Kitchen Re-do Part 4

Welcome back to my crazy, upside down world.  

Last I left you I had posted about the additions to our kitchen in an attempt to make it look more custom.  I think we're doing a great job so far! 

Off to find granite. Of course, the projects just grow!  I figured we were saving so much money not having a custom kitchen that I could afford to upgrade from Corian to granite.

This was my Corian.  Not my favorite!

My new granite !  Autumn Leaf from Brazil.  Filled with quartz that reflects the light at every angle!

Granite up against my glass and tunbled stone tile backsplash that I did last year.

Another area of our kitchen.  A bar with glass front doors and a nice new slab of granite!

Time is approaching where we're going to have to start painting.  I know that I wrote about doing a dozen test cabinets.  When I did those I did them using several different techniques.  

First I just brushed the paint on.  As you know, Chalk Paint® was designed to leave texture.  The beauty of this is that it gives the waxes a wonderful place to snuggle.  The waxes enhance all areas of texture whether it's definition from a carved design or just brush strokes..  However, I'm not using the waxes so all of that texture wasn't necessary.

So, I watered the paint down a bit to give it a more smooth finish.  Actually, because I am a very meticulous painter this method appeals to me on many levels.  I love a smooth finish and then burnishing it before waxing.  It's just luscious.  But again, I'm not waxing.

Then I used a high density foam roller to see if this would speed up the process a little and give me the smoother finish that I was looking for.  It did but I still wasn't sure which direction to go in.

Once we started to remove the cabinet doors, it occurred to us that the laminate continued through the inside of the cabinets as well.  Inside is a white laminate with white shelves.  I tell you, I'm in laminate hell!

Our project just got bigger, because my ideas have gotten bigger.  I now want all of the insides of the cabinets painted and I'm going to change out the white shelves for dark wood shelves.  I love the idea of opening up the cabinet and seeing the dark shelves pop against the Old Ochre interior.  Ohhh la la, it sounds magnificent.....but oh boy, I still have to paint on the Zinsser's Clear Shellac all over the interiors of the cabinets as well as the entire box on the wall that is laminate.  I also need to prep the raw wood on the island.  I plan on using the Zinsser's for this as well.  Raw wood will absorb the paint differently than my cabinet doors.  I want all things to be even!!

For those that don't understand what I'm speaking of, Chalk Paint® - the wonderful product that it is - will paint over almost any surface!!  Even laminate.  However, for extra assurance it's best to paint the laminate with a product called Zinsser's Clear Shellac.  This is a product that will adhere to many surfaces and then allow you to paint Chalk Paint® over it without concern that the paint won't adhere.

 I have A LOT of surface areas to paint over.  It also comes in a spray can, and as much as I love this product, my experience is that the spray does not provide a solid enough coverage to be effective.  It's best to brush on a nice even coat or two for the best bonding. 

My project begins.  I bought several cans of the Zinsser's and have begun painting all laminate areas.  I have to be honest.  Not only am I painting all laminate areas but then I have to paint all surface areas with the Old Ochre and Chateau Grey.  I'm beginning to get overwhelmed at the thought of 45 cabinet doors and drawers as well as all of their internal components.  Not to mention working, planning my daughter's wedding and dealing with my father in law's estate as well as all of the everyday chores.

I decided it was time to investigate having the Chalk Paint® sprayed on instead of me hand painting it.  This would take less time, give me the super smooth finish I'm looking for and free me up to deal with the messes in my life.   I also loved the idea of sharing this product and it's abilities to be dealt with on a commercial level.  

I called a local refinishing company, Adams Multicare Company, and told a gentleman named Derek my sob story.  He had someone come out the same day to take a look at the project.  I showed the estimator, Cleverson,  my cabinets that I'd painted and gave him a long introduction into the world of Chalk Paint®.  He was intrigued and loved my prototypes.  He wanted 'in'!  I was thrilled.  I loved his enthusiasm and we became instant friends.

 They showed up the very next day to take over my project!  This was what I walked into after a long day at work.  This is the picture of progress, right???

Stay tuned for the reveal. I hope you like it...it's been a long haul but I am incredibly thrilled with the transformation. 

Kitchen Re-do Part 3

Sometimes life throws us a curve ball.  

Our house has been in shambles for weeks.  Progress is occurring, slower than I had hoped but I do see changes that I love each day.  However, we hit a major stand still.  

