Author name: Karla Nathan

There is still a lot to do on the kitchen, but the end is sooooo close I can almost grasp it! All the cabinets are cleaned and ready to refill, the floor is in the process of being top coated and we are staying off of it for a few days, so all production is halted while waiting.  I also need to finish some of the wall paint, repaint the pipe on the wood stove with high heat paint, and then paint and caulk all the baseboard and crown moldings.

Not to mention putting everything back in the room and getting to the fun, foofing part!

I'd hoped to caulk and paint the crown before the floor got done, but we've had lots of time with the little grandfairies, and have let that be a priority.

It'll get done. But those sprites won't always be tiny and here to cuddle with us.

While I am waiting to get back into the room, I'll work on these vintage curtains that I found this summer on my drive to Indy at a shop along I70.  They were only $12 a panel, and will be a nice shot of color in my tone on tone kitchen. I only have two panels, so they will hang on the big window by the dining table only.  I need to let the hem out and remove the pleats so I can hang them on a rod.  I hate needlework, but this is mostly just ripping out, then a quick sewing machine hem, so I think I'll survive.

(the roses in the curtains are more deep pink than they seem in the photo)

 
Remember my dilemma with stain colors?  Well, I tried. But- the color I chose just wasn't destined to be. Trouble is, old houses like ours were often built with whatever trees were growing nearby.  We have discovered that the floor is cedar, walnut, pine, yellow pine, fir, and who knows what. Our floor is a mutt.  And the stain took differently on different types of wood. Its over all, a gorgeous, dark tone and I love it because it is so unique.

It was important to me that the new space was a contrast from the adjoining rooms, because I was afraid that if I tried to match them, it would fail and look close, but not close enough.  So, I think this stain accomplished the contrast that I needed.

As much as I loved the dings and dents and scratches and other distressed marks throughout the floor, I did NOT love these scrapes of paint here and there. They didn't show up until after the stain was on.

So, I bought some model car paint and touched up the scratches with a tiny brush.

I think it worked well. The scratch marks were in front of the cabinet with the hand painted rose topiary on it. Not there now!  There were some here and there around the room, and I'm so glad that I fixed them even though it set us back an extra day on completion of the room, we had to wait for the oil paint to dry over night before the top coats were added.

  I'd never have been able to live with those glaring marks.

This is another place that needs my help. Our stove will be sitting on the far wall and will be facing the door way, so you'll see it when you first walk in.  Its not an old stove, works great and I don't want to replace it. But, it has this dark rust line along the bottom of the door.  Today, I plan on sanding and repainting it with white appliance paint. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Our biggest splurge for the redo is this new fridge!  I'm so excited to get it installed.  Those double freezer drawers will be wonderful for sorting and being organized. 

And looky here!  The guys had enough scraps of tile to cover my guest bath ceiling.  Or as Sugarwings calls it, her bathroom. She gallantly offers the room to others to use, but makes sure they know it is hers.

I had the guys stop the tins at the edge of the tub.  I was kind of worried about rusty drips on people's heads while they showered.

(the hole is where the fan goes- this is looking up at the slanted ceiling from the tub)

Screws will need to be painted, but I'm not sure if I'll paint the tiles. The mismatch look is something I love. I wonder if that comes from growing up with a mother who is a quilter?  I love patchwork styles.  That might be why I love to set my table with a variety of floral patterned dishes too.  They remind me of the look of vintage quilt fabrics.

Just in case you are sick of remodelling photos, I thought I'd throw in this picture of our happy little Fairy Girl. She is doing well in her Montessori PreK classes and I've been lucky enough to have her staying with us part of this week.  We've been camping out in my bedroom, cooking on the grill and eating dinner outside.  What perfect weather to be without a kitchen!  We've spent all of our time outdoors.

See that ribbon in her hands? She has learned to tie knots and now everything she sees has potential for being tied together. Her #1 hobby is now tying long rows of knots in anything she can.

We're on the home stretch with the kitchen now.

Thanks for all your input on floor colors.

I chickened out on staining the floor myself. For one thing, just testing the samples gave me a headache from the fumes. For another, I was worried that I would screw it up.  I've had a talk with the expert floor guy and he assures me that he can achieve a darker brown that won't be red and that will not cover all the cool old distressing. 

We are still under budget, so I didn't feel bad about having someone who knows what he is doing finish the floors instead of me.

I had considered painting the floors, but decided to go low maintainence instead. A nice brown, the color of dirt will hide a lot!

By the way- that plastic does NOT hold back the sawdust and mess. The rooms beyond the curtain got a heavy duty coat of the stuff.  All the way up the stairs. I feel like it will take a lifetime to clean it all up.

While the floors are being finished, Sugarwings, Mayara,the dogs, my husband and I will be camping out in his office. We all want to escape from the fumes.  There will be a couple of days when we can't go in the house much. But there was no way we were going to turn down time with our little fairies just because we had a few minor inconveniences like a ripped up house and deadly fumes. 

When I am not shovelling up sawdust or squirting gallons of caulk into cracks and crevices, or babysitting fairies, I've been making my kits for Once Upon A Dream.

I've pre-written a post with directions on how to dye crepe paper like I did for these Prize Ribbon Sprites.   It will be up while I am away at Jenn's event. I'll be gone about 10 days, I'm stopping to see my sisses on the way home, since I am driving to Asheville.   While I'm gone, I'll still have posts popping up every couple of days.  I'll also have my Ipad with me and might do some "live" posts from it.

