While I was going through my kitchen remodel last summer, I was lucky enough to have friends going through similar experiences with me.  One was gutting her kitchen, the other was doing a total laundry room makeover.  It’s always nice to have friends to commiserate with during a project that creates so much upheaval.  My friend Kelly and I go way back – her kitchen was one of the first “customer kitchens” that I did when I first started painting cabinets.  She’s a photographer – Kelly Ann Photos –  and has photographed our family, my boys’ senior photos, and also helped me shoot photos for our kitchen remodel reveal.  She was embarking on a complete builder grade kitchen renovation.  Gutting it to nothing, and starting over. Her kitchen has come a long way, baby.  I think for the full context, we need to go back to the very beginning so you can fully appreciate this transformation.   This post contains some affiliate links. Before the Before I know many of you out there are living with oak cabinets that you’re looking to update, and that’s exactly what Kelly started with, years ago.  Builder grade oak, that we jazzed up and made […]

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I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to share my kitchen remodel reveal with all of you!  This is the first major renovation we have ever done, and it was really stressful picking out all of these finishes, hoping everything comes together like I envisioned it in my head. Now that it’s done, I’m absolutely thrilled with the result, and thankful that everything came together as I planned it.  (Although we’re still waiting on the backsplash).  This kitchen has not only transformed the look of our home, but also how we live in our home.  It’s as though it always should have been this way.  We were so lucky to have such a great general contractor, and our cabinet maker brought our plans to life. I will be sharing more kitchen posts with more details in the different selections that we’ve made, but I really want to get these before and after photos published, because this has been such a long time coming!  Can you even believe that we started planning this remodel in October 2020?   A huge thank you goes out to my friend Kelly, from Kelly Ann Photography, who came and helped me shoot […]

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It’s been awhile since I’ve shared a customer kitchen – I’ve been super busy and have a lot of work ahead on my books, so hopefully I’ll have some more fun before and afters to share with you.  This kitchen is a fun one because of the use of color – painting the cabinets in Sherwin Williams’ Snowbound and Waterloo (a new color for me).  As I’ve said before, white kitchens can become sterile very easily if you’re not careful, so the incorporated of color and the refinished floors in this space, do a whole lot to keep it from feeling boring. Before There is a whole lot of work going into this kitchen, and still more to come, even now that I’m done.  But, it’s still an amazing new look, even where it is now.  Let’s take a look back at what it looked like when I first saw it. I know there are lots of people out there dealing with the “orange kitchen situation”.  The floors and cabinets have gone orange with time, and you’re over it!  I get it.  You change the floors, and then the cabinets look even more orange.  Or vice versa.  The struggle is […]

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This is a large client kitchen with a twist – two toned cabinets.  The homeowner has amazing taste, and has made changes to their home over the five years that they’ve lived there.  The cabinets are another step in the process to the finished product.  They already replaced the countertops and floors, and a new backsplash and cabinet hardware are in the works as well.  I came in and painted the cabinets.  The upper cabinets in Repose Gray and the lower cabinets in Gauntlet Gray (Sherwin Williams colors). Before As you can see, the kitchen is beautiful already, but they aren’t in keeping with her style, and they showed every speck of dust. She has slowly been making over their home, putting her own stamp on it.  As you can see through the kitchen in the photo below, there is a stunning built-in that they added, which is the same darker gray color that we used on the cabinets. The countertops and the flooring were also replaced.  The countertops are a gorgeous white and gray quartz. They also have this lovely “drop zone” with glass cabinetry for display, and loads of addition storage.  Let me just say, I want one […]

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It’s springtime, which means spring cleaning is probably on your mind, like it is mine.  We’re getting ready for another graduation party, which always means getting the house into party-shape.  After all, nothing sends me into a home improvement tailspin like a party!  That said, after a long winter, your floors definitely take a beating, whether you have carpet, tile, vinyl or hardwoods.  That’s where the Oreck Orbiter comes to the rescue.  This post contains some affiliate links. This is not a sponsored post.  I just really love this product. Oreck Orbiter – A Great Tile Cleaner I bought the Oreck Orbiter specifically for my tile floors and cleaning the grout, but it has proven to be an amazing multi-surface floor cleaner as well, which has been an added bonus.  We have travertine tile in our home, and while it’s pretty, it is very porous, and very prone to dirt and grime getting into all of the nooks and crannies over time.  It’s not something you can clean well with your normal cleaning tools, and from the research I did on the Oreck Orbiter, I figured it was going to be a lot cheaper than paying someone to come out and […]

