kitchen cabinet progress..half way there!

I have been painting like crazy! Once you start something as overwhelming as painting your kitchen cabinets, you just want to get everything back to normal. I have felt like quitting, but I'm now seeing the progress and how much I LOVE the color that I "mixed" together and I am getting really excited. I was a little hesitant about mixing paint for such a big job, but I wanted to have just a very light, somewhat warm gray. My walls are Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter and the color I mixed is almost a perfect match, which was the look I was going for. You may be thinking why didn't I just use the revere pewter on my cabinets? (I will explain below)  I came across this picture that gave me a little inspiration for my kitchen. In this kitchen, all the walls and cabinets are painted in Revere Pewter with a contrasting island, similar to what I am doing.

Southern Living

Southern Living

Now for the reason why I choose to use the chalk paint, mostly because thought of sanding, priming, then most likely, 3 coats of oil paint did not appeal to me at all! I have done it before and it holds up well but it's very laborious, and this way I am able to lightly distress the cabinets and get the look and finish I want. So I did a little experimenting with ASCP and came up with this below.

Paris Gray is on the left and Old Ochre is on the right (I had first tried Old White, which is the base color you see but it just wasn't what I really wanted) the color at the top is the two mixed together which gives you a color almost the exact shade of revere pewter, I couldn't have been more excited and as I said, I love it!!

I will hopefully get finished by next week. I still have to finish the backs of the cabinets and give everything a second coat, then distress them just a bit and then wax- a little overwhelmed!! I will post the final pictures when it is all put back together, then show you the tiles and lights that will finish everything off, I can't wait.

Here's a small sneak peek at one section that is almost done- I love how it matches my chevron rug and blends so well with the granite! If you want to see the post I did on the redesign of our kitchen at our last house, you can see it here.

I have this post linked to a few linky parties, you can check them out here, French Country Cottage, Miss Mustard Seed and The Shabby Nest

And the winner is....

I picked the soapstone, but now I have opened up a can of worms!! It's a good thing that it is our anniversary  today where there will be lots of love going around, otherwise I might be in the dog house, I will explain. But back to the winner... the soapstone.

 I was really torn, almost up until I was picking out the exact spot where it was going to be cut, but now that it is in I am so glad. It is really beautiful. The marble was to white and it was too similar to the movement of the river white granite. The quartz was too plain, although the overall background color was good. But the soapstone seemed to be a nice contrast that pulls out the gray tones, plus having an older home the soapstone will "age" over time and will take on a "worn" look, creating a nice patina, which is appropriate for an older house. Also, one neat thing was we found out was that this piece of soapstone was a remnant from the home of a globally-known company's founder/CEO. Funny though, he used the soapstone in a room for his dogs, so if it was good enough for them, then good enough for our kitchen!

 Then comes the worms, now I am going to have to paint my built- in and all my cabinets! And maybe repainting the island, which was just painted with ASCP in graphite. That is a big can I opened up, but my husband does agree that it need to all "come together" somehow. (don't look at my mess, I had to move things around when the guys came out to install and we just started school) I just painted my walls revere pewter, which is a Ben. Moore color,  I did a spot on the cabinet to see how it would look there as well.

And of course I didn't stop there, I painted a cabinet drawer with ASCP, in old white, then realized I really need to go with more of a light khaki gray. 

So needless to say, I will be going to the paint store tomorrow to get some paint to start this now very large project! (I secretly wanted to paint my cabinets anyhow, just didn't think it was going to be so soon). So stayed tuned for my follow up on my now very large project!



Linked up to today on: French Country Cottage
Miss Mustard Seed and The Shabby Nest

Final decision for DIY island, three different options

I'm so excited to share my DIY buffet, turned island, step by step. I bought this great buffet before we moved into our house, knowing that I wanted to turn it into an island for our kitchen. Now it is just waiting for the final touch, the top, like the icing on the cake! I have been hemming and hawing over what to use because, not only will this get a lot of use, I also want it to have a little wow factor. So, of course I have been wanting to put a beautiful piece of marble on it. During my search, I have talked to many suppliers and every single one of them said, "why would you want to put marble in your kitchen - it's not practical" etc. etc., but open any magazine and there you will find beautiful kitchens with clean, classic marble counter tops from one end to the next. In my process to find a counter top that I think will match best, with the existing river white granite, I have narrowed it down to three finalists. I have picked my winner, but curious to see what your opinion is on what would look best. But before I show you those, here are the pictures of the transformation.

