refinishing the bar stools

In our new prettified kitchen, our barstools looked pretty sad. (Ok, they looked a little sad before the kitchen got prettied up, but at least they kind of matched.) I've never refinished furniture before, but I wasn't in the mood to shell out money for new stools, plus a bunch of you convinced me I ought to paint them a punchy aqua or turquoise to add some pizzazz to the black and white kitchen. Here's the barstool evolution:

As I mentioned, I've never refinished any furniture, so I kind of muddled my way through, but it worked!

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kitchen transformation part 3 & review of IKEA's tundra flooring

Well, the kitchen is done! Except for a a bit of finish work (filling nail noles in the trim) and some new decor, we're finished! As a recap, we: refinished the kitchen cabinets using Rustoleum's cabinet transformations kit, got new countertop, had a white subway tile backsplash installed, traded old white appliances for new black ones, and ripped out our old flooring and installed new laminate flooring from IKEA. We also purchased a new table and chairs from IKEA. (Interested in parts one and two of the process? click away)

Today I'm going to tell you about our experience installing laminate floor from IKEA and give you a few tips if you're thinking about doing that. But first, a few more before and after photos. Here's what my kitchen used to look like, in all it's green walls, light colored laminate floor and ugly oak cabinets glory:

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kitchen transformation part 2 {and review of Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations}

A few weeks ago, I posted kitchen transformation part 1, where I showed you what my kitchen used to look like and told you I was painting the kitchen cabinets black. Let me tell you, it was a lot of work! For a while there I started to wonder if it was even worth it (that was during the time when I was having a recurring dream that I walked into my garage and found a whole row of extra kitchen cabinets I'd somehow forgotten to paint, which made me so angry that I went all hulk, picking up the cabinets and throwing them across the room). But when I was finally finished, I started getting excited. Then we got new countertops, and I got more excited. Finally we had a white subway tile backsplash installed, and now I'm just plain thrilled. Would you like to see some before and after shots?

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the kitchen transformation, part 1 {overview of Rustoleum Kitchen Transformations}

Interested in the story of how our old, cheap, oak kitchen cabinets turned into really pretty black cabinets for $125? Read on!

My husband and I both kind of hate home improvement projects. Or rather, he kind of hates them and I occasionally convince myself I like them, only to get halfway through something and remember that, oh ya, I actually kind of hate home improvement projects. It's just so much work! And when you have five kids running through the area and attempting to help it's even more work. So we generally consider good enough to be good enough and leave things alone.

But I've been eyeing kitchen makeovers on pinterest. Now, without any extra money to spend I decided the only thing we could do for not much money that would make a big difference would be to paint the kitchen cabinets.

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