Before & Beautiful After Kitchen Makeover

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I love this kitchen makeover from Dayka at Life + Style. (thanks PK!) I love the black cabinets and the gorgeous counter tops. Here is her post:

This is the kitchen I inherited when I bought my home. I knew I wanted a fixer-upper, something to add my own flavor to, and as you can see, this house has definitely given me (and is still giving me) the opportunity to do so. My favorite part of this kitchen was the laminate countertops that had split, buckled, and swelled at the joint in the corner. OMG, it was so gross I thought I was going to be sick every time I looked at it. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of counterspace but I’ve been able to make do. My dream kitchen would be an open space with drawers for spices, an island, an attached great room/open floorplan, and probably a serving window that leads to the pergola in my beautiful backyard. As you see, that’s not what I’m working with.
I really loved the combination of that original 1984 wallpaper with that dark trim. I’m sure that lots of fun and exciting meals were held in this space before I moved in!!! **note the sarcasm.
I really wanted to change the layout of the space and open the wall between the kitchen and dining room, but I was worried about taking on too much (both, financially and as a novice DIY-er/designer). I decided to go with the basic upgrade–flooring, paint, hardware, lighting and countertops–and keep my costs to a minimum.
I had a skim coat applied to the seams of the wallpaper and then primer and paint. I also had that little “bridge” taken down that went over the window and connected the two cabinets. The trim was painted a high gloss white to match the rest of the house (all the trim & windows were originally a pink-ish peach. Gross.), and I removed the doors between the entry hall and the dining room for a better flow. Just those small changes alone made a HUGE impact.
Drumroll, please . . .

This was the way the eat-in looked when the basic makeover was completed. The chairs were purchased for $2.50 each at a thrift store and then I added a fresh coat of paint and recovered the bottoms. They fold up, too, which means I can store them to use as additional seating if/when I get new chairs. I ended up covering the chairs with a heavy, charcoal grey faux suede-ish material. It’s soft, worked well, and only cost me about $5 for 5 yards. Lately I’ve been thinking of recovering them with a patterned fabric, but haven’t found anything yet. That crooked light came from Ikea (the glass was actually uneven), and the one in the kitchen did as well. I’ve since changed the light in the eat-in, but am still searching for the right fixture for the kitchen. I did eventually paint over the discoloration left by the old fixture.

This . . .
has evolved into this . . .
Dayka – it’s gorgeous. The kitchen looks so much bigger and more spacious now that it’s bright. I love your black cabinets and the counter tops. EVERYTHING looks amazing and know that it was a DIY, it has to be so rewarding every time you walk in. Great job! Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful transformation!

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Do YOU have a DIY makeover in your archives?
Shoot me an email. I’d love to see and feature it!

Have a great weekend!

Giveaway event coming soon! So many generous vendors getting in on the celebration!
More details coming at the end of next week!

Coming soon – in order to fix the feed, the DIY Show Off will soon have a new look. Unsuccessful attempts have pushed me to switch to my own domain. Thanks for your patience and sticking with it while I work out the bugs. 🙂
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