Kitchen Reveal

So, it's about time I show you what's been happening with the kitchen.

First, before:

When we bought the house the cabinets were new, but the blonde wood that looks pinky. Some people like that. I don't. At all.

I tried to live with it, but then I finally just couldn't stand it anymore.

So, we broke out the paint. Ta-dah!

Or, perhaps I should say BAM! a la Emeril since it is a kitchen. 

Let me break it down for you. First, I would love to change the tile floor, but it's just not high priority right now, so knowing I was keeping the slightly off-white tile, I did not want white base cabinets. But I also didn't want the kitchen to have all dark cabinets since it is not a very big space. That's how I came to the decision of different color cabinets.

The base is Kendall Charchol by Benjamin Moore. It ties into the dark tones in the counter top.

The upper cabinets are Mayonnaise by Benjamin Moore.

To prep, Matt first added a 1x2 to the side of the cabinet to fill the gap between the cabinets and the stove.

He added a piece at the kickplate depth, and then a separate piece at the face depth. Yes, there is a gap, but no one would ever see it. And, now we no longer have the awkward messy gap next to the stove.

We took the doors off and numbered them, left to right around the kitchen. We numbered the doors in the groove from the hinge,

 then placed a piece of painter's tape over it so we wouldn't paint over the number, and so it would be hidden when all was reassembled.

We sanded everything with a palm sander. Then for good measure we wiped everything with deglosser. And then it was time for primer. We used Kilz. On the cabinet carcasses, I used a small sponge roller and brush. On all the drawer fronts and doors, we used a paint sprayer. 

We bought our sprayer when we first moved in for about a hundred dollars (little less, I think) and we have used it on so many projects! It was worth it.

Anyways. After allowing the primer to dry overnight, we applied two coats of paint in the same manner, waiting the full suggested drying times in between which was ueber hard for a girl who never waits.
 

Once the paint was cured we added our hardware. I love design details from the 1930s, so I immediately fell in love with the drawer pulls.

It seemed logical to go with small knobs on the doors. It took some searching and finally we settled on a goblet style. We got them from Home Depot, but they were clearanced so I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to find them anymore.
  

But, what to do about the long doors for the pantry? I decided to change up the style once more and pick something that would look good on those particular doors, even if they didn't technically "go with" the other hardware. 

Because I picked the same nickel finish, they do seem to go together and I really like the long handles on the pantry.

Finally, we began to buy new appliances. Eventually the stove and microwave will go stainless along with the fridge and dishwasher. But we decided to do it in stages. The fridge kept randomly changing temperature on us, so it had to go and the dishwasher took about four loud hours to not really clean the dishes, so I was over that.

I like them, but here's a tip. One store, I think it was Sears, said that if once in place we didn't like the appliances, we could return or exchange them. We went to so many places we didn't keep track of everyone's policies and ultimately purchased these from Home Depot.

The problem? Well, it's hard to find a handle-less dishwasher right now for whatever reason. And I didn't think that through. Because that is my main prep space, I would rather have a flat front, but I didn't realize my mistake until it was in place. Home Depot does not take them back. Sigh. So, I do recommend you check those policies and I would actually pay more to have the opportunity to send something back. I mean, how do you really know that an appliance works until you try it out in place?

It's okay, but we are considering selling this one and replacing it with a different one. We do love the way it cleans though, so the only thing I don't like is the handle.

Someday I would love to change the floor, but that will wait. I also want to change the ceiling light, but I have a feeling that will be a whole, fix-the-ceiling-to-look-right-now-that-the-box-is-gone can of worms.

I am so happy we finally made the change! Really it wasn't much more than a couple gallons of paint. We did spend some serious money on appliances, but you can see you don't have to splurge on those all at once.              

Art Adventure: Air-Dry Clay Completed

I'm such a dork. With summer and all, I haven't been keeping track of days very carefully. I didn't realize until today, that I had missed Tuesday. /Facepalm/

So, last Tuesday I showed you our progress with Crayola Air-Dry Clay.

Gabe made a cave which has gems lodged in the sides.

Chi made a rock.

Kind of makes me giggle. A rock.

I had the boys use their tempera paints.

 I was surprised by how much the paint soaked in. You can see the paint colors appear pretty light.

 I suppose acrylic might work better, but that's also more stressful since it's permanent (I mean on clothes, my table, etc.). Chi kept rinsing his brush and adding more and more water into the mix so his clay was starting to soften. So, the air-dry is not as permanent as they claim. Basically it seems like bone dry regular clay when it's dry.

If you have access to regular clay, then there is no reason to buy this stuff. If you don't though, the Crayola clay is available practically everywhere. It was easier for them than Scupley clay though. And the small container has enough clay for four small projects.

Tip for painting: no need for a paint palette. Just use a piece of aluminum foil. The paint doesn't soak in, like if you used a piece of paper, and it's super easy to clean up, just crumple and recycle.  

Art Adventure: Smush Painting

Ever see those Rorschach tests? This is kind of like that. We'll have the kids smush paint into blots and then they can add details to make it look like what they see in their imagination.

Smush Painting

Supplies:

• paint, preferrably washable, we used fingerpaints
• paper, large or small, your choice
• markers

Start by folding the paper in half.

On one side squirt blobs of paint. You can either have your child do this themselves or if they can't, just have them tell you where they want each color.

Have your child fold the paper over and smush and rub as much as they want.

Open the paper back up and talk about what it looks like to them.

For the next part, you can barrel ahead, but it helps to let it dry. If your child is like mine, he or she may realize that this is really close to fingerpainting.

So, that's what we did while we waited. (And, I grabbed my hairdryer to help the drying process.)

Then get out some markers and have your child add the details as many or few as they want. Chi was a minimalist today, I guess.

That's okay. Remember we are all about enjoying the process more than we are worried about the final outcome.

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Art Adventure: Fingerprint Pictures

Some things we get used to and forget the wonder of it all to a little person. One of those things: Fingerprints.

Fingerprint Pictures

Supplies:

• sponges
• paint
• paper
• marker

Wet a small sponge and then load it with paint. You want to be able to touch it and get paint on your finger, but not have it too goopy. I decided two colors was enough.

Have your child press their finger(s) onto the sponge and then press onto the paper to leave a fingerprint.

You can just enjoy this, or you can offer a marker and where dry, have your child add details. Can he or she make their fingerprint look like an animal? A person? Whatever they can imagine.