Kitchen Makeover

When our realtor submitted our offer for our house here in San Antonio, Texas, one of the requirements I insisted on, was for the sellers to paint the walls back to neutral colors as their paint choices were horrific. Every bedroom had an "accent wall" in a bright orange. The kitchen a super dark red with a matching red storage shed in the yard. Unfortunately our realtor oversaw that they had drawn a line through that clause when the contract came back. When I stopped by for inspection day I was shocked to still see all the crazy colors, yet the family had already shipped all their belongings and where about to hit the road the next morning after signing. I am all about not accepting something you did not agree upon (sorry, but I won't get run over anymore, been playing nice for way too long). Since it was the other realtor's fault to not communicate this change in contract more clearly to ours his agency agreed to give us a check of $300. I was like, WHAT? That man must have never held a roller in his hands :) I listed him ALL the supplies I was going to need and how much it would be if I have to hire somebody for the staircase. I emphasized how expensive paint is (not that I was going to buy any designer brand named paint) but I was wanting to make a point. I have worked in customer service long enough to know, if you are persistent enough you get what you want :) Not sure why exactly I am elaborating on this, I guess my point is that you should not settle with something you did not want/ask for and be walked all over. My husband is the complete opposite :) 

Any way, long story short we had to paint ourselves :) In 95 degree heat as the AC was not working :) yikes! we did not even have our furniture shipped to us yet, so please excuse the mess in the kitchen in the before pictures, ok??  

How do you likey? Honey-oak cabinets, nice white appliances, and that very bright, oh so friendly wall color... NOT...

Pretty huh? yes, you guessed it, it needed to go! We found a nice beach cottage color for the walls (which is now discontinued, that you very much, Home Depot) So just in case, remember to always paint a piece of paper for later on so you can get the color matched if they do the same to you...

After living in the house for a couple months and much research I finally brought myself to tackle the kitchen cabinets. I decided to use the kitchen transformation Rostoleum kit. It was easy to use, but the top coat that comes with it was not compatible with the paint in my opinion. Always remember: no oil-based finishes over latex/chalk-paint! The reason? It WILL yellow! And so now I will have to hopefully soon redo or at least touch up a lot of it. 

It was not until two years later that we decided to rip out the carpet and lay down laminate flooring. I do not know how we lived without them as our boxer and cat are not exactly the cleanest family members :) 

So I guess, after everything, new flooring, appliances and paint we got to the following results.

As for the kitchen we did not update any counter tops or backsplash since we move around a lot and will not stay in this home forever. Yet the floors will definitely something future renters/owners will appreciate. They HIDE everything, which is why I wanted grey instead of dark flooring :) This girl ain't to keen on cleaning... woops there, I said it. 

Hope you enjoyed this post and please sign up for the email blog updates so you won't miss a thing! There will be a couple more posts about makeover projects in our house that I will share with you. 

Have a great week! I'm off to go do my Microeconomics, Business Math and Business Communication homework, yay! 

Daniela 

It's been a long journey

Hello!

My name is Daniela, I'm 26 years old and I live in San Antonio, Texas with my husband and our two fur babies, Diego and Droopy. I am originally from Amberg, Bavaria/Germany and moved to the US about 3 years ago.

My passion for refinishing furniture started in 2010. I fell entirely in love with the white furniture-style that everybody called shabby-chic. It originally came from Scandinavia as they do not get a lot of sunlight. In order to not get depressed they started painting everything they had white. Whether it was the walls, floors, or furniture. This pic is what I have in mind when I think of true shabby-chic:

pic from google images

It didn't take long and I started frequenting flea markets and looked for furniture I could turn into timeless treasures, making our home a little more like the pictures I so admired. At the time we still lived in Kaiserslautern, Germany, which is not too far to the French border which meant loooots of French goodies at great prices. It was not until I got to the States that I got into redoing pieces by adding a little bit of color as I felt it was more what people were looking for instead of white :). In my home I am still true to the lighter/white colors. I wish it was all the fresh white you see in this picture, but I do like the antiqued white and distressed look, so you will see a lot of that as well. 

My first pieces looked like this:

Most of these items I still own as you do not want to be selling your first babies :) 

I have not posted anything on this blog since 2012 but am hoping to be able to write more as I do not want to write REALLY long facebook posts on my page but yet want to share more information about my passion and also give product reviews.

If you have not already liked us on Facebook, here's a link to the page where I post current projects and pieces that are for sale.
www.facebook.com/countrychiccreation

I hope you will enjoy my blog and hopefully get inspired for your own projects :)  

Have a great weekend! 

Daniela