DesignLively: My DIY Kitchen

For ages I have been telling myself that I need to get better organized with my project posts, and also that I need to keep up with posting about the renovation work going on around here. SO I’m starting a new post series to force myself to just. do. it.

I’ll be sharing some before and after photos of all our project rooms, as well as a list of accompanying project links. Once a room has been posted you’ll be able to access it from the “DIY Home” link in the navigation bar. Some pictures you will have seen before – others will be new! As I add rooms they will appear as a drop-down link from the DIY Home in the link bar above!

I’ve already shared our kitchen before and after shots, so that was the easiest place to start. Enjoy!

Our DIY Kitchen

Our kitchen is definitely one of the places we spend the most amount of time in. It was the very first place we started working on it our house, desperately trying to get to a place where we could cook and eat! While it’s not a large eat-in kitchen, we often have Saturday morning brunch or a late night snack at the island. We still need to do a lot of finishing work in the kitchen (someday!), but for now it’s been working very well for us. And, believe it or not, I don’t miss that crazy wallpaper one bit.

DIY Kitchen Project Posts

• How to Remove Wallpaper Part II: Going Downhill
• Boom! That Closet is Outta Here!
• Old Cabinets Made New: Part I
• DIY Chalkboard and a Blue Kitchen
• Recessed Refrigerator Progress
• Cabinetry Conundrum: Part II
• Photoshop Dreamin’
• Island Inspiration
• The Kitchen Call of Paul Revere
• A Kitchen Cabinet Teaser
• Kitchen Progress: More Demo and New Countertop!
• Doors, Handles, Knobs and Toes. (Knobs and Toes.): How to Install Cabinet Door Knobs
• Beadboard in the Kitchen
• I’m on (Kitchen) Island Time!
• Let There be (a Kitchen) Light
• The Kitchen is DONE!
• Kitchen: Before and After Photos
• An Easy Approach to Word Art (and a New Stove!)
• Beadboard Wallpaper on the Kitchen Backsplash
• DIY Kitchen Word Art: What’s Cookin’ Good Lookin’?

Projects to Come:

• Kitchen Crown Molding
• Counter/Trim Boards on Side of Stove
• Backsplash Trim
• Undercabinet Lighting
• Replace Flooring

DIY Kitchen Word Art: What’s Cookin’ Good Lookin’?

Last week I posted on my latest adventure with beadboard wallpaper – my kitchen backsplash. Well, I got inspired and decided to re-do the art above my stove.

About a year ago I made a word-art sign that hung above my stove that said “What’s Cookin’ Good Lookin'” because it’s not an unusual occurrence for someone in this household to burst out singing this song.

While I loved the pop of yellow, the text didn’t read well from far away, so once I had my new backsplash I was inspired to give it another go! This time around I choose a higher contrasting blue and white letters and a chunkier typeface – Helvetica.

As a reminder of how I transfer my letters on to my wood board, see below!

The EASIEST Way to Transfer Fonts to Wood Boards:

1. Choose a font and what you’d like to say – and print it out!

2. Turn the paper over and rub it with chalk

3. Tape the paper (chalk-side down) and tape it into place. Trace over the outlines of the letters with a pen or pencil.

4. The pressure of the pen should leave a chalky residue behind, transferring your type.

5. Begin painting! Start with the outlines and then fill the letters in. I used craft paint and a tiny paintbrush.

6. After the paint has dried, the chalk residue will just wipe away.

You tell me, what’s cookin’ good lookin’?

(And on that note – I need to cook some dinner!)

I submitted this project to Beneath My Heart’s “Best of DIY October” Link Party

Beadboard Wallpaper on the Kitchen Backsplash

I have a love-hate relationship with wallpaper.

I hate removing it – like from my bedroom and my kitchen.  (PS – if you haven’t seen the insanity of the kitchen wallpaper I inherited with this house, check it out here!) Then I discovered beadboard wallpaper… which I loooooove. (Extra “o” letters necessary.)

