Cheap ‘n’ Cheerful Kitchen Makeover
November 14, 2009
One thing I’ve gleaned from obsessively watching real estate TV shows is that agents are quite fond of selling hesitant buyers on ugly, dated kitchens by saying, “All you need to do is paint the cupboards and change the hardware and you would have a brand new kitchen!”
They make it sound like it’s only slightly more time and energy consuming than picking up a carton of milk. Yeah, no.
I did kind of know what I was getting myself into, thanks to the detailed steps of this article at This Old House. I also figured that it would take twice as long as I thought. And, after one sleepless night, I now know that the first coat of a dark colour always looks like crap and not to freak out – the second (and third) coats do get progressively better.
But, like anything worthwhile, the end result is fantastic! Once my aches and pains were gone, I immediately forgot how much work I did. The teal ended up taking 3 coats, 4 if you include the tinted primer. I found out that I’m pretty good at painting and it’s true – the right brush really does makes all the difference. I splurged and bought good ones – this paint job is supposed to make me feel like I don’t have to gut and renovate my kitchen any time soon.
It took me several months to figure out exactly what colours I wanted to use in here. When my idea to use teal first popped up, I had trouble visualizing it and couldn’t find anything like it online or in magazines. I grabbed several paint chips in that colour range and took my time picking the best one. I decided that only the lower cabinets should be dark teal in order to balance out our heavy mahogany dining table. I chose to do the rest of the kitchen in the same pale cream that runs through the rest of the main level.
Picking out cabinet hardware was FUN. I leafed through decorating magazines to get ideas for handles that I liked and ended up with some great drawer pulls and cupboard handles from Lee Valley Tools. As happy as I am with the paint job, the hardware really finishes the kitchen nicely. Props to Jeff for helping me paint, trusting me on the colour choice (even during the horrid first coat stage) and replacing the hardware.
before
after
Root Cellar DIY
April 5, 2009
This was our first real DIY project. Our home inspector strongly recommended that we tear out the “walk-in” closet that a previous owner had unwisely converted the root cellar into. By the time we moved in, the mold was visible on the drywall and we had to tear everything out asap. I didn’t mind. Root cellars are awesome.
I’m not sure what they were thinking when they decided to build this. Root cellars are meant to be damp, with exposed brick and a concrete floor. It isn’t even part of the house – it’s the space underneath the steps leading to the front door. Trying to make it into a finished room was destined to fail.
So, after hitting the build-it centre and getting crowbars, work gloves, masks and safety goggles, we dove into some sweet, sweet demolition. I had no idea how much fun smashing and ripping out drywall could be! Underneath the drywall was a thin layer of styrofoam and what was quite possibly clingfilm as a stand-in for vapour barrier.
When we were done, it looked a lot more like a root cellar should look like.
Next, we needed shelving. We went to our favourite swedish store – we had previously decided to stop buying so much stuff there, but they really are brilliant at shelving. We ended up with a section filled with bottle racks and lots of open shelving. There are even wire baskets that clip underneath the shelves for smaller things like onions. Little plastic feet fit on the shelf posts to protect them from the floor and keep the wood from rotting.
I’m pleased at how well it turned out – satisfied that the finished project matched up nicely with what I had pictured before we started.