We have tried to be as cost efficient as possible with this kitchen redo.  We have reused all the cabinets and countertops, just moved them to the other side of the room.  One problem that we came across was that previously, the cabinets were built around a flue that ran through the attic to the basement.

The flue was no longer needed, but the granite was cut to fit around it. And we weren't about to pay to redo the counter tops and toss out my 6 year old granite!  (actually, I think that the granite is thousands of years old, but it has only been with me for a few of those years)

I searched antique malls, flea markets, and everywhere I could think, for something that would fit over the hole.  This little cabinet out in my studio was as close as I came, but still was a tad short. I found it years ago at the very first auction I ever went to. It was $2.

Easy fix!  A bit of trim, some nails, glue, and calking, and you'd never know the cabinet was not always there.  I added some decorative trim and painted it to match the rest of the cabinets, and now only need another glass knob to finish it off.

I added some leftover trim from when we first installed the cabinets.  The embellishments are made of glue. When they are fresh (made to order from the manufacturer) you can just steam them and stick them on, then paint or stain. When they are old, like these, they need to be glued and calked into place.

These come in ANY and every style you can imagine. You can find them here. 

I especially love the rosey ones.  They aren't cheap, but are unique and cost less than wooden trims.  I spent under $400 when our cabinets were being built, and have a bag left over, plus have used them on lots and lots of other pieces over the years. I over bought for the project, but have loved to have the baggie full of rosey bits and other trims to use here and there.  A few pieces in the right spots can really elevate a dresser or buffet.

One of the best things about the redo is the new (old) ceilng covering. Trouble was, I couldn't find enough old tins to do the whole job. I had 20 of two different patterns. One we used all around the perimiter of the room, and this one we filled in with.

There weren't quite enough to do the center of the room with the same tiles. There were enough from the border to fill in the center, but I didn't want to do that. Instead, I raided my stash in the garage and found a few odds and ends of different patterns of tin and we patchworked 4 of those around each chandelier.

To make it look  like that was a design choice, not an, "Oh my gosh, I'm out of matching tins, grab those over there for me to fill in with" mess up, I glazed the 8 oddball ones to match the chandeliers they hung over. I wanted to accentuate the odd tiles.

In this photo, the chandelier isn't completely re-installed, but can you see where I am going with it?  I found all the 2' x 4' tins for $20 each, and have enough remnants to do the bathroom too.  The installation was $800 for both rooms, so not bad for the complete transformation they give the kitchen.  Plus, they cover up the fact that one room had a 3" higher ceiling than the other.

Some of the tins were in pretty bad shape and needed a lot of calking to hide it.  The rust will start to peek through all the white satin paint, but I am kinda looking forward to that.

Here is a photo with it almost done. The guys put up a narrow trim piece around the 4 squares and I still need to calk and paint the trim.  I'm thinking I'll paint it the same color as the wall, since that is the base color I used for the glazing.

I also bought 2 of these $26  medallions from Home Depot to place over the chandeliers and glazed them to match. Here is how:

First I painted them white.

Next, I smeared the tinted glaze all over the piece, making sure to get it down into the cracks and crevices.

When I glaze something, I usually use a cheapo brush. I want one that I can force into the nooks and crannys and not worry about ruining.

Afterwards, a quick wipe of the highpoints with a dry paper towel and it was done.

I did the same technique on the 4 tins above each light fixture and also on the little cabinet I used to cover the hole in the granite.

Glazing 8 tiles over head didn't seem like a big deal after spending more than 12 hours calking all the seems and painting all the screws white. Here is a before shot of the seems.

Remodelling ain't for sissies.  Unless you have an unlimited budget and can pay someone else to do it all.   We have a great contractor and crew working on the room, but I'm trying to save money where I can. I'll be staining the floors myself, and have already repainted the front of the exterior of  the  house where they had to reside the area that used to be a window.

We are on the home stretch now!  Its starting to look like home again. That is, under about 6" of old sawdust and drywall powder, I can sort of see a homey place developing.

My kitchen is not done yet, but I am already loving it! I'm head over heels about the new configuration.

The ceiling tiles make me feel like I am inside a white wedding cake.

Aren't they pretty!?  I have to caulk and touch up the paint on each one yet, but they already look good.

Now, to find the right stain for my distressed old floor.  The wood adjoining this room is the same floor, with a clear coat years ago. I'm afraid that whatever I do won't match it just right, so I want a contrast instead.  So, a clear coat is out.  Plus the old yellow heart pine tends to go orangey, and I'd rather stay away from that.

So, I tried dark walnut stain. That went red, but the grain looked pretty.

I'm great with mixing paint colors, but working with stain and wood fillers is a tricky thing. They morph on you as they dry and they interact with the wood itself and change colors.

I thought a gray/black tone would counteract the orangey-ness of the pine, but all it did was mask the wood entirely. I'd like the cool, old beat up areas to show through, not be covered.  I didn't spend hours sanding out the stains just to cover up the wood completely.

The color I think will be just perfect is Jacobean, diluted with thinner and wiped on with a cloth. When put on full strength with a brush, its just too much.

Now, back to experimenting with putties.   I've found that mixing in the sawdust helps tint the color to match the wood, but I'm still not happy with the end product. Luckily I have the area under the fridge and stove to play with.

What do you think? Any advice on colors, stains, or putty?