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Starting out

So we had rearranged the existing cabinets to line them up straight. We also removed the existing tile countertop that was on the top. While we wanted to go with a granite countertop, we are holding off on that until we are ready to do all our countertops at once. For now we are going to use a wood countertop we found at Ikea that we liked.

Also you will notice the holes in the cabinet doors below. We did this a while ago when our dog was a puppy. This is where her dog bed is and she sleeps once in a while. She was wondering what I am doing to her house.

It was really easy to cut the new countertop with my a skillsaw. The cut came out nice and clean. The Ikea countertop also has an end piece that we will glue on later, so that the cut end will match the other side.

Here is the back of the island. You can see we needed a longer panel piece for the back after doing the rearrangement of the cabinets. This was fine as we decided wanted to do wainscot on the back as I have always liked the look of it.

So we started by removing the back panel, and also the countertop as it had not been glued down yet. We also removed the doors on the front in preparation of the paint job.

Picking the wainscot

Here we were deciding on a backing. We deiced to go with the narrow lines like the one on the right.

We also got started on the painting while still working on the back. For the paint I went with General Finishes Queenstown Gray Milk Paint as I have used it before. I had to order it from Amazon, but it was worth it as this stuff is amazing and really coats and sticks well to cabinets. Here is a LINK if you want to check it out and read the reviews and see other peoples pictures, last I checked it still had a 5 star rating.

Here is the island with a coat of paint on the front. (And a sad looking dog who is wondering where her dog bed went.)

Next we added a couple more boards to the back to make it easier to attach the wainscot.

Wainscot is now attached and ready for some paint.

Doors and back are painted with the first coat.

Here it is at this stage with no molding on the bottom.

I decided to go with something a little chunkier for the molding then we had on the island earlier. We went ahead and painted it before putting it on the island. In the background you can see the cabinets we purchased for the wall buffet. 

I just nailed it with our brad nail gun.

Here is a better overview at this point.

Once the molding was attached I needed to go over and fill the gaps with some paintable caulk.

Here you can see the I just filled in any cracks before the final coat of paint.

Completed

Here is a final overview picture of it completed in the room.

Here is another picture with some yellow accents I added along with some green chair covers I dyed.

And just so you know, someone was really happy to have her little home back 🙂

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the website! Have a great day!

The post Kitchen Island remodel appeared first on GabbieGillmer.

We had already added the lower mantel, but wanted to make a more pronounced surrounding area. This is my DIY fireplace mantel addition.

So we started by adding another mantel shelf from Home depot up above the TV area.

Here is an overview.

Here is a close-up of how we did the upper mantel.

With the upper mantel installed we did the side frames.

Now we filled in with some cedar planking we found at the lumbar store. We were going for kind of a shiplap look. This was pretty easy to cut as it was only about 1/8 inch thick.

Then it was time to give it a coat of paint.

The final product turned out pretty good after the first coat.

Here it is in the morning, Ready for another coat of paint.

Here is a final shot, but its night. I will grab some better shots in the daylight when my phone will take better pictures.

The wood and supplies for this DIY Fireplace Mantel were all just purchased at out local Home Depot but I assume Lowes and other hardware stores carry the same type of stuff.

The post Building a DIY fireplace mantel. appeared first on GabbieGillmer.