Budget-friendly Kitchen Renovation

The kitchen. The place everyone gathers because of one word: food. Kitchen renos are inconvenient and expensive, especially when you have a zillion other projects going on. We decided to do ours on a budget for now - with a total gut job in the 5-10 year plan. The kitchen was our top priority to finish before moving in - because who wants to cook in a room under construction?

Before.

Our kitchen was rough when we took possession. Stained wallpaper, faded paint on the cupboards, dated scalping, and of course I can't forget the lovely green countertops/backsplash. Despite all this, I still saw tons of potential. The kitchen is a great size, has tons of natural light, and I love the shutters on the windows.

Our plan for the kitchen broke down into many little projects. Each which earned it's own blog post :)

Project #1: Remove wallpaper

Project #2: Cabinets

Project #3: Countertops

Project #4: Backsplash

Project #5: Painting

All of those little projects took time, sweat, and lots of drinks (water, wine, beer...) but it was so worth it. We are extremely happy with the way the kitchen turned out - costing us less than $100 in materials.

After.

Fresh flowers from the yard - heart eyes.

Produce from my future father-in-law's garden - yum!

My attractive way to hide the pile of mile on the counter - magazine rack turned into mail/filing center. Craigslist find.

The most special thing in this kitchen. I opened this gift at one of my bridal shower's this summer from Grammy C - the lady who may not biologically be my grandma, but is in every other way. Grandpa C passed away last year and this was a clock he made. I feel honored to have it hung in our house.

Backsplash - beautiful. Outlet covers have to go - sigh - someday.

Is it terrible I bought this for myself? It's just too perfect.

Towels - both shower gifts. Towel on the right was another special one. My grandma takes simple white drying cloths and embroiders them with fruit and veggies. A wedding gift tradition!

Ahh - I feel relieved to have this room done. The only bad part? Now I have to attempt to be as good of a cook as my future mother-in-law. Impossible.

Kitchen Project #1: Remove Wallpaper

Our plan for the kitchen broke down into many little projects - the first being take down the wallpaper. 

Step 1: Lay down towels and/or plastic to catch the water and wallpaper as it falls.

Step 2: Use a scoring tool to create many small holes in the paper

Step 3: Wet the paper with scalding hot water mixed with vinegar in a spray bottle. A steamer can also do this. We opted for the spray bottle this time (my fiance is convinced this is the best way). When we tackle the master bedroom we plan to test which way is faster. Stay tuned to find out.

Step 3: Wait. Be patient. Let the solution do it's job.

Step 4: Start scraping - but be careful not to damage the wall as you are.

Step 5: Hope for large pieces to come off at once. (see pictures below)

Step 6: Don't be fooled! That is only the top layer. Score, spray, wait, scrape again to remove the bottom layer and glue.

Step 7: Take a break. (Slushies optional, but encouraged.)

Step 8: Talk visitors into helping.

Step 9: Put fiance to work the minute he's home.

Step 10: Be proud of your progress - even if it's not pretty.

Step 11: You'll notice at this point, we still had the spots above the windows and doorways left. You may (like we did) need a smaller scraper to fit in these areas. We used a putty knife for this.

Step 12: Shower.

Sharing reno projects means being brutally honest. The one wall in the kitchen and areas surrounding the windows/doorways took my mom and I 4 hours. Worth it - but very time consuming. It makes me a little nervous for the master bedroom with 4 big walls (insert scared face emoji).

Next project - cabinets!

Kitchen Project #5: Painting

The cabinets, the countertop, and the backsplash were finally all done - and I could finally try struggle to pick a wall color. Since everything in the kitchen is neutral, people were trying to talk me into a color. Menards guy said go with a red (I walked away). I decided I am not a bold enough person for that - so neutral it is!! I like to add color with accents that I can change on a daily basis, not wall color. I may have been ready to paint, but this wall was not - it needed some major patching.

This picture is a bit deceiving, as not all those visible "marks" are holes. Two owners ago there was a butler's pantry, which you can still see the outline of. This did not need to be repaired - just heavily primed.

We used plaster repair and a putty knife to fill in the 20+ nail holes the previous owner left (no, I am not joking) and any other blemishes. We had to let this dry overnight and then we began priming. We did 2 coats of primer - and our paint was also primer/paint combo. This helped hide the blemishes of the wall too. The picture below shows only one layer of primer - those blemishes are still peaking out.

After two coats of primer and one coat of primer/paint... 

(minus the trims/windows, I was over it for the day).

I did not tape around the windows or door frame (I'm too impatient for that). I used an angle brush and was slow with my strokes.

I love the way the color turned out! Bright, fresh, and neutral.