New Kitchen Reveal

My long awaited, reveal is so worth every ounce of effort the eye in every detail was intentional it served a purpose.

Ok so my tiny DIY project of just painting the cabinets and upgrading the hardware turned into a full fledged kitchen makeover. You can imagine the disbelief my husband was in when I single handedly started taking down cabinets and chiseling tiles off the wall. As I said in my other post it felt good to tear things up after what I was going through. I think in a sense it was my quasi way of regaining control over my out of control life and possibly a bit of anger therapy was all mixed in. All I know is by the end of my out of control destruction I had huge holes in my walls. No doors on my cabinets, and all the discarded cabinets were just hanging around my house like it was nobody’s business. I made an absolute wreck of my kitchen and unfortunately it stayed that way for months because I was clearly in way over my head. The general contractors were a hot commodity and unavailable during the height of the pandemic. Everyone was fixing up their homes.

Of course that didn’t stop me I kept going. I absolutely hated that cabinet space over my kitchen sink. Like WTF were the designers thinking? It was a clear waste of space. So I took down more cabinets at some point my kitchen wasn’t even functional we spent tons of money ordering food for weeks. Learn from my epic fail of Willy Nilly rogue destruction. The big after thought … Oh shit 😳the kids! They had no where to eat comfortably. I planned everything else on point except for that.

The space above my sink was a tough design to pull off because it was in such an awkward recessed corner position. After getting some design inspiration from walking thru Home Depot kitchen displays. I came up with the full open shelves concept. It absolutely had to be executed well to make the dull area a wow point of view while I wash dishes. How did I turn this area from drab to fab? See picture below and I’ll explain how. Click Here to see video.

Did you notice the transition between the hexagon marble tile with the gold accent inlays. I absolutely loved that concept I saw it on a photo of a hotel floor and I wanted to add that cool effect to my kitchen to really make this corner stand out. I ended up finally finding a contractor to do the tiling and flooring because that was way above my creative abilities for starters. I asked my contractor (Eric) to leave the tiles in the corner open and to make it higher than underneath the cabinet spaces. I bought wainscoting and used my jigsaw to puzzle piece it all together. Then I used my Ryobi Brad nailer gun to attach the vertical ship lap in between the marble hexagon tiles. I then used white caulk to fill in the gaps between the wainscoting and the tiles to make it all magically seamless. I then styled the open shelves using metallic gold tone planters, I used old recipe books to add height and layer my decor. I also styled my decor in groups of 3’s for balance. Lastly, I added faux green florals to makes this space have a nice pop of color. Greenery on shelf spaces to me is a must. This was definitely very challenging to do because of the sink and awkward position of the corner. I was so happy with how it all came out. What do you think? Did I execute it that nicely or what? Leave a comment below let me know your thoughts.

As you can see below I took down another cabinet over the stove. Of course in my head I was figuring out what am I going to do with the lost cabinet space (more on my pantry makeover on another post). This area was completely redone with a new stove top, hood range, and a newly installed gold pot filler that was a mandatory addition and boy did I not know all the drama of getting a simple pot filler installed. My poor dining room wall had to be completely gutted 😩 the horror. But when I want something your girl stops at nothing to get it and see it through no matter how big that hole in my f**king wall had to get. See Horror show here.

I wanted my kitchen to be glam but cozy and functional. My kitchen is in the center of the house so it is where everyone ends up at. I transformed the dining area into a beautiful breakfast nook. I took the grey shades down. I added 2 inch Levolor horizontal blinds from Lowes. I thought about plantation shutters but opted this route for several reasons time, cost, and functionality. I was able to get them cut and sized right in the store to get this custom look. What I had in mind with the table I wanted to create a functional place where my family not only came together to eat, but this is where we would have family game night, family meetings, where I would enjoy a cup of coffee or tea in the morning before my kids got up. Where I would come to journal my goals, or write my blog. Maybe do a homeschool session at the kitchen table or morning prayer with my children. That was what was most important to me when designing this space.

Instead of buying an entire table set I designed furniture picks from all different places and styled them together to create this one of a kind look. I purchased the Maddox dining L shape extra wide couch bench with pillows for comfort and coziness. It took me forever but I found a farm style, heavy, white marble stone dining table. It goes so nicely with my marble tile backsplash and porcelain floor. I also purchased 3 emerald green tufted, velvet bucket chairs with gold metal legs to add a pop of color to my white and black kitchen. This was a bold call typically the color to accent black and white is red. I added green velvet pillows to tie into the velvet chairs on the other side of the couch. I absolutely love the way everything turned out It is hands down the favorite spot in the house right now. What do you think? Beautiful or absolutely beautiful?

Now let’s get to the good part… Back to how I started remember the desk area I tore up and put all holes in the wall tearing out the tiles? I know who wants to remember that right. You want to see how I turned that hot mess into oh yes? I’m going to do a separate blog on just that area alone be sure to check back in on my next blog post to get all the details on how I put that together. For now just enjoy the transformation.

Now on to my floors, remember I wasn’t even supposed to be doing the floors it was just “minor upgrades” oh the lies 😭 My floors wasn’t in terrible condition there were a few hairline cracks but it was just dated and I didn’t like the grooved texture in the tiles it made dirt easy to stick to it and it was all white so you saw everything on it. I went for the large format porcelain tile why because I have expensive taste… lol Once I saw it, I was in love and your girl once again determined AF did whatever it took to get it here even if it meant longer delays, extra delivery costs, finding someone who knew how to install large format tiles not only in my kitchen but in my hallway and foyer because it wasn’t separated. Ugh all the exchanges and the drama and mess ups from my original selection. I’m a hot damn mess. I don’t know how my husband deals sometimes. He just lets me be me. I truly love him for that. Stay TF outta my way when I’m on a mission. I have tunnel vision when I’m in getter done mode. It was the gold in the marble design that completely sold me and had me completely enamored. The process of getting the old tile up and laying the cement boards and new floor down took about a little over a week to complete. My kids had to stay upstairs most of the time. Normally, I would have just left and stayed at a hotel but those damn covid restrictions 🙄 ruined everything. So it finally happened and when it did I was so excited. Check out the pics of the process.

There are more details in this makeover like the chandelier fan, the Gold decor I was clearly obsessed with, my refrigerator that’s an entire project within it’s self I will do a separate post on that DIY, my new appliances. How about that double oven? What a God send for cooking big meals. We downsized our microwave to a small insignificant appliance. Microwaves are not a great healthy source so we minimized the usage by removing it all together we opted in for the french door air fryer convection oven. Amazing alternative. I cleared all appliances off my counter tops to make room for the beautiful decor that I’d prefer to see rather than clunky soiled appliances. We completely gutted our small food pantry closet to store all of the counter top appliances. That way it gets used, cleaned and stored away out of sight. I am 100% happy with how everything turned out my family enjoys this space thoroughly. Mission Accomplished.

I hope you enjoyed this read if you want to stay updated on more please join me in my stories on Instagram Here for live projects and other things going on in my in between life as it occurs. Leave your email below to get notified when a new post updates. Thank you so much for taking the time to read or share my blog. I hope I was able to inspire you to do some “minor upgrades” on your kitchen 😉 if you want any additional info on anything you see in the photos Let me know I’d be happy to share with you. I’m a real person on the other side of this so it’s totally ok to connect with me.

Please have a safe and wonderful New Year! Many blessings to you and your family in 2022!

Salt & Light

Your new friend,

Rory