Nesting Kitchen

Indulge:

Nesting instinct: refers to an instinct or urge in pregnant animals to prepare a home for the upcoming newborn/s, found in a variety of animals, both mammals and birds including humans. - Wikipedia

Ladies (and gentlemen if you are reading), this is no joke! Women, by physiological make-up, go through a nesting period before the birth of a new child. Most women will experience this phenomenon with every pregnancy, needing to have their "nest" in just the right order for the newest little addition to the family. Even most birds build a new nest each time they lay new eggs, not using the same nest for subsequent egg incubation periods (courtesy of Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day). Some women exhibit a very mild nesting instinct, and then there are some who have a very powerful instinct. They can vary from woman to woman and pregnancy to pregnancy. And, then on rare occasions there are women with such compulsory instincts that they become completely incapable of making rational decisions. I WAS THAT WOMAN!!  

Note to husbands: in many cases there does, in fact, come a point where you must be the voice of reason i.e. SAY NO TO HER!!)

Heavily pregnant with Shy, 38 weeks to be exact. I came up with the genius idea to completely remodel our kitchen. In theory, it was to be a weekend project. I got this grand idea from a sorority sister @ Creating Balance. Marcus and I had collectively decided, after trying to sell our home on two different occasions, some deliberation and compromising , that God indeed wanted us to stay put. In the agreement, I was allowed to make the house "ours" with all (or some) of the subtle details of my desiring. So if you are going to go, GO BIG right? Remodel an entire room of your house, right? Let me pause and give a little insight to this room. It currently serves as kitchen, dining room, laundry room and classroom. I am in this room a considerable amount of time during each day. I wanted to make it at least pleasing to the eye. Okay, pleasing to my eye. So I did some research, searching where else? Pinterest of course! I am in love with the vintage farmhouse style. I could live on a farm in a rustic home for the rest of my days and be totally content, and would not even need pigs! I presented my ideas to my husband, which included painting and glazing all cabinetry, painting walls, painting a new chalkboard for school, constructing a plate rail (although not for plates, but for school) and recovering the chair cushions...and he agreed. Yes, people, he agreed with his hormonal, irrational, illogical pregnant wife. Thus started a nine month project. NINE MONTHS!

Here is what we started with:

Bland brown walls, which covered 80% of the house when we bought it.

Ordinary wood cabnitry.

Then we removed all of the cabinet doors and prepared to paint them ALL! This is a nightmare for a Type-A person. I am currently having flashbacks simply posting this. Much to my horror, my kitchen stayed without cabinet doors for months!

We degreased all cabinet surfaces, sanded them thoroughly then applied the paint. Crescent Moon was our color choice as it was the closest match to our current trim and molding color.

We painted the cabinets with oil-based paint, as advised by a friend. Not saying it was the wrong choice, but it extended the drying time by 300%. It took a long time to be finished with the cabinet painting. Weekend project down the toilet!

We painted the walls, TWICE! Funny how the color swatches look different after being applied to a large section of wall. The first color, Siesta Rose was pink, very pink. We went a shade deeper with Wet Coral.

We made chalkboard paint by mixing unsanded grout in with ordinary black wall paint. Three coats, sanding in between and now we have a chalkboard for our home school classroom.

Adalynn Shiloh West was born in the midst of this transformation, temporarily halting the project!

Back to work (when we could find spare time).

We then applied glaze to each cabinet door, letting it sit for ten minutes and then wiping it off until we achieved the effect that we liked.

 

The results!

New chair cushions!

Kitchen Completion

I totally love my new kitchen! I would do it again in a heart beat, although either WAY before giving birth or way after giving birth! I made myself post this "completed" project, although in my type-A mind it is not fully complete. We plan to paint and distress the buffet where all of the home school materials are housed, at some point. At the moment it is not a priority. 

We are already on to our next DIY renovation project!