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Hello! I get a lot of emails from readers who are transforming spaces in their homes, and I always ask to see before and after photos because 1) I’m a stalker like that and 2) who doesn’t love a great before and after that you did yourself?  I think those are the most rewarding before and after photos, don’t you?  When there is blood, sweat and tears involved, and you’re emotionally (and financially) invested in the process, the end result is even sweeter.  Which is why I’m so excited to share this gorgeous reader kitchen redo I received from Jessica – such a great transformation that they pulled off themselves! Let’s get right to it!  They started off with your typical builder-grade kitchen when they bought their house.  Kitchens like this are what keeps me busy, quite honestly. Lots and lots of orangey oak, and beige.  Just on the boring side, right?  If you’re a kitchen junkie like I am, you want something that isn’t like your next door neighbor’s house.  And that’s just what they were able to do. Let’s start with an original listing photo: Then there is this photo, where they homeowners made a change to countertops before […]

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Hello! This week is getting away from me already, and I don’t like it! We had homecoming and my daughter’s 11th birthday over the weekend, and a college visit that consumed my entire day on Monday, so I feel like my week is just starting today. I’ll get it together, bear with me.  I have two updated oak kitchens that I’ve finished and thought I’d share, especially since one of them falls outside of the traditional white kitchens that I do, which is always a lot of fun. First off, here is the one that I wrapped up last week that is extra fun, since they also replaced the floors (and will be adding new granite and a backsplash).  Below are some of the before photos – before the new hardwood floors, before painting, before everything.  Lots of orangey oak going on in here. Then the homeowners added new hardwood floors before I started painting: The floors are gorgeous, but like in this maple kitchen makeover, they really make the cabinets look orangey.  But never fear, the power of paint is here!   You can see that they trimmed out the island too, which really gave it a custom look.   The new […]

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Hello! Nothing like kicking off the new year by sharing a kitchen makeover, right?  This is the kitchen that I tackled in December, before Christmas.  Crazy?  Perhaps.  But the kitchen looks great!  This is another two-toned kitchen, and I’m loving the color combination on this one – Alabaster and a personal favorite, Urbane Bronze (Sherwin Williams). A peek before the full reveal – with some beautiful hardware from D. Lawless Hardware. This kitchen had good bones, and the homeowners had already installed new flooring.  Would you believe this is vinyl?  Plank vinyl.  Looks fantastic. And here it is now (the microwave is going to be reinstalled – I didn’t steal it, I swear). They’re also having granite installed and a new backsplash (and promised me more photos when that’s complete). Forgive the blown out photos here – the lighting just wouldn’t cooperate when I was taking my “after” photos.   The island will be getting a new granite top as well. These homeowners are lucky in that the wife’s father is handy.  He helped install new baseboards and trim out the island.  Doesn’t it look great? See how they trimmed out the bottom too?  It looks so nice and finished – like […]

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Hello friends! I hope you had a great Father’s Day weekend and are ready to kick off a new week.  Much of our weekend was a wash out, but Sunday turned out to be a beauty. I have been working on a steady stream of client projects, and this is one I completed a couple of months ago, but haven’t shared yet.  I hope you all still find these projects interesting – I love doing them and seeing how they are transformed.  This was a fun one, because I went to school with one of the homeowners, Nikki, so it was great to see her and work with her on this project.   This is one piece of the overall kitchen makeover puzzle – the stove will be replaced, and they are also choosing granite for the space, so it will be fun to see it all come together when it’s completed. Let’s take a look at the kitchen before.  The cabinets were in great shape, just needed a little bit of a lift. And here they are now: Cabinet hardware is courtesy of D. Lawless Hardware.  It’s so pretty!  The roped edge on the knobs and the pulls really […]

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