Kitchen Reno Begins!

Before:

After:

Okay, so maybe it's not quite a full kitchen reno (yet!) but it's a start. We are planning on repainting the walls, adding a white subway tile backsplash and putting in new floors. The painting and backsplash we're doing ourselves, the floors we may have HD come in and do for us. So far, we were able to get the painting done. It has made such a difference! The kitchen used to be this not-so-cute avocado green color...it looked way cuter on the paint chip strip! Anywho, it's now this great blue-gray color that looks so much better against our white painted cabinets. It feels so much more airy in there, which was definitely what we were going for. For the first time, we used no-VOC paint (since we now have a little munchkin in the house) and were actually pretty impressed. We did some research and were debating between Natura, by Benjamin Moore and Freshaire, which is only available at Home Depot. We ended up choosing the Freshaire, mostly because I loved the Naturalist Gray color that we ended up using. Freshaire has something like 60 colors to choose from, which they mix by adding this little packet of powder to the white base. Natura had a whole lot more choices, since they can color match and you can basically choose any Benjamin Moore color. Price- wise, the Natura was a few dollars more than Freshaire's $37.50 price tag, so there's not much of a difference there. In the end, we actually needed a tad bit more paint and since Freshaire is currently only available in the full gallon size, we went to our local Benjamin Moore and had them color match the Freshaire paint to a quart size of the Natura- So, we actually got to try them both, and like I said, we were pretty impressed. The ONLY negative thing I can say about both of the paints is that they are STINKY! It's not like the usual smell that comes from using regular paint, which honestly, I don't mind all that much. It's actually more of a weird stale, fishy smell. I've worked at daycare centers in the past and it actually smells exactly like when we would do this art project where we would paint a fish and use it as a stamp...eew! That sounds so weird now!

A finished product!

So what started out as a shower curtain, has now become a mock roman shade that is now hanging in my kitchen...Gotta love Stitch-Witchery iron tape and safety pins! Since I really didn't need the shade to actually move, it was a whole lot easier to make. Eventually, I may need to make an actual roman shade that can move up and down, but for now, I'm gonna stick to my no-sew projects! Woo Hoo...my first actual completed project of 2010...ya, I now, it's almost mid-February!