Kitchen Crashers Phase 1

When we purchased our house two years ago we knew we wanted to make some changes. Our house was a short sale and even though it wasn't damaged it was in desperate need of a face lift.  In the past two years we have re-painted almost every room in the house, replaced all the knobs, hinges and cabinet pulls to the oil rubbed bronze, added paneling in the media room,added trim to the column,
 built cabinets in the laundry room and built a builtin for the mud room.  
We love DIY projects and Im really excited to finally be working on our biggest one yet...THE KITCHEN!!!  The kitchen is absolutely the heart of our home.  I love our kitchen layout! It was the layout of this kitchen that made us purchase this home even though it did not have the upgrades that the other house we were looking at had. The open concept of the kitchen is my favorite! What is not my favorite is the cabinet color. When we first purchased this house the walls, cabinets and floors were all the same color (orange brown)

Before

 

...well we fixed the wall color first...

now on to the cabinets...and next will be floors! 

It is going to be a HUGE project to say the least but I am so extremely excited to get started! There is certainly a greater appreciation when you personally work hard and put in hours of time improving your home.

We started on the Island this weekend...here are some progress pics

Before

 

 

Added paneling

 

 

Painted and distressed paneling

We used chalk paint (mix yourself and save a ton of money) and distressed it with a low grit sand paper then sealed everything with polyacrylic so it is sealed and won't scratch but still has that dull finish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have ordered new corbels but they haven't arrived yet..once those are added the island will be complete....then on to the kitchen cabinets which will be painted in an  ivory color called Linen. We are not distressing the cabinets but we are antiqueing them with a walnut wax.  Sooo excited!!

 

Here are some of our kitchen inspiration pics:

These colors: black island, ivory cabinets

We will be adding a brick backsplash

 

These colors only switched: black on island and ivory on cabinets..we also want to add the barn wood beams from this pic in the living room...but that will be a seperate project :)

We loved the paneling look!

We will be adding a cooper sink and bronze faucet