Kitchen Redo under $300

Around 2009 I redid my kitchen and I loved the transformation it was like major reconstructive surgery.  Check out the photos below.

BEFORE

How outdated is this??? Wow, can you believe the yellow formica...   :-)

AFTER some sweat and elbow grease I came up with this.

Major difference from yellow formica and brown door - did you see the garbage bin??? :-)  Why shouldn't I paint it?  I wanted something sophisticated looking to hold all that stinky garbage.  ha, ha

Anyways I was happy with the transformation, ok, ok, I know the borders got to come down but overall I was content.  But then I received an email about a product called Giani Granite.  It was free so I thought why not give it a shot it can only cost me my time....  So I ordered the product and when it arrived I took the plunge.  First let me say Giani includes everything in their kit - roller, sponge, paint, primer, sealer & foam brush.  You just need trays to pour your paint in.

I found this picture on site and decided this is the look I was going for; I especially like the crown molding; wish I could have that stove.

So, let's begin all over again.  Because my counter top was previously sealed with polyurethane, I decided to sand and then prime with a shellac based primer (this wasn't included in their kit).

 I then primed with the black primer that was included in their kit.

Once the primer dried - I gave it a day - I was ready to play around with the colors.  You get 3 different colors, I ordered DARK CHOCOLATE so I received Inca Gold, Chocolate Brown & Brown Felspar.  I didn't like my first attempt I thought it was too dark for my kitchen.  But the best part about paint is that you can repaint!

Thankfully I didn't have to repaint it I decided to add more of the Inca Gold and tried covering most of the black primer beneath.  I loved the way it turned out (almost like my dream kitchen).

 This is it close up

Giani Granite comes with easy step by step instructions, it's almost fail proof.  I would highly recommend it.  It took me approximately 2 days to complete my counter that's because you have to wait almost 8 hours after priming to apply paint.  They also send you a dvd with instructions.  You can check them out here.

With that finished I started on the crown molding and this is my friend that helped me.  I picked him up at Kelly's.  

Most women pick up men, I pick up a mitre box! I get goose bumps walking around the hardware store!  If you never used a mitre box it's really easy, this was my first attempt and I'm already thinking of other possibilities.  You can check out this site if you need to learn how to cut crown molding mitre box.

Everything was working out fine until this.

I couldn't get the angles to meet.  I cut several pieces of molding but I couldn't get the angle correct.  After about an hour, I had concluded I would have to hang a hanging plant over that part of the cabinet to hide the opening....

But after some persistence I got it right, it took me almost 45 min to cut this tiny piece of molding and it fit!

Once that was completed I had to caulk.

The final pictures

 

closeup of counter

 Sorry for all of the pictures but I'm so proud of my work. In total it probably cost a little over $270 with the biggest expense being my faucet.

Here's the Breakdown - 

• Faucet $145
• Mitre box $39
• Hooks for curtains & sheers $36
• Molding $51

 Everything else was recycled and discussed under another topic:

• Rods for curtain & sheers - shower rods from bathroom
• Curtains - old table cloth
• Sheers - part of shower curtain
• Vase for floral arrangement - lighting fixture taken down from bathroom & foyer
• Silk Flowers - previously on top of kitchen cabinets

The most satisfying accomplishment in life is knowing you gave it your best.  
LET YOUR CREATIVITY FLOW!

I organized my seasoning cabinet

How many times have you went into your seasoning cabinet and found duplicates?  That's usually because everything is always pushed back and either you can't see what's in the back of the cabinet or sometimes you're too lazy to move the seasoning to see what's stocked all the way to the back.  If you're like me, my money is always tight so dreaming of those cabinet organizers is a no, no.

One day, while cleaning out one of my closets, I came across some styrofoam sheets (the ones you use for crafts).   I'm not a pack rat, but I hate throwing things away especially if I think there's a use for it.  So, after toying with the styrofoam and trying to figure out what I could do with it, I thought about my seasoning cabinet.

It took some toying around, but after moving all of my seasoning, some of which was old & yucky and had to be thrown away, I measured and cut a sheet of styrofoam.  Then I stacked & cut them like a staircase.  The tricky part was figuring out how to get them to stick together.  I didn't want to use tape or glue just in case I decided to move them around later so I thought about nails.  Yeah, I know you can't nail styrofoam together, but I had something much better than nails.  Toothpicks!  Yep, for each step I inserted toothpicks to hold the steps together.  

Sorry, I was so excited doing this project I didn't take any pictures until after the project was completed.

This is the styrofoam stacked, and held together with toothpicks.

 
This is my seasoning cabinet now...

I did a step for each side of the cabinet.  I can see everything and they're so easy to reach.  No more duplicate seasoning plus I can show off my cabinet.... :-)

How easy was that?

LET YOUR CREATIVITY FLOW!