IT IS COMPLETE. Our kitchen reno has been a beast, but it is done. I am so relieved and pleased with the results. To give you a little background on our kitchen, it’s a galley-style, which honestly has never bothered me. At the end of the galley is our laundry room/pantry combo. There was a door on said pantry, however, it opened out — blocking the refrigerator. Opening and closing it to get into the pantry was a huge pain, so off the door came. This presented a new issue: the ability to 1) see all of our dirty laundry, literally; and 2) an inconsistent design (or lack thereof) between the two spaces.

Enter Mackenzie. I’ll stick with the overall kitchen details in this post and indulge you later with the laundry room details.

Countertops

Before I even met Chance, he bought this house and immediately replaced the old laminate countertops with BEAUTIFUL butcher block. This was an immediate improvement. He had always wanted to fix up the rest of the house/kitchen, but with one income and no overall vision, he held off. Then I barreled in and got ready to work!

Watch our viral reel about how to maintain butcher block countertops.

The kitchen cabinets were cute, but a little outdated and didn’t really match the style of the rest of the house. They were a two-toned color: turquoise on the top and gray on the bottom. They were also distressed and slightly farmhouse looking, which is not what the rest of the house looks like. Luckily this distressed style meant we didn’t have to sand before we painted. 

I would like to point out that I am not a professional… but this is what worked for us.

Cabinet Paint

We tried MANY paint samples before we found the perfect one. I actually found it while perusing Instagram, admiring a room that Suzy Knapp, a Nashville interior designer, had shared on her @hookandhearth instagram. I messaged her for the color and gave it a go. It was EXACTLY what we were looking for. The color is Benjamin Moore’s Newburg Green, which is a little misleading because it is very blue. I love how the color looks different in different light. We opted for the Regal Select Interior Paint in an eggshell finish because I hate shiny cabinets, and eggshell is perfect for spaces that will inevitably need to be cleaned. My one regret — and we will probably revisit soon — is not sealing the cabinets. We painted them nearly six months ago, and there are some places I can see nicks and dings. I plan to go back and seal them eventually. (Update in October 2021: Cabinets have been sealed!)

This paint is incredible for a few reasons: the first is that it dries SO FAST. Like we were able to do three coats on all of our cabinets and reassemble them in a day. I have used this paint on several other projects and it holds up. I love love love this paint. We were able to do the whole kitchen with one can: $40. See the whole process on my Instagram.

Update September 2021: Painted the upper portion of the walls white to brighten the space. See the final results here.

Cabinet Pulls and Hardware

We knew we wanted to add a little glam (for me) to the kitchen and I convinced Chance that gold accents would be just the thing without being too girly. We bought samples of several door pulls until we scored these amazing ones on Etsy. We did receive the incorrect color at first, but the seller HooksKnobsHardware was incredible and sent us out new ones immediately. These knobs are solid, beautiful, not too girly, and super easy to install. We needed 17 of them and ended up spending $95.20 after shipping and taxes.

We also changed out all of the cabinet hardware to a basic gold. We got these from Lowes. We just took our old hardware in and had them match it! We found this pack of two in bright gold and bought 18. Total cost: $54

Tile Backsplash

Next up — and by next up, I mean six months later, we decided it was time to FINALLY put in our tile backsplash. In all honesty, we were both dreading this project, mostly because we had never done anything like this before, and because we really wanted it to look good. We toyed with the idea of doing stick-on tile, but all the whites were very plastic shiny and looked cheap. I found someone on Facebook Marketplace who was selling extra white subway tile they had from a project they over-estimated for. I got 10 boxes of tile for $100. We ended up using 2 and sold the rest. After selling the remaining tile, our total cost for materials was $0. We ended up selling the other 8 for the same price we bought them and included all of the tools we used.

The tile we used was FestivalBright White Ice Subway Ceramic Wall Tile. We got the 3x6inch tile which comes in boxes of 80 pieces, covering 10 square feet. Because we bought from FB Marketplace, we didn’t do a whole lot of math. We bought the tile almost a year before we were ready to tile simply because it was a good deal we couldn’t pass up. 

The tile itself was a steal, but we still had to buy all the tools and equipment we needed to make it happen. For more tips on how to find deals on Facebook Marketplace, check out this post! We bought:

• Tile Adhesive — MAPEI Type 1 Ceramic Tile Mastic (1-Gallon): This was MORE than enough for our space. We had TONS left over, which we included when we resold the tile. I recommend buying it in the store. It is listed on Amazon for $30 more.

• Tile Cutter — Blue Hawk 14-in Snap Cutter: This tile cutter was just ok. Had I shopped around more, I may have bought a more expensive option for more precise cutting or just an overall easier process. Cutting tile is hard. But if you don’t have a lot of cuts to make, this $23 options does the trick.

• Tile Spacers — TAVY 100-Pack 1-in W x 1-in L 1/8-in Plastic Tile Spacer: We bought two packs of these spacers because with this tile size, it is recommended to do a ⅛-inch grout line. 

• Puddy Knife: We didn’t buy one because we had one already. Here’s a great one on Amazon.

• Notched Trowel: You’ll need one of these to spread the adhesive. We had this one already, but you can use this one with narrow teeth since the tiles were small. 

• Grout — MAPEI Ultracolor Plus FA 10-lb Charcoal All-in-One Grout: We used this grout because all it requires is adding water. We picked charcoal because we didn’t want white grout, but we didn’t want the color to be too cool, clashing with our warmer colored kitchen. $18 and we used ¼ of the grout.

• Grout Float — QLT by Marshalltown 9.5-in x 4-in Rubber Grout Float: This is how you apply the grout to the tile. It was $10.

• Sponges — Armaly ProPlus Polyurethane Sponge: We got two of these to be able to wipe the grout from the tiles. $3 each.
  

In total, all of our tools cost $79.

Finishing Touches

We didn’t want to add a ton of decor to our kitchen because a clean kitchen is a happy kitchen and this is the one place I didn’t want any clutter. I found this super boho rug on Facebook Marketplace for $30.

I thrifted a brightly colored vase for our cooking tools, bought this adorable oil bottle from World Market. We found a butter container on Amazon that matched our butcher block countertops too. We wanted a little extra storage or a place for plants, so Chance added this driftwood shelf above the sink. We mostly keep salt and pepper shakers, plants, and herbs that need to dry out here. We found the wood and just used iron L-brackets to secure the shelf. 

So let’s do some math:

• Cabinet Paint: $40

• Cabinet Pulls: $96

• Tile Backsplash (before resell): $100

• Tile Tools: $79

• Rug + Extras: $50
  

TOTAL COST: $365 (not including the $100 we got back from selling the tools and extra tile)!

That’s it! We did it! I am so excited to have this project done and to have these new skills under my belt. Happy DIY-ing!

Paint: Benjamin Moore’s Regal Select Newburg Green - Eggshell

Cabinet Pulls: HooksKnobsHardware’s Mother of Pearl Dresser Pulls

Backsplash Tile: FestivalBright White Ice Subway Ceramic Wall Tile (3x6inch tiles)