We took our 20-year-old kitchen and made just a few changes to bring it up to date to a more modern look.

our plan

• Paint the gold walls
• New countertops
• Undercounter lighting and pendant lighting
• Backsplash behind the stove
• Fix the cracked tiles in the kitchen

Painting the walls

Our first order of business was to paint all the gold walls. You can see in the picture above just how gold they were. All the house was that color except the bedrooms and bathrooms.

We knew we wanted to use paint with primer mixed in it because those gold walls were too dark to cover with 1 coat of paint.

Our paint choice was Lowe’s Valspar paint with primer in the color of Warm Putty. It’s a lovely light tan/gray color but wasn’t bright white.

While we were painting, this was the perfect time to paint the baseboards too. When Mr. G and I had our painting business, my job was to do the lower wall cut-ins and the baseboards. Even though our baseboards are white, they really aren’t white. We had some paint samples that were given to us when we moved in, so I was able to get the exact white color to paint with. There is just something about clean freshly painted baseboards.

I also took this opportunity, since all the furniture was moved out from the walls to paint, to really do some deep cleaning. I just knew I was going to find all kinds of dead Florida bugs, but only found a couple of petrified frogs. That was a relief. 😂

What a difference a little paint can do in a room. One of my next little projects is to take off those cushions on those chairs. But, the backing on the cushions has stuck to the chair seat and I will have to use some elbow grease to get it off. I think Goo Gone will probably help me with that.

I really love how this room turned out. We did a stripe paint texture by painting the whole room with satin paint and then painted stripes with flat paint of the same color. If you look to the left in the picture toward the corner, you can see the stripe. It’s very sutle but looks so lovely in a dining room. I also changed out the light fixture over the table. It’s perfect!

new countertops and backsplash

With the painting done, it was time to have the countertops put in. In the picture above you can see a good true color of our green countertops. The surface was in good shape, but they were pulling from away from the back lip and gaps were starting to form.

After doing some research, we realized we wanted quartz countertops. All the granite that we looked at was way too busy for our taste. So, we stayed with a simple white with a touch of gray and tan that went very well with our oak cabinets.

This was my first kitchen with stone countertops. I’ve always had some kind of laminate. So this was a real treat for us and we love them! So easy to clean too.

The hardest decision we had to make in this whole makeover was deciding on the backsplash. At first, we were just going to paint that red wall the same as the rest of the house. We looked at so many tile selections but just couldn’t find the right one. We just about gave up, but then….

We walked into Lowe’s to pick up some painting supplies and walked down the tile aisle. And there it was. The most perfect backsplash for our kitchen! The name is Satori Silver Crescent tile and we grabbed what we needed to finish the job. It comes in 12 x 12″ sections, so it didn’t take much. Less $100 to do that backsplash. BTW, you can order it online and have them bring it out to your car. So convenient.

It turned out so nicely. Even Mr. G was impressed at how it looked. He’s not into design, so I knew it was a great choice.

lighting

I really was needing more light where I worked in the kitchen. Under the counters is so dark when the ceiling kitchen lights are on. We had an electrician come in and put an LED strip lighting system under the cabinets, which he recommended. What a difference that made for us to see better while preparing meals.

We also replaced the lighting over the bar counter and over the kitchen nook with black industrial pendant lighting.

Repair tiles

The last thing to do is have a few tiles repaired in the kitchen that have cracked. We also want to have the grout professionally cleaned. I haven’t started the search for this service, but know that several in my community have had it done. So, it’s time to start getting estimates.

was it worth it?

No question. Not only did our kitchen need an update, but it also helps with the value of the home.

And let’s talk about that sink for a bit. This is my first single bowl sink and it’s perfect. For me, it seemed that a double bowl sink had wasted space. I got this sink from Amazon and couldn’t be more impressed with the quality. It really cleans up nicely too.

One more glorious look!

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