One of my favorite men has passed away.  My first father-in-law (a story too long to tell in this blog)  John Corman is no longer in my world and I feel that my foundation has been shaken.  He's been a part of my life since I was 15 - that's a long time.  So, our project had been on hold while we dealt with our emotions and managing his estate.

We continue to do what we can in between flights up north and cleaning out the house etc.  George has been traveling with work as well.  So, it's been slooooooowww.  Painfully, slow.

We have managed to get our microwave built into another area of our kitchen.  What used to be a pantry has now been divided.

The tall cabinet next to the refrigerator is a pantry, but George broke down the middle cabinet and built a shell to hold the built in microwave and repositioned the cabinet doors

Now the new microwave is in!!  Notice the drawer at the bottom.  That never existed before, however, with the reconfiguration of the cabinet we had an extra twelve inches at the bottom.  Since I'd lost a little storage space to relocate the microwave George built a large drawer to accommodate lots of stuff!!!  He even found a cabinet company online (again, thank goodness for Google) that would replicate your cabinet profile.  So we ordered it and it looks identical to our existing cabinets.  Of course, the wood doesn't match but we're painting it anyway!!!

We also removed the existing crown molding and added the taller molding.  I also had George add a one inch piece of wood below the molding.  Essentially it gave us an additional five inches in height from the top of our cabinet to the top of the molding.  This gives the cabinets a grander appearance.

I also started playing with the Old Ochre - getting a little anxious to start

Next, time to start thinking about the island.  Below is the before picture.  It was finished with just dry wall when we moved in and again, it was another area that screamed for some sort of design.  So, because I love painting stripes I thought I'd give it some personality.  It really looked better in person.  However, this is not a custom look.  I wanted a nice, chunky, more custom appearance.

look at those tiny little corbels.  I even dislike the shape of the bar and of course, the counter-tops will have to go!!!

 Here we've wrapped the island in unfinished wood

 We also decided to build in a niche - why not!! A nice little place on each end of the island to display something. Don't worry about all of the gaps in the woodwork.  One thing I'm great at is caulking - I actually love to caulk.  Thankfully, because George hates to caulk - did I mention we're the perfect team!!!

 

The other end of the island

Below is a picture of the very boring kick board that bridges the floor and the base of the cabinets.  This was where I wanted to add the furniture feet to give it a more custom look.  Again, notice the difference in the wood color and the laminate!

 Below is a picture of one foot glued to the kick board.  Loving the look.  In my minds eye I see it complete and know it will be exactly what I'm looking for.

Unfortunately, our project is on hold again for another trip up north.  I'm concerned at this rate that I'll never get a minute to start painting.

Keep checking back!!!  More to come....a big REVEAL is on it's way soon!!!
a sneak peak...

the island, no where near done but so far the color is GORGEOUS!

 

Kitchen Re-do Part Two

Kitchen Deconstruction has begun.  Exactly what did I get myself into???

In our kitchen, as I've mentioned, we have these not so nice wood and laminate combination cabinets.  Who doesn't love wood?  Well, there's a time and a place for all things.  Natural Maple being one of them.  The laminate is the bain of my existence.

notice the two different colors!!

I want one of those beautiful custom kitchens.  You know the ones I'm talking about on HOUZZ.  Seriously, whose idea was HOUZZ anyway?  I love them but I hate them at the same time.  How can lil 'ole me, get that look without the unlimited funds that are spent to achieve the looks on HOUZZ!

A look I love

At least Pinterest has lots of us DIYer's posting ideas that are attainable on an average person's budget!

When we were out looking at having a kitchen made for us I kept going towards the painted/glazed cabinet.  I just love that look.  We have a separate island as well and we thought about doing the contrasting color and then having it all finished with a nice mocha glaze.

Another look but I want a contrasting island color

After getting the estimates - not changing the footprint at all - just new cabinets with crown molding and light rail molding (the molding that goes under the cabinet to hide the under cabinet lighting) we were looking at a minimum of $30,000.  Of course, I wanted some of the bells and whistles.

My wish list was:

• Furniture feet at the base of the cabinets to look more custom
• Large corbels on my island to give it some gerth
• Taller crown molding
• Stainless Steel Range hood that would go to the ceiling
• Built in microwave, as opposed to the one above the range

That didn't seem like too much to ask.  Apparently it was.  These items increased our estimate by several thousand dollars.  Aaaarrgghhh. 

