Step Three: Painting the Kitchen-a Kitchen on a Budget

Posted on March 26, 2009 by DishOnDesignGal

Before Photo: Kitchen with Border

Last weekend, the Kuster’s started painting their kitchen in Step three of their kitchen redo on a budget. Phase one was about finding the inspiration for their project and phase two consisted of selecting the finishes that they would apply. This past Saturday, Bill primed the walls. Ten years ago, Lori and I had stenciled some grape vines on the wall with oil based crayons, and as cute as it was back then, she’s so over that look. The before photo above shows the existing stencil at the top of the walls that extends throughout the kitchen.

Prime the Walls before Painting

On Saturday, the first step was to apply a primer to ensure the oil based stencil can be easily painted over. Bill used the product below by Zinsser. It’s a water based primer that doesn’t require sanding, seals stains, sticks to all surfaces and is resistent to mold and mildew. Best of all, it dries in an hour. It may be an extra step you didn’t plan on, but it’s definately worth it in the long run. There’s some odor involved, so it’s best to open some window to ventilate.

Kitchen Walls with Primer

On Sunday, it was time to tape off the areas to be painted with Sherwin Williams Afterglow which goes on all the wall surfaces above the white bead board chair rail which still needs to be painted and the cabinets. Lori and Bill chose a satin finish so that it wouldn’t reflect the walls imperfections, yet could be easily cleaned as needed.

Sherwin Williams Afterglow

Here’s a before and after photo of another area of the kitchen…

Before Photo of Side Door in Kitchen

Afterglow above Chair Rail

Painted Wall with Roman Shade that was the Inspirational item for The Kitchen

Painted Wall with Roman Shade Laid Over the Door to see how it Matches

I’m thinking it’s going to be FABULOUS…what do you think? Great job Bill! Next step will be to paint the chair rail and cabinets. Stay tuned!

Step One: Finding Inspiration – A Kitchen on a budget

Posted on March 16, 2009 by DishOnDesignGal

kuster-kitchen-color-board

My friend Lori called me a few weeks ago and wanted help picking colors for her kitchen. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get together with her and her husband Bill for a few weeks, so I gave her some assignments before I met with them. I thought I’d blog about the process with you from beginning to end and also share my thought process so you can see how some of the decisions were made. Although I did get together with them this weekend to choose the paint colors, it really has been a project that they have done on their own. They key to a successful project is to really think it out before you run to the paint store. When I talked to her a few weeks ago, she was biting at the bullet to get going, but by pulling back and really thinking it out, I think they’ll have a kitchen that they really love on a budget that they can afford.

Here’s a couple of photo’s of their kitchen as it is now…

cabinets2 Main kitchen above and side door next to eating area is below

side-door-in-kitchen1

INITIAL QUESTIONS

What is your budget? Lori and Bill want to keep the project as inexpensive as possible. It’s one project of many that they have planned, and they don’t want to go to the expense of a full kitchen remodel.

What do you want to keep? Actually, the better question is what do you need to keep! Obviously, we’d all like to have everything new, but that’s not always realistic. Keeping their budget in mind, they have chosen to keep the existing cabinets, mini-blinds and appliances, but do want to replace the vinyl floor with a new wood floor and the olive green sink with a white one. Fortunately, Bill is a willing to do all of the works (gotta love that!) which will save them alot of money!

Summary: Knowing the above, this is what they have to work with…

Worn, but charming painted cabinets that could use a little revitalization.
White refrigerator and dishwasher
Tall Painted bead board wainscoat which adds to the charm of the kitchen
Nickel finish table and 4 chairs with wicker seats. (Table has a glass top with blue inlay tile underneath, but we will not design around that, as we can ultimately cover the blue if need be.)
Olive green double oven that will eventually be replaced
Red coffee maker that was a gift from Bill’s parents

Do you have a particular style, color scheme or look in mind? They really didn’t have anything in mind or at least like most people they couldn’t verbalize it. They just new they wanted a new look. They wanted something fresh and inviting. A place they wanted to spend time in.

HOMEWORK

I had Lori go through magazines and websites on her computer to find pictures of things that she loved. When looking on the web, some good places are sites of stores that you like, better homes and gardents (bgh.com) or even blogs like this Lori doesnt’ need to necessarily find photo’s of kitchens, but rooms that she liked the look of. She also might find a piece of artwork, a color scheme, or a vignette that she likes. The point here was to look and earmark anything that caught her eye and made her feel good. The only rule is don’t think too much. The end goal here is to find an inspiration picture or two.

Why do you need an inspiration picture or item? An Inspiration picture or item is a visual guide to help you start a project. It’s an invaluable tool, as it can keep you on track as you become overwhelmed with decisions you’ll need to make. It could be a treaured picture or item that you want to incorporate into the room or a photo of something that you love that you found in a catalog or online. Maybe it’s a photo of a room that catches your eye and you want to achieve that look and feel.

In Lori’s case, it was several things. Last week, she found first found a look in a pottery barn catalog that she loved…

inspiration1

And then she found a valance that pulled in the colors of her stove and her red coffee maker.

window-roman-shade

Bill was a little iffy on the valance, but agreed to hold judgement till they saw the real thing. I took the inspiration photo’s and made the color board that is at the top of the post and suggested that the next step was to order the valance and see it it was right. She did get swatches from the local pottery barn, but with the size of the print, it was too hard to tell if it would work.

Tomorrow, I’ll let you know if it matched and the next steps they’ll take!

My Dining Room Makeover – Part II

Posted on June 12, 2008 by DishOnDesignGal

Yesterday I wrote about the history of my dining room, my thoughts going into the makeover, the items that I’m using for inspiration, and some of the colors and materials. Here’s a quick update with pictures, including the recently adopted, broken tailed dog that now sports a beautiful brown, tinted gold fur coat.

I’ll post in a few weeks more about decorating styles, but my dining room is not so much about a particular style, as it is the atmosphere that I want to create. As in most homes, my dining room is rarely used, in fact it probably would be more practical to use it as a library/office. But the reality is that any more, the only time my family is all together is during a holiday for a good meal. Cooking is not my favorite thing to do, but when the kids are in town and grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are coming over – I really do like to cook. I like to get out my grandma’s china, put the leaves into my dining room table, and have everyone suffocate me in my kitchen. For that reason, my dining room will never be an office. And it’s for that reason that instead of going with a particular style, I’m more interested in creating a warm happy room with things that I love.

Things like my grandma’s china.

And this porcelain carriage a beloved aunt bought me years ago when scouring a vintage market.

Here’s what’s new…the ceiling is painted and the lower part of the walls are as well. This picture shows a hint of both. You can also see a little of the furniture that will go into the room.

The color below the chair rail is Behr’s Gold Buff and the Ceiling is Valspar’s/Martha Stewart’s Vintage Map

And here’s a close up of the textured painted wallcovering.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Sami, our newly adopted dog who has a broken tail, could not stand to have the paint brush get more attention than her. When she tried to crawl on my lap when painting the lower part of the wall, I said in a panic -”NO!”. Of course she then rolled over, sliding down my newly painted wall which now has not only a fabulous floral raised print, but lot’s of dark fur buried hopelessly into the paint. Sami of course now has a rich golden hue to her normally brown long hair coat. Fortunately, she has paws to match as she stepped into the paint when she left the room. Lucky for her, she’s already successfully embedded herself into my heart. I’d show you a picture of the paint on her, but she won’t quit rolling over.