Kitchen Updated!

You can click on any picture for a bigger screen shot of my kitchen makeover - all for under $300.

 Here is a look at my kitchen before I re-painted it and updated it.

Here is the AFTER picture. Don't you love it? It's a new beautiful kitchen!!!
I LOVE IT!

 Sometimes I just hated my mauve countertops and sometimes I was fine with it. But I hated the border that I painted white (it was blue when I moved in) because it chipped all the time and just never looked good. 

 There were some flaws and dings and needed an update, but I knew I'd have to save like mad to afford any type of change, not to mention the mess of replacing your kitchen.

Here is the after picture of the back of my island where I'm missing a panel. It's not nearly as noticeable as before - especially when the bar stools are there. Where the counter had that broken corner, you can't even tell anymore.  (One day I'll replace the purple carpet - ha ha ha!)

 Luckily I saw and pinned a new painted countertop post on Pinterest. I thought I could do it and ordered the countertop kit from Giani. It was $69.95 for the Chocolate Brown kit. Much cheaper, less time and less mess then replacing the whole countertop and cabinets.

I was worried about how the white edge would work out when I painted it. It was a scary thing to just go forward and do it. I purchased the kit in the late fall and when I got it, it said you had to have your house at 70+ degrees overnight to have the countertop warm. I can't sleep when it is that hot so I had to wait until the spring to do it. 

Giani paint kit comes with everything you need except frog/masking tape and SOS pad to clean counters prior to painting.

There are so many different possibilities to come up with in each Giani paint kit. No 2 customers will have the same look. It will always be uniquely your own design and countertop.

While I waited, I kept looking at pictures their customers had uploaded on their site - there are so many examples. I kept trying to be inspired and have the courage to just do it. Memorial day weekend I decided to just do it. 

 I actually loved how it all came together. I was so glad that the edges came out flawless. 

 It made me so happy that it did resemble granite countertops. 

 There is still tape along the edges. I didn't go purchase the blue frog tape because I already had masking tape on hand and it worked good enough. I'm just a frugal cheap girl and hate to purchase things if I already have something on hand that will work. 

 The top coat that seals the countertop was a bit tricky for me. The one thing I can recommend is to make sure that the roller is rolling the whole time and that you over lap the top coat. There are several videos on the Giani website that I watched over and over. I am happy with the results. 

Then as I kept looking at the Giani website and Giani facebook page, I decided to paint my cabinets. The Giani Nuvo cabinet paint kit is $79.95 so I ordered it - Nuvo Cocoa Couture Cabinet Kit.

 It took me a whole night to clean the cabinets thoroughly. It was a lot of work to get in each groove and edge. OK, I'll admit it they were gross and it was a lot of hard work. But I wanted the paint to stick so I put in the work. Then I lightly sanded them. The instructions said to sand the edge of the counters because it is a wood look film/paper. The inside of my cabinets are the film/paper wood (not real wood) so I sanded them, just to make sure the paint would stick. 

 I learned that it is better to do a thin coat of paint a couple of times then have it drip. Yes, mine dripped here and there and I had brush strokes. I ended up re-doing these areas until I was satisfied. It took me 2 weekends to completely get it to where I wanted it.

In the Giani Nuvo video the center of their cabinet isn't recessed, so the roller worked for them. It didn't for me and I had a few issues. I thought I could use the brush instead of the roller, but I had brush strokes and if I didn't go the same direction there was a different paint gloss look with each stroke. That didn't work for me, until I went back to the roller and made sure It went in 1 direction. With my thin cabinets where the roller wouldn't fit, I did the roller sideways. The roller does make it look more professional. 

 I've debated and have searched how to re-paint my white fridge black. I was going to do it, but Jason (my son) told me to order some vinyl and that is what I did. I ordered a flower mural that isn't here yet. But I'm excited to see what it does to my white fridge without painting it. I'll post pictures when I do it.

My white fridge with a flower mural. OK, I was really, really disappointed when this arrived. I ordered it off of Amazon as a VINYL mural. Well, it ISN'T vinyl, it is a STICKER!!!! What a rip off!!

Anyway, I'm keeping it on for now. If it was vinyl, I'd be much happier then I am with a sticker. It's very girlie and I do like that it adds some black to the fridge. Oh well - it is what it is (until I can actually find a vinyl mural to replace this sticker).

I finally painted the light fixture. I love how it looks (compared to the photo above and below).

I also ordered the handles from Amazon. I needed 34 handles for my kitchen and I wanted this type. At Home Depot or Lowes they are around $7 each for a total of $245. Yikes, I didn't want to afford that. But, I looked on Amazon and found a kit of 25 and a kit of 10 for a grand total of $102. I ordered them. Each handle was individually packaged with the screws. 

Then the tricky part came up, to drill holes in the cabinets. I was scared to death. It took me a few days to even figure out how to do it. I watched a You Tube video. I also purchased this kit from Home Depot that you put on the edge of the cabinet and it's a guide to let you know where to drill the holes. Well, it didn't work for the size of handles I purchased (7 3/8 inch over all length).  

After sleeping on it, I figured out how to do it. I used a ruler I found at Walmart that was perfect because it had a hole down the center of the ruler that matched up and was the center of the part of my cabinet that the handle was going. I was able to line up the edge of the ruler to the edge of the cabinet and mark where each screw needed to be drilled from the measurement on the ruler. It worked great!

 For the drawers, I used a tape measure from my sewing kit that bends. Because the drawers are not an even length like "10 inches would have a center of 5 inches" I had to figure out the center of the drawer with my bendable tape measure because I'm not going to sit and figure out the math and exactly where that matched up on a ruler. After figuring out the "half mark of the drawer" I used a level to measure and line up where to drill the holes. It was scary, but I did it!!! OK, I'm pretty proud of myself for figuring it out and actually doing it in a way that made it level and look professional when the handles were put on the cabinets. 

 I just love walking into my new kitchen - because it DOES seem like a completely new kitchen to me.

 I love the countertops, the cabinet paint color and the handles. Yea! It's so exciting.

Here are a couple of pictures of the countertop:

The easiest part in my kitchen update was doing the countertops.

 I love how they came out!

It's such a great update from the mauve / white bordered countertops I had before. 

 Also, the frugal girl in me decided to just spray paint my outdated canisters. 

I painted them red and LOVE the new look! I'm very happy with the results - all for under $300. 

One last note, don't paint the countertop first like I did. They recommend painting the cabinets first and then paint the countertop. I totally agree. It was a lot more work protecting them then doing it the recommended way.