In 2003 we moved from the ever growing and busy Roswell, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta) back to middle Tennessee.  Although we miss our friends and our family in Georgia, we absolutely love being back home in Tennessee. 

In our search to find a new home, we lucked upon a new home in a great subdivision with an amazing view.

Of course, although a new home, some things were not our taste and HAD to be changed.  Walls and trim had to be repainted in some rooms, some structural changes in a bathroom to accommodate our son and his needs, but the biggest change was the kitchen.

Golden Oak cabinets and builder beige or white walls are definitely NOT me.  Below are the before pictures. Followed by the outcome after many laborious hours.

After scouring many, many magazines and conferring with my BFF, it was decided that the cabinets would be black and distressed.  I got out the sand paper, palm sander, tack cloth and began the work.

Results after many hours of  SANDING, priming, SANDING, painting and SANDING and painting.

I took the doors off the upper cabinets on one side, which I absolutely love, and stencilled a pattern on the wall inside those cabinets.

Now I needed a tile backsplash.  Didn’t want to spend the money at the time and not really sure what I wanted, so I painted  tumbled tile on the backsplash and over the cook top I made a  faux sculptured tile pattern with sheet rock mud.  No cleaning of grout or chipped tile to deal with!  YAY!!!  Hubby never wants me to change it.  Not sure if  it’s because he likes it so much or just don’t want to spend the money?

I installed bead board around the island and under the bar behind the sink. 

I textured the walls with a thin coat of sheet rock mud, and wiped on two different colors of glaze.  Once I was finished. my right arm refused to work  for weeks on end, but I love my kitchen, and all it cost me was a couple of cans of paint and the use of one good arm. 

I covered up the ugly exhaust vent above the cooktop with an iron fire screen and made linen panels for the windows and hung them from individual hooks to help finish the look.

I had great fun doing this project.  Hope I inspired you!  Patience is one important tool in this redo.  Oil paint dries in its own good time!!