 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels in the bag and fold over a few times
3. Set your microwave to popcorn (or around 3 minutes, but monitor, listen for the popping to slow down)
4. Dump it in a bowl and put your favorite toppings on (I melted butter and added salt)
5. ENJOY!

Make sure to go to Squawk Fox to see everyone’s tricks in the comment area on how they seasoned their popcorn.  Genius idea!

So now that I’m inspired to meal plan, I’m going to try to do at least one pinterest recipe a week and start collecting the ones I like to be in rotation in my recipe binder.

Let’s hope I can stick to this.  It really would make my life soooooo much easier!

Weekly Meal Prep Ideas

The daily question that makes me cringe is, “Mom, what’s for dinner?”  I know dinner would be a breeze if I just took a few minutes every weekend to plan out the week and prepare.  That is what chefs do in restaurants.  They have a plan and they have their food prepared so when they are ready to cook, they can just grab it and get right to it.

I am so excited and proud to introduce you to a person who will give you awesome ideas and tips to make meal prep for the week a breeze.  I mentioned back in this post that my sister Jackie has a background as a chef, teaches cooking and also writes recipes for a caterer and a website.  She has taken her professional skills as a chef and put them into everyday life to make life easier for her as a mom and is excited to share them with all of us!

She just started her own blog Prep Like a Chef last week.  You will find many clever and useful tips there and for those that struggle with allergies, she also has written several gluten-free and nut-free recipes.  She’s experimented and tested recipes to find the right combo to not only make them gluten-free or low in sugar, but to keep the flavor too.

Whenever I have any food-related questions, I go to her.  So if you have any food questions, hop on over there and ask her, she’ll be happy to help!  You will be so happy you did.  Here are the posts she’s done so far:

Planning & Prepping Made Simple

Dinner 911

Making Dinner Plans

When you stop by, make sure to leave her some love in the comments.  We all love comments, they’re just like a little gift!  Now I’ve got to follow her advice and get to the grocery store so I can get back and make some prep boxes for the week!  Oh, what’s a prep box?  Check out her first post to find out!

Stomach Bug = Cleaning Bug

I’ve got to say, there’s nothing like the stomach flu rampaging through your house to give you a jumpstart on spring cleaning!  By Monday I thought we somehow got lucky and got away with just one person getting sick (the little man had it Friday).  I immediately found out on Tuesday morning, that was too good to be true.  Looking back, Tuesday morning was actually kind of comical.  I can say that now.

I was desperately trying to make lunches knowing that I could lose it at any moment.  So then I enlisted my kids to make their own lunches (which maybe I should do anyway).  Next thing you know, my daughter’s looking at me with a green face and tears in her eyes.  I knew right then that we got away with nothing and the stomach flu beat us.  I just looked at her and told her to stay home.  Sent my boys on their way.  Phone rings.  It’s the school.  UGH!  I get to pick up the big guy from school.  AWESOME.  It’s such a blast being sick along with your kids.  Oh, geeeeezzzz, it’s so not!

Anyhow, that got me cleaning the often forgotten items like T.V. remotes, telephones, mouse and keypads, door handles and light switches.  On Wednesday, I was lucky enough to have a warmer day that I could open the windows and air out the house.  Ahhhh, good old fresh air!  And what timing that I ran across a spring cleaning checklist over at Blissfully Ever After to help me along the rest of my spring cleaning.  If you’ve got the cleaning bug this weekend, jump on over there to check out her list and print it off.

So this weekend I hope to get our house back on track.  I’m so glad it’s Friday!

Here’s to a a fun weekend and a fresh start next week!

Happy Friday!

Kim

More St. Patty’s Day Fun

I love that my husband receives the Plumberry Pie email feed at work.   He usually sends me a quick note of encouragement after a post and it makes my day.   His note from Monday’s post just made me laugh, so I had to share.  Here’s what he said…

“Or we could drink beer out of the mason jars and use the key rings as personalized tags so everyone knows which glass is theirs … “

So here is his version of a St. Patty’s Day craft.

Got to hand it to him, it’s a great idea for a St. Patty’s Day party or any party!

He must be catching on to my ways.  Looks like my wine charm idea from Thanksgiving.

Enjoy!

