March 9, 2014

Maxilicious Fraternal Twins Kitchen Makeover

Maxilicious? Well, yeah. It is a kitchen and it looks Deee-licious! And we got maximum visual bang for our buck. Fraternal Twins? Remember, I have two kitchens and they don't play well together.  And they still don't play together well because their layout stinks but at least they are now identical!
I will break the pricing down at the end and we are still going to tweak this a bit once we have the main kitchen in our DR but for now let's enjoy a little visual eye candy (is that redundant?) 
 What did we do? Painted the cabinets in a nice neutral light grey, added some feet to the cabinets and a matching cornice over the window using scrap wood on hand and then installed new flooring.
That's it and it made a huge difference, although anything would have made this look better.
Here are some side by side comparisons so you can see the difference:
The counter and the backsplash actually don't really bug me as much now that everything is lighter. Not that I love it mind you but now I can at least tolerate it and it kind of fades into the background now so until we change the kitchen into the DR, it will stay. Why wait to change? Since I am not sure what the cabinet color is going to be in the new kitchen, I don't want to spend money on a counter, cabinet hardware and backsplash and have it not match or at least coordinate with the new kitchen. So here is where a little patience and fortitude will win out and save money. 
Seriously, just paint and flooring really made a huge difference. Now the added feet on the bottoms of the cabinets go along way to change the look of the cabinets from ordinary to custom and I just used scrap wood and a template.  Once we have the kitchen installed in our DR, we will change out the counter to match and I will add hardware to the cabinets. I may do a cheap DIY backsplash in the summer but for now I think I will just enjoy the change.
Here, in the main kitchen, the only thing we changed was the flooring. I tried to take pics at the same angle so you get a good representation of the difference but I took the before pics like a year ago. You get the idea I think. HUGE difference! Dare I say it looks "cute"? and farmhousey? 
Oh yeah.
 Cute, farmhousey goodness!!

How did I choose my flooring? 
I was trying to match our existing hardwood flooring throughout the main floor so the kitchen floors would look like they flow from room to room like the rest of the house and wouldn't look chopped up. I think it is important to look at the whole house picture as well when choosing items like flooring and paint and how they relate to the adjacent rooms but I am no expert and that is just my opinion. 
When I went to Home Depot to select flooring, I was just picking samples that I thought would match. Then I went home and laid them all out and choose which ones matched the best. 
As it turned out, the flooring that I picked was the best choice for a kitchen. Easy clean up and waterproof!  It is called Traffic MASTER Interlock in Traditional Oak Amber. It is a clickable vinyl plank flooring that you can cut with an X-acto knife so there are no special tools needed although I found a rubber mallet and a pullbar helped immensely at times in tight spots. It has a realistic graininess like oak so it actually looks like wood plank flooring but is 100% waterproof and comes with a Lifetime residential guarantee.  I really liked the Pergo XP in Sedona Oak because it mimicked the look of my boards in my hardwoods better and it was thicker and therefore would have hidden the uneven wonkiness that I have come to embrace in my house, but it would not have had the water resistance that I felt we needed. Compromise is the name of the game.

How did I paint the cabinets? (Not going into huge tutorial because there are a ton on the web. Here is the quick lowdown):
1. Clean with TSP, several times if necessary
2. Degloss with Deglosser
3. Wipe clean with tack cloth
4. Prime with 1 coat Oil based primer (2 coats would have filled in the grain better but I am okay with 1 coat)
5. Sand lightly with 220 grit sandpaper
6. Paint with two coats latex paint (matched to Martha Stewart's Nimbus Cloud) sand in between coats lightly and wipe with tack cloth.
7. Let cure two weeks before hanging. And don't hang until you are done with your flooring so you don't ding them.

I would have used an oil based paint as my top coat except apparently they don't make this anymore! They had an alkyd paint which performs like an oil but cleans up like a latex but it only came in gallons and it was $35. I would have had a ton left over and pretty sure I wouldn't have used it up so I just made sure that I did my prep work really well for the best adhesion with the latex paint.

How did we spend our money?
Paint:  1 qt. Kilz Complete oil-based primer     $17
Paint: 1 qt. Behr Paint and Primer  $14
Underlayment/flooring: $650
1/4 round trim: $75
wood feet and wood cornice: $0 because we had the wood already
Grand total: $756

Back Kitchen cost: $226 (flooring, paint, and feet/cornice)
Main Kitchen Cost: $530 (only replaced flooring in this space) 
So take home message?
Fix what bothers you most and is the most visually distracting and the rest will take care of itself!
I have to show you the new Kitchen in just a few more photos by it's bad self cuz' I love it so much!

Love how the grey changes color depending on the lighting.







Not bad for roughly $220!

To see all of the posts on this Kitchen Reno:
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14 comments:

  1. what a difference- love the painted cabinets!

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  2. Yes! You definitely have a farmhouse vibe going, and I love the white cabinets and wood floor. You will be so happy you went with a waterproof floor. I agonized over it before choosing one and thank my lucky stars every time the dog shleps water from his bowl all over the floor. Great redo, Kim!

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  3. Wow, I'm amazed at what a difference a mere $220 can make. I like your backsplash now, too! The lighter cabinets did make a huge difference. Congrats on such a pretty kitchen!

    Linking from Mod Mix Monday,
    Ricki Jill

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  4. Replies
    1. Thanks Stephanie. I do enjoy it now much better.

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  5. Replies
    1. Thanks Heather! I even am being better at keeping it clean since it looks cleaner!

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  6. Your kitchen redo looks great! Just wondering the size of your kitchen ? Also how do you feel about the use of Traffic Master in an entire home because I like the cohesive look.
    I was planning on Laminate but have the concern about the water in the kitchen. I have not seen the Traffic Master on an actual floor, but have seen in next to the laminate in the store and they look the same to me. I would love hard wood of course, but all the floors in my home need to be replace at this time and hardwood is NOT in the budget. Any thoughts?

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    Replies
    1. I also would have loved to put actual hardwoods in my kitchen but the price is prohibitive and the wear and tear not worth the money. My kitchens equal 186 sq. feet total with the back kitchen being 4 ft. x 10 ft. and my front kitchen being 12 x 13. I do like the TrafficMaster for my kitchens. I am not sure that I would love it through out the house because it is vinyl. I just think vinyl would look funny in the living room etc. no matter how realistic the look of wood was. I might recommend the Pergo XP because it is hard wearing and it has very similar grains as the Traffic Master. You might put the vinyl in the kitchen and then the similar Pergo throughout the rest of the house . It wouldn't be exactly the same but it would hold up better. The Pergo is about $0.50 more per sq. foot. and I think it would be worth it.

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  7. Your kitchen looks so fresh and pretty! You got a lot of bang for your buck!

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  8. amazing! I'm featuring your kitchen at this week's Trash 2 Treasure party! :)

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  9. Kim, I LOVE this makeover! I thought your backsplash was a new choice, and it looks nice to me. Great job on the floors - I would have guessed your floors were wood. My favorite detail, though, is the FEET! You should do a tutorial, Kim. CHARMING to the max!

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  10. Loads of bang for your buck! I think you made lots of great choices!

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