The Kitchen Reveal

You all have been so patient waiting for this post. {Because yes. I'm sure you sit around and say, "MAN I wonder how the Shaffers are doing on their kitchen!!"} It's kind of long because of all the before and after pics, but I hope you like it anyway!

Back in April, I wrote a post about my kitchen dreams....and I can't believe that less than two months later, they came true...and even better than I expected!

We have a galley kitchen. If you have no idea what that means {as I did not, prior to becoming an HGTV junkie} - it means that your kitchen is long and narrow with cabinets/counters along both walls and just a tiny bit of floor in between them. Galley kitchens walk a fine line between cozy and annoying. And I have to say, with this renovation, we moved from cooking in an annoying kitchen to cooking in a cozy kitchen. I am SO IN LOVE with the way it turned out.

I could torture you with all the details before getting to the main point, but I hate it when people do that, so I'm going to, without further ado, give you the official before/after photos and let you enjoy them...and then I'll move into what we did to get there.

Here is our kitchen, before and after, from each end of the room!

First before/after....

 

 And then....

 

Don't you just love it? {It's okay if you don't. We are smitten and that's all that matters. But I really do think you love it too.}

We were so thrilled at how much we were able to accomplish on a small, small, small budget. Let me show you; maybe you'll get some inspiration for your own updates!

This area is above our coffee station. Got the espresso machine several years ago at a garage sale for $5. It didn't come with a manual so I just use it for decoration. The coffee beans were donated by a friend who roasted his own beans and had a batch go bad {for consumption} - but they still work for decorating! I put them in a Goodwill vase and the two mugs were a birthday gift several years back. I kept that grouping pretty much the same...except I added the quirky white S {less than $2 on sale at Hobby Lobby} and the bit of burlap {remnant from the curtains}. I also elevated one of the mugs using an empty box that used to hold spoons from our reception. I love how it dressed it up for almost no money.

 

This IS our coffee station. It stayed pretty much the same...you'll notice we've not {yet} recluttered the side of the fridge too much. It's bound to happen eventually. We repositioned our little canisters to make it less cluttered and repositioned the picture. {It previously hung on a nail that was already there, but we pulled all the nails when we painted, so we were able to put them in new places.} Love it.

To save purchasing all new hardware for the cabinets and drawers, we just took off all the hardware, spray painted it {brushed nickel from Rustoleum} and put them back on. Changed the whole look of the room. One can of spray paint cost about $6 and covered all the hardware and the curtain rods - plus we have some left.

We left the little coffee decor above the window but changed the window coverings. While hunting around Hobby Lobby for burlap to make curtains, I found rolls of burlap "runner" material. It was the size and shape of a long table runner and cost $13 for a roll. I bought two rolls and that made swags for both windows, plus I had enough left to add to the top of the cabinet you saw. The flowers were $1.00 a stem {on sale at Hobby Lobby} and I just stuck them up there to make a finishing touch. We also ended up buying a bag of wooden curtain rings {like you would put at the top of a window on a rod} and used them to tie back the curtains to keep them away from the stove and fridge. We got seven rings for $5.00. No finish needed.

Let's talk about the paint, shall we? Inspired by Kelly Stamps' bedroom makeover, we scrapped our plans to paint the kitchen another shade of brown...and went with a gray/blue instead. We LOVE the way it contrasts all the brown in the room. The color is a Valspar color from Lowe's and is called Autumn Fog. It was a paint/primer in one and went on really thick and covered well. We love how shiny it is too!!

In this photo you can also see our new stove, which was our only big ticket item in the room {and we still got it on sale...we shopped around for several weeks}. I LOVE it that it's self-cleaning and has a LIGHT with which to see the food and has a smooth top. You'll also see that we repositioned the pictures and fruit basket...just for fun. No new decor on this wall!

And because we love the stove so much - here's the full photo of it. NO more need for a sign to check for oven storage. There's a WINDOW for that!!

A closeup of the old/new paint jobs. We also went with white trim this time, which I LOVE. Really brightened it up.

Another treat we got {on sale}was a new faucet. The old one really wasn't all that old...but we wanted something that kept with the new hardware finish. And the darling thing about this one is that the end of the faucet pulls out to make a sprayer...and the previous sprayer hole now has a soap dispenser in it! LOVE IT!!!

You already saw it in my previous counter top overhaul post, but just to recap, here's the old and the new on the look of the counter tops, which also really changed EVERYTHING.

I didn't get anything new for the main top of the cabinets - I just repositioned everything so it looked like a fresh collection.

  

And from the other side...

The Miss Mixy end of the world...nothing changed...but it looks totally new!

And...the blender end of the world. We have decided we want a bread box of some sort. The bread is now so unsightly on the counter... :)

And the other HUGE change in the room: new flooring. We had carpet, and it was probably 25-30 years old. It was stained and worn and nasty. {Was good in its day, but the day had passed.} We were able to get the new flooring for about $1.00 a square foot, and with a kitchen this small...that wasn't a big financial redo!! Having something so easy to clean up and so pleasing to the eye...was huge.

Sorry this was so long, but I wanted to show you EVERYTHING! Hope you've loved the tour!!!