Feelin Green & Fun with Foam

Well, there’s two meanings behind this.  Friday morning my little man woke up with the stomach flu.  Good times.  Needless to say, I didn’t end up painting the bench in the laundry room, at least that’s the excuse I’m using this time.  I did throw together a super quick, easy and cute little St. Pat’s Day décor item.

Here’s what you need:

• about 10 minutes of your time
• green paper/plastic straws or bamboo sticks (I used leftover paper straws from the little man’s birthday party)
• foam shamrocks
• mason jar or small vase of some sort
• baker’s twine or regular twine
• office key tag
• green candy or split peas (I used leftover green Jolly Ranchers, must be the least favorite flavor because it was the only color left.)

I made two different projects.  First I made homemade St. Patty’s Day straws by simply sticking the smallest foam shamrock onto the straw a little ways down so you have room for your mouth.  So easy and cute!

Homemade Shamrock Straws

 

And the second project was inspired by Bec of Little Lucy Lu’s Valentine centerpiece.  I used the same concept, but with shamrocks.

 

Add some green candy or split peas to the bottom. 

I would’ve added more, but that’s all I had at the moment.

Don’t you love that little leprechaun?

My hubby’s grandma gave it to us.

Such a cute little guy to add to the fun.

 

Boom.  That’s it! Cute, easy and quick!

Get your green on!

Kim

A Peek in the Laundry Room

My laundry room makes me happy, not because I like to do laundry that’s for sure.  Boy, if you saw the pile in there now, ugh!  I mentioned in my upcycled chandelier post that I gave the laundry room a little facelift this fall.  The color combo in there just makes me happy inside.  Out of practicality, I tend to go neutral, so letting go in the laundry room was so fun!  I actually find myself peeking in there for a little fix of fun.

In usual “Kim” fashion, I finished half of the room and stopped.  I was waiting until I finished the other half to show you, but the fact is I need a little heat under my booty to get things moving, so I thought I’d show the first half to remind me I still need to finish it up.  So here you go…

Oh, wait, I’ll show you the before pix too because it’s always fun to see the before, don’t you think.  So my thought process behind what I did was to base it on the wall color we painted the room when we moved in.  I still liked it and I really didn’t like the thought of moving a washer and dryer to repaint.

 

 

 

 

Since we moved in, I’ve wanted shelves above the washer and dryer, so that was first on the list.  I found these shelves at IKEA.  And for pops of color, I added the green magazine holders with plans of storing manuals, etc.  The secret is, they are empty, besides two manuals I threw in there at the start.  But don’t they add a great punch of color?  One day I will fill them, I swear.

And my daughter’s artwork works perfectly in here, so I framed it up.  Still deciding whether to hang it or keep it on the shelf.

I went back and forth about adding a counter over the washer and dryer, but for now it works as is.  As you know, I recently added my jar of homemade laundry detergent and threw my dryer sheets in a bin I found at the dollar section in Target and put it on top of a tray to bring it together.

As you now know, I have an issue with socks, so I got a basket to go on top of the dryer to throw loose socks and undies in to keep them from getting lost and scattered. I do have my sock system I mentioned in this post, but we are still working on using that system consistently. Once we do, all will be well in the sock world.

I may repurpose that bar in the corner next to the ironing board to be a hanging rack of sorts.  We took it out of our hall closet when we converted it to cubbies a couple years ago.  Of course I saved it.  I know it makes my husband crazy, but hey, it might save us money in the end.  Oh, and don’t let the iron fool you, I think I use it once a year.

 

So here’s what’s left to do:

• paint bench seat white
• possibly hang rod from closet to use as drying rack with or without hangers
• or do hooks instead
• downsize my rag surplus
• paint exterior door a fun color and trim a crisp white
• paint around ceiling medallion
• hang towel bar and paper towel holder by sink

Hope you enjoyed a peek into my “AUNDRY” room (my kids think that’s so funny).  Need to add that to the list too.  The “L” fell off and broke, so I need to glue that back together.  Of course they don’t sell these letters any more.

Feel free to remind me about the laundry room.  I can use a little push.  I just might paint that bench this weekend.  We’ll see what happens.   Oh, and if you have a specific question about this or any of my posts and would like a direct reply without having to check the comments section, feel free to email me.

Have a good one!

Kim