Saturday, April 22, 2017

Another Kitchen - Refreshed and Visually Calmed!!!

Another amazing kitchen....DONE!
My client's, Debra and Ken,
are putting their house on the market.
We've been talking for years about painting their kitchen.
Why is it that we always wait 'til we go to sell our house
before we do all the things we've always wanted???
Here is the existing kitchen. 
(That's cute little Debra.)
There is a lot of faux painting here...
The kitchen walls are painted in a purple and white stripe...
Looks like wallpaper but it's painted...
And in the area going into the kitchen, 
(Here's the reverse angle,)
the walls are painted in a faux stone pattern.
The clients want to leave these walls,
but everything else gets painted...
To the left is a wet bar area..
Then a floor to ceiling mirror,
turn the corner and you come into the kitchen.
There's a tall pantry..
and here's the rest of the kitchen.
(Excuse the mess!)
You can see how busy this kitchen is,
 and I don't mean the food prep!
The cabinets are honey oak, 
with shiny white plastic inserts
that have a grid pattern.
Coupled with the striped walls, 
oh my goodness....it's chaotic.
Directly across the room,
is this home office area.
Here all the cabinetry is oak.
As is the kitchen island. 
All the cabinets have these dated plastic white pulls.
I originally planned to paint the cabinets two toned:
White uppers and dark gray bottoms.
But because of this wall 
(there's no break in the cabinetry with the oven), 
I opted to go with all white kitchen cabinetry, 
and dark grey cabinetry for the office,
island and wet bar areas.
Before I came last week,
the homeowners had new appliances installed.
Then cabinet doors were labeled and removed,
insides of cabinets were papered.
Since we're using different sized pulls,
all the old ones were removed and the holes filled and sanded.
Yep, while the homeowners were vacationing in
 sunny South Beach last week,
I was here cranking out a new kitchen!!
Thank goodness the weather was nice so I could paint 
the doors outside.
Because of the woodgrain, 
I used a shellac primer on the wood to eliminate any bleed.
I sanded down all the doors - the wood and the plastic
before priming.
Inside, all the cabinetry was sanded and primed. 
Squirrel break!
(Thanks, I needed that!)
And late Friday night, 
I finished!
Here's the wet bar...
See how the dark base cabinets now tie in with
the black countertop?
I left the upper insides unpainted,
and I love how they glow, 
framed in the deep grey.
So elegant.
Turn the corner....
And this kitchen is now so serene and calm...
All those stripes are gone!
The white cabinetry brightens up the room.
It looks fresh and modern with the new stainless appliances.
And the island is stunningly beautiful in the deep tone
with the new brushed nickel pulls...
The existing granite top looks so much better now.

Over in the office area,
that looked like this....

Now looks like this!!!!
Sophisticated...clean....
Again, I opted to keep the inside shelf area
in the natural wood.
It breaks up the dark just a bit 
and allows everything to breathe.
This is now one amazing kitchen.
Open house is tomorrow!!!!
Yee haw!!!

Have a kitchen that needs sprucing up?
I can do it!

ShEshE, the home magician
Sheila Fox
sheilafox@aol.com
804-402-4370













Monday, April 3, 2017

Even A Laundry Room Needs A Little Love


My client thought his laundry room was functioning just fine.
 Hmmm, really?  
 He has this big plastic shelving unit to the left of the washer dryer, 
so that everything is squished together.
Plus it's ugly! 
Who wants to see all this stuff?
 And there's MORE stuff here...
in plastic containers.......
We need some better storage options.
 
Which is what I was thinking when I bought this piece last week.
Remember my post about painting it?
Well, check it out now!
Great ATTRACTIVE storage!
To hide all the clutter, 
I added panels of fabric
that I simply trimmed and stapled inside.
All the laundry supplies, etc, are nicely
organized and accessible.
On the wall beside it, 
I added these hooks that hold the ironing board
and brooms.

Looking so much better.
But still, there's no real worktop space.
So I moved this rolling cart from the kitchen,
which is a stone's throw away...
Now he has a place to fold clothes.
And he can still use the bottom shelves for the 
kitchen items he seldom uses.
So organized and clutter free now!
On the wall behind the back door,
I added a narrow bookcase that
houses all those supplies 
that were in plastic bins.
And even though it's open,
you aren't looking straight at all that stuff
when you walk in the room.
I love how the colorful cabinet and ironing board cover
cheer up this room now.

Mission accomplished.
I love my work!

SheShe, The Home Magician
Sheila Fox
sheilafox@aol.com
804-402-4370