Friday, April 26

Our Kitchen Renovation Part 2

Kitchen Reno Part 2 Kitchen Reno Part 2
I'm so excited to finally show you our (mostly) finished kitchen! Do you like how I keep throwing "mostly" in there? Are you ever really done dreaming in your spaces? Usually not. In the future we'd like to have a proper pantry built and maybe even take out part of the wall along our back staircase (it lives behind the coral hutch), but that's a whole lot of Phase 3 talk and I'm ready to take a break from kitchen projects for a bit. 😉

Okay, so getting back to the current state of the kitchen... I'm SO pleased with how everything came together! The counters, the flooring, the new colors: it all feels so fresh and pretty, and it also still feels like ME. Hey, I worry. What if you make big decisions and end up having major regrets? It's a real concern. Anyway, I'm happy to report that I have 0 regrets thus far. That's definitely something to celebrate!

If you remember from my Part 1 post, I partnered with Surplus Warehouse, a home improvement warehouse store that specializes in flooring and cabinetry, for a portion of this kitchen project. I think before I go any further, I should share a little bit of behind-the-scenes. I feel like a lot of times blogs seem to wave a magic wand and there's *poof* a before and after set of pics. Renovation isn't easy, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. We hired professionals to remove our old counters, install the new ones with a new sink and garbage disposal, lay the tile and grout, rehang and paint the cabinets, and it was still hard. Being without a kitchen for weeks is hard. The rest of the stuff you opt to do yourself to save money can be hard. Obviously it's worth it, but it's still hard. Let's get into our "before" and a glimpse at the process.

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A lot of people on social media were encouraging us to keep the aqua paint color, but if you scroll up, you can see how the new flooring changed the tone of the blue. Always trust your decorating gut. You're the one who lives in the space, not a person on Instagram who thinks made the wrong choice. Because this used to be the A Beautiful Mess studio, I get a lot of push-back any time I decide to change something... even after all these years. I want my home to reflect me, not a sea of strangers with opinions. I don't love this expression, but in this case it's truly applicable: YOU DO YOU.

We chose to finish the kitchen DIYing anything we were qualified to do, which was basically just a lot of painting. The yellow barn door, the back door, the hutch, the new quarter round trim, and white walls all needed a fresh coat of paint. Can we just talk about white walls for a sec? They're so fresh and bright and make a space look clean, but the minute you touch up one part of your house, you realize how much EVERYTHING ELSE needs painted. 😂 The struggle is real.

It took us the better part of 2 weeks to finish painting all of those things because, ya know, work and life take top priority. We crested the finish line, though, and now I get to share a gallery of photos all shot by Janae Hardy.

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I want to give a major shoutout to Arthur, the manager at Surplus Warehouse, before I wrap this up. We ended up having an issue with our grout and we couldn't find the same product anywhere in Springfield. He ended up driving to Rogers, AR to get us what we needed. That's a 4 hour round trip just to make sure we had the proper grout. So, as you can tell, it's been a pleasure working with Surplus Warehouse on our flooring. Major thanks to them.

We are SO pleased with our kitchen updates! It has all the elements I was going for: bright, colorful, eclectic with quality products. Oh, and the whole space feels so much bigger. Nailed it!

Now that the kitchen is done, I think I might take a breather from home projects for a bit. It's has been so lovely here in MO lately, I think it's time to get back to the garden. In the meantime, feel free to hit me with any questions you have about kitchen renovations!


16 comments:

  1. Love love love the new cabinet color!! This is what I'm envisioning for my cabinets when we get to that phase. Excellent job!

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  2. I love how you decorate the house Katie. You have a incredible taste!

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  3. This looks amazing. I love how you are displaying all your adorable vintage treasures with the open shelving. Also the paint color is spot on. It really goes well with the other colors in the room....lots of good pop. Love this update so much!

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    1. Thank you! You know I've got plenty for display. ;)

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  4. Beautiful, bright and cheery! I love the color of the cabinets!

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  5. I know it's already been said a lot, but LOVE all the colors! It's all so bright and cheery! Spring inspired <a href="https://woodworksrefurbishing.com/”>kitchen cabinets</a> for the win.

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  6. LOVE all the fun colors! Enjoy your well-deserved break from home projects :)

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  7. I admit, I was curious why you re-painted cabinetry when it was already a lovely color. But dang, girl! You've got great instincts. The color combination you chose is so calming and tranquil and all the wonderful things :D Oh! And that pop of coral *swoons* Brilliant. I'm loving all of this. Such great inspiration!

    Also: your honesty is incredibly refreshing, and you have repeatedly made me feel less alone--and that, maybe, people really are as nice as my idealistic mind likes to believe. In particular, your posts on mental health resonate with me, and I find it admirable that you're opening up important conversations like that. Plus, you're using your voice and experience to help de-stigmatize a health issue--how awesome is that?!
    Anyway, just a longtime fan and lurker wanting to say I appreciate what you're putting into this world! <3 Gorgeous kitchen!

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    1. Thank you so much for the kind words. We often get wrapped up in the gloss of brightly lit photos and smiles- life is that, yes, but so much more interesting and complicated. <3

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  8. I absolutely love the new look of your kitchen! Super brave to go with the bright colors for the cabinets though it probably wasn't too hard since you had the bright aqua before. I like the updated color and feel like it showcases a fun, bright (yet grown-up) look. I'm in the process of getting my cabinets painted and as much as I love a good DIY project, I'm going to opt into hiring <a href="https://www.nhance.com/nance/service/custom-finishes/”>professional cabinet painters</a>. Did you paint your own cabinets? If so, any advice before I decide completely is helpful!

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    1. I definitely second-guessed my color choice until is was entirely done. 😂 We had our contractor paint the cabinets so they would look really nice, but I cut corners and did the barn door, back door, and hutch myself. The cabinet paint is holding wonderfully, so I would definitely recommend hiring it out if possible.

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  9. Love everything about this! I must ask how do you keep the cats from knocking everything off the shelves? I love the exposed shelves concept but unfortunately both of my cats leave me no choice but to store everything in the cabinets.

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