DIY Kitchen Revamp

Once upon a time, there were two naive love birds who had this crazy dream: have a{nother} baby and buy a new house.  In that order.  Baby on the 28th, house on the 31st.  Check, and check.

And, because they're super wacky, just buying a house wasn't enough.  Those smarties chose the absolute runt of the litter to call their own; the one that needed more fixing than Joan Rivers' face in order to get it up to snuff.

And so they set about it.  The baby raising.  The home renovating.  And they may or may not have nearly killed each other and everyone else in the process.  And then one day, almost a year after they began, they finally had - wait for it - ONE project completed.  Or, you know... mostly completed.

But it's okay, because when you see how far we've come, you'll forgive us.

For your viewing pleasure, a bunch of God awful before pictures:

Please note: the fabulous linoleum. The to die back splash, made of some sort of icky faux copper tile.  The charming green paint.  I know.  You're thinking, what's not to love about this fabulous space?!

And so, we set about fixing all that.  Why yes, that is my son sitting on the counter in his baby carrier.  He doesn't know it, but he was a tremendous help to the renovating process, all six days old and whatnot. 

I mean, it's not all bad.  There are some great things about this room.  Good counter tops.  Nice island.  Great windows.  Only one drawer front missing.

Assuming you can get past, you know... everything else. 

After a year of slowly tackling one thing at a time - in between all the other life happening around us - my fabulous friends: our kitchen is FINALLY done!

Ahhhh, that's so much better. 

Casey installed the flooring himself in the first few weeks after we purchased the house, largely between the hours of 8 p.m. and 2 a.m.  Didn't he do an awesome job?

Those are the same cabinets, because we don't have a money tree in our back yard.  They've been primed and painted, and the only real change is the hardware on the drawers.  Luckily, we were able to repurpose the old hardware into our bathroom remodel so they didn't go to waste.  We also added wainscoting as a backsplash and around the kitchen.  I think the contrast between the paint color and the crisp, white wainscoting is lovely.  So clean and bright!  

This nook used to house a cabinet, but it felt too cramped so we yanked it out.  It was also repurposed and has a new home as part of a work bench in the garage.  SCORE - free garage shelving!  Removing it and adding these shelves has given us a more open layout.

We turned the island into a little chalkboard area which, in my perfect {and also imaginary} world the kids will sweetly practice writing their ABCs.  Yeah, that happens.  My children definitely don't scribble with chalk as hard as they can for no good reason. 

Vintage industrial and farmhouse accents.  WHO AM I?!

I love this light.  Before, there was one sad little in-set light in the ceiling.  It was definitely not cutting it right above the sink, so after a little finagling Casey jerry-rigged this much more awesome one into place.  Also, seriously, that can't be the right spelling of jerry-rig.  Hmmmm... 

I found this fabulous little caddy and knew it was meant to be ours.  It gives a little bit of that farmhousey charm, and as an added bonus, it allows Miss Leah to help set the table more easily, which she loves (I'm pretty happy, too). 

See?  I told you I was loving this wreath!

This one reads, "Wherever we are together that is home."  Truth-telling art is my fave.  Speaking of truth telling art...

I'm a total nerd, because every time I see this print, I chuckle to myself.  {They're talking about hump day.  Hee, hee.}  

Happiness.  It must be yellow, I'm pretty sure that's true.  I know all this might seem like a bit overboard, but I am absolutely one of those people who is inspired when my spaces are beautiful.  And, to me, this one is.

Short of filling some holes and a little touch up paint, we're pretty proud of the space.

I can't close this post without a huge shout out to Casey.  It must be said: my husband is my superhero.  The design and ideas may have come from me, but darn near everything you see here was laid/installed/painted/sanded and otherwise touched up by my most awesome husband, who has become the master of all crazy and idiotic things I ask him to do.  Seriously, honey, one day... you're either going to thank me or divorce me.  I can't thank you enough for all your blood, sweat and tears on our behalf.  You deserve a lot of kisses and a really, really big drink.

Let's just take one more little look:

8 months in the making, and it was totally worth the wait.  

Thanks for sticking with me.  We're total suckers for feedback, so we'd love to hear from you.  If you have any questions about what we did or how we did it, shoot 'em at us!

Update: Don't forget to check out the details of this transformation here and here!