Matt and Meredith's HUGE Kitchen Makeover

About a week and a half ago we traveled to southern Georgia to visit Jon's sister Meredith and her husband, Matt who is a pilot in the Air Force. They moved here about a year ago when Matt got stationed here and bought a beautiful home in a quiet little neighborhood full of lovely houses all loaded with southern charm. I had seen before photos and some during photos but I had not seen their finished kitchen so I was blown away when we walked into this stunning space:

To get a full appreciation for what they did you need to see the befores:

 

One more before:

Now I will take you on a little tour through the space. (At the end of the post I will include all of the resource information).

When you walk through their side door from their driveway you go through this little hall. It is painted the same color as the kitchen so it feels kind of like an extension of the kitchen. A beautiful old mirror hangs on the wall.

Once you enter the kitchen you see a beautiful display of trays/serving pieces hung on the wall. They painted all of the trim and painted over the dated wallpaper. They also replaced the flooring.

Then you turn and see the gorgeous island transformation. They replaced the old fluorescent lighting with this new light/pot rack fixture. They painted the island and added a new gorgeous marble countertop and then added some large butcher block type cutting boards to give a nice little prep space and help protect the counters.

Here is the kitchen from the other side:

The basket at the end of the island makes for a great space to store baking pans and cooling racks (Lola spent about half her time there emptying everything out of that basket, the other half of her time was spent chasing their dog winter around and giving him kisses).

They moved the microwave to the cabinet out of site above the oven and filled the open space with a little "coffee station". I think that was one of Jon's favorite parts.

They removed the upper cabinet doors over to the back right to allow for open display space.

 

I love the dried wreath above the sink:

 

 

 

And in case you forgot here's another before and after:

Time for all of the resources: 

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore's Chelsea Gray

Trim Color/Cabinet Color: Benjamin Moore's Simply White

Primer for the Wallpaper and all the Cherry Colored Trim: Kilz Latex Enamel Primer

Primer for all Wood Cabinetry: Zinsser Latex Primer

Pot Rack/Light Fixture: Lowe's

Kitchen Table and Chairs: Wal-Mart

Light Fixture over Kitchen Table: Original Fixture Spray Painted Oil Rubbed Bronze

New Knobs on Top Cabinets: from Hobby Lobby and then Spray Painted Oil Rubbed Bronze

 New Pulls: from Target and Spray Painted Oil Rubbed Bronze

Bird Prints: from a 2011 Calendar by Cavallini and Co. - matted and framed
Wreath - Williams-Sonoma Fresh Bay Leaf from Christmas that dried beautifully
Butcher Block Cutting Boards - IKEA (just $10!!!)
Basket with Pans: Target 
Teacups - Antiques  

Stools - Target

And here is a little more of the technical type info that I know readers always like to know. Meredith, with help from her mom, Martha, painted all of the cabinetry and walls themselves. Meredith also put the subway tile backsplash up herself (for about $30!). By doing all of that themselves they were able to keep the cost of this makeover extremely reasonable. They didn't need to do any sanding to the cabinets but they did prime all of the cabinets and woodwork. Because the wallpaper was on so tight they simply primed over it and then painted! (We did this in our last home and I have to say it is a HUGE time-saver if you have really old paper that is STUCK on there!) After now seeing her kitchen in person I can say that you would have absolutely no idea that there was wallpaper under the paint. The primer really does an amazing job!

They had someone come and install the marble countertops and the slate floor (which are 20 by 20 squares) and were very lucky that they were able to come within two days of Meredith calling them. The entire project took about 11 days from start to finish! Can you believe that?

Pretty impressive, wouldn't you say?

Also, we have restocked our Love Is... Pillow Cover Sets!

I hope you all have a fabulous Monday!