I love the look of beadboard and We have it in several places in our house. Then, I discovered beadboard wallpaper and I was hooked. I started by trying it in my dining room and then I added a wall of it in my kitchen. And now I’m back because I added it as a backsplash in my kitchen!

To see a full tutorial on how to install beadboard wallpaper, click here.

We’ve been talking about adding a tile backsplash in our kitchen for ages, but it just hasn’t been a priority. Then I started toying with the idea of a beadboard backsplash. Since I still had part of an older roll in the basement, I started measuring and I had just barely enough (only three inches to spare!).

I know what you are thinking – why did you put wallpaper on something called a backSPLASH!? Don’t you think that’s a stupid idea?

Well, our kitchen sink, the source of 95% of our splashing, is right in front of a wide window. And in the last two years cooking in the kitchen, I’ve just found that I don’t splatter on the backsplash very often. Plus, since the beadboard wallpaper is painted with two coats of paint, I can just as easily wash something off as I did on the wall.

Plus, it is easy to reverse if we decide to tile someday. We could have installed real wooden backsplash as well, but that would have required a lot more work, and we would have needed to redo more of the trim.

The best part is – the upgrade was at no cost! I have purchased my Graham and Brown beadboard wallpaper rolls from Rhoda at Southern Hospitality’s shop where it runs $25 a roll.

Originally I purchased two rolls, so for $50 I was able to add beadboard in my dining room:

and my kitchen:

and now my backsplash as well!

I think that’s $50 well-spent!

To see a full tutorial on how to install beadboard wallpaper, click here.

An Easy Approach to Word Art (and a New Stove!)

Many, many moons ago our stove died.

This was not necessarily a travesty.

We were hankering to replace the old stove with a new stainless one to match our new dishwasher, oven hood and refrigerator. Really, we owe the old girl our gratitude (especially for the fact that I was still able to sell it for $20!)

However, finding a replacement was no easy task. There is reason to believe that the entire kitchen was designed around this awkward stove placement.

We measured and measured and went off in search for the perfectly sized and positioned oven.

One that would fit into the tight spacing, and still let us open our drawer and cabinet door without needing to open the oven door first. If possible, we also wanted a stainless steel top (not black) and metal knobs (not plastic). We are nothing if not specific.

(For appliance hunting, we usually look at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Sear’s, Sear’s Outlet and BestBuy, as well as some online retailers.)

The winner was the lovely KitchenAid from Lowe’s (which we had them “Meet and Beat” to the BestBuy price. We also had a coupon. God bless the man who invented coupons).

I am lovin’ my double oven! And this stovetop (with 5 burners) can be removed and turned into a griddle! (We love breakfast, so this was definitely a perk.)

The small space was begging for a small piece of cheery word-art, so I made this sign out of one of our old drawer fronts, similar to this project:

I’ve given word art tutorials before:

• Upcycled Cabinet Door Artwork Tutorial

• Weathered Wood Block Artwork

But this was the EASIEST way I’ve ever transferred the text outlines before… with chalk!

1. Paint your background. If you like the weathered look, see my tips from this tutorial.
2. Print out your words!
3. Rub chalk all over the backside of the paper.
4. Tape the paper on to your project and trace the letters firmly with a ballpoint pen.
5. Remove paper to reveal the transfer of the chalk lines.
6. Paint inside the lines.
7. I added some shadow lines with a pencil to give it a little pop.

I love that it matches my taxi-yellow Kitchen Aid!

And check out where we snuck our microwave back into the kitchen!

We installed the outlet when we tore our downstairs bath to pieces. We purchased a Panasonic microwave from Amazon.com and it is SO QUIET! I love it.

I apologize for the helter skelterness of this post. Do people still say that? Or am I turning into my Mother?

All in all, thank you for all the sweet vacation well-wishes! I think my brain is still on vacation though… that does not bode well for the grammatical accurateness of this post!