Kitchen Mayhem Part 2

The Kitchen Mayhem Plan

After much thought about the kitchen mayhem situation, we decided to flip the script on our disaster, and look at it as an opportunity. An opportunity to do something we have considered for a few years now…a kitchen refresh! It may not have come at a convenient time, but sometimes you just have to jump in with both feet and make the best of the situation you have been handed.

The ideas

My kitchen is outdated. It is no secret. Our peel and stick floor tiles have been down for 20 years, and my plaid wallpaper was put up by my father over 18 years ago as a Christmas present. They have held up and done their job wonderfully for almost as long as my daughter has been alive. My white formica countertops were in this house when I moved in 21 years ago. It’s definitely time for a refresh even if I don’t have a whole kitchen renovation in my budget.

The Cabinets

How can I get the biggest change for the least amount of money? Paint! White paint to be specific. We are planning on painting all of the cabinets a nice crisp white and adding new hardware that is either black or most likely champagne gold.

The Countertops

As much as I don’t have money in my budget for countertops, I just can’t leave the old white Formica once we paint the cabinets. After some thinking, we decided that butcher block could be in the budget if we did it ourselves. A little price searching found that we could purchase just 3 six foot sections and completely replace all four of our countertops for a pretty small price. We are opting to buy the unfinished butcher block and seal it ourselves.

The Ceiling

The pipes in our upstairs bathroom bursting and causing the giant hole in our kitchen ceiling is obviously what started all of our kitchen mayhem. Instead of trying to patch the ceiling like the last person did, we have decided to put a whole new layer up. We are going to use tongue and groove wood that is painted white. I briefly thought of going with a stained wood but with dark wood floors and wood countertops I was afraid it would just be too much, too dark, or maybe just too many different wood tones in one room.

The Floors

This was the easiest decision of them all. Many years ago my Hubby bought me a new dark wood floor for our kitchen for Christmas. We just never had the right opportunity to tackle a whole kitchen refresh. We wanted to do it all at once, but just couldn’t seem to find the time. Well, the time has found us it seems. I have enough floor to cover the whole kitchen and extend through the back entry area. I even have enough for our tiny half bath. Had I selected a floor at this time in my life, I may have opted for something a little lighter in tone, but free is way more appealing to my bank account than a lighter wood floor!

The Sink

This is my favorite part and the only item I was willing to splurge a little bit on. I have always wanted a white farmhouse sink but could never get one due to my old outdated cabinets and existing countertops. Even though I decided on the new butcher block counters, I still had the old base cabinet made for a drop in sink.

Browsing Home Depot one evening looking for a new bathroom vanity, we decided to walk past the faucets and kitchen sinks. There it was– exactly what I have been looking for– a white farmhouse sink by Sinkology that is made to drop in over top of existing countertops and traditional base sink cabinets. And it was about half of the price of a traditional farmhouse sink! Talk about a win-win situation!! We also decided to go with a large black faucet that is motion sensor activated. It is also tall enough to accommodate large pots when filling them with water.

The Lighting Fixtures

I am still trying to decide on the fixture over the sink where my double window is. I am definitely leaning towards some type of black farmhouse pendant light. For the main light fixture we will keep something similar to what we had before. It was an ugly old fluorescent light. It will have to be something large that produces lots of light because it is the primary light source for the whole kitchen. I’ll keep you updated when I find something!

The Walls

Finally, the last troubling and most difficult piece of the kitchen mayhem puzzle– our walls. Boy, oh boy, are they a problem. Our house is 100 years old and our walls are the real deal plaster. Until I actually had plaster walls I had no idea what a challenge they are.

We had a prior pipe issue probably 3 years ago right around the time of my husbands “accident”. Since then, we have been living with a small hole in the ceiling and a large hole in the plaster wall. They are just above the arched entryway from our kitchen into our living room. My Hubby just isn’t able to do the things he used to do. Plaster was WAY out of his scope of abilities at that point– so we just lived with it. I have looked at that hole for nearly 3 years trying to decide what I could do to camouflage it. My issue is that the hole goes all the way down to my arched doorway; whatever I do has to join that curve.

One day it just came to me; the easiest way to cover the hole (without attempting plaster work that needs to blend into an archway) just might be shiplap. So that is what I am doing! Not quite sure how it’s going to turn out, but it has to be better than the hole!! Wish me luck on that one…

I think that just about sums the kitchen mayhem up! I will keep you posted on our progress, and, of course, you can probably guess how we will tackle it– little by little.

mrslittlebylittle