FINALLY!!! The Final Reveal

My kitchen journey has been wonderful, it turned out exactly how I saw it in my minds eye, actually, it turned out even better than I had expected.  The wonderful people that we met along the way only added to the completely positive experience!

My husband amazes me regularly.  Sure, he gets grumpy and at times he's my Negative Nelly.  But that's why we work so well together, I'm always the one that knows we can do it.  And if something doesn't go the way we planned, we'll find a Plan B that we're both happy with.  Thanks to him for tolerating my constantly changing vision and for working so hard to make these dreams a reality.

Here are a series of pictures of the "During" process as well as the FINAL REVEAL. To save some pennies (you've probably figured out by now that I'm a bit on the cheap side), I did most of the prep work myself.  That includes all the taping around the floor, brown papering the granite, the back splash, the floor, the above cabinet lights, taping the slide rails for the drawers....it seemed like there were miles of blue tape (actually 3, 2 inch rolls) and miles of brown paper.  I even did ALL the Zinssering of the miles of laminate as well as the raw wood on the island to save pennies in prep work.

The blue tape on the doors is covering the glass fronts on the cabinets of a separate bar area.

doors off, spraying  every nook and cranny

Seriously, the plastic was the number one worst part of the project.  I realize it was necessary but the kitchen is in the middle of my house, we were constantly lifting it to go into or around the kitchen!! Love the corbels and the shape of the granite on the high bar!  The corbels appear to be chunky to hold up the granite but they're just there because they look pretty!!

This is a separate bar area that we have.  We were keeping the wood interior (amazing it wasn't laminate!)  so the whole interior  had to be taped and brown papered to protect it from over-spray.  We have glass doors on this section and wanted the pretty wood to show through.  Notice the over-spray on the wall.  I didn't realize I'd be repainting walls after all was said and done.  Another thing I have to add to my list!!

George is adding my dark wood shelves!!  Love how these look!

Working on the hood, still loving the dark shelves. I have not painted above the cabinets yet.  Still working on what I'm going to do and which color I should go with.

The cabinets have been sprayed with three coats of Old Ochre and three coats of  Lacquer, all wood shelves have been installed.  Just waiting for the rest of the cabinet doors and drawers now!

 The above is my favorite picture! This is Jesse from Adams Multicare and he had the chore of replacing ALL the cabinet doors and drawers, making sure they all lined up and were level.  It was a two day process!  I know I underestimated how much work goes into lining up and leveling that many doors.

As you can see, I'm working on a design for above the cabinets.  I have a wonderful stencil that Robyn and I brought home from one of our Home Decor Shows that we attended and I finally brought it out.  I knew there was a reason I bought it.  It's simple and yet it visually fills the space.  What you can't see is that at each junction that the figures meet I added a chocolate colored upholstery tack for dimension.  It looks AMAZING with the chocolate colored glaze on the cabinets.

The corbel installed and painted - not glazed yet but looking great!!

Because I can, I painted the metal threshold from the dishwasher with Chateau Grey so there was more continuity as you look at the kick board.  Love the feet!!!  Love the Color!!!

I think the feet just add another look of a custom job!  Close up of the glazing as well.

I want to take a minute to talk about the Glazing that was used.  As I mentioned I had a very specific look that I was trying to obtain.  I wanted as smooth of a finish as possible and as defined of a glazing job as possible.  I also wanted the sheen that the Lacquer provided.

One of my favorite ways to make a glaze with Annie's products is to mix the Dark Wax with equal portions of the Mineral Spirits until you get a Hershey's Chocolate Syrup consistency.  You then always use the Clear Wax first and then place the Dark Wax Glaze in the crevices that you want to highlight, wiping off the areas that you don't want to  leave the glaze.

The beauty of using the glaze is that it's more forgiving on the surface than the wax.  Meaning, it wipes off cleanly on the surface but stays in areas of definition.  However, you can't use the waxes in conjunction with the Lacquer.

So, after a consultation with my painters I picked out a color as an homage to Annie Sloan, British Brown!!  Love that!!  It's a lovely chocolate brown that was applied with a gun into the crevices of the cabinets and doors after they were Lacquered.  Remember, the Chalk Paint® is porous so sealing the paint before glazing was a must.  Let me tell you, using a glazing gun requires a very steady hand to achieve a look like this.

This is the living room side of the bar with the glass doors.

 The kitchen side of the bar with the glass doors.

A close up of the stencil with the tacks as well as a close up of the glazing.  I love how the stencil visually fills up the space.  I seriously do not want to distract from this area by loading it up with "stuff". This area now is integral into the entire design as a whole and takes it a little out of the traditional design to a more transitional space!

  FINALLY DONE!!!  

I still have a few finishing touches that I need to attend to.  I want to change out the pendant lights, reupholster the stools and add something special in the niches, but aside from those minor items it is a complete project!

BEFORE

AFTER!!!!!!!!

Thank you for you joining me on this journey.  It was a wonderful project made entirely possible by Annie Sloan and her Chalk Paint® as well as my ever supportive husband.

The painters that I chose continually sang Chalk Paint® praises.  They loved that there is virtually no odor (almost no VOC's), the over spray cleaned up with water, the color went on velvety and evenly with the sprayers and the colors are rich and have a density to them that their products don't have.

The lacquer was a pure pleasure to work with.  One thing I learned was that the lacquer should not be applied in hot conditions.  It basically dried too quickly, almost on its way out of the sprayer.  Once it was done in a more controlled environment, no problems at all.  A lovely velvet feeling.  Again, no odor.

I can't sing their praises enough.  Not everyone was willing to do what they did - paint with a product that they've never worked with.  They were committed to doing the best job possible and learning as much as they could about the product.  I applaud them for their dedication and thank them immensely for coming to my rescue during a stressful time in my life.  

Cleverson, the company's estimator and one of their painters, made several trips to  Robyn Story Designs & Boutique.  He loved the feeling of the Chalk Paint® and the waxes and is now looking to do projects using the waxes as well.  I love that - another fan of the paint has been born!!!

When you consider that our estimate for JUST NEW CABINETS was in the high $30,000 range I'm pretty tickled with the amount of work and the products that we purchased for 1/3 of the cost.  Honestly, I'm happier with our work than I was with any of the designs that we  received.  I also think it's our personality to tackle these projects on our own.  We're challenged to make them look like we've spent thousands of dollars on a much smaller budget!

We used more Chalk Paint® than the average person uses in their kitchen because we did every nook and cranny!  If you're just repainting your cabinets and using the Lacquer you can redo your average size kitchen for less than $300.00. 

If you've thought about doing your kitchen and are concerned it's too big of a project, I recommend you jump in and do it.  My words of wisdom:

Enjoy the process, believe in your ability and have fun!!! Even if you paint your own cabinets instead of taking the short cut (but not cheaper for sure) you will love your results.  Just know the look you're trying to achieve, call your local Chalk Paint® retailer for advice and go for it!!!

Next up, our master bathroom!!!  Stay tuned.  Once we recover from our kitchen re-do we'll be tackling our bath.  Guess what?  We have the same cabinetry in there as well and I have some great ideas..........