Kitchen Makeover

I am taking a month off from jewelry to get some things accomplished around the house. I have been wanting to makeover my kitchen for a long long long time. It had this UGLY wallpaper and drab maple colored cabinets. Being that I am all up on this vintage/old/weathered/re purposed kick - I wanted to paint my walls AND my cabinets. I knew it would be a big job but I did not realize how big of a job until I was about half way finished. It will seriously be a cold day in Hell before I decide to refinish another cabinet ... well maybe not quite THAT long ... but you catch my drift! With that being said - let me inform you there are 4 cabinet sections/ top and bottom ... which include 25 doors and 11 drawers. KILL ME NOW! Here are a few of the before pics ... OH LORD - Please overlook the MESS! I had no idea what I was getting myself into and I had moved things from section A to section B and so on ... 

 

Ok ... so I worked in sections. I removed the doors / drawers and ALL the hinges and hardware of the section I worked on ... 

I then sanded these facings and doors with a Dewalt Orbital Sander ... once finished sanding - I applied a coat of the darkest, quickest drying wood stain I could find ... Rustolem Brand in the color "Kona" 

 ... once that was almost dry .. still a little tacky in spots - I rubbed all the corners of the areas with paraffin wax ... then I coated them roughly with Valspar Flat Interior Paint ... in the color "Creme Brulee" - once that was dry (also dries pretty quick) I sanded off the edges where I applied the wax ... I also sanded off random spots on the facings etc ... 

on the side that had open glass cabinets - I replaced with Chicken Wire ... 

I found an antique colander at an antique store in Asheville, NC and we turned it into a light... I LOVE LOVE LOVE this ... 

PS - I HATE popcorn ceilings ... 

In between all of this cabinet refinishing - I painted my walls - with 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of Valspar eggshell finish in the color "Winter Flannel" - and I painted my trim and door facings in the Creme Brulee color. I purchased some tiles at Lowes to make a backsplash in a dark gunmetal color. 

This was a huge project ... I worked for about 10 days off and on - took a few complete days off - I have a few things I still would like to do - like a Mason Jar light over my table ... refinish the table to match my cabinets ... I am making curtains out of vintage sugar sacks and the hardware for some of my doors will be bent flatware. I am really stoked that I had minimal help in completing this project. My brother painted one wall for me as well as my front door ... and my fiancee wired the light and installed the backsplash! I am really proud of myself! 

Now on to the next project!!!!