It’s just paint……

24 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by dorinesplace in Projects, Tips

Tags

backsplash, decorative, faux, glaze, kitchen, oak cabinets, paint, sheet rock mud, Tennessee, trompe l'oeil

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!!

Log cabin, log cabin….Part 2

20 Sunday Feb 2011

Posted by dorinesplace in Projects

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cabin, camp, kitchen, pantry, porch, river, shutter door, signs

In my previous post, I left you with a glimpse of what we did to renovate the kitchen in our 100-year-old log cabin. Of course what you saw in that picture was more on the decorating part than the renovation. We kept absolutely NOTHING of the old kitchen except the refrigerator, which we put in a cubby hole on our front porch, for extra drinks, etc. This comes in really handy especially while we sit and rock in our rocker, swing in our swing and watch the river go by…….

OOOH, this is nice. Could you get me an ice-cold drink please? Tea or lemonade would be great!

Oh, sorry, I was day dreaming about summer. Enough relaxing for now, back to work!

We found a great local guy (GLG) to do the renovations for us and he was able to see my vision for the cabin. We did start in the kitchen and he ripped out every thing. The stove, sink, water heater, washer, dryer, cabinets, paneling, and dark green marble looking vinyl. Whew, this makes me tired. After repairing a few areas in the wall and floor, he put up bead board on the walls and a new vinyl floor (I know, a tile would have been nice, but you need to know that nothing is square OR level in the cabin) and we were ready to paint and continue to the next step.

I bought a stock cabinet from Lowe’s to hold my sink and my GLG installed it along with a place to put in a front loading washer and dryer. Hey, you know this camping isn’t all it’s cracked up to be! Laundry? Oh, please?

Anyway, he raised the sink cabinet to the same height as the washer and dryer and we found some old walnut boards in a storage shed on the property that he made into my counter tops. Stain and linseed oil and the countertops were finished. I painted the sink cabinet a soft apple green and made curtains to hide the washer and dryer.

Not much room for overhead cabinets, so I found an antique bookcase and stood it in the corner and GLG installed a couple of shelves on iron brackets to store dishes, cups and glasses.

I found a tall cabinet for a pantry with old shutter doors which fit perfectly beside the entry into the great hall (more on that later). We installed a tankless water heater to save space as well as energy, a small apartment size stove and a smaller refrigerator.

All that’s left is decorating the walls and what fun we had looking for the signs, chalkboard, clock, the wire rack, etc. I also found a cabinet that doubles as a garbage can holder to sit beside the stove which has a drawer in it. The top comes in handy when cooking. Cooking? Not if I can help it !

I just like sitting on my porch, watching the river and sipping iced tea or lemonade. Oh by the way, now there is room in the kitchen for me to dance by myself or with my hubby and a couple of other people (close or not).

Catch my next post Part 3……….Bathroom renovation……..