Our Kitchen Makeover… we finally took the plunge! Lets just say that we didn’t love our kitchen in our new home. We decided it was time to put my chalk painting skills to the test and give our kitchen a much needed update. We couldn’t be more thrilled with the results!

First some backstory… we were on the hunt for a new house for a LONG time, as in months of checking out over 90 houses! We finally found our home. I LOVE my home! We lucked out as in it was a great house to start and nothing needed to be done immediately but we really didn’t love the look of our kitchen {see above}. Well, my hubby and I actually really love a good home project so we jumped right in and got A LOT done. We had someone paint the whole house, we painted, built and installed a shiplap wall in our family room, painted exterior doors, installed trim around windows, changed light fixtures, bought new furniture and then I got HOOKED on chalk paint! 

Thats us on the day we closed on our house. It was a long time coming and such an exciting day for our family. We celebrated with of course… FOOD! Took the boys to one of our favorite restaurants, Pascal & Sabine in Asbury where they tried and loved escargots… go figure! We had a great meal that night and haven’t stopped keeping busy since. We have the best friends and family that helped us move all our stuff!

Back to the kitchen.. it all started with a summer trip to NC and discovering an itty bitty place that sold Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. We were intrigued at the idea of giving new life to decor and furniture since our taste have changed a lot over the years. I started really small with a few mismatched wooden side tables we had. After that lets just say… if you stood still for too long in my house I just might paint you too {wink wink}!

I went on to paint mirror frames, picture frames, boards to turn into fun coat hangers, bathroom vanities and MORE! Then after Thanksgiving we decided it was time to just do it… paint the kitchen! I know there will be people that think I was nuts for painting over the wood but it just wasn’t our style and really started to stick out like a sore thumb in our house. I did some research because lets be honest painting a little table is WAY different then a kitchen!

If you’ve never used chalk paint heres my suggestion… search for Annie Sloan’s videos on youtube! She is the inventor or chalk paint and there is a reason I use her products, they are the BEST! Chalk paint is NOT like regular paint and once you get the hang of it, the transformation possibilities are endless! So start small then work yourself up to a big project when you are comfortable.

A MUST WITH CHALK PAINT…. A CLEAN SURFACE!!! Its amazing that you don’t need to sand or prime anything but you need to make sure that whatever you are painting is clean! For the cabinets I used Krud Kutter and it worked amazingly at getting all grease off.

As you might assume from the name of the paint, it is a bit chalk like… it dries really fast and has a matte look to it at first. Lets back up a drop to paint color shall we? We’ve actually always wanted an all white kitchen however with not wanting to change the existing granite we knew we didn’t want a black & white kitchen. We decided we’d go darker on the bottom cabinets and then white on top. Our choices: Annie Sloan Aubusson Blue for the bottom and a combination of Annie Sloan Pure White & Old White {1 qt Pure to 1 pt Old}.

My sweet hubby who is always supportive of my crazy ideas took all the drawers and cabinet fronts off for me- i’m not a power tools kind of gal {yet}. I did 2 coats of the Aubusson Blue on the bottoms {fronts and back on the cabinet doors}. Just seeing it painting on the floor I was already thrilled and knew this color was going to be amazing! Painting was definitely the easy part.

Once I was done getting two coats on all the bottom parts, Steve put everything back up for me. Even with no new hardware, it was a HUGE improvement!!! Oh did I mention… we gave ourselves a a pretty tight deadline… 2 weeks! Just 2 weeks to get it done before our Housewarming! So yea, there were MANY late nights! Ok, ok, so once all the bottoms were back up I went ahead and over 3 days applied 3 coats of Annie Sloane Clear Wax {again, check out her youtube page for awesome tutorials} which is not terribly difficult but you do need to wait 24 hours between waxing.

In the mean time, while waiting for coats of wax to set Steve and I started on the top half of the kitchen because yup I started feeling the time pressure and made him help me paint. Now being that we went with a white on top, it did actually need 3 coats of paint to cover completely. How great is that color combo right there!?!? Excited, exhausted and about a week and a few days in at this point we pushed on. 

With all the drawers and cabinets painted and in place, everything finally got their 3 coats of wax {granted I do STILL need to get back and give the backs of the cabinets a coat of wax}. The wax is truly AMAZING stuff!!! This is what gives the paint a little sheen to it, protects the paint and is water resistant! Obviously the waxing is a must because hey, kitchens take a little beating.  Once the wax on the bottoms set for a few days, I had Steve go ahead and give a light buffing with a tee shirt to everything blue. Its amazing how it helped the color look even richer and gave it a little extra sheen! It is just gorgeous!!

We of course wanted to change out the hardware as well to better suit the new look. I found these at Hobby Lobby and they were the perfect fit! As you can see from the flakes on my kitchen towel, these knobs were very matte so I decided to go ahead and wax them as well and it worked out perfectly! They no longer flake and they have a night little shine to them.

Ok HERE WE GO…. THE END RESULT!!!

It was a lot of work but so so worth it!!! The black granite is no longer overwhelming and actually picks up on the blue. The kitchen looks so fresh and bright and actually feels bigger too. I am so glad that we decided to just go ahead and do it because I absolutely LOVE it!!

I am going to work on adding a BRAND NEW section to the blog so that I can share some more of my home projects with you! I’d love to hear your thoughts so leave me a comment!