The back was unfinished, as a buffet would be, so my husband added board and batten elements to mimic some of the detail in our old, built-in kitchen cabinet and our paneling in our foyer. 

He framed it out so it now looks finished. The front of it was already painted in ASCP, with Graphite and then had the dark wax applied over top. Lucky for me I just happened to have both of those so I matched up the back with the front.

I think it turned out really well - it looks like it was meant to be an island! But now for the top- here are my three final choices. As I said I know which one I have decided on, what do you think?

First candidate: carrara marble, I know the cons related to maintenance and care totally outweigh the pros, but it is so beautiful!! But I have to say it has a much whiter background than the existing river white granite that is in the rest of the kitchen. 

Second candidate: organic white Caesar stone. Very uniform, durable and the color does match with the granite better.

Third candidate: Soap stone, again more maintenance and it does wear and patina but in an older home it would be appropriate. I do like the way the gray tones blend with the paint and pulls out the gray tones in the granite.

Ok, what do you think? I will reveal the winner over the weekend and tell you what I had decided to go with, they are dong the install for it next week. Happy Labor Day weekend!

check out  other Feathered Nest Friday ideas over at French Country Cottage
also, Frugal Fridays at the Shabby Nest
and Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Feature Friday

ASCP and mahogany

I have usually had great success with all my projects using ASCP, but this one not so much- I wanted to change the look of my rocking chair, new paint, fabric- done!

I knew the rocker was mahogany and I have painted over mahogany before with oil paint and had no problems (I know we really shouldn't paint over mahogany, but....) This time it didn't work so well using chalk paint. I am not quite sure why, but even with 2-3 coats, using ASCP in the old white, the reddish finish of the mahogany started coming through and it is now somewhat pink. Another strange thing it almost starting crackling a bit.

The beauty of the paint is that you really don't have any prep involved, as many as you know. Now with the rocking chair I did wipe it off and very lightly sanded, but I may have missed something here with this one. Curious if those of you who have used ASCP have experienced the same thing with mahogany? Any suggestions on how I could have done anything different? But I still think it is a great improvement over what it looked like. I used  red and white grain sack fabric and have it sitting out on my front porch.

 I'm up for painting and changing most anything, sometimes they come with unpredictable surprises, but it's great to reuse what we have and still feel like you've just gotten a brand new piece!

check out some other great ideas over at The Shabby Nest where I've shared this post on her frugal Friday's

My chair reborn in grain sack fabric!

These chairs were my inspiration for my very outdated, in great need of a "face lift" chair.

This is the chair below with a slipcover that I had someone make years ago, very sad! It was a Waverly fabric that I would be happy to never see again, so I was elated to take it off!(I did a previous post on debating what to do with the chair and happy to now show the final pictures!)

Here is the chair without the slipcover, love the blue velvet right?

Well I begged and begged my mother to please try to reupholster it or make a slipcover out of my new favorite, grain sack fabric. After some pleading, she did and I have to say she did an amazing job!!! I painted and lightly distressed the dark wood legs and arms with ASCP in old white, finally showing them off again. I can't take any more credit for the chair, she did all the rest.

I love it!! Looks like a completely new chair and I am in love with the fabric, it is heavier but has such a nice finish. Now maybe I can convince her to tackle my sofa??!

I've posted this on "Feathered Nest Fridays" on French Country Cottage, check out all the other great ideas she has posted on her Friday Linky party! And also over on Jennifer Rizzo's Friday party, and I just came across another great blog where I posted this as well, The Shabby Nest, so many creative people!!