In six short weeks, I DIY’ed the eating area of my black and white traditional, but contemporary, kitchen for the One Room Challenge.
Hey ya’ll! After painting, painting, and more painting… I’m finally wrapping up this kitchen refresh with a bow! It’s been a crazy 6 weeks of a lot of DIY projects. Probably more than I’ve ever done in one room. My goal was to have a fully functional (nothing broken), comfortable, warm kitchen that felt finished. The kicker was that I went into it not really have full vision of what I wanted. But somehow in the end, I pulled it off LOL!
But first… remember how it looked when we started? Click here if you need a refresher.
TRADITIONAL CONTEMPORARY KITCHEN REFRESH… the breakdown…
#1 Refinishing the kitchen table
It was successful, but I’m not in love with the finish. I’m super picky about paint finishes, and I’m going to redo it with a fine mist paint sprayer. I’ll do a full tutorial post on it later. But for now, I’ll take it 🙂
#2 Floating shelves
A success! I was shocked to find out they are cardboard. Gulp. But I primed and painted them and they are looking great.
#3 New pendant light above the table
I didn’t plan on getting this light from IKEA, but I’m digging it. It warms up the space. I rubbed dark furniture polish on it to give a more aged look.
#4 Art work on the walls
A combination of prints I already had a couple of digital prints I bought on Etsy and printed at Costco ($17 total!), paired with frames I wasn’t using a couple cheap $10 frames from At Home.
#5 The “box” around the blind hardware
This turned out exactly how I envisioned it. It covers the hardware and looks like it was part of the original door moulding. Thanks for your help, Dad!
#6 The fabric roller blinds
Partial success… I purchased the fabric and took it to a tailor in town asking for two panels exactly 32 3/4 inches wide. It wasn’t until after I painted them and tried to hang them, that I realized she totally screwed up the sides. THEY ARE SO UNEVEN!!!! So they don’t roll up all the way. You guys, I started crying when I realized this. Maybe it was the exhaustion? Maybe it was my severe allergies making me feel like junk? Maybe it was my PMS, cause when it rains it pours, right? Regardless, I am still pissed that I spent $80 on fabric and curtains that I will have to replace soon. I just hope I can remove the panels and still reuse the hardware? Fingers crossed.
Oh, and if you look closely, you’ll see that I screwed up the stripes. More tears. When I re-do them, I’ll do a tutorial post for y’all.
But… no more cats playing the curtains! Yay!!!!
#7 New Chairs and Bar Stools
I hemmed and hawed over chairs for-ever. I almost pulled the trigger on a pair online. But I never could get myself to do it. Then I found some vintage Milo Baughman chairs online and it was love at first sight! They were sturdy and had upholstered seats and backs! After some interesting interactions with the seller on Etsy, they were finally on their way to my house in a giant crate. Once I got them, it was too late to get them reupholstered. So I took a stab at painting them. Wow, what a disaster LOL! They are a velour fabric and did not take the paint well. Suffice to say, they will still be reupholstered. And I will do a post on what I learned about painting fabric (like, don’t paint velour).
Since I have four chairs, there really isn’t room for a barstool. And with the floating shelves, there would only be room for one person to sit there anyways. So all is good.
More tutorial posts to come on some of these DIY’s. I hope you like how it turned out! Now I’m going to go cruise the other amazing room makeovers who are also part of the One Room Challenge. You should check them out! They get better and better every year 🙂
Happy Decorating!
It looks really good. I love those chairs! Great job 🙂
This looks fantastic! And I love the blinds… if you didn’t point it out, I would have never noticed any flaws. I think they look fantastic.
Cheers! Kristy
I really like the warmth of the light fixture and chairs.
Saw the kitty on the chair!
I love your ORC makeover! It is all gorgeous but I love that gallery wall AND your rattan pendant-it is perfect 🙂 Way to go!
The link to your kitchen story (from the paint and primers post) is broken. Did you delete it? If not, can you link me?
Trying to repaint my own cabinets this weekend and need all of the help I can get!
Here’s the broken url: https://thestripedhouse.com/2014/09/my-kitchen/
Hi Sadie! Oh no! Thank you for letting me know, I changed the link. Good luck with your cabinets this weekend! Just remember – lots of thin coats and give yourself plenty of dry time between coats 🙂 Let me know how they turn out!