I spent most of last week covered in paint, with drop cloths and drill bits at my feet. I would sip coffee with Mister in the morning, and as soon as he left  I would get down to business. Here is what I was working with:

(usually we have all the doors on…)

Let’s Review:

• Huge 1940’s built in cabinets.
• Tiny “galley” style space with lots of storage but that looks… really cramped.
• Basic, ugly, melamine bottom cabinets that do not match the top cabinets what so ever.
• White 1980’s organizational panels on the backsplash that are being underused because you can buy no accessories for them.
• Bee stencils. Fucking everywhere. Driving me crazy, all the time.

What I did:

• Painted the walls & built ins.
• Painted the backsplash & backs of the cabinets in a high contrast colour.
• Replaced all hardware on all cabinets.
• Installed chalkboard (used chalkboard paint to turn it from green to black)
• Wallpapered over bottom cabinets.
• Pulled out old organizational system, repaired & painted backsplash.
• Installed hanging pot rack from ceiling.

What we got…

I’m in love with it! I love the blue (the backs of all the cabinets are painted out blue too), the fresh paint on the cabinets makes them look new again, and the hanging rack for the pots & pans means that cooking is so much more fun! The wallpaper wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be (pattern repeats are tricky-ish though) but I would definitely do it again. The biggest moment of sheer terror hiccup was finding out there was another ceiling above ours that was preventing the anchors for opening when we were trying to hang the pot rack. Luckily with some violent smashing about, they finally worked.

And the chalkboard? Makes meal planning actually a lot of fun, so we’re sticking to it much closer than before. Go buy a chalkboard for your kitchen. It’s endlessly charming.

All in all, the makeover was under $200 and took about 4 days of work with drying time for paint and a short attention span.

What do you think, sirs?