husband’s handiwork | Beneath My Heart

Budget Breakdown of the Kitchen Makeover

11:59 pm

Happy Friday, friends!

I am still trying to answer the many questions about our kitchen makeover.

One of the main questions I keep getting asked is: “How much did this cost ya?”

Well, we paid approximately $3,300 for our floor to ceiling kitchen renovation.

That sounds like a lot of money!

But when you remember what it used to look like…

And compare it to what it looks like now…

I think it was DEFINITELY worth the money, don’t you?

Let’s be honest. If we had hired out all of this work, from floor to ceiling, it would have cost us about $11-12,000!

However, we did 100% of the labor ourselves, so this renovation was a third of what it would have cost us otherwise.

That’s pretty darn good.

So here is the (approximate) breakdown of what it cost:

(click on the pictures to see the post about each project)

375 square feet of Southern Yellow Pine (Lumber Liquidators)

(3/4 inch by 5 inch) – $1.25 sq foot = $465

Flooring supplies (oil-based stain, semi-gloss polyurethane,

wood conditioner, floor sander rental, sand paper) : $200

Baseboard and Crown Molding: $175

Paint for cabinets and walls: $120

Cabinet hardware (Lowe’s): $50

Wood plank ceiling (Lowe’s): $240

Pantry doors (Lowe’s): $300

Recessed lighting: $40

White Subway Tile (plus adhesive and un-sanded, pre-mixed grout) from Lowe’s: $175

Open Shelving (3/4 inch MDF cut at Lowe’s) and Corbels (Home Depot) and Trim: $240

IKEA butcher block countertops (stain and poly): $525

Farmhouse Sink (Signature Hardware) $600

Faucet (Home Depot): $100

Supplies for making extra lower cabinet: $40

And that’s it!

I’m sure there were a few more miscellaneous expenses that I forgot about.

Like maybe the 128 times we went out to eat because I had no kitchen in which to cook.

Or a table to eat on…

Oh, those were the good ole days!

But we made it through!

And I’m so glad we did!

(I promise this is my LAST kitchen renovation post for a while!)

Now it’s time to get (back) started on our addition!

So, do you think all of our hard work was worth the $8-9,000 savings?

Did you think our renovation would have cost more or less than what we spent?

(Please say more, please say more, please say more…)

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Painting our Kitchen Cabinets (Supplies and Process)

11:09 am

Happy Tuesday!

I am still trying to answer a lot of the questions we had about our kitchen renovation.

Many of you were wanting to know how we painted our kitchen cabinets.

I had planned on doing a detailed post about the process while we were working on it, but things were happening so quickly, I just couldn’t fit it in.

Painting kitchen cabinets is not difficult, it’s just a pain in the wha-toosey! (How do you spell that?)

But it is sooooo worth it!

Remember what they used to look like?

Painting your cabinets is one of the quickest ways

to update the look of your kitchen!

We basically did three things:

1. Cleaned/Prepped the cabinets.

2. Primed the cabinets.

3. Painted the cabinets.

Now let me break it down a little further.

1. CLEANING/PREPPING

We removed the cabinet doors and drawer fronts before we cleaned them.

We also removed the hinges and the handles from the cabinets doors/drawers and threw them away because we knew we wouldn’t be reusing them. If you will be reusing your hinges or handles, keep them (along with the screws) in a bowl to use again later.

Then I laid the doors out and cleaned them with Krud Kutter.

This stuff worked great! I just used an old rag to clean the doors and the cabinets frames. I also cleaned inside the cabinets since I knew we would be painting those too.

Next, we prepped the cabinets by applying this Liquid Sander/Deglosser.

This stuff is the best invention ever! Instead of sanding all of the cabinets with a sander, all you have to do is wipe them down this this deglosser, and they are ready to go!

2. PRIMING:

Next step is to prime the cabinets.

We almost always use KILZ primer. It has always worked well for us.

We covered up our appliances and used our paint sprayer to apply the primer.

We didn’t have to cover our floors or our countertop because we knew we were going to be ripping them out soon. Yay!

When using a paint sprayer, be sure to clean it out thoroughly (and according to the instructions) between each use.

3. PAINTING:

Last step is to paint!

(If you are getting new hardware for your cabinets, you may need to put some wood filler in the old holes, let it dry, and sand it before painting.)

Here is the paint that I always use on my kitchen cabinets:

It is by Valspar and is usually located over by the spray paint at Lowe’s.

It only comes in a quart size, and I think it took us 2 or 3 quarts to paint our cabinets with the paint sprayer.

I used this same paint during our kitchen re-do at our last home:

This paint goes on so smooth and is extremely durable! And it is also easy to wipe clean.

I use the “gloss” finish to give the cabinets a little shine.

Cy used the paint sprayer again to paint the cabinets.

We were thrilled with the results of the paint sprayer, and it saved us a ton of time!

However, if I didn’t have the sprayer, I would have just painted the cabinets with a paint brush and roller.

On our previous kitchen, I used the paint brush to paint around the edges of the cabinets or around the parts with “grooves”, and I used a small paint roller (like 4 or 5 inches) with a low nap to paint the smooth parts of the cabinets.

Looking at the above picture gives me hives! I really did not think those days would end!

But they did! Halleluiah!

When you are finished painting, all you have to do is attach the hardware and put the cabinets back on. Voila!

And then you will look (and feel) like you have a brand new kitchen!

If you have any other questions about how we painted our cabinets, please be sure to ask me in the comments, and I will shoot you an email back. Smile