Amelia’s DIY Kitchen Renovation

When I moved last year it took a very open mind to look past the hideous kitchen and fall in love with our new home.  The above photo is what the kitchen looked like the day we closed on the condo.  Orange walls, greenish/taupe counters, black appliances, forest green plastic light fixtures?!  It was bad.  Luckily the realtor took the fake fruit with her…

Immediately after moving in we painted the walls Benjamin Moore Roosevelt Taupe- I couldn’t get rid of that burnt orange color fast enough!  I also thought a taupe color might make the counter tops less offensive.  We then replaced the plastic track lighting with a simple fixture from restoration hardware.  While the kitchen was no longer orange, there was no doubt we still had a long way to go.  Instead of being a bright eyesore, it turned into a dark and dingy corner… made worse by the fact that the kitchen is visible from the dining area and living room!

The finally plan was devised in the middle of the night, and I couldn’t even wait until the morning to start taking the cabinets apart.  Everything had to go white!

We used Benjamin Moore’s Aura paint in Decorator’s White (semi-gloss finish) to paint the freshly sanded cabinets.  The wall space above the cabinets was painted the same white, but in an eggshell finish.

Instead of painting the black splash area, we opted for white subway tiles.  We picked them up at home depot and all the tile cost less than $100.  In order to cut the tile we had to rent a wet saw (also from home depot) but it looked a lot scarier than it was.

After the tile was in place, we added the grout.  (You can see more tiling tips and tricks here, or ask away in the comments).  We also added simple stainless steel knobs to our freshly painted cabinets.

Here is how the kitchen looked this morning… a big improvement if you ask me!  We replaced the sink and faucet, along with a few appliances.  Our dishwasher got it’s own fun makeover, which you can read about here.  Another very simple improvement which had a huge impact was removing the lip of counter top that ran along the back splash wall.  It just peeled right off!  I wish we had done that on day one.  Here’s another look at the before and after:

Thanks for reading.  If you have any questions always feel free to ask away!

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