Working on a Bead Board Kitchen Island Update

Last we left off with out wonderful kitchen island it looked pretty sad and pathetic against our newly painted kitchen. You can see HERE how we spoke of refinishing our dear island and our color choices and why.

Since this week was spring break and we thanked the dear Lord for letting us finally make it to another one, we worked our tails off. First off, we worked on the yard, more on that later, and then we began more work in the laundry room, also more on that one later. We cleaned out part of the garage, still in progress, and we began work on a second garden bed, and painting the island. First up, the color I chose, which was the darkest on my paint chip was too light. The top color is comet dust which is our kitchen cabinets, the walls are notre dame which is the second color and so we chose the third, granite dust. Once opened, I realized it was way too light. So... I did what every cheap DIYer would do, I tinted it myself!

I had a quart of some shade of black in my garage and decided to mix it in with the granite dust so this color is a deep gray with a hint of blue and I have nothing to color compare it too! Sorry.

I also did something that I should have never done: I tried to prepare the cabinets using steel wool and my sheer good looks. Well, that didn't work too well and even though the front of the cabinets were painted and beautiful, they peeled off like a college co-ed at spring break!

Here you can see where I actually cleaned out the bottom. It didn't get wiped out until much later but most of our junk is gone! Know where it went? On top of the island! HA HA HA. It is all gone now too thank goodness!

 I took the doors outside the first time but the wind was blowing so hard we got pieces of leaves and yard stuff on them so I am kind of glad they peeled so I could do them nicely. I then deglossed them using the left over deglosser from our kitchen make over last summer. I scrubbed and scrubbed and then used 150 grit sandpaper from the garage to rough it up a little just in case the deglosser didn't work as well as I wanted. I was grumpy doing it all a second time but I would NOT do it a third time.
After two nights of repainting and letting the front dry, I rehung the doors and drawers and put on some pretty hardware. This was hardware that I had when we decided to redo the kitchen. I purchased 9 but needed 13 so I have these beautiful knobs to use on different projects until I find what I am looking for to use on our actual kitchen cabinets.

My brother had dropped off a bunch of bead board when he moved because I guess my garage looked like a storage facility but I don't mind because I had all the pieces I needed except 1 small pieces so my purchases for the island were one $9.37 pieces of bead board and two $8.00 pieces of trim. I already had all the paint, knobs and other bead board pieces so this whole project so far is under $30.00.

Oh, and our hideous counter top? That stays until I can figure out how to get a huge IKEA butcher block counter top home or we drive there and have it delivered. The island actually featured a place for bar stools but it was a separate piece of counter top screwed into the island and didn't look really nice.
You can see the counter I ripped off on the floor behind the island in the picture above. Oh and don't worry about the bottom of the island, that is where the trim goes. The piece below is not attached, I just leaned it against the island for effect. He He.

I plan on replacing the entire piece with one counter so it has a seamless look. I am in love with this island at Thrifty Decor Chick so I may end up with a routed edge to ours as well.

Source: thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com via Melissa on Pinterest

I am still in the middle of finishing up the trim parts but the entire island is covered in bead board. I am not sure I love the gray but I did find this gem on Pinterest where it is a very dark island with a gray/white kitchen so it may end up repainted again?

Source: Uploaded by user via Melissa on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Melissa on Pinterest

I totally loved this yellow island but hubby shot me down! Boo! This would have totally rocked out against our gray kitchen. I still may turn our barstools this color so we get a touch of this greatness.

For right now this is how our island looks. I hope to finish the trim/moldings tomorrow and then the top will come sometime next month. At least I know it is better than before.

No the molding on the back is not nailed in place, I sat it there to ensure I had made the correct cut and don't you know it is about 1/2 inch too short but nothing a sliver cut off of another piece and some great paintable wood filler can't cure.

Http://www.iheartnaptime.com

Reconstructing a Raised Garden Bed

Okay so I painted the garden bed and was all excited to get planting our new higher garden bed. We had previously told you HERE all about how we had built our raised garden bed and had filled it with the remainder of our dirt mixture from last year's beds.

Since then, we purchased 10 bags of hummus/manure to mix in with 1 more large bag of Peat and 1 bag of Vermiculite. We got the vermiculite and peat into the box and were able to get 7 bags of hummus into the bed before I realized/thought about it and decided that the double 12 inch boxes (24 inches total height) was just too high. So.... we worked on it a little.

After unscrewing the 4 large boards I grabbed a saw and took the studs by the horns and cut them in half.

Then we screwed the pieces back together to create a 2nd garden bed. That bed isn't filled or ready yet but now I have two, one on either side of the deck and it didn't cost me any more money. Of course, I will need to purchase more manure/hummus, vermiculite and peat for the 2nd bed but whose really counting? Not me right now.

 

More on the rain barrel soon. For now, we are weeding, killing some grass along the fence line and around the deck/rain barrel and then filling and getting our second garden bed ready. We can't wait to have a lush, beautiful garden!

In case you are wondering, we currently have 2 Big Boy tomato plants, 1 Steak Tomato plant, 24 Georgia Sweet Onions, 2 Romaine Lettuce plants, and 9 Bib Lettuce plants. We will be getting other things to plant this week. We also have two strawberry plants in a pot as well as Raspberry bushes we need to move from the front of the house to transplant somewhere in the back. They kind of took over where we had them last year.