All Things Dixiefied: Kitchen Transformation

Well, my kitchen’s been “finished” for about a month now. I’ve been wanting to post the outcome, but to be honest, I needed a mental break from it. This was a huge undertaking, but well worth the sweat and tears. I LOVE the outcome, and can’t wait to share it with you.

After completing the laundry room and seeing what a difference painting the cabinets white made, I knew I had to do the kitchen. Only problem…I have about 52 cabinets and drawers (yes, I may or may not have counted them…multiple times).

So, I decided to take it slow and do one section at the time. First, let’s take a look at how the kitchen looked before the transformation.

We painted the kitchen red after we moved in because I always wanted a red kitchen. I must say I have loved my red kitchen, but, this year I started feeling that the red was kind of caving in on me. I was ready for a change. Once I started painting the cabinets white, I knew I wanted to make it lighter and brighter in here…so the red had to go.

I started with the cabinets where the sink is.

Now, for the kitchen cabinets I decided to do the old fashion way of painting cabinets…clean, lightly sand, prime, and paint. A bit of a process but it worked great.

What a difference! I was in love, and knew I had to continue…well that and knew that once I started there was no turning back.

I worked on a section at a time, and each section took about a week from start to finish. All-in-all it took about a month to complete. The main reason is because I’m a stay at home mom with two young kids and a hard working husband. The only time I had to paint was at night after the kids went to bed and on the weekend when my sweet, awesome husband could watch the kids for me.

It was a s-l-o-w process, and I’d be lying if I told you I loved every minute of it. I did not. There were times I was ready to pull my hair out, and there were a few tears shed during the process. However, in the end I absolutely love the outcome. They are now so bright the room really started to pop.

After finishing the cabinets white, I wanted to make the island different. I wanted to do those cabinets in a color. I knew I was going to paint the walls a light grey, so after much deliberation and picking brains of my friends, I decided to paint them a darker grey. So, Eric and I put up bead board on the ends of the island to match the bead board back splash we already had. I then got to painting…again.

The cabinets were finished and it was time for the floors to be refinished. We have wanted to have the floors sanded and re-stained since we moved here 5 years ago. We decided this year was the year we’d take the plunge and re-do the floors and get new carpet.

They got sanded and stained and I love, love, love them. They are perfect. Did I say I love them???

Well, the floors were finished, we painted the walls a light grey, and then it was time to put the room back together. Are you ready? Here we go…

I used the valance that my mama and her friend made for me last year, and used a few of the same lemon accessories I had. I made a collage wall with a few things I had previously. I made the “L” board with an L I bought for $1.00 at Michael’s and a piece of wood I had on hand.