Amazing Kitchen Update

Oh man...am I excited about this one!

The kitchen transformation continues. Piece by piece. Step by step. The latest? The backsplash! SFX: trumpet fanfare.

Let me back up a little. Here it is before we started working on it.

And here it is after the cabinet and countertop updates. In case you missed it the first time around, the cabinet refinishing story is here and here

Today's reveal shows the magic of lovely paint and a backsplash.

My new kitchen color is Olympic's Gold Buff, which I love for the warm glow it gives to the space.

Source

For the backsplash I chose decorative thermoplastic panels by Fasade.  My panel design is Tradition 1 in Bermuda Bronze. For the most part I followed the directions they provided and it went up relatively smoothly. I choose to attach the panels with double-stick tape rather than glue, just in case I don't keep this up forever-and-ever-amen we won't have to replace the drywall underneath.

Here's a look at the process.

This is what we've been looking at for the past five months. Drywall backsplash. Bleh.

I used newspaper as a template for each 18" x 24" panel. This worked well since, as I've said before, the house is wonky. Even though the upper cabinets are level and the countertop is level, the space between is not the same distance. Weird, I know. So, folding to mark the bottom edge....

...as well as marking the outlets worked extremely well.

Attaching the template to the panel allowed me to cut each piece to fit. I started out using the craft knife, but turned out scissors worked better. The craft knife was good for starting the outlet openings.

In a couple places, the upper cabinets were hung unevenly. My paper template worked wonders to get a custom fit.

Okay - almost there! After eleven custom-fitted panels and an additional trip to the supply store, I was ready to caulk. The instructions didn't say to do this, but there was a slight gap between the countertop and the panels leaving a light colored strip visible.

Using colored caulk, I filled the gap. Besides, the extra seal sure won't hurt.

Next step, outlet covers. A matching sheet of sticky paper allowed me to cover the covers!

Lovely, don't you think? I even found some bronze screws in Brian's stash to replace the old white ones. For a minute there I thought I was going to have to break out the fingernail polish. :-)

Are you ready? Tada!

Hello there, Gorgeous!

I can't even tell you how happy this makes me! It was absolutely worth the effort!

We went from this....

...to this...

...to this.

The Graduation Open House countdown continues and I am reevaluating my to-do list.

Looks like painting the downstairs bathroom will have to wait.

The debate goes like this: we can have yummy snacks at the party or a freshly painted bathroom.

Hmmmm - yummy snacks. Painted bathroom.

Nevermind - I'll just clean the bathroom and put up the new shower curtain.

Yea! Yummy snacks win! 

Thanks so much for stopping by A House and Yard today.

I hope you enjoyed my kitchen update.