kitchen progress

You may or may not remember my red kitchen cabinets.

This picture is from the day that we closed on the house, a year and a half ago.

It was one of those things, when we were looking at the house, that I just shrugged at and said, "oh, I can just paint them."  Easier said than done.  Way easier.

I started tackling these darn cabinets last year.  I'm not even half way done.  BUT what I do have finished is a heck of an improvement and changes the kitchen, dramatically, already, so that keeps me going.

There is a ton of scraping, sanding, priming, and painting going on.  If the cabinets were still their original wood color, this project would be easy peasy, but the fact that the cabinets are painted red, both inside and out, makes the task a much bigger headache.

I finally finished all of the upper cabinet doors last week.  What a relief to have them done, and out of the way.

I finished all of the drawer fronts, too.

This past weekend, I tackled the "island", (we call it that, although, technically, it's not), and attached bookshelf.

All of the lowers are getting painted in Valspar's "Oatlands Subtle Taupe".  This is one of those colors that changes throughout the day with the lighting.  In the morning, it's more tan than gray; it's a true tan-gray during the afternoon; and it's definitely more gray in the evening.  It looks most like this chip in the morning/early afternoon.

Crazy difference, right?!

So much lighter and brighter.

I really love it, although it's such a drastic difference, it's going to take some time to get used to the lighter color.  Not too much time, though, because it really is so much better.

I'm working on the cabinets in sections, that way it's not too overwhelming.

Here's the section that's up next.  I expect to start sometime later this week.

I need a mini break before I jump back into it.

Oh, and over the weekend, we also got some molding up in the kitchen.

We still have to caulk and patch nail holes, but the molding makes a world of difference.

I really cleans up the ceiling recess, and finishes it off.

I probably won't share anymore of the kitchen until the lower cabinets are completely finished, so it could be a few weeks.

But it's going to be a heck of a reveal.   

primer, paint, and paper

My parents hooked us up with some pretty generous Lowe's gift cards for Christmas, so as soon as we were unpacked from our trip, we headed over to pick up some project supplies.  

I tend to get so excited about my projects that I want to start all of them at the same time, so here's what's on my plate right now.  

The main attraction is finally getting around to refinishing the kitchen cabinets, but, I guess you can say, this bookshelf in the living room is my warm-up project.

The body of it is primed, I'm just finishing up the doors, then I can slap on a few coats of Valspar's "du jour" and add a little graphic interest with this fabulous paper by Elum Designs.

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While the doors are waiting, patiently, on the counter for some more nap-time painting, Callan enjoys climbing in and out of the open, empty cabinet.  Such a boy.

 LOVE him.

And since the primer is out, this patch that has been sitting paint-less for months, will now get primed and painted.  I will be so happy when that blaring white spackle patch disappears into the wall.

I also found this ampersand on etsy.com and fell in love.  It's on the smaller side, though, and I want a giant one, so I'm going to try my hand at making my own.  I have a {nearly} 24"x29" pattern, a 2'x4' sheet of 3/4" birch plywood, and a jigsaw that are ready for action.  Wish me luck.  ;)

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So, I guess 2012 has me gung-ho on house upgrades and improvements.

My list is pretty long - I'm hoping for a productive year.

Any big {or small} projects on your list that you're hoping to cross off soon?

I think crossing projects off the to-do list is the best part of the process.  ;)