What's a girl to do?  After our last custom estimate I came home depressed.  I just couldn't justify spending that much on something that didn't thrill me or on a house that I'm not sure I want to die in!! ( I really do want to get to the water eventually).  So we abandoned the ship.

Now you all have probably already thought the obvious.  It took me another week of mulling over my options until it hit me!

CHALK PAINT® a decorative paint.

I've seen others use it on their cabinets, I work with the paint on a regular basis, I've assisted in doing other peoples cabinets (melamine no less!!), we hold workshops that tell people how to achieve any look they desire and here I am not practicing what I preach. 

 I should have been fired for not thinking this first!!!

check out our blog post http://robynstorydesigns.blogspot.com/2011/12/fabulous-melamine-update-with-annie.html

So, after a bourbon Manhattan that I mixed up for George, I started my discussion on how I felt the kitchen should go.

I am incredibly lucky to have a very talented and incredibly patient husband that loves and embraces my ideas.  He's the one that actually takes the ideas that are in my mind and creates magic!  (And they say men can't read women's minds......mine can!!! )He loves the challenge of wood working and if I promised to buy him any toy, ahem, excuse me - tool, he may need surely, he would oblige my every whim, right?

my Mr. "Bring on the Challenge" and Me

As it turned out, he was excited about the project and what we could do together!  So we hit the ground running!

We started by taking a trip to our local Sears Outlet.  I also realized that the Wolff and Viking appliances were not in my budget.  But I wanted a built in microwave.  Low and behold, they had a great one with the teeniest of dings that you can't see!!!  For a bargain.  So we purchased it and brought it home with great plans to build it in to an existing area of our cabinetry.

this shows the mircrowave and the cabinet above the range

oh boy, point of no return.  We took out the cabinet in preparation for a stainless hood

The work has begun.  We already knew where we were going to put the new microwave so we sold our old one on Craigslist (I am an addict and need a 12-step program to stop selling/buying on Craigslist).

Now that the area is void of anything we also needed to find a range hood that would fit our 30" opening.  We searched high and low and nothing really fit the bill (that also fit our price range).  There are hundreds on the market but their prices are unbelievable and many of them look like flying saucers!!

We actually walked into our local IKEA and stumbled upon the range hood that encompassed all of my design needs - it wasn't too contemporary and definitely had a more transitional appeal
(We learned that although there is no brand name located on the hood it is actually made by Whirlpool and privately labeled for IKEA.)

Next decision was how, when, what color, what finish to do the cabinets in.  So, we took a trip to our local Habitat ReStore and purchased a dozen old cabinet doors that look exactly like ours.  Then I got busy painting each one a different color, mixed a few colors of Chalk Paint® together and kept on painting.  After many test cabinets I stuck with my original thought.

Old Ochre for the majority of my kitchen, this is truly my favorite neutral!

and

Chateau Grey for the island.  I am a green girl, this color has always been my favorite.

Next was how to finish them.  Of course, I adore the waxes and the finishes that you can achieve with them, but I have also grown very fond of the Annie Sloan Lacquer.  So, again, test cabinets galore....we opted to use the Lacquer. 

The reason was pretty simple.  I found a cabinet from a major cabinet maker that I loved and this was the way I wanted my cabinets to look - exactly like them.  The look was: color, slight sheen with a gorgeous defined glazed in a deep chocolate.  We are trying to bridge traditional style into a more transitional style, perhaps with a nod to contemporary.

So, after doing a dozen test cabinets, which took me a few weeks to accomplish because of my schedule and George's, we finally figured out the look we were going for. 

Now, I've accomplished two of the items on my wish list.  We needed to source out my furniture feet to put along the kick board under the cabinets for a more custom look.  Thank goodness for Google!

here's where we found them here: http://www.osbornewood.com/4084.cfmthe The best price and the perfect design and measurements.

 Now to find the chunky corbels.  I knew exactly the look I wanted so we found another source online for those as well.

These are gorgeous and so chunky with great length;  I found them here:http://www.vandykes.com/28-scroll-low-profile-corbel/p/210179/

Last, but certainly not least was the crown molding.  I wanted something taller (our existing molding was only three inches, I wanted a four inch molding at minimum.  George's office is across the street from a custom wood manufacturer.  During lunch he took a ride over and checked it out and found the exact molding we have in other areas of our home.  Perfection.

