House updates

We have been wanting to update our kitchen for quite some time now. Well, it finally happened! We wanted to have the kitchen cabinets painted white with a glaze over them to match our built-in cabinet we did in the living room. And we wanted the island stained a dark brown. We also wanted hardware added to the cabinets. Isn't it funny (or not so funny) how one thing leads to another leads to another... 

Well, the mantel and the hand rails for the stairs were the same finish as the cabinets. So we decided to have those stained to match the island. Soooo, since we were having the hand rails stained what better time than then to replace the wooden spindles that were there. Right???...Right!! So, we replaced the black wooden spindles with wrought iron spindles. And, since we were having the mantle stained what better time than then to have the black granite tiles around the fireplace removed and updated with Travertine stone and tile. Right?? Right!! And finally, we had been wanting to replace our 30" electric cooktop. And what better time to do it then when our kitchen was going to be torn up anyway. Right?? Right!! So, we had our contractor cut the granite to fit a 36" GAS cooktop. So excited to have a gas cooktop now. Such a huge difference.

I LOVE the finished product! All.of.it! So happy with how it turned out. Now I will say all this was quite the project. We obviously had to take everything out of the kitchen cabinets. Which in itself was a huge beating. Plus, operating without access to your kitchen is no easy task. Not with little kids especially! The painters arrived on Monday to begin prepping the area. They began painting on Tuesday and the kids and I left town for the rest of the week. I knew the smell would be too much to handle and I needed to be somewhere with kitchen access. So we went to Kristina's for a few days. Jim stayed behind and slept with the doors closed and the windows cracked. 

Here are a few before and after pictures...

Kitchen before

Kitchen before

Stairs before

Spindles before

Mantle and granite tiles before

Electric cooktop before

During the process

Lots of prep work.

Jim would text me pictures everyday while I was gone. I was a bit nervous at first seeing these stark white cabinets.  But I knew the glaze would tone it down. 

The stained island.

A close-up of the glazing.

When the kids and I got home they were finishing the glaze. So tedious. 

Glazing complete, almost done. 

Hardware added.

Hardware added and cooktop in. 

Close-up of the gas cooktop. Love it!

Wrought iron spindles and stained hand rails. 

Fireplace in progress

Fireplace and mantle complete. We had it raised up a bit off the floor just to add a little something to it. Love this!