Kitchen Project is Done!!!

Our kitchen project is done (well, mostly, but I won't even mention the small details that need finished.....you'll probably see for yourself)!

We did most of the work ourselves on a budget and I'm really excited at how it all turned out!

So...what did we do?

1. Stained the cabinets (me)

2. New countertops (we had those professionally installed)

3. New sink (included with countertop installation)

4. New faucet (purchased from Home Depot, installed with countertops)

5. Removal of coffin light above island (by Jim and his Dad)

6. Backsplash (tiles from Floor & Decor; installed by Jim and his Dad)

7. New light above kitchen table (Lowe's, installed by Jim)

8. New pulls for the cabinets & drawers (homedepot.com)

The longest part of this project was staining the cabinets.  I used the Java Gel Stain, same as what I've used in our laundry room and powder room.  It's very easy to do, but very labor-intensive.  It took me 4-ever (almost 2 months)!!!!  I used our dining room to do it, and if I had to do it all over, I would set everything up in the garage so that I could do all the cabinets at once.  But I have a 3 year-old who needs a lot of supervision, so I needed to be in the house instead.  Due to the size of our dining room, I only had about 5 or 6 doors or drawers going at once.  YouTube has great videos on how to use this product, as well as Pinterest and various blogs.  I know it saved us a lot of money to do it ourselves, so it was worth it in the end!!!!

Here are some of my tips from the gel stain project:

1. Have a lot of latex gloves handy!

2. Use an old sock to apply the stain.

3. To get a very dark, almost black color like mine, apply 4 coats

4. Do not apply another coat until the previous coat is completely dry, with NO tackiness

5. Use a wipe-on poly (3 coats) when you're finished staining.  I used this one.

6. Keep track of how many coats you've applied to each cabinet.  For the insides of the cabinets and the drawers, I stuck a label on the hardware and marked them with a Sharpie.  For the outsides of the doors, I used post-it notes on the table next to the drying door.  

I'm so glad it's (almost) finished!  I really love it!!  And I didn't even know that the man I married was so handy;)