Now, I have all the components that I need to continue with our re-do.  Check back to see the progress!!

My Kitchen Re-do Part One!

My name is Lori and I work at 

Robyn Story Designs - a job that I adore.

I think Confucius once said

"Find a job that you love and you'll never work a day in your life"

Enough said......

There are far more pro's to my job then con's.  

On a regular basis I meet the most amazing people

Loyal customers come by each day and I'm happy to be able to say they have become friends

I work with a group of people that I simply adore. 

I am paid to be creative...seriously, that in itself is a HUGE bonus

and of course, Robyn.  She's qwerky and crazy and one of the smartest women I know.

One of the best aspects of my job is helping people create a home.  Robyn Story Designs has the most beautiful home decor items.  We are fortunate to be asked regularly to please help someone with their house.  So we load up Robyn's van with all sorts of wonderful goodies and head over to our clients home to re-accessorize, reorganize and redesign their spaces.

an example of what we do!

a picture of one of our client's homes

This is for sure an amazing thing, however, I then have to come home to my house.  I love my home but after you've spent a day at one of our client's homes, mine feels a bit 'inadequate'.

 Here lies the 'con' of my job.

Robyn and I say regularly that we wish someone would come in and do for us what we do for others,

there just isn't enough time in a day to concentrate on your own stuff when you're busy running a successful boutique and design service.

one of my favorite vignettes, filled with lovely beauties

So, not feeling content with our home we started the search for perfection

or at least something that was a change from what we have

We spent our winter house-hunting

condo searching...

Thinking we could downsize to a place on the water.

If you are lucky enough to live in Florida

why not surround yourself with all that Florida has to offer

Water

Boats

 Palm Trees

and

Sunshine

Well, we learned after 6 intensive months of research and house hunting

Why we needed to stay put.

Apparently, I have expensive taste (this surprised no one!) and a very light wallet

Living on the intracoastal or the beach is BIG bucks

So, we came home after the last exhaustive day and decided to redo things in our own home.

After all, we live on the water...

Okay, a lake...but we have an amazing back yard so why not stay and spend a little in our home to make it even better. 

And that's where it all began.

The kitchen is the heart of our home.  I love to cook and it always seems our family congregates in the kitchen.  Moving South from Pennsylvania was a big decision and one that I was totally onboard with, but the one thing I struggled with most was leaving my beautiful kitchen.
 It was just a dream kitchen.

Down here, things are different, homes are built with different priorities.  It wasn't until months of searching that I finally asked a builder why the kitchens are just 'eh' unless we spend a lot more money than I wanted to spend.  The reason was simple - does a builder invest $40,000 into a great kitchen or do they spend $40,000 into a gorgeous pool/lanai area?

Pools in Florida are as necessary as fireplaces in Montana.

That being said, we decided to start in our 'eh' kitchen.

 Don't judge me on this kitchen.  Yes, it is mine before our transformation.  But you have to work with what you have....right?

Let me point out what I DO like, I like staggered cabinets.  It gives a little more interest to a kitchen.

 But the problem with them is what do you do above them?  There's a large expanse of wall above them just screaming for something.  So I filled it up with stuff to visually fill the space

  I LOVE crown molding above cabinets

But if it's insignificantly sized, it looks like it's missing something.

The below picture will tell you what really started our disdain.  The cabinet doors are all natural solid wood with a natural maple stain.

However the box that held the doors is all laminate.

What happens over a period of time is that the wood will age, naturally, and the laminate will stay the same...........FOREVER.  Ugh, how I hated to see this and it is very obvious when you enter our kitchen.  Look at the pictures above, between the doors you'll see the lighter color.  Hated it.

So more research had begun. We went to Home Depot and Lowe's (my home away from home) and had them redesign our kitchen.

We went to Kraftmaid Kitchen Center and had them redesign our kitchen

We checked out several local Kitchen and Bath centers for their ideas.

We discovered that a new kitchen (just cabinets, not granite, not new appliances and no real bells and whistles) was going to cost us roughtly $30-40 thousand dollars.

GULP!!!

Not in this home and not in this time of our economy.  But you know what the kicker was?

Nothing excited us.  How can we spend that kind of money and not be excited about what we were getting?!

Seemed ridiculous.

Stay tuned for our progress, the decisions we made and our finished project!
This is the beginning of a journey.  Feel free to offer advice or share your stories.
We all learn from eachother!

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