Kitchen Renovation!
But now, we are a go. I am going to wallpaper the kitchen and peeling off the old stuff is going along pretty well. Does anyone have experience with counter-top laminate? I have two surfaces, one is a green, the other a yellow (I know, ick, right?) Also, any pointers on linoleum flooring? |
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| I'm sorry I don't have any advice (our kitchen has been waiting to be decorated for 2 years, plus the 30 years before we moved in!!) but I wanted to say GOOD LUCK and I'm sure it will be lovely when you are done!! |
| How much are you ripping out?
If the cabinets are decent, I would just repaint or restain and switch out the hardware. Then spend more on the countertops and floors. |
| I was thinking of just placing matching laminate on the countertops, but I've never done that before. I'm trying to think of what color to paint the cabinets. I have a tuscan coffee shop wallpaper. |
Pictures - we need pictures!!! 
Of the old counters, cupboards, floors, of the wallpaper you are going to use, all that good stuff! |
| I can post pictures, but the current state of the kitchen is rrrrreeeeaaaalllyyyyyyy outdated. |
| Yes do post pictures!! Besides, the more outdated the kitchen is the more amazing the updates look! |
| A friend remodeled her kitchen last summer. She had her cabinets refinished to the original stain (think 1980s oak) and used a laminate with a dark brown/black granite pattern. It is very pretty with her beige walls. |
crustybirds wrote: Yes do post pictures!! Besides, the more outdated the kitchen is the more amazing the updates look!
Yep that's right! And if it already looked good, you wouldn't need to be changing it, right?
For example - my old house had the most hideous kitchen. It had red indoor/outdoor carpeting, blonde wood paneling sections about 5 feet up the walls, and aqua (glossy) paint above that AND on the ceiling!!! 
I understand BAD........  |
| For those interested on looking at my project, I took some photos.
This is the southwest corner of the kitchen 
And this is the southeast corner of the kitchen 
This is the eastern wall 
The western wall 
Here is what it looks like with some of the paper off 
Here is - a-hem - my floor model 
Our kitty model Hyphen, is showing off the new paper with border 
And another close up of the border  |
| Nice paper! You can have lots of fun with those colors!
Keep the pictures coming  |
| Good pictures!
I have the same OES calendar too 
I think if you painted all the cabinets a light shade, they would look pretty similar. Updating the hardware would make them look nice. There are tons of laminates out there for countertops, especially in the colors you have in the wallpaper. What were you thinking for the flooring? If you went with more linoleum, I like the natural wood stuff - it looks just like a hardwood floor. We have some at the hospital in patient rooms, and it looks great and cleans like a dream. It must be a very tough brand, because it really has held up well. I like it as it is seamless and practical as well. I don't care for tile and grout in a high traffic kitchen. I know lots have it, but it never seems to get clean. |
Our kitchen floor is vinyl but looks like tile and grout-- the best of both worlds. No chipping or worries of cleaning grout-- which is exactly why I didn't want it in a place where I drop things constantly and dogs are blasting in and out of the back door! Plus, I picked a much more dirt friendly color. You can never tell when it's dirty (which is always). Here's ours (also with floor model ):
The vinyl floor choices that are available now are amazing. They're definitely not the scary, cheap-looking linoleum of yesteryear. I also have the wood-looking vinyl in my grooming room and I love it there sine it's waterproof and really does look good. |
| I need some input on the flooring and cabinets. The house that I have is pretty small. I'm shying away from darker colors, since it's already dark and it seems so much smaller.
Do you think that wood linoleam would make it look smaller? I guess I just keep thinking that it would only come in a really dark shade. Though, something that wouldn't show so many muddy dog prints would be fantastic! |
| I was thinking the lighter cabinets would let you have a darker floor. Darker than you have now, anyway.
There are lots of lighter colors in the wood and tile vinyls. I would take the wallpaper in to a store and check it out. Pick the countertops too. Then you can pick a color for the cabinets. Paint is the easy thing to match. |
| Darcy is the expert.
The three biggest focal points in a kitchen are the cabinets, floors and walls. You've chosen the paper (I love it) and have a great starting point for your color scheme. The bathroom and kitchen are the hardest rooms to paper, so you are a brave woman. You have a lot of light from the patio doors, which helps with your options. The cabinets look both dark and light in the pictures. Which is correct? Can you take a picture of the paper next to the cabinets? What do you want to do with the cabinets? Paint, refinish, clean? That would be my next focus. Then the floors. |
| It looked to me like the cabinets weren't matching. Two different woods and hardware. That's why painting and fresh hardware would help. I think they would look fine that way. Perfectly matchy/matchy is out anyway!!
