If you have ever been pregnant or been around a woman who is in her last month of pregnancy then you understand how I am feeling about my kitchen remodel right now. I am so excited for the end result but really done with the process! But, much like those last achy weeks of pregnancy, I’m already here so I just have to ride it out until that fateful day when we are done. So far here is what we have finished since my last update with you all:

We painted our cabinets! That was one major hurdle that we jumped and has made a HUGE difference to the way that the kitchen looks. We hung a large plastic drop cloth from the ceiling surrounding the entire kitchen area and cutting it off from the rest of the living space. We then emptied the cabinets, and cleared the counter tops and floor area. Once we had an empty kitchen, we removed all of the doors. As each door was removed, it was given a number on painters tape that matched the cabinet opening it came from. Once every door was removed, I took some TSP diluted it in a bucket and scrubbed all the cabinets and doors front and back. This got them good and clean and cut through any of the yuck that was on there. We ended up removing and not re-using the cabinets that had been closest to the cook top, so we didn’t have a lot of grease to deal with. If you do, you may want to check into some Krud Kutter or go a second round with the TSP. We then lightly sanded our cabinets by hand. Looking back, I would have skipped sanding and just sprayed a primer. Some areas we sanded too far through the finish on the cabinet doors and after we sprayed them, they had a little raised sort of line. We had to sand that down and spray again. It worked out fine in the end but we had to sand and re-paint more than we had originally wanted to. The professional Kelly Moore rep we spoke with said that spraying a primer without sanding would have worked well…live and learn :).

We taped paper to the interior of the cabinets, closing off anything from over spray. We also papered the hood vent and shiplap wall areas. The rest of it could get sprayed because we were going to be painting and tiling those areas. We set up some craft tables in the spray area, and placed scrap wood with small finish nails in it on top. We used this to prop our doors on. That way they were only resting on small nail heads between sprays. We moved the numbered labels for each door onto the table directly under its resting place so we wouldn’t lose track of which door went where.  Once everything was prepped it was time to paint. We put on our coveralls and masks and got to work! The painting itself was quick…like 30 minutes. It’s really one of those hurry up and wait things. But the time you take to prep makes all the difference in the end result!

We used this paint for our cabinets because it is part epoxy it cures to a super hard finish that is extremely durable to cleaning and everyday wear and tear. It does require a little longer dry time (to fully harden) so be aware of that. Once everything was dry and had cured about 24 hours, we delicately re-installed the doors. The finish is still not totally cured at this time so if you are really gripping the door it will show your finger prints. The few we had rubbed out okay but if you don’t think you can screw your doors back in with a light touch, then I would wait 5-7 days. We left our kitchen doors and drawers open for a week after we re-hung them so they could fully cure. Now they are hard as nails and we haven’t had any issue with scrapes or chipping or anything. For the color I took my subway tile I had chosen and looked through paint chips at Lowe’s. I ended up settling on Valspar’s color ‘Commercial White’. It is a great hue that isn’t too sterile or cool a white, while also not looking yellowish or cream. I had a sample made and took that sample to Kelly Moore to match the color in our dura-poxy paint.

Once the cabinets were ready, it was onto the counters! Matt cut and installed these butcher block counters that we bought from Floor and Decor. They look amazing with our Kohler Whitehaven farmhouse sink! Next, the wall ovens, stove, faucet and hardware were all installed. It is amazing to have a working stove again! Plus having that giant single basin sink makes cleaning up so much more fun! Finally, I painted the whole living space and shiplap in Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams. I absolutely love the color and the way it brings everything together. I have hated the color of the walls for so long in this house but was waiting until we tackled this remodel to paint so it is like a dream come true to see my own paint choice on the wall!

The last two things we accomplished were finishing the hood vent with Modern Masters reactive bronze paint, and trimming the windows in the kitchen. Matt trimmed our windows the same way in our old house and I missed those beauties so much! Glad to see it back in this space. As far as the hood vent. Matt custom-built this for us and I painted it to look like aged bronze with a green/blue patina. We may have a tutorial on that for the future :).

For now that is where we are. There is still a lengthy punch list to get this project all buttoned up but I am over the moon with what’s changed so far!

Thanks for following along,

♥ Rachael