Are you ready for the pink countertops?
Yep, pink countertops. And I lived with them for almost 9 years. And, really, I lived with them because I thought I didn't have a choice. I thought that kitchen renovations would be tens of thousands of dollars and we didn't have that kind of money. Plus, every year for the past 4 years, I've thought we were going to move. I've looked at houses, researched the market and planned out our move and, every single year, we decided against it. So, I just kept living with those pink countertops.
But no more!
Here's a picture of those countertops:
They weren't bright pink or shocking pink. And, at times, I convinced myself that they were more of a dusky sand with a pink tint. But, hell no. They were just pink. Light pink.
And see that hardware up above on the cabinets? Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.
And possibly even worse than the pink countertops was the wallpaper. Pink and blue flowers. I struggled to find any photos because I wouldn't let photos be taken that showed much of the kitchen. For years, I've staged photos to show only the kitchen table.
In this photo I've shown before, you can see part of the wallpaper in the mirror.
See that slight and very blurred strip of pink and blue flowers behind my head? Yep, that was the border all the way around the kitchen. The rest of the walls were a very small flower blue and pink print.
You can see the countertops and the lovely print on the wallpaper here. I can't believe I lived with that for almost 9 years.
So, when it came time to renovate the kitchen on a tiny budget, we knew that the wallpaper and the countertops had to go. There was no choice. And we couldn't afford to replace the cabinets and the appliances so we were hoping for a big impact with just color changes.
Eight days of wallpaper stripping later, the walls were ready for paint. (Eight days - I hate wallpaper!!!) I chose Chocolate Froth by Behr - we have this paint in our master bathroom and just love it!
I added in black and taupe accessories the room was immediately warmer and cozier. The photos are photos that I took in Maine and I converted them to black and white and printed them at 11 x 14.
You can see the lovely pink countertops in the foreground, though. Those were the last to go. The countertops arrived at 3 pm on Wednesday BEFORE Thanksgiving. And we were hosting Thanksgiving!!! But, we got it in.
I actually did a happy dance in my slippers outside on the front lawn when Tom drove up with the new countertops.
Here are the pink ones right before we removed them. And, yes, we did all the work ourselves - removing the sink, the old countertops, and all of the install of the new.
Oh, and see the new cabinet hardware? Much better!
And here's the new countertops!
So, on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving dinner, we emptied out the kitchen and installed countertops until 10 pm. Here, the girls are sitting on the counters to give them some weight so Tom can fasten them to the cabinets.
And, finally, the kitchen was done!!!!
I love the taupe, brown and black. And because the cabinets are all white, the kitchen is still a very light and bright kitchen.
The cabinets are not new and the appliances aren't fancy, but it works for me. :)
It's such an enormous improvement. Amazing what paint does for a room! And getting rid of pink countertops. :)
Cost breakdown: Wallpaper stripping tools and chemicals were $40 and paint and tools were approximately $80. The frames were $40, the new curtains and curtain rods were $100 (all from Target) - there's a second window above the sink with matching cafe curtains, and the countertops were $458. I also bought new accessories for the kitchen because we simply didn't have anything that matched and I need to stage the room to sell it. So, the new table runner, vase, napkin holder, paper towel holder and a few more odds and ends for staging cost around $100 more.
Total cost for the kitchen: $818
Cost so far: $1636
We finished the family room/den last night so more on that later this week!
