La Cuisine de Famille de Geek

So I redid my kitchen. It nearly killed me. Seriously. My house was built in 1952 and the cabinets are original. Which would have been fine but the former owners painted the cabinets using the time-honored tradition of removing neither doors, drawers, nor hardware. Super! To say that they did a bad job would be as big an understatement as saying that George Clooney is a bit smug. Here are some before and after pics; I only have a portrait lens on my camera so it is hard for me to get the entire kitchen in the shot without standing in the neighbor's yard. But you'll get the general idea.

Upper cabinets. Not too bad, since they were never touched by children's hands.

Ugh. A cabinet that is touched frequently. Peeling paint, brush strokes, gross, gross, gross. 

These pictures actually make the cabinets look not so bad but trust me, they were bad. Plus the walls were a dingy, pinkish taupe.  

You can see the walls in this one. As well as the mess that is ever present in a home school family's life. Because we are here all the time and art projects are always drying on the windowsill or countertops. 

See? Mess. And gross cabinets. The countertops were fine as are the floors. Everything else had to go! 

You can see here the meticulous care the former owners took in slapping cheap white latex paint on the old hinges. Beautiful! 

Ah, now we're talking. The cabinets are espresso, which is a dark brown. I put a faux finish on them which doesn't show up in pictures, but it is almost mottled-looking. I chose that finish because it is what my cabinets look like most of the time from children rubbing their greasy little hands all over them. And now they are pre-mottled! I used Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations to redo the cabinets. It was so much stinking work. I won't even tell you how much. But it was worth it! I need to move that stupid elf. He haunts me.

The tiles were installed by a buddy of mine who nearly lost his sanity because at certain angles, they look wavy. But they're not. At all. However, he was mad with the perception of waviness. Poor guy. And all I gave him in payment was a pair of hand knit mittens and a beer.

The cabinets aren't dirty, but they look like it in the poor lighting. Which I would love to replace but we need a new fridge and a new microwave since our current microwave makes coughing sounds and frequently refuses to turn on.

I bought all new retro antique copper hardware for the cabinets. I really like it. It fits the age of the house, plus it fits the hinge holes that were already there. And I bought all the new hardware, hinges, pulls, and knobs, for $63!!!! 

See? Mess! But the tile looks really cool and brightens up the dark cabinets. The walls have been repainted a soft greenish greyish silvery mintish soothing type color. It's called Summer Sonnet. Whatever. It looks great. My friend who helped me paint the walls picked out the color; she's a genius when it comes to that kind of thing. Me? Not so much. Our old house had one room that was painted nacho cheese yellow and one that was porta potty green. I need some help picking colors.

I also repainted the living room/school room in a fit of insanity because when I looked at the dingy walls in there after the freshness of the kitchen walls I was Overcome and Had to Paint. The color worked really great in the living room, too, but I think I'm done with painting for a while. But my bathroom does need some work....