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White Kitchen – remodel Before & After

25 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in home, home decor, lighting, sparkling, sunlight, Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

cabinet hardware, home, kitchen before and after, kitchen cabinets, kitchen remodel, remodel, white kitchen

We’ve lived in this house for over 13 years. From day one, I just accepted the house the way it was. We didn’t do any painting and even hung pictures on nails the previous owners left.

I’ve lived in various places over the years. We rented a 700 square foot home for 15 years. And that’s WITH a family of 8! My husband and I lived in a tent in various State Parks with our six kids for 7 long weeks when we were homeless. We lived in a single tiny motel room with six kids for 7 weeks… Seven!… and during that time a hurricane wiped out half our belongings that were in storage. So when we bought this house, our first home, I was completely in heaven. Every single inch of this glorious house was perfect just the way it was and didn’t need any change at all.

That was until my collapsing spine kept me home-bound more and more and I became acutely aware of how dark our house was inside. I craved light. I craved light even more than I wanted to escape the unceasing pain. So I decided to paint the kitchen, hoping to brighten the space just for crafts and photography. I gathered paint chips and left them taped to the wall for a whole year because I was paralyzed at the thought of making a mistake in color. We couldn’t afford to make a mistake so I had to pick the perfect paint the first time.

The first gallon we bought from the local home improvement store turned out to be very poor quality. It was the best the store had, at over $50 a gallon, but it didn’t cover well and pooled easily and made drips, even with great care. So after all that deliberation over color, I threw out all the paint chips and off we went to a real paint store. I settled on Benjamin Moore’s Bavarian Cream for the dining room and kitchen walls, with a semi-gloss Simply White, which is almost paper white, for the cabinets and trim. The paint went on thick and perfect and was absolutely worth the expense. I won’t paint with anything else from now on, even if I have to delay painting in order to save up for it.

To be honest, I absolutely adore very dark woods and would have loved staining the out-dated cabinets dark or painting the walls turquoise. But this remodel wasn’t about choosing color, it was ALL about lightening my space. So I made the big sacrifice of giving up colors I loved just to make my work area brighter.

The kitchen BEFORE.

Kitchen BEFORE the remodel. Notice how dark the space is.

Kitchen BEFORE the remodel. Notice how dark the space is.

Notice the sunshine in the foreground. That’s from the two new windows we put in the windowless dining room. I’ll post about the windows soon. But look at this LIGHT! It was worth the incredible physical effort it took to get this remodel done.
The difference is like moving to a new house!
The kitchen AFTER.

Kitchen AFTER the remodel. Oh how gloriously bright!

Kitchen AFTER the remodel. Oh how gloriously bright!

Kitchen Redo Corner shelf 1 before
Kitchen Redo Corner shelf 2 after
We brushed the paint in the grooves of the raised panels and outer edges of the cabinet doors to make a glossy surface but used a roller on the raised sections to create a non-glaring surface. I love the final texture!

Raised panel cabinet doors, smoothly brushed in the grooves and rolled on the raised panels.

Raised panel cabinet doors, smoothly brushed in the grooves and rolled on the raised panels.

I couldn’t decide which knobs to use. There are so many awesome ones to choose from and it was almost stressful having to decide on just one pattern. Also, I couldn’t find any handles to match the existing old holes in the doors. So I decided to use every knob I liked! I even used knobs on the lower cabinet doors in place of handles. I absolutely adore this look! It adds color and interest to an otherwise boring white kitchen.

Kitchen cabinets before, with shiny brass knobs.

Kitchen cabinets before, with shiny brass knobs.

Kitchen cabinets After, with all different knobs.

Kitchen cabinets After, with all different knobs.

Mismatched knobs used in place of cabinet handles.

Mismatched knobs used in place of cabinet handles.

I used two knobs of similar color in place of each handle.
Kitchen Redo Knobs 2 After c
Kitchen Redo knobs 2 After h
Kitchen Redo knobs 2 After g

Kitchen Redo knobs 2 After e
There are two of the original brass handles on the doors. I sanded the shiny surface to make the handles looked like brushed steel, which better matched the new knobs.
Kitchen Redo knobs 2 After d

Kitchen Redo knobs 2 After f

Kitchen Redo knobs 2 After i

See that sunshine? That sunshine is all new from the new dining room windows. There was never any sunshine at any time of day in this area of the kitchen.  The sunshine is THE best part of the entire remodel!

I LOVE my bright new kitchen, with it’s beautiful fresh white surfaces, sunshine and funky, colorful knobs!

