DIY Kitchen Renovations ~ Minor Updates

No, we haven’t painted the walls yet.

Or fixed the rotting window.

Or figured out what to put above the cabinets.

Side note: Open to suggestions for any dust-free decorating ideas for that 8 inches that I know should be decorated but I don’t collect anything and don’t like to dust so can I leave it empty without the decorating police arresting me?

And now PhilBillPaul has a new project in addition to all the other things we haven’t finished.

Which would be fixing the ceiling damage caused by the bathroom flood.

The joys of home ownership just keep giving.

If I keep my eyes from looking upward and ignore the ceiling, the updated kitchen makes me happy.

Let’s Focus on the Positive

We are still love, love, loving the counters and the backsplash and the cabinet glaze.

Here are the minor updates we’ve made:

All the beadboard is painted to match the cabinets.

Love.

Then we added some little touches…

$3.00 plate from Walmart. I don’t like a lot of loose items on the counters.

Fancy I tell you. That’s us.

As is evidenced by this $3.99 cabinet towel rack from Marshall’s.

It’s the little bargains that excite me.

A new coffee maker with stainless steel pot is a nice addition.

New rugs.

Love. Especially love that the small ones were $2.77 from Stein Mart with coupon. Large one was less than $6.00.

We PhilBillPaul painted our eight stools. Color selection was dicey with 4 different cans of spray paint.

These are the last two samples. I thought for sure we would pick a light color.

Once again, my fear of dark things was put to rest when we chose the darkest “rubbed bronze” rustoleum paint and I love the stools.

PhilBillPaul added a clear lacquer topcoat that really gave them a nice finish.

I like useful gifts so a new knife set was an exciting birthday present.

I have insisted that they are for KITCHEN and FOOD use only and that includes the scissors that came with the set. As I’ve shared before, I get crazy about scissor usage in this house.

Stainless tissue box was bonus clearance find at Marshall’s.

When we went out of town last week we locked the knives in our bedroom since Elizabeth grabbed a steak knife to open a box in the first week we owned them. I might have screamed.

We’ll see how long they stay sharp and none go missing.

We bought some fancy gourds for Scary Baby. She has a bit of a gourd obsession like her father.

She made a lovely arrangement with the $2.50 Target metal bucket.

I love all the earthtones with the black and stainless appliances mixed together. Fall is very busy so painting the walls with a pop of color might not happen until 2012. I’m waiting until Mr. Handy fixes the rotting window.

Until then, it’s functional and once the temperature dipped below 90º I was able turn on the craigslist oven and bake again.

I’ll share some of my favorite things I baked in the coming days!