Progress with Kitchen Renovation

So we were all over the place with what we wanted to do with the kitchen cabinets. We settled on dark espresso stain. Basically the total opposite of my initial intentions of painting them white.

A main reason for this choice is the time involved. Going with a darker stain, there are products on the market now that simply go over the current finish. So no stripping required! I knew espresso would be very elegant and classy so it was a no-brainer when it came down to it.

Progress is slow. Since I am the one who is home, I get the honors of staining! This was the before of our pantry (or whatever it should be called) cabinet space.

I started with the casing.

Then worked on 1 door at a time. Since it is winter, it takes quite some time for a coat to become solid for the next coat so I juggled 2 doors at a time rotating each day. As you can see I am doing so right in the kitchen. The odor dissipates quickly so it was not an issue.

3 coats a door. The poly is included in the stain so that final step is not needed. When a door was ready, Jim would hang it when he got home from work.

We used the same hardware but cleaned them up and painted them oil rubbed bronze. I LOVE the dark on dark look of it! Our $10 light fixture really pops now too.

What a difference as you can see the old finish next to the new finish.

Woohoo! That part is done! As you can see, I have started priming the brick facade.

We decided to work with it since it is in mint condition. We could remove it, repair the wall and install a new back splash but that would be a waste of time and money. 

The brick will be a creamy color to match the upper part of our kitchen walls. This will have much more character than the products on the market today too. I also think the creamy is going to be stunning against the espresso cabinets.

So once the brick is done, then I will be moving onto the rest of the cabinets. My goal is to complete all that by April 1! 

Then it will be time to call the contractors and move forward with the floor and granite counters. So exciting and rewarding doing a chunk of the work ourselves! 

Thank you for stopping by! Have a great week. ~Val