Kitchen Makeover

As you can see from the picture and the title of this post this isn't a food entry, but since this is what I did this weekend instead of cooking I decided to show it off. You can click on the picture to see a larger version if you would like.

The main purpose of this mini-makeover was to remove the border that was in the kitchen when I first bought the house. I'm sure for some people its a nice border, but it doesn't suit my tastes at all. In addition to that, I was sick of seeing the purple-pink color that was beneath the border. When I decided to get rid of those, I also chose to remove the ceiling fan (which I believe the motor was almost shot and I was afraid to leave it on since it would make a strange grinding sound) and the kitchen ceiling light (not pictured).

So last week I started clearing out the kitchen and dining area and began removing the border. The upper portion came off easily since it was attached to the white portion of the wall (which was just primer) but the lower portion which went over the paint could not be peeled off. I ended up borrowing a steamer last weekend and used that to remove most of the paper. On Friday night I patched some holes in the wall and cleared out the rest of the kitchen. Then the real fun began on Saturday.

I woke up still sick on Saturday morning (I had a headcold start Friday morning and its still sticking around) but I started working on the kitchen anyway. I sanded down all the placed I had patched and then primed all the walls, doing a second coat of primer over the purplish color. I then headed off to Lowes to buy my paint and trim. I looked at lighting there but didn't find anything that seemed quite right. When I got home I got right to painting and a few hours later had all the walls painted. The brown color goes around the entire kitchen below the chair rail line. The upper portions are two different colors (the front wall is a slightly darker color than the rest of the walls). At this point I took a rest for a while both to let all the paint fully dry and myself to recuperate. Later in the evening I started measuring and cutting the chair rail and baseboards and began putting some of that up. Thanks to Liquid Nails, I was able to do this on my own. I stuck the molding up and then put a couple finish nails in there to secure it. I only had one tube of the stuff on hand so I ran to Home Depot to get more and check out their lights. When I got back, I did a little more I was getting pretty tired so I stopped about halfway though.

On Sunday morning I finished the molding and put the refrigerator back in its cubby and put the cabinets back up (which had to be removed to get the refrigerator out). I then went back to Home Depot and bought the lights. Although I had looked at these ones last night I wasn't sure they were the ones I wanted then but when I looked at them a second time they seemed right. Then after a stop at the grocery store I was back home and installing the new lights. Once the lights were up I cleaned up the kitchen and put everything back.

The kitchen feels a whole lot warmer now. And I am really glad to see that border go. My house is now border free which is a very good thing.