Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Ritzing up the kitchen

Hi Everyone,
It's Sandy here. I'm astouned I'm actually still here...LOL My husband and I recently bought a new house and every single free minute away from our ordinary jobs we've been working on the refurbishments. Hence; no crafty playing time for me :-( Friends & family can already now prepare for a Clinton/Hallmark Christmas card coming their way this year... ;-)

BUT nonetheless I have a project with LLC products used that I can share with you today. :-)

The previous houseowner built the kitchen cabinets himself, and I love the prominent wooden piece above the cooker. However; the kitchen had seen it's better days. It was looking a bit tired and dated:

So I decided to spruce it up and bring in some more light by painting the cabinets white.
For this I used the world famous Annie Sloan chalk paint.

Chalk paint is a water based paint, and the great thing about it is that you can get straight down to painting. No stripping, sanding, or priming is required! It adheres to almost any surface and it's very easy to use and you can achieve lots of  different looks i.e. smooth, distressed, textured, shabby surfaces. And since it is waterbased, if you're like me a messy painter and tend to spill here and there, no worries; since the paint is waterbased you can easily wipe it off with a wet rag. :-)
Once you're done painting your piece, it just needs to be vaxed and you're done!
The wax finish is what seals and protects your piece.


So this is what it looked like after painting and vaxing. Already a huge improvement, but it was a bit dull, so I started thinking about what I could do to make it more interesting and put even greater focus on this lovely gingerbread work. 

That's when I reached for the Americana Decor stencils:

I decided to use two different ones; The French Bakery and Café Paris.
I attached the stencils with masking tape:

 Here's a close up of the Paris stencil after I had gone over it with my stencil brush. (If there are any Annie Sloan fans out there reading this, the colour used on the cabinets is Old white and for the stencilling French linen):

The two pictures on top show how it came out after the stencils had been removed. I decided to shabby it up a bit more though by going over it with a sandblock to achieve the distressed look. It's important to remember to use a very fine grit (I used 240P) and not to rub it in both directions, only in one.

Voilà!!!

Now I just had to do something about those hideous tiles...

They also got the white treatment, but with a SPECIAL TILE PAINT. Please note: I would NOT recommend using chalk paint for tiles. Simply because they are prone to get dirty and come into a lot of wear when wiping them off regularly and I'm unsure how well the vax would protect them.

Thanks for stopping by today.
I hope I have inspired you to use chalk paint and/or stencils in a home decor project of your own.

Hugz, Sandy



17 comments:

  1. Wow Sandy what a fabulous transformation. ..looks gorgeous x

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    1. Thanks Jane; I'm very happy with it. So much brighter in the kitchen now. :-)

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  2. Hello Sandy. My name is Riëtte, I live in the Netherlands. I recently joined this blog.
    Pardon me my English if it is not correct. I absolutely love what you did in your kitchen! Amazing result. Good luck with the rest of the house.

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    1. Hello Riëtte,
      Thank you for following the LLC Blog and for taking the time to comment on my post. I love my new kitchen as well, now there are only 1000 more refurbishment projects to work on. LOL

      Oh and please don't worry about your English; it's perfect!
      /Sandy

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  3. A fab transformation Sandy, almost makes me wish my kitchen was needing revamped to do this !
    Julie x

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    1. Thanks Julie, I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Always wanted kind of a shabby French Country Kitchen. :-) Lucky you who already have a kitchen you're happy with!

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  4. Wow!!! Your hard work has paid off, and what a beautiful transformation.
    Well done you!
    Crafty hugs, Donna xx

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    1. Thanks Donna and sorry about the late reply. I've been busy busy busy...:-)

      Hugz, Sandy
      Owner & Operator @Live & Love Crafts

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  5. What a fab idea, the kitchen looks so much better after treatment, love the stencils you used, they are so lovely and fit so perfectly, well done, lots of hugs, Marion

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    1. Thanks Marion; I've been busy painting the walls, but now I'm almost ready with the kitchen. It's s much brighter than before, I love it! Have a good weekend!

      Sandy

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  6. Absolutely gorgeous job, Sandy! It looks totally great. And the stenciling is soooo beautiful! Good luck with the new home <3 It's so exciting time! :D
    Hugs, Minna
    PS. Have you been just very busy or have you stopped choosing Top5 in LLC challenge? I haven't seen your Top5 picks after May picks...

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    1. Hi Minna,
      Thanks so much; it's exciting indeed, but a lot of hard work, and everything takes so long, hence why I'm behind with Top picks and challenge commenting :-( I hope to get around to that sometime soon....

      Hugz, Sandy

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  7. Wow vilket jobb men snyggt blev det. Trevlig helg. Kram Anna-Karin

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    1. Tack; mycket jobb är bara förnamnet, men jag är supernöjd med resultatet, så då är det värt det. Trevlig helg på dig med (ja för nu är det ju helg igen :-) )

      Kram, Sandy

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