Monday, October 18, 2021

Kitchen Remodel....

 ~ Greetings and Warm Welcome to all ~

Thank you so much to those of you who left me such lovely comments and wonderful words! it gladdens my heart, more than you will ever know. 

Thank you!

I'm going to do a series of posts just to "catch you up" on what we have done this summer. 

Today's Post is all about our: Kitchen Remodel

For a period of about a month we lived like we were camping....inside our house. We wanted to do a series of "refreshes" all over our home. Batter #1 up was the kitchen. 

BEFORE: Now many people said: Your kitchen was lovely...why would you want to change it? Well....to make a long story short: our cabinets were custom, made in a woodshop of a local cabinet maker. As soon as we moved in, the finish on them started flaking off, sometimes in large sheets. We called the builder, who in turn called the cabinet maker.....he came and took the doors off and I was 9 months without doors on my cabinets....in a new home. I was fit to be tied. Finally doors were returned and they were better but soon started doing the same thing. By this time the cabinet maker declared bankruptcy...I wonder why?

Anyhoo....I lived with the cabinets for 15 years and it was ready to make them better. 

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We stripped the cabinet facings....

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and all the doors....

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Primed everything and then did 3 coats of cabinet paint in mountain peak snow

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While I was painting inside, Keith was sanding and stripping doors to have them prepared for me to run out in between coats inside to do coats outside in the garage on the doors...

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and while I was running inside and outside painting, Keith was cutting wood to fit in the tops of my cabinets to make a flat surface AND installing LED up lights along the top and LED down lights along the bottom of our cabinets - I have been wanting these done like this for YEARS!

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at the end of 7 days the painting was done and Keith bought me a cake because I was completely exhausted and he knows how much cake revives my spirit....LOL!

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here's a shot of how our kitchen appears today....
I have my extensive vintage Ball Jar collection displayed to perfection (in my humble opinion) with the LED backlighting them beautifully...

In 25 years of marriage....I have never picked my own appliances - Keith has always done it and frankly I never really cared but for our redo I DID care and I told him to open up his pocketbook because I wanted all stainless steel appliances. They are all Whirlpool - Keith's Daddy worked at Whirlpool soldering appliances for 50 years in Evansville, IN. We only ever purchase Whirlpool, American made, appliances. 

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Our dining room table and chairs and our hutch are all Indiana made furniture. The dining table and chairs are by Tell City Furniture and the hutch is Keller. Both companies are now defunct. I was going to paint the hutch and the table and chairs white....but as I painted the cabinets I kept thinking about them and after I got the cabinets done I had decided that NOPE, I wasn't going to do it. These are fully wood, no wood chipboard. That's hard to come by. The table and chairs (well 4 of the chairs) I ate on from the time I was 4 years old (that makes the table and chairs: 47 years old....) Given to me by my Mom when I married, I didn't want to ruin them. So to make a long story short, I kept them true to themselves, and I'm glad I did. I did do a little refinishing on them - they are really worn in the seat and along the top of the chair backs and spindles. You can still see the age to them - they are nowhere near perfect...but my home has a cozy, lived in feel to it and they fit in.... a little shabby chic. Ha ha!

Until next time....
I hope you enjoyed our kitchen remodel. I didn't really ENJOY it but I sure LOVE it now that it is done!

Big hugs and lots of love in stitches, 
Vonna xxxx

25 comments:

  1. Your kitchen makeover looks fabulous. I am glad you left the table, chairs, and hutch in their natural state, Vonna. The wood is gorgeous. Thinking of you!

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  2. I hate any decorating job while its in progress, the end result is always worth the effort though. You kitchen looks great, I love it in that colour, well worth all your effort :-)

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  3. Oh, Vonna, this is amazing! Looks wonderful! You and your family deserve this.

