The Reveal

With out further ado, our 50% new kitchen. Let's start with entry...

The North facing wall - Before

After

The door you see leads out to the back porch and to the left are the stairs that take you down to the basement.  I painted the wall with 3 coats of magnetic paint and a final coat of chalk board paint.


Funny story about the magnetic paint. I purchased a quart can and asked the guy at the paint counter to "shake it up" for me. He put the little, but oh so heavy, can in the centrifuge and walked away. Surprise, surprise! When he turned around the machine had shaken itself about 2 feet out of it's cubby space. It was also really heavy to roll onto the wall. I'm glad it was a relatively small area.


Oh and another thing about magnetic paint and chalk board paint. If you have them separate, like I did, keep in mind that by over painting the magnetic paint with chalkboard paint it reduces the strength of the hold your magnets have on the wall. Be sure to get it covered with one coat.

The window over the sink faces South - Before

After (OH! I see the curtains are crooked...guess I can't do anything about that right now, can i?)

We are so pleased with how the tile turned out, the color of the cabs, the granite, the wood details, the sink....everything. It is a beautiful little farmhouse kitchen.

The fridge is on the West facing wall - Before

After

You can see we added a 2nd drawer to the left of the fridge. That's where the laundry cute was.  The lower part is still a laundry cute, just smaller, but it's still big enough for what we have to throw down. Down the line I have to insert something so the laundry doesn't get caught on the water line/rafters.

We originally didn't want to have the ice maker hooked up, and then we went ahead and had it done anyway. Not that we really needed a lot of ice while we were there (we only have a few days over 60), but it's good to know that it works.

This window faces East

Here is our "table"and it is just perfect for the two of us. If need be, a 3rd person could sit at the end. Kind of bummed that we decided to skip the silverware drawer, but I'll get over it.

Oh, can't forget the floor....I love, love love the tile floor. Easy to clean, feels great under my feet and looks fantastic, just like wood. I would pick it again in a heartbeat.

Here you can see the under cabinet lighting. It makes the counter tops and back splash shine.

These are the lights we finally decided on. I really liked the farm house ones, but just couldn't get over the price. These cost under $30 a piece and also have a vintage feel/look. In addition they go well with our appliances and if I ever want a touch of color I could always spray paint the skirt of the light.

Oh and they are on a dimmer, which is perfect for our needs.

Looking in from the entry off the front room.

The light over the sink - originally we had planned to put the same light over the sink as we have over the table - turned out it was WAY TOO BIG, so I had to go out and buy something else. As you can see it has similar lines. A good match to the ones over the table.

Window facing East - Before (original listing photo)

After

Two things I want to say about this photo. First, notice the Sit-a-Bit sign over the window. I bought this sign years ago, when we were still living in Waikiki. Amazing how it exactly fits in the color scheme of the kitchen! Love those little coincidences!

Second, the chairs. You can't believe how hard it was to find counter top height chairs! Sure, we found some saddle chairs, but we have those here, never really liked them and replaced them with a nice set I found at Ross. Most of the chairs we found were so cheaply made we just had to pass on them. One day, when we were driving down the road I spotted a 2nd hand furniture store. We turned around and went in. The guy had these two chairs. They were the right height and seemed pretty sturdy. Not to mention the price was right. The guy at the store was so nice. He asked what colors we have in our kitchen and gave us a piece of fabric (enough for both) that will fit right in! I didn't get around to reupholstering the chairs this time, but I will next time...might even paint some of the wood to match the cabinets....we'll see.

Thanks so much for following the progress of the kitchen - Looking forward to getting some good use out of it!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Wingback Chair part II

I was able to get in touch with the reupholster lady I met last year and showed her a pic of the chair. She loved it too! She looked thru one of her suppliers and they could make a chair to kind of look like the original and it would cost as much as the original

This is the original for $3000 It has 2 kinds of fabric and the  main part of the chair is leather.

this is how it could look like for $2400

she couldn't get the side fabric to show on this one, but it would cost  $1900 to make it look like the original

Ok, don't worry, I'd NEVER spend that much for a chair, never ever. So we are looking into the next bet thing I find a quality used chair and re cover it.

So my go to furniture lady sends me some swatches of fabric for the back

Of the 4, I think the bottom one would match best...Now get this, the fabric costs almost $80 a yard and to cover one chair we'll need 2-3 meters (no wonder the chair is so expensive...).

So she is still looking for fabric - maybe even something totally different, that could be more affordable.

Me, I'm looking around for a good use wingback that we could bring back to life to enjoy in our new home. Gimme a holler if you know of one...

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Wingback Chair

When we were living in Waipahu I had purchased 2 comfy wicker chairs, just so we could have some kind of seating in our room. They don't have the ones we had anymore, but they kind of looked like this:

When I got the promotion to manage the apartments I was looking forward to getting more use out of the chairs.

Sadly I came to realize that they were ok to sit a bit, but to sit in them to watch a movie, with your legs up on a hassock - not very comfortable. Roger saw my discomfort and he bought me a nice chunky recliner.

Those of you that have been to our place in Hawaii know that I LOVE my leather recliner...it is so comfortable. If you have been in our home, and I let you sit in my chair - I hope you know that it was a big honor.

When the time comes for us to move, we won't taking our furniture with us. If we were military, that would be one thing, but on our own dime....Let's just say, as much as I love the chair, furniture just doesn't have that sentimental value to make it worth while to ship.

Considering the size of the front room at the ranch and the couch that we already have, a big recliner like the one I have here, is out of the question. We both seem to be on the same page that we want older style furniture, not contemporary. Somewhere on that road I've fallen in love with wingback chairs. It would fit perfectly in our style.

While browsing thru pinterest (my latest addiction) I came across this chair and can totally see it in our house.

The lines, the color, the contrast..just love it! Just the price, $3000 - I am in no way in love with that.

Last year I found a woman on craigslist, that lives near the house, and she reupholsters furniture. Maybe she'll be able to make a vintage chair look like this one for me.

Aloha a Hui Hou!