Kitchen Painting Party

Mike and I finally had our first weekend home with nothing planned so we decided to take advantage of it and the nice weather to tackle painting the cabinets... which turned out to be a much bigger project than originally planned. I didn't set my hopes on having the whole thing done by Sunday night since I knew I wanted to do a good job with the prep so we'd have proper adhesion but I didn't anticipate not finishing with primer by the time it got dark last night. Loosely following a few tutorials I read online, this is how it broke down:

Friday night - Mike and I grabbed a quick dinner then went to town clearing out the kitchen and taking all the doors & hinges off. In all it probably took us about two hours with the power drill saving us a significant amount of time with six screws to take out of each door (three screws per hinge). This is where we left it when we went to bed.

The hardest part was probably getting the shelves out of the upper cabinets which were clipped in on all sides. That or peeling off not one, but two layers of old contact paper. Luckily the bottom layer had probably been applied about ten years ago because fresh contact paper is all but impossible to get up and this stuff had lost a lot of its adhesion. One of the biggest reasons for us painting the kitchen is the insides of the cabinets just felt dirty. It's amazing the accumulation of crumbs, dirt, and other gross things the insides of the cabinets had that no amount of vacuuming could fix.

Saturday morning - Mike and I woke up early and hit Home Depot before the Saturday crowd rolled in. On our list of things to get included 38 hinges, 2 replacement track holders for the undersides of the drawers, 3 replacement rollers that make the drawers slide in and out easier, 4 packs of metal pegs to hold the shelves, liquid deglosser, and a pack of 120 grit sand paper. Good thing I like numbers.

We came up short on the replacement rollers, but we got everything else and went to work on filling holes and sanding. Although we like the drawer handles the previous owner picked out, the knobs for the doors were not our style and looked rather dinky on the big cabinets which meant Mike needed to fill the old holes so we can re-drill new ones after we are done painting. While he was at it, he also filled a few chips in the drawer fronts and a 1/4 inch gap in between two of the upper cabinets. Meanwhile, I busted out the new electric sander (one of my birthday presents along with a compressor and nail gun attachment) and went to work on the cabinets inside. Overall, I wasn't aiming to remove the top layer entirely, just rough them up enough so that we get maximum paint adhesion down the line. I also rubbed all the cabinets with a liquid deglosser which helped remove any lasting varnish while helping to wipe away all the dust from the sander. This step literally took us all day until about 5:30 but at least we felt like we were getting somewhere.

Creepy Selfie

Had to join in on the sanding fun

Sunday - Mike rarely sleeps past seven so he was up taping off the counters and appliances by the time I got up. He also graciously agreed to me going to yoga & coffee with my good friend while he stayed home and primed. That's true love.

When I got back I help him finish up inside and then we set up a station outside to use paint sprayer #1. I say number one because we were sorely disappointed by it and went back for a different model after an hour of trying to get the first one to work how we wanted it to. Basically the issue was our compressor wasn't big enough for the sprayer and we could keep an even PSI level which in turn meant that we were getting a really inconsistent spray. Our options from there were to either get a compressor twice the size (which we really wouldn't have a need / space for) or go for an electric one. We went with the ladder option and got semi-better results but I'm still not totally convinced on this model. I'm holding out that it will do better with paint than with primer but I'll definitely let you know once we get there.

In the end, we ended up primering everything by hand which is why we still aren't done with this step. We got another six doors and two drawers primered after work this evening but at this pace, it's going to take us the rest of the week. The only really good thing we did was set up a convenient station for painting with a drop cloth nailed to the fence that will be perfect for the paint sprayer if it ever decides to work.

Next step after we prime is to start in on the inside of the cabinets and drawers with a basic white, semi-gloss paint and then move on to the outsides with a beautiful grey-navy satin paint by Benjamin Moore. Wish us luck! I'll be back with an update next week.

If I Could Do Anything in the World...

