Lighten Up!

 If I were to tell you one of the reasons we chose this house was for the kitchen, you probably won't believe me. But it is the truth. We wanted a home that we could put our stamp on and make it what we truly wanted, and not pay the hefty price of someone else having done what they wanted first.

PS: Those appliances are long gone and changed out. I will share some after photos on the about the house page.

Soak in all the glory that is 25 yr old oak cabinets, brass knobs, and white laminate counters that every stain on them stays for a while just to make you feel a little crazier than the day before. You can scrub with bleach all day, they just want to see your pretty face.

Well, it will be a while before we can replace these cabinets and counters. There are other projects that cost a little less that we want done first. For months though since we have been here I have been looking at this tiny, useless "cabinet" above the sink. Literally, nothing could go up there, it's too high up for me to reach and the cabinet board was very flimsy. The only point of it was decoration in the original kitchen when it was popular. This cabinet has been an eyesore to both of us. We hadn't quite planned what we were going to do yet with it, but this weekend it was on a whim that we just wanted it gone. So wonderful hubs got out the drill, and set to work. It took all of five minutes to pull that thing down. We both wondered why we waited so long, it should've been done after we moved in.

We set out to Pinterest to look at some ideas for what exactly we could do above the window. There was electric wire already hanging out of the wall that was connected to a florescent light under the cabinet. That was not the type of light we were hoping to have in this space. All we knew was we wanted it to be easy and make it a wall mounted light so there wouldn't have to be any re-routing wires through the ceiling. So we settled on a sconce type of light that would go perfect in that spot.

Hubs had some items to return to Home Depot, so we used that same amount of $30 to do this little upgrade. Even with such a small budget, this project made a world of difference in this blah kitchen. We had our grey paint still leftover from when we painted the house. We used Gliddens DUO No VOC paint in Pebble Grey. As well we had white ceiling paint to cover the area above that hasn't been seen for many years. It was covered in black soot just from being in the kitchen.

               

Lots of yummy grease and residue on the inside. 

Hubs turned off the breaker for the electricity before removing the cabinet. It was attached with a few wood screws on each side and in the top. After removing the screws it only took a little wiggling for the whole thing to come out.

Next we painted the dry wall and ceiling with our paint. Hubs hooked up the light following the instructions for installation and we added a piece of trim above the window to really finish the area off.

Day view! Don't mind the little bit of uneven painting at the ceiling line. Crown molding is being added later. 

Night time! Look at all that glorious light! 

This project gave a tiny upgrade to this space and made everything feel taller. Every time we look at it we love it even more. As well, I can finally see better when I'm doing dishes at night, or when I give the baby a bath in the sink.

Are there any projects you've done in your house on a tight budget? Did it make a huge difference to you? Thanks for reading! Leave a comment or question below. - Alisha