Kitchen Overhaul

We're slowly remodeling our house, which pretty much hasn't been updated since the 1970's. Unfortuately, since it's such a big project, the kitchen is going to be one of the last rooms we get to. But I've decided to make the best out of what we have. Why can't functional also be fun and pretty?

So I've been working on some kitchen projects for awhile, but I also spent two days this week taking everything out of the cabinets and completely rearranging them. It's hard getting used to where things are, but it is so much more effencient! Love it!

But I wanted to show you a couple of my projects. Or rather, I guess it's two projects in one. It all started with this:

Glorious, huh? And don't you love the picture of my little helper in the reflection? Anyway, this delightful find came from a little antique store for five dollars. Oh yes, just $5. And you can't tell here very well, but this thing is big. I looked for a long time for the perfect ovel frame to make into a chalkboard, and this is it. The mirror is in really bad shape, so I didn't feel guilty about taking the whole thing apart. Here's the frame after I hubby took out the mirror.

The frame really wasn't in bad shape when I got it, just some chipping paint, so originally I just kept it how it was. Hubby cut a piece of leftover wall panelling for me to put in it, and I gave that about a million a couple coats of chalkboard paint. I didn't get a picture of it like that, but after a couple months living with it, I just needed more color. Lately, I've been completely obsessed with color! So, I found a paint color I like and got a sample size of it at Lowe's. I was pretty sure it would be too much just painted on solid, so I put it on lightly and rubbed some off as I went. Then I took a little white paint and did the same thing very lightly over the pink. I didn't get a close-up shot, but it has a soft, kind of aged look.

And there it is on the wall in the kitchen. Needs more, doesn't it?

I've been so inspired by the many gallery walls made of empty frames that are floating around the web. So when my mom said she had a box of frames that used to have family pictures in them, I jumped on it! She was kind enough to let me take my pick and paint them.



These frames are all at least 20 years old, and the varnish on them had dried out, so it took an insane number of coats of craft paint! Even a coat of primer on a couple of them didn't help. But I finally got there!

Usually I just eyeball it when hanging things, but I knew hubby would be pretty unhappy if I put extra holes in the walls he worked so hard to fix up awhile back, so I laid all the frames out on the floor to get the layout right.

And there it is! It isn't entirely done yet, I want to mount some antique items in the frames, but it's starting to look good!


I'm linking up at the party over at Remodelaholic this week! Go check out some of the other awesome projects!