Kitchen: 100% done.... finally

I've been a bit of a procrastinator. Maybe burnt out was more like it... after tackling the kitchen reno last year. It was a long road and when the final cabinet replacement items (mainly trim and side panels) were installed mid december, over 6 months since we began the process, I was not jumping for joy at the prospect of whipping out a wet tile saw in the dead of Winter. So I didn't whip it out. 

But that left me with this embarrassing scene.

 

I had a burst of DIY energy two weeks ago and decided I'd put it towards getting this sorted out (and lord knows I could have used it in pretty much any room of this house. But that is another story for another day).

{ a sigh of relief it's done }

 

But back to the start! I was at a party a couple weeks ago and so many of my Mom's friend's were telling me they love my blog but couldn't imagine tackling these things. I have to agree with them that it can feel overwhelming, which is why so many of us tend to have ever growing To Do lists, but it really isn't hard. Or scary, once you give it a go. For me saws have always been scary. I'd do a project but always stop and have Sean do the cuts for me. Until one day I didn't feel like waiting till he got home from work so I did it myself and now I am a breeze on most saws! You just have to try is the moral of my story. 

I wanted to continue the subway tile from the other end of the kitchen and still had enough left so that was easy, and because I knew my burst of DIY energy might be a short lived thing I was sure to buy a small tub of both pre-mixed thinset (mortar) and grout. This saves SOOO much time and trouble. 

{ what tended to be the dumping ground }

 

I spent about 3 hours getting it all tiled up and it looked good! But I knew that I wanted to do open shelves as well. I have always loved open shelving in kitchens and before we reno'd the last one it made a big temporary improvement to take down the upper cabinets and do shelves. 

These brackets from Ikea ($2.50 each) and the wood shelf (also from Ikea, $16.99) are also going into Lexington's kitchen and I liked the look so I bought an extra 4 brackets for here and one long shelf to cut in half to get 2 shelves in total. 

I actually toyed with the idea of going with the black brackets to tie into our few black items (lighting and stools) but holding them up in place just felt too dark.  So I painted them with matching cabinet paint (Martha Stewart, Picket Fence) to give them a custom feel. 

Once the brackets were ready it was time to determine where we wanted them to line up. I was SCARED to death when I realized I'd have to drill into my new tile job. What if the tiles cracked or shattered? With the help of a diamond coated tile bit I went through really easily and smoothly (all while holding my breath!).

{ could have been a disaster }

 

All up on the wall, I gave my screws a coat of matching paint as well. I was lucky that it lined up with studs on both sides so I don't have to worry about how much weight we throw on them. 

 

All done with the exception of one electrical outlet, my one remaining fear! I may learn how to do them in the future but for now I am steering clear of any electrical. I'll let the handy hubby handle that.

Those of you on my instagram feed probably recognize a few things!

 

{ no longer an eye sore }

 

I really like the weight of these shelves and they give just the right amount of interest without distracting from the items displayed on them. Plus they were half the cost of anything else I even remotely liked and a fraction of the price of some Anthro ones I was coveting. Well played Ikea!

 

We are getting close to the finish line at Lexington (I promise to update you early next week, or check my Instagram feed for daily updates) and I am starting to focus on the staging. While I made a quick stop at Goodwill to hunt down drapery options on the CHEAP I saw this funky antler. I loaded up my cart with 4 awesome panels of linen-like drapes (for only $13!!!) and left... but ended up thinking about this silly thing for the rest of the day.

So I caved and went back to get it.

{ $20 later... I'm still in love }

all in all, a crazy, hectic, busy, awesome week!

{Happy weekend}