Farmhouse Kitchen Remodel

Friends! Guess what? Our kitchen project is {almost} complete and I am in LOVE! 😍

As I shared a couple weeks back I decided to take on painting our kitchen cabinets and boy has it been a project. See original post here. This project has been something we have talked about doing since moving into our house back in March of last year. After much procrastination I hit the ground running and it has been an endurance test ever since. 

For those that don't know my husband, he absolutely DREADS painting. He will essentially do any other home project except that and I have learned to not force it because I will have to redo what he did to appease my begging. So that means I took this project on my own with little help. Andrew did end up helping to take some hardware off and I even got him to paint some of the finer detailed areas.  Now, the reason I prefaced this post with being {almost} complete is because there are some touchups that need to be down but our kitchen is essentially back together!

From my initial post I was asked by a couple people the process we went through so I figured I'd share what we ended up doing to get to our finished project. When we began conversation about painting our cabinets we started researching best methods. There is a lot of debate on whether you need to sand your cabinets down or if you can prime right over them. After researching via blogs, conversations with friends who had taken on this scale of a project, etc. we ended up opting for the no sand method, however were diligent in our priming of the cabinets. 

Prior to priming we wiped down each cabinet to remove any excess dirt and grime with a warm washcloth. I realized a couple things when doing this:

1. Our cabinets were kind of dirty...whoops. 

2. Rather than wiping them all down to start, I learned as the process was going that I would need to continue wiping them down as I made my way through the entire kitchen to remove excess dog hair, dust, etc. 

3. Our dogs shed A LOT! I knew this going into the project and we vacuum fairly often to keep all the dog hair at bay, however throughout the project it didn't matter how much I wiped the cabinets down in between coats, I always seemed to come across dog hair somewhere! 

After our initial cleaning of the cabinets I began priming using Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 and a foam roller similar to this one. Now in our initial research there wasn't a specific primer we came across but talked with our Home Depot to see what they suggested after hearing different concerns about not sanding (i.e. yellow discoloration, etc.). To avoid this we opted for two full coats of primer. 

Once each portion of the kitchen was primed we moved onto painting. Similar to the primer we chatted with the individual at Home Depot and opted for Behr paint and primer in-one. Using the same type of foam roller... with a new roller head I began the painting. Unfortunately, this process was a little longer than the primer. Which is where my endurance was tested. One of the things I learned by painting our bathroom vanities first was how long paint needed to "cure" to the cabinets. To help speed up the process we laid all the cabinets out in our spare bedroom and left a fan on them to dry. Luckily, this past week I had a planned getaway to the lake with some friends from grad school. I was able to finish up painting last weekend so they were able to sit all week while I was gone and dry before putting our kitchen back together.

Last night Andrew and I slowly got everything back in order. Another thing we had read through our research was to make sure to mark the cabinet for where it belonged in the kitchen. For the most part our "marking" method (i.e. leaving all the hardware in the cabinet it belonged to, etc.) worked. However, there were a couple that wouldn't seem to line up perfect which is where some of those touchups will be needed. 

As the cabinets were getting painted I began losing patience but am so happy with how they turned out and am glad I persevered! See photos of the finished project below:

**please ignore the dishes in the sink... I told you I've been gone all week....

Another thing I learned as we went through this project was how unorganized our kitchen really is. Having to live with the cabinets off for multiple weeks made our kitchen look cluttered but has now encouraged me to work on some sort of method for keeping organized- so be on the lookout for what I end up doing! As I have already shared, I am extremely pleased with the way they turned out and am even more excited for when we finally get all the appliances replaced to stainless steel and get around to installing our backsplash.

It's funny. As I went through this project I kept telling Andrew I never wanted to see a paint brush again but now that it's complete I'm already looking forward to my next project.... they say the grass is always greener right?! After Pinteresting and Facebook videos... I'm thinking a new headboard?! 

Fourth of July Ribs

Having the day off Tuesday allowed me to be super productive. One of the biggest tasks I took on for the day-besides our kitchen cabinets- were the ribs we ate for dinner. This past year one of the things I have worked on doing better is cooking. I noticed through my first year at Washburn we were eating extremely unhealthy and I could tell I was gaining weight. I've alluded to this is previous posts but have been exceptionally happy with how big of a habit it has become.

Every Sunday one of the first things I do when I get up is meal plan for the week. Trust me- it is not an extravagant meal plan like those you see on health blogs but it is something. I typically pick anywhere between 4-5 meals for the week to buy groceries for. I don't pre-prep the food unless I know it will be a super busy week. I just lay out five meals during the week and choose one to cook at the end of each day. 

Now for those who know me, I am not the best cook. I never have felt "comfortable" in the kitchen. However, I do enjoy cooking... as long as there is a recipe associated with what I am cooking. I don't know what pairs well with what so I leave that to Pinterest. This week I decided with the fourth I would tackle cooking ribs. 

Andrew is not a huge fan of eating meat off the bone or really anything other than beef, chicken, and turkey. But every once and awhile I am able to sneak in another meat of choice so I thought what better day than the fourth of July! 

Recently I stumbled across the Little Bits Of blog and have been drawn to multiple of her recipes. Especially this BBQ Ribs post she highlighted when she took over the Whole 30 Instagram page awhile back. By all means I am not following the Whole 30... which is proven when I substituted her homemade BBQ sauce for store bought. However, this served as a guiding point for my venture to make our ribs somewhat edible. 

  

Although Andrew didn't eat much they satisfied my craving for BBQ! We hope your fourth was filled with delicious food and {safe} celebrating! 

Kitchen Project

Holy cow.... this past year has been a whirlwind! However, when summer comes around things tend to slow down and Andrew and I are able to revisit projects in the house. This time around we -more like me- have decided to take on painting all our cabinets.

When we first moved in we decided to start with a bathroom vanity to test the color, process, etc. before taking on such a large project. After completing the bathroom I decided I wanted to move forward with the kitchen but knew it would be a bigger time commitment so like anything else- I procrastinated... until today. 

I had slowly started to do our master bathroom and finally told Andrew I needed to finish it up so we can finally put everything back together. Especially since come August there will be essentially no time to do ANYTHING. 

Our plans for today initially included a bike ride, trip to the pool, and making ribs. But with the rain the first two were out of the picture and we suddenly had a day with nothing planned. Now for Andrew, this is his kind of day. Sit in front of the TV. Watch ESPN. A couple movies. He would be in his glory. For me, that would drive me up a wall. So I decided there is no better time than the present and the kitchen painting began. 

Now, I am nowhere near finished but actually remembered to take some before photos to share. My hope {fingers crossed} is to finish up priming this week/weekend and move on to painting next week/weekend. 

I've told Andrew after the cabinets are done we can work on doing some of the other projects (i.e. backsplash, counter tops, updating ALL appliances to stainless steel, WOOD FLOORING) but I know those are a little down the road. For those who have seen photos of our kitchen before you'll notice one of the appliances is not what it used to be... we FINALLY got a new dishwasher! 

I think I finish ever blog post saying I hope to continue but as things get crazier it's usually the first to go. I love that people follow enough to ask for a post... wink wink STEPHANIE!... so I'm hopeful I carve out time to keep up on sharing happenings in our life. Even if it is just what we had for dinner! 

Until next time! :)