Mr. Prof designer home

Well as you can tell I haven't been around much in blogging world this summer. All I can say is that we have been BUSY!

My boys started school last week, so hopefully I can get around to blogging a little more often as things quiet down a bit around here.

I did a quick and cheap project a few weeks ago that I would like to share with you today.

I bought this tall table at a garage sale for $5. Nothing special to it except that I loved the height and the narrow width. We were wanting some extra working space in our small kitchen and this would be perfect!

For the update, I used paint I already had on hand at home. I first gave it a good cleaning with soap and water. Then I sanded down the surface. I painted the base part of the table a pretty cream color. After it was dry, I sanded down the edges and added MinWax Early American Stain for the age look I love.

For the top, I wanted to keep a nice rich wood look. I disliked the light wood it styled before, so I stained it with MinWax Dark Walnut. After it was dry, I added several coats of polyurethane for protection.

I love all the imperfections on the table top, it gives it that fun rustic feel.

I was going to replace the knob but thought I would save $5 for a new one and just spray paint the current one. I removed it from the drawer, cleaned it, gave it a light sanding and then primed it with a metal spray paint and then Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint. Easy peasy! The hardest part is waiting for everything to dry. :)

We debated on putting it on wheels and move it out to the center of the kitchen when we needed that extra counter space. But once we moved it to the area, we decided to not put wheels and leave it in the center as an island.

We use it all the time and wonder what we did without it! It will do until we decide to knock down some walls for a kitchen demo way down the road. :)

Happy Monday!

I have some before and after pictures to show of our mini kitchen makeover today! I can happily say I spent less than $20 to update our kitchen...but a lot of time painting. But it was so worth it. We are enjoying it very much!

Let's start at the very beginning with this poor before pic(except for the cute little boy). Our kitchen was UGLY with a capital U! The original 1960's cabinets complete with white plastic handles and knobs. You can kind of get the idea behind the cute little boy. :)

After a couple years in our house, we finally decided to tackle the kitchen the best we could. We painted the cabinets black. We also added trim to all the doors and new knobs. Below, you can see what the cabinet doors used to look like. Pretty huh?

We also added new beadboard backsplash, new countertops, new sink. Then we removed some of the doors from the top cabinets to have some display space for collectibles. We painted the trim red and the walls a greenish tan color. The fan was replaced with a cute light fixture as well.

This is what our kitchen looked like a couple weeks ago.

Unfortunately the red was not the red I intended when we painted all the trim in our kitchen, dining and living rooms. It was more of rusty orange than a pretty deep red. In some light it looked really orange. But we did all that work, so I just lived with it.

There's that cute little boy that was in picture #1 all grown up and goofy. :)

So with a paint brush and some leftover paint from our hallway project, I started tackling the walls and trim in the kitchen. 4 coats it took for the lovely trim to cover all that red. Fun times. But it was well worth it!

Our kitchen is lighter and brighter!

On one wall I added board and batten to give it some interest. I used a 1x6 board for the top horizontal piece and 1x3's for the vertical pieces. I spaced them about 16 inches a part. The wood only cost me around $10.

I painted the beadboard the same color as the trim. That made a huge difference.

I painted the inside of the display shelves a greyish blue (leftover paint I had). I then added some dark walnut stain over it after it was dry to blend well with the already distressed cabinets.

The doorway is the landing to the steps leading to our basement.

Looking into our dining room.

I accessorized with items I already had or thrift finds that still needed a home. The candle and candlestick was made over by my mom.

The little shelf was a flea market find and I painted it cream. The other accessories were garage sale finds.

On my wish list is a new faucet.

The curtains are from our old house. I took them with us and finally have a spot for them. The plate above the sink was bought at TJ Maxx for less than $3 on sale. It's a pretty grey blue color.

Basket was 10 cents at a garage sale.

For the display above, I searched for all my white and cream dishes to make a more cohesive display.

Yellow plate was $2 at TJ Maxx.

My $3 mini pitcher found a new home.

I love vintage signs. I bought this reproduction Fig Newtons sign at a flea market. The little boy reminded me of my son at the time. Now I wish there was 2 little boys on it.

Another fun thrifty display. The picture frame I got at a garage sale for 50 cents and then I painted some flowers on a piece of muslin for a fun spring touch. The pitcher I got at a garage sale also for 25 cents. The box with lavender was made by my mom.

If you take a closer look at the landing in the doorway, you can see I added a special little touch to that area.

I found a fun stencil at Hobby Lobby for around $8 on sale and stenciled the walls just in that little area.

I used the same grey blue color I painted inside the display shelves. I also decided to paint the little section of ceiling as well.

A closer look.

I put my recovered burlap bulletin board inside this space. I just added a matching blue ribbon. Now I need some pics to fill it up.

I will be honest, the stenciling was a little time consuming but I'm sure glad I did it. It's something unexpected.

One more look at the before and after.

Before

After

After

Subtle changes that made a BIG difference.

Thanks so much for visiting today! I really appreciate it!!

I'm joining a few of these linky parties.

Have a great day!