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  4. Glad to hear you decided not to paint the table and chairs. Nice to have things from your childhood:)

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  5. Remodeling is never fun, but your kitchen looks really nice now. The lights really brighten it up and show off your collection. I agree with your decision about the chairs and the hutch. Now that your cabinets are white, the finished wood makes a nice contrast (and they won't seem to be part of the cabinets that you didn't like)

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  6. Your kitchen looks fabulous. The ball jar collection perfect.
    My FIL worked for Whirlpool in St. Paul, MN. We only purchase Whirlpool as well. Love the continued loyalty to a company, passed on from generation to generation.

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  7. Your kitchen is so bright and beautiful! Wonderful job! I understand about the table and chairs. I have a Sprague and Carlton table and chairs that are solid rock maple. They went out of business in the 60's. The table and chairs are showing their age-probably as old or older than me and I'm 65! You just can't buy anything new that is made this well anymore.

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  8. You just brought back memories of when we redid our kitchen! Told hubby I would now have all kinds of storage. Well guess what,I ran out of space! I love your jar collection and the way you have it displayed. Take care!

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  9. Hi Vonna - I am so proud of you for taking control of your life in favor of your health. It's the right thing to do. It is not a selfish act - if you don't take care of yourself, you can't take care of those you love. You go, girl!!

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  10. Beautiful! Hope you enjoy getting ready for holiday food prep!

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  11. I think your kitchen is gorgeous! I love your jars along the top with the lighting. It’s so pretty. I wouldn’t have done the table and chairs either. They have to much family history and memories,I’m sure. I laughed about the appliances, you go girl! 😊 The cake was so sweet. Hugs,

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  12. Wow, gorgeous re-do of the kitchen. I like furniture that has a family history and shows a little wear (born of love!). Now I'm off to read yesterday's post... so glad to hear from you again!

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  13. Kitchen looks great! I love the Ball jar collection (I have a smaller collection)and the lights. How do you like the double oven on the stove?

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  14. What a lot of work, but the end result is spectacular...you'll enjoy the space so much more now! Probably need a break to recover though! (Maybe another cake, too!)

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  15. Vonna: It is a beauty of a kitchen, white makes the room look so much larger.
    I would leave the table and chairs and hutch in the wood tone, it looks like a very lovely set.
    It looks like you are the painter of the year.
    I bet you are ready for a little stitching and relaxing time for yourself.

    Catherine

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  16. Your kitchen looks awesome! I’ve done that - twice. (I didn’t get new appliances but I did paint) It’s a lot of work but so worth it. I’ve painted chairs too - I hate painting chairs!

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  17. Keith is a keeper for supplying the cake! <3
    your kitchen is back into the 21st century, we had our kitchen wrapped back into the 21st too :-)
    enjoy all your hard work!

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  18. Great job, Vonna! Love the white. Our kitchen is also white with stainless appliances (replaced this year). Your Bell jar collection looks amazing with the lighting - they seem to glow.

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  19. Beautiful - you guys did a great remodel! I know it was hard because we did it too but never regretted it. Totally worth the work. Now it's time to sit back and enjoy!!!

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  20. Love your "new" kitchen. Just caught up on your recent posts. I am glad to see you back blogging again. I know it can be a lot of work but I do enjoy posting pictures of my cross stitching and I love reading other blogs. So I hope you continue to tell us about your life and hobbies.

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  21. Love your new kitchen. Wow, you did all that on your own!! Kudos to you. We love whirlpool appliances too

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  22. Your kitchen turned out amazing! I've been wanting to do a full kitchen remodel for years, but always had one thing or another in the way. Your kitchen finally gave me the motivation to get it started! I would love to have mine turn out the way you did, so I will definitely be using yours as a walk through. Thanks for sharing!

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  23. Wow, your kitchen turned out just beautiful. Great job!! I love the way your husband did the lighting to show off your blue Bell Jar collection.
    Work all done, now just enjoy!

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  24. Just love the kitchen transformation and your loyalty to those things American-made. That picture of you at the end of a weary day is a hoot, but beautiful lady, in my eyes. Blessings +

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  25. Your kitchen is awesome!

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