No Guts No Glory

The series of pics to follow is what i would call "No Glory Photography" ... there's nothing fun or "wow" about these ... but they'll give you a nice progression of the work that's being done to transform the ugly ducklings to the beautiful swans they were meant to be :O)

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What kind of primer do I recommend?   
Kilz2 Latex Primer ... it's the best.

 

It covers stained wood and knots in wood ... and gives your piece the "tooth" it needs for a great paint job.  Because the cabinets are stained a dark 70's finish ... I'm going to prime these puppies twice ... not fun ... but necessary!

You can pick this product up at a local home improvement store ... but you can also get it cheap at Wal-mart :O)


The cabinet below will be one of two lower cabinets that will shoulder the butcher-block counter top ... the other lower cabinet is 12 inches wide with 1 drawer and 1 door.  The knee-hole between the two units will be approximately 18"-23" ... depending on the placement of the lowers along the wall.  We want to be able to use the phone jack and outlet that currently exists along this wall to make lap-top, phone, and charging stations accessible and efficient! 

The cabinets below will be the upper cabinets above the desk area ... we plan to leave the doors off and transform them into a upper hutch with crown molding and decorative trim ... plus, I'll pop the backs off and cover them with paint-able bead board wallpaper ... I think I'll also add the wallpaper bead board on the sides of the cabinet ... It will look old and yet very fresh and new.

Okay ... it's time for the green to go!  So we quickly painted it a favorite of mine ... 
White Sand by BM.  It immediately gave the space a fresh start.









Hubby is THE MAN!  Love those rolled up pants, babe :O)  See those lights above ... they are being removed as I write ... no kidding.  We have a friend who is an amazing electrician (he also did our finished basement wiring) and he is installing 9 recessed lights, 2 penants lights (above the bar area) and under-cabinet lighting.  Woo Hoo!  No more standing in the shadow of track lighting while cooking at the stove.  Yip-Skip-In-The-Pip.  Anyone who has 20-year-old tracking lighting in their kitchen knows exactly what I am talking about :O)

So my friend (Char) of a gazillion years gave us this IKEA counter top and we've had it in storage for 5+ years ... it is making a great make-shift counter-top until the butcher block can be purchased at IKEA ...

But there's a small problem ... the drawer won't be able to open with the window trim in the way ... easy fix ...

... remove it.  It's okay ... it would have gotten in the way of the new counter top at the peninsula/bar seating area at the other end of the window.  :O)

And here's hubby researching how to fix our little problem with trim :O)

I just LOVE THAT MAN!

What do you think ... any resemblance?  

Dan is not going to be pleased ...

Here's a painting tip ... 4" foam rollers ... they are the bomb!  Not only can you paint a fairly large surface quickly ... but the foam material allows no air bubbles AND no pesky brush strokes.  Nice.  Did you know they are washable and re-usable?  Double nice.

Since the picture below was taken ... we've actually decided to place the smaller lower cabinet left and place the larger cabinet right ... 2 reasons ...


the larger cabinet will hide the phone jack and electric outlet (there's something not right about seeing all those power cords plugged in -- and there will be many) ... so ... the larger cabinet will get a section cut out on the back side which will allow us to run our power cords w/o them being seen.  In fact, I believe we'll be able to place a power strip allow the back of the cabinet ... which will allow all electronics to plug into their happy little home.

Since this picture was taken ... the upper cabinets have been ...

1.  disessembled (doors and hardware remove)
2.  back board removed and wallpapered with bead board paper
3.  primed
4.  painted
5.  installed in wall
6.  currently being trimmed with molding


This product has become a new favorite -- it goes on so easily and is much easier to paint than traditional bead board -- PLUS, the cost is crazy cheap.


We're thinking about covering the kitchen ceiling with it ... NOT looking forward to the work but I believe the end result will be fabulous :O)

 
I'll post updated pics soon ... but for now ... the kitchen floor beckons my attention (drywall dust is taking over our world) since the recessed lights were installed during the duration of this post :O)  

Yip-Skip-In-The-Pip  

(that rhyming stuff is going to annoy my brother-in-law and his beautiful wife)