My 2nd One Room Challenge!
I cannot believe it’s been so long that it’s already time for the next One Room Challenge (ORC)! This time around, I’m using the ORC to help me finish a room that has been taking me FOREVER – the downstairs kitchen. This is what the downstairs kitchen looked like when the tenants moved out at the end of last summer…
Fully functionally, but in DIRE need of floor to ceiling makeover!!!
This kitchen has been in the works since January…JANUARY PEOPLE! That’s when I was inspired by Yellow Brick Home and Chris Loves Julia‘s Baltimore Kitchen Makeover and painted the kitchen cabinets! It has been a painfully slow process. A large part of this is because many of the projects I’ve tackled have been firsts for me. I had never used a hand saw before, let alone tried to make or install a countertop! I had never tiled anything before, let alone operated a wet saw! And I had never before restored and installed a kitchen sink!
On top of that, this is by no means my full-time gig. That is to say, I make progress on this kitchen between my full-time job, my furniture flipping business, between working on the rest of the downstairs unit and managing the upstairs unit, and then all the regular life stuff like family, friends, working out, and making time to enjoy the sweet, sweet summertime!
So let me take a second to catch you up on what’s been going on. Phase I of the kitchen makeover happened back between January and March…
Phase I included priming and painting all of the wallboard as well as the upper and lower cabinets.
Phase II happened between July & September…
Phase II included adding drawer pulls and bar knobs that I purchased during Wayfair’s Way Day deals in April for $34 and $20 per pack respectively, restoring and installing, an old cast iron coated washboard sink with a vintage style faucet, cutting a piece of 8′ project board to size for the countertops then staining it and finishing it with poly, AND installing subway tile (pictured below).
And so currently, my kitchen looks like this…
Yes, that is a microwave sitting on the floor, yes that is a desk sitting off to the site, and yes both have been there for far longer than I’d care to admit, and YES, this is driving me absolutely NUTS!
While I’ve certainly made A TON of progress and I am unbelievably happy with how everything is turning out, I have quite a ways to go – here’s a list so you can get a better idea of what’s to come:
Mount microwave over the stove
Remove ceiling tiles, paint grid white using a homemade white chalk paint
Take 4′ x 8′ pieces of white wallboard, cut to size to replace old ceiling tiles
Remove the fluorescent light
Install recessed lighting
Cut, stain (while somehow matching the stain on existing pieces!), and install pieces of pine to finish framing the window above the sink, and to frame the door that leads outside (currently has no framing as pictured above)
Rewire a vintage light and hang above kitchen sink
The countertops still need at least a couple more coats of poly finish
Once the countertops are done, caulk around the sink
Finish priming the door that leads outside and the door that leads into the basement, then pick a paint color for those doors and paint them that color
Pick a floor (THIS HAS BEEN THE HARDEST PART – the rest of the house has original hardwood floors but for some reason the kitchen doesn’t…so I don’t want to do any faux wood type stuff and am having SUCH A HARD TIME picking a floor)
Install said kitchen floor
Retouch a few places on the cabinets (I messed up a couple spots when installing the hardware)
Again, lots of these will be firsts for me so there is a steep learning curve for me on the majority of these projects. I’ve never worked with wallboard or cut holes in it for recessed lights or used the jigsaw tool I’ll need to do this! I’ve never tried to match stain / finish before for the framing. I’ve never framed a doorway before or tiled a floor or mounted a microwave to the wall. I know I’ll figure it out – but these are some of the reasons I want to use the structure of the ORC to help me reach the finish line!
Wish me luck! And good luck to everyone else participating!
Quack on folks!
#duckuglydesign #duc #ORC #bhgorc #OneRoomChallenge #BetterHomeandGardens