Kitchen Refresh & Repurpose Project, Part 2

Today is the second part of our Kitchen Refresh & Repurpose Project. I cannot believe that this is even the same kitchen!

If you haven’t already seen it, be sure to check out my previous post about my Kitchen Refresh & Repurpose Project, Part 1. Today, I am sharing the final details and the full reveal! You are not going to believe how a little creative thinking and a lot of “we can make this work” paved the way for this wonderful kitchen to come to life.

Part 1 included all of the details about how we hatched this plan, the before photos, and the in-process photos. Today, I am sharing the last few details, the tile, paint, styling, and all of the after photos so that you can see each area of the kitchen.

Subway Tile Backsplash

Maryliz decided on white subway tile for the backsplash due to its classic sensibility. It’s been around forever, it will be around forever, it’s timeless. To make cleanup next to the stove easy and as an added layer of heat protection for the wall next to the new stove, Maryliz also had the wall tiled with the subway tile. Doesn’t it look incredible?

Paint

Once all of the cabinets, countertops, and appliances were installed and the subway tile was added, we needed to paint.

The ceiling and the small amount of wall space left needed a clean and bright coat of paint. I went with my go-to color, Swiss Coffee. It really is incredible how a coat of paint makes such an immense difference!

How to Paint a Tile Floor

The last detail was the pink-ish floor tile. It was really dated and had five decorative tiles that had a green design. The pink and green tile was definitely not part of this gorgeous new kitchen space concept.

Replacing the flooring was not within our budget, so we decided to try something new and paint it. The internet has a ton of articles about how to successfully paint floor tile.

We cleaned, sanded, cleaned again, and then had the floor primed and then painted with two coats of paint. We used MonoBond High Adhesion Primer in white and then two coats of Life Deck Color Seal Floor & Deck paint in white base.

Once the floor tile was completely dry, we added the Ruggable runners. We chose the Delphina Black and White runners that are 2.5’x7′. We bought two, one to go in each direction in the kitchen. Now you really only see the edges of the painted tile.

Styling the Counters and Shelves

Now for the fun part! With a new clean, white palette to work with, it was really fun to choose what to put out on the counters and how to style the shelves. With the black and white Ruggable runners, we could choose any color we wanted to style with.

When I first saw the plates on the counter in the plate rack, I was a bit surprised. And then Maryliz explained, at 5′ tall, getting plates out of a cabinet is difficult and heavy. Being almost 6′ tall, this was new information to me, but it makes sense!

Maryliz is often shopping with me at the vintage flea markets, so she has accumulated a lot of treasures too. All of the items on the small shelves next to the upper cabinets are flea market finds.

The shelves over the pantry also hold white ironstone bowls and pitchers found at flea markets. These shelves were created because the pantry doors didn’t fit the existing space and I think it looks absolutely perfect!

Why This Project Was Successful

Our situation was unique, for sure, but, there were a number of things that we did to ensure the success of the project:

• We worked with a handyman who was flexible and understood our vision and overall plan.
• With each task we measured, measured, measured, and then measured again. And then we measured a couple more times just in case.
• We were realistic about how the cabinets would fit together and created a plan beforehand about the tricky areas.
• We had a backup plan for countertops in case they broke during removal (thank goodness they popped right out, unscathed!)
• Costs were managed carefully by choosing subway tile that is both timeless and inexpensive, got the gorgeous farmhouse sink at IKEA and the faucet and glass rinser from Amazon.
• Each morning, Maryliz met with the handyman to go over progress from the day before, and any potential issues that might arise for the day and worked through solutions before construction started. This was probably one of the most important things we did. We headed off any potential drama by closely managing the vision/plan.
• I am happy to report that there were no surprises/gotchas and the project came in right at budget!

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