Kitchen Makeover: Before and After

When the husband and I were house hunting, we both came to the conclusion that the kitchen can make or break the feel and look of a home. I have watched several house hunting shows, and the kitchen is where it’s at. A beautiful kitchen can really class up any home, in my opinion. When we found our home, we knew that a kitchen makeover would be on our to do list, so we could have that WOW factor. With a little design help from Better Homes and Gardens, appliances from Best Buy, remodel supplies from The Home Depot, and my hubby’s super talented skills, I am very pleased with my before and after kitchen transformation.

First up on the kitchen to-do list was to rip out tile floors and tile counters. Not a fan at all! We went to Flooring Liquidators for the floors, and picked out the Aged Pewter laminate. We replaced a large area of flooring with this, so it took us some time, but I couldn’t be happier. 

Then it was time to rip out the old light box on the ceiling. That thing just screamed 1987! In went some modern can lights. Then it was onto the nasty cream cabinets, covered in grime. My husband is a beautiful cabinet maker so new doors are in our future, but to tide us over we gave the cabinets a fresh coat of white paint. We began with a little sanding, then used an airless paint sprayer with a Graco RAC IV 211 tip, which only sprays in a 4-6″ fan. Just a little tip here – take off the doors and hardware before painting, and tape off any areas you don’t want painted.

Now that the cabinets were complete, we painted the walls and scheduled to have our granite counters installed. I picked the white sparkle granite from The Home Depot, due to the fact that I loved the black, white and gray modern look, in addition to the fact that it was on sale. Win-win. We took our sample of granite to the tile aisle, and picked a tile backsplash, which we installed ourselves. I fell in love with the Materialized Mosaic tile, and I think it compliments the granite well. Mosaic tiles are very in right now, and I think they really set the kitchen off. I chose a charcoal grout, to have the tiles blend, instead of stand out. I tested a light gray, but the dark won out. Then of course we installed a new sink and faucet, because it needed it.

After I had the appliances delivered and installed, it was time to make my kitchen functional. I hunted high and low for the perfect bar stools that would go with my modern look, and I scored them at Walmart. I love the Better Homes and Gardens Metal Stools because they are sturdy, easy to wipe clean (a must with 4 kids), and they go perfectly with my new counters! I was worried about them being too tall, but my kids are really enjoying the extra height, and lift up to their food. Let’s face it, the kids sit at the counter the most anyway.

With a little touch of some garden veggies and bright summer lanterns from Pier 1 Imports, I now have a kitchen I love. As a mom, wife, baker and food blogger, I spend a fair amount of time in the kitchen, so I want it to be a place I want to be. In love.

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“I received compensation from BHG at Walmart for my time and participation in the BHG Live Better Network. Although we have material connection to BHG, any publicly stated opinions of BHG and their products remain my own.”