Kitchen Makeover

Our kitchen has probably been through about 5 or 6 makeovers since we've lived in this house but that usually only consisted of changing the paint color on the walls and moving things around a little. But, for this makeover, I installed beadboard to the backsplash and built a new rustic center work table to show off a special birthday gift from my hubby. More on that in a bit.

Here is a close up photo of the beadboard backsplash. Installing it yourself is not hard at all and if you have a fairly small kitchen, like we do, it isn't expensive either, especially if you just do the backsplash area, and it really does transform a kitchen from plain to extra special.  One full sheet of white primed beadboard at Lowes was around $20, and that is all I needed for this project, as I already had some Liquid Nail and my handy nail gun. Oh, you will also need some sort of trim to trim out the bottom, if you want to do that, and that cost me around $10. To start, I removed my tile backsplash with a hammer and a pry bar thingy. Sorry, I don't know what it was called. :)

Then, picked a starting point and measured out length, height and distances to any outlets, as well as outlet measurements. I wrote all this down on a sheet of paper, which makes it much easier, especially if you have to cut holes for existing outlets in your backsplash.  I actually thought this would be quite difficult but was surprised to discover that measuring everything and drawing it out on your beadboard made it fairly easy.  And it got a lot easier with each panel that I cut.

After determining all measurements, I grabbed a yardstick and measured these out on my beadboard with a pencil, lightly.

Then cut with a jig saw. And yes, I was using a saw in my dining room. Each time I start a project that requires power tools, it is raining outside and we don't have a garage. But, I only had to make a few cuts inside before I was able to move everything outside when the rain stopped. I get a little too obsessed determined sometimes to get a project started and finished.  It cleaned up nicely, though, so no worries.

To cut out the holes for the outlets, simply take a cordless or regular drill and drill a large hole in each corner of the rectangle being cut out for the outlet. Then you have a place to fit your jig saw blade into to continue cutting out the remaining rectangle. Before you apply the liquid nail to the back and install, stick the beadboard up on the backsplash and make sure everything fits correctly. If it does, apply the adhesive and attach it to the wall. Easy! If it doesn't, cry back to the drawing board.  I also used my nail gun a couple times around the edges just to make sure it wasn't going anywhere. Continue with the rest of your beadboard until finished. Then measure, cut and add your trim. I just used wood glue to attach mine. Here is a good tutorial on installing beadboard.
Turned out pretty good for my first time, huh!?  It's something we've always wanted in our kitchen and wasn't costly or too difficult so I don't know why I didn't try it sooner.

I painted the Strawberries sign by using an end piece from an old crate, craft paints and sand paper. I wanted it to look like an actual piece from an old strawberry crate. Cheap art! Gotta love that.

This spice cabinet was given to us when we were out for an afternoon bike ride. It was yellow, dirty, and sitting on a curb. The owner just let us take it so we brought it home, cleaned it, primed, painted, and attached a base and a crown molding top.  And it holds some special things, my collection of vintage linens and all my baking and cooking spices.
The EAT letters are the cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby that cost $2 each. I painted them black, let dry and then dry brushed sterling silver craft paint lightly in some areas to give a metal look. Was kinda going for this look in Anthropologie without the cost.

My other big kitchen project this weekend was building that rustic work table island. The whole project started because of this photo. I fell in love with those double towel racks on that center island so my hubby bought me one for my birthday. I wanted to attach it to something special and rustic to showcase it nicely, so, I decided to build a table from some more of the barn wood I used on my barn door headboard. I took the time to prepare this barn wood by sanding it down quite a bit with a palm sander until very smooth, and then putting on several coats of glossy polyurethane.  It really brought out the beauty of the wood and since it is also a kitchen work surface, I wanted to properly prepare the top.  I'm going to write a separate post on how I built it (because it's long), I think it turned out perfect for us!!  I love to mix beat up, rustic, old things with newer, modern things and I love the way this fits in our kitchen. It also goes perfectly with my made over bar stools. And the beautiful vintage style double towel rack displays my vintage kitchen towels beautifully. It just makes me smile to look at it.  I really like seeing the hardware used to build the table and the imperfections in the wood. Very rustic and lovely.  And my kiddos have fun sitting at it and chatting with me while I cook.  A very special piece.

My favorite room in the house is the kitchen, it is the heart of our home.

When we bought the house, there was no door separating the kitchen and pantry/laundry area. We bought that french door at a yard sale and hung her up. Worked out perfectly after some trimming of the sides, but it wasn't easy. Old houses are crooked.

The other side of the kitchen...my little cooking corner.

We couldn't be happier with how this turned out and it didn't cost a ton of money.  Didn't even cost a lot of money.  Most of the things in our kitchen were gifts, thrift or flea market finds or something I made myself.

The cabinets previously had doors but I removed them to display my white dish collection. By the way, you can get fantastic white dishes from The Dollar Tree. And they stand up very nicely to repeated dishwasher use. We have a set for everyday use and not a chip or crack yet. So, that's our kitchen makeover......for now. I am such a sucker for kitchen redos so I'm sure I'll be changing it up again soon when the mood strikes, but that special rustic table will always remain there.