I’ll post photos of the dining room as soon as I find suitable “before” photos. I usually avoided photographing the dining room because it was so cluttered and dark so those photos are scarce.

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Marble window sills

18 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in home decor, lighting, projects

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

construction, DIY, home, marble, marble window sill, marble window sills, windows

I’m so glad I insisted on marble window sills for the new dining room windows! They look amazing. I had my heart set on marble but we had to go cheap. So we bought two door sills for $10 each. And then came the sawing. We didn’t have the necessary equipment or blades to saw marble. But I don’t give up easy. So I walked into the workshop and eyed up the straightest blade I could find.
He didn’t believe it could be done but I picked up that old rusty saw and asked God to bless that blade. And then I sat down and began.
window sill 1 cutting 7814
Here I am later. Wow, great progress, huh?

Still sawing...

Still sawing…


How about even later?
Window sill 3 cutting 7819
It took three full hours of constant sawing to make that single vertical cut! I used my right hand. Then my left hand. Then my left hand held my right hand… Just short of involving my feet, I completed the cut.
Dedicated? Determined. Obsessed? Maybe a little insane?
After 3 entire hours of non-stop cutting I had to rest a day. But my husband said I inspired him so he turned on the tv and made the other 7 cuts. Where there is a will, there is always a way!
Our beautiful, hand-cut, marble window sills.

Our beautiful, hand-cut, marble window sills.


To install, we used a strong construction adhesive, Loctite Power Grab.
Squeezing out the heavy-duty construction adhesive to place the sills.

Squeezing out the heavy-duty construction adhesive to place the sills.


and then pressed the sill in place.
Window sill 6 install 7844
Window sill 7 install 7848
Isn’t this beautiful?
The marble sill pressed in place.

The marble sill pressed in place.


A completely unexpected effect – seeing reflection of the sky above in the sills! Wow, I would have chosen marble if I had known that would happen. But this was completely serendipitous. When the sun hits the sill, it casts light on the ceiling too, just one more way we have introduced light to the formerly dark room. I love how the trees can be seen in the marble too.
Window sill 9 finished  8610

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Tile work

27 Saturday Jul 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in crafts, Gilded Life, God, home decor, lighting, photography, projects, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

home, house, kitchen remodel, painting, replacing tiles, tile, tilework

The facebook post said “What has been your favorite find lately? Please share!!” They found a pair of ornate candelabra lamps. I haven’t purchased anything lately but figured surely I could find something “for a whole new purpose” in this overstuffed house. Perhaps an item I had forgotten. Hmm, yes, there was the old mirror still in the garage. That would do. It was my father-in-law’s and I’ve been planning on cleaning it up for a couple years now. How can years go by like that? Years!

Anyway, we were just talking about the tile work in the kitchen and I mentioned we needed six tiles as close as possible to the original tile to fill the hole. Photography is really difficult in such a dark kitchen so we’re painting all the cabinets white and the walls a beautiful creamy white. I can’t wait! The lighting will be glorious! Here is my cluttered, dark, Kitchen Before, with out-dated orangey woodwork, brass knobs and fruit-that-matches-NOTHING tiles.

Stove area before the redo, with fruit tiles that don't match a thing in my entire house and orange wood cabinets.

Stove area before the redo, with fruit tiles that don’t match a single thing in my entire house and orange wood cabinets.


As we talked about the tile, my husband remembered the old boxes of discontinued tile samples in the garage. They were being thrown out from a construction job eight years ago. What a surprise! Look at my amazing new craft supplies!
Tile samples.

Tile samples.


Granite tile samples

Granite tile samples


Border, relief and bullnose tile samples. These are heavy and gorgeous!

Border, relief and bullnose tile samples. These are gorgeous!


And in that box of old tile were exactly SIX tiles that EXACTLY matched the color and texture of the existing tile in our kitchen! Now what are the chances of that? Wow! We’re pinching even the pennies we find in the sofa to do this kitchen remodel so finding tiles that match is crazy encouraging!
It was hard to capture the color and texture on the tiles but they match almost exactly.

It was hard to capture the color and texture on the tiles but they match almost exactly.


The new tiles are about 1/16th” too big and the original tile was tightly set so we’ll have to carefully sand off a bit of the new tiles to make them fit. But the surface texture and color match couldn’t be better!

I’m looking forward to using the mirror and working with tile this week. What fun to go treasure hunting in my own garage. God cares about so many little details in our lives and the fact that he made sure eight years ago to stow away six little tiles I’d need today is just amazing.

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