I love the big patio door. I wish I had that in mine. And yes, Where's that Darcy??? She's the kitchen designer in real life...... |
| You're right, the cabinets are different colors. Josh's mom had the cabinets replaced where the sink is, but never did anything with it... never stained or painted it.
I'm thinking that I will just paint the cabinets. I was going to replace the hardware on the yellow countertop and actually put on hardware on the green countertop. I've never wallpapered before, but I have friends willing to help me out. (Of course, no one wants to help with tearing down the old stuff, including the flooring). Any good tips for me on this project? |
| Scoring the wallpaper and spraying it with a mixture of liquid fabric softener and water works. Smells nice too. It scrapes off easier that way.
I don't know the mixture (it's common though - you can google it) and it worked well for my daughter and SIL - they did several rooms. |
| I've never heard of that before... how cool! So far, getting off the old paper is very, very easy. It's so old that it's peeling off without any effort. I just have a slight, sandy kind of glue residue. I have to take off all the wood corner bits that are all over. I'm wondering if I really want to tack those back up when I'm done. I think it was put there to give the corners a finished look. |
| I have some of those wooden corners too. They are corner protectors. They are the older version - now they make them out of a clear plastic - really not as nice looking.
With the old fashioned paper you are using, they may look nice. Maybe take them off safely now, and see what you think when you are done? |
| I think I'll try that. Pooh Bear did a number on one of the corner pieces. She decided to sharpen her claws on it and it's now little more than ribbons. So maybe I can place the plastic one on that one, or something else.
Are there any special tools I should get for the laminant? |
| If you are going to paint the cabinets, then you should do it before wallpapering. Getting paint on new wallpaper would be a disaster as it won't clean well.
When you are through removing the paper, clean the walls off with DIF - available from paint and paper stores. Dilute it, per directions, with hot water. The heat makes it work better, so make small batches so it stays hot. After all of the residue is removed, wipe the walls down with warm water. Let the walls dry for 1-2 days. Then put on a coat of wallpaper paste or wall prep. Let dry for 1-2 days. People get in a hurry and try to omit this step. They pay for it when they try to remove the wallpaper the next time. Be sure you have an extra roll of paper - it helps when you mess up a sheet. The builder's supply stores in our areas offer paperhanging classes, as do the wallpaper stores. It is to your advantage to take a class - or two. If your frineds aren't good at wallpapering, you may want to get a bid on just hanging the paper. They charge by the roll, but they may save you money i the longrun if you end up ruining very many sheets. Wallpaper hangers love coming into a room that they don't have to strip or prep. Just be sure to look at some of their work before you decide on who to use. When I look at showhomes, I can always find their mistakes. We added on to our house almost 15 years ago. The plan was for us to hang the paper in the son's bathroom, but we ended up paying to have someone do it so we could be done with the whole thing. Huge mistake in looking at their previos work. Everytime I walked in there, I immediately saw their mistake. It drove me crazy for years. I have repapered the room. |
| My thumbs and fingers feel so bruised. I spent 6:30 - 10pm yesterday peeling off the old paper. The good news is that I managed to get about 3/4 of all the paper off! I still have to take off all the trim and attack the glue, but I think I can get most of this finished today.
I also found a swanky linoleam sample. We chose to go with the forums suggestion of a wooden floor look. I think it will really compliment the wallpaper. I also looked at laminant for the countertops and am still indecisive on the choices that I saw. I'll take more pictures when I get home. I was just too tired and sick of wall paper yesterday night to want to update the photos. |
| If you don't want to replace the counter tops but don't like them as is you can use melamine paint on them. I never would have thought of that, thought it would look like crap but my mother painted her countertops white and they look great. I never would have guessed they are painted. |
Willowsprite wrote: If you don't want to replace the counter tops but don't like them as is you can use melamine paint on them. I never would have thought of that, thought it would look like crap but my mother painted her countertops white and they look great. I never would have guessed they are painted.
Really? I don't think I've heard of that product before. I've heard of people using something to paint countertops with, but never knew what it was called. I've seen people make faux marble using rollers, sponges, and feathers. |
| Look at Granite Transformations too. I'm not sure what it costs, but it looks great. It's been on HGTV and Extreme Home Makeover. I've heard good things about it.
Won't hurt to look. |
| My friend and I went to Menards today to test the waters for the cabinets. She has such a good eye for things. She helped me pick out hardware and come up with a swanky idea for the cabinets. I'm going to use a deep cranberry for the cabinets to reflect the cranberry in the border. Since the walls are going to be so light, she said if I use a light color it will just fade away. We found this paint product that you can use for laminate countertops. It can be tinted to several different shades and you just paint it on. They offer a pewter color and I think it will look pretty slick. I'm still washing walls right now and most of the paper is off.
I'll update photos soon! |
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