Interior design is one of those things I had no clue I liked until about a year and a half ago. My mom actually was going back to school to get her AA in interior design when she passed away but I had given it little thought until recently when I had my first space (our apartment) that I had free reign over. Since the space was tiny and I was in school, improvements needed to be creative and cheap but I actually had a lot of time to experiment. Although having the house torn apart was not Mike's favorite thing to come home to, he graciously gave me space to create.

I'm sad that my mom never got to experience the explosion of the blog world, pinterest, or etsy because I think she would have absolutely loved it. I know that it is an endless source of inspiration for me and where a lot of my ideas come from. The other day a friend asked what were my favorite blogs for inspiration and DIY projects. Pinterest obviously tops the list for pictures of interiors that I draw inspiration from, but I also find that things are often repetitive or not my style. So in case any of you were wondering, here it is... my top five favorite design blogs and why.

1) Apartment Therapy - This blog is a powerhouse of all things house and home. Written by many contributors yet still edited by a paid staff, this blog is meant to be read many times a day as new content gets posted hourly from about 6am-3pm PST. Some highlights include house tours of real people's (stylish) homes and the best 'before and after' peices on the web.

2) Young House Love - YHL is the first thing I read when I wake up (preferrably while still in bed). It's written by a very cute but real couple out in Virginia that took a blog similar to this one from a hobby to a full-time job for both of them in about 4 years. This blog definitely wins for the most informative DIYs and most relatable writers.

3) Little Green Notebook - by blogger Jenny Komenda is one of my favorite for design projects that are a little out of the ordinary. She definitely pushes the line and isn't afraid to try new things. She is currently fixing up a very grandma-ish home that her and her husband purchased out in Arizona and I've been continually amazed at the huge projects she's been taking on.

4) Style by Emily Henderson - Emily is probably the most 'famous' of the bunch and got her start on HGTV. She definitely has her own look which is pretty much summed up by peacock blue velvet, brass trinkets, and fiddle-leaf fig trees. An odd mix but it works everytime. If I could steal a career in decorating, hers would be it. Only reason I don't read her blog more often is it can feel a little too 'sponsored' sometimes.

5) Design*Sponge - Weird name, awesome blog. Similar to #1 in the sense that it is written by multiple contributors and can even have overlapping content but has a different feeling to it because it doesn't stick to just decor. Although it's updated with around 5 different articles everyday, I don't check it as often as I do AT but still always find something useful or beautiful when i mozy on over there.

I feel like I should make this list every year to see if my favorites change. I've always been curious what it would be like to be a professional blogger and really admire what these people have accomplished. My dream is to one day contribute to the design world instead of just watching from the sidelines but would dread leaving accounting and the security it provides. I guess we will just have to see what the future holds!

A Rustic-Modern Dining Room

With a new house and new blog, I've been on the hunt for a perfect collage tool to aggregate all my favorite things in one place where I can see how the look together. After following a link in a comment on one of my favorite design blogs, I stumbled upon Polyvore -- a step up from pinterest in that it shows you items that you can actually buy. I realize that this site feeds off of consumerism, but i'm sick of falling in love with the perfect bookends only to realize that they are no longer for sale from Anthropology (and haven't been for two years). Unbeknownst to me, when I stumbled upon their site yesterday to make the perfect dining room, they had just barely launched the Home sector of their website.

Now with that un-paid promotion over, here is what I am thinking for our eat-in area which only measures about 10' x 3':

I have been in love with the Saarinen tulip table and Eames molded plastic chair for quite some time but those two items plus the Enzo Mari painting totals up to around $3k on their own. Although I have found art similar to the Enzo Mari painting, the pear (and it's counterpart "Uno La Mela") is the one thing I would splurge on. The pendant light is from Crate and Barrel and is on sale right now. We have a decent-looking fan in there right now but to be honest, I've never met a fan that I'm a fan of I like.

I'm curious to know what other people decide to save on and where they splurge. Also, should I just buy a knockoff of the table and chair (there's a million of them) or do I save my pennies for the real deal?