The cabin kitchen re-do

We bought this great little cabin up in the mountains a while back and ultimately, we hope to live here full time in our Golden years. Well, there and Italy, but that's just a dream. I mean wouldn't want to hear someone say "ciao bella" every time you leave a shop or trattoria? (insert sigh here), Anyway.....we bought this cabin and the kitchen was so circa 1980s! Truly, the only things missing were shoulder pads and Aquanet! It had builders grade stock oak cabinets in a golden oak finish and teal laminate counter tops. Teal, people? Really? What were you thinking? I suppose not every choice I made in the 80's was great either....you should see my Brooke Shields uni-brow I was sporting and man, did I have some shoulder pads.

Here is the dilemma No money for a costly kitchen renovation, and big desire to bring the kitchen into at least something that looks not so dated and hideous. So, I did some research. I looked high and low and far and wide for any product I could use to upcycle what we already had. Rustoleum makes some great products to re-face your cabinets and counters, but at a cost of over $200 per kit, I figured my makeover would cost about $1,200. And that, my friends, was not in the budget! Secretly, I am hoping if I save my pennies I can totally redo a few things in the house anyway and didn't want to spend too much at this point in time.

What is a girl to do? Why grab her can of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint of course! I removed the hinges and laid the cabinet doors on drop cloth on the floor. Be careful to leave them in the order they were hung, or you will regret it when trying to re-hang them. I did three layers of ASCP in Old Ochre and two layers of clear wax. You could experimenter with the dark wax, or even use different colors for upper and lower cabinets. My original plan was to use Old Ochre on the uppers and Coco on the lowers, but when I got there, it made the kitchen too dark, so went with all Old Ochre.

How much better does this look? This photo was taken at night and the place looks tons brighter, don't you think?New aged bronze hinges! This entire project took two days, and most of that was waiting for the paint and wax to dry. To help the waxing go faster, I bought an orbital buffer. What an arm saver!

Now, anyone who knows me knows projects are never truly finished and merely works in progress, so up next I had to tackle the elephant in the room..or rather the shoulder pads...aka...the counter tops. 

The four younger folks who I spawned will tell you that I talk to anyone, um, and everyone....and so......

I went to pick up my totally awesome Thomasville Georgian style sofas off Craigslist and I spy a can of ASCP in the lady's garage. So I had to talk about it! We talked at length and she invited me into her lovely home to see her latest project; she had painted the tile surround on her fireplace, and it looked great! But, the real prize was seeing her kitchen, which she had chalk painted! Then, this amazing woman, went on to tell me about Giani Granite! Oh lady from Craigslist, how I love thee! (Insert cautionary warning here...please be careful when shopping Craigslist, there are some truly weird and bad people out there).

I researched Giani Granite (http://gianigranite.com/) and it had really good reviews! The best part? It costs about $65 and one kit is enough to do a small kitchen! Yippee ki yay!!!! If you can use tape and a roller brush, you can use this stuff! You can order it online, but I found a local place that stocked it...so check it out!

This entire project took me less than two hours. In fact, since I was alone at the cabin, I put on the movie Jerry Maguire and paused it every time I was done with a step and it took me to the line, "You had me at hello",  to finish the entire thing!

Step one, tape anything you don't want to get black primer on. Especially your appliances!

Step two, roll the primer on and let is sit several hours.

Step three, four and five. Take the three colors and apply one at a time, with the enclosed sponge. It looks pretty bad at first, but you can see the colors starting to meld together. 

Giani Granite chocolate brown, primed with first color.

all three colors added

close up of the three colors. 

Then you put on the enclosed sealer, which really and truly makes it look like granite! I am not kidding you! It is a bit tricky to apply the top coat. Just watch the Giani videos and it will be a snap!

And here, my friends, is the final look. The entire project cost me roughly $200! So, what are you waiting for?