Kitchen Redo - Part 1

For the past eight years since we bought our house the kitchen has looked like this.  

Those are the original red walls that and valances that previous owners left to us. Now I loved those walls for a very long time but that time has ended, like 2 years ago. I have been thinking for a long time of ways I could change the kitchen up without having to redo the whole thing. Something that wouldn't require ripping out cabinets and getting new countertops. Oh the green countertops. They have been the biggest obstacle when it comes to picking a color palette and finding something to coordinate with them. Psh, I thought it would be nearly impossible. That is until I came across this tile at Lowe's.
  

I.fell.in.love. Love the colors, love the shape, love that it was on sale! Funny story about that. When I found the tile I made sure Jimmy liked it, which he did, and then decided to let it simmer in my mind for a week. I used that picture up against my counters and cabinets to get a general idea about how it would look in our kitchen. It looked lovely. So the next week I went back to buy the tile and noticed that the price tag had moved to the bottom of the rack it was on. Suspicious if you ask me. So I loaded up my 36 sheets along with some tiling materials (float, trowel, spacers, buckets, etc.) and happily made my way to the counter (oh and this was my birthday present). The girl rang me up and the total came out to $200 more than it should have been based on my previous calculations. "Uh, the price on the tile said it was $7.98 a sheet. It was on the bottom of the rack." So she calls to do a price check and tried to tell me it was for a different tile. Whatever, the barcode on the back of the tile sheet say has the same dang name on it as that yellow sticker (I didn't say this but thought it). Then the way she said "Ok" to the person on the phone told me she had to change the price!  Woo woo!

So I brought it all home and has been sitting in my entry way for over a month. Ha! I first had to do my first ever demo job and rip out the existing 6x6 tiles.  It was a little scary yet exciting at the same time.

 
This side came down much easier than the other side but was a little more difficult to do at the same time. 

 

 A couple of those suckers were really stuck and I ended up ripping out the drywall. Oops, there was another first for me to replace drywall. I used the California Patch method Lowe's You tube channel. Another funny story, when I had a lady at Lowe's help me locate the 2x2 drywall piece I asked her about that method and she had never heard of it. I patched the two drywall places and then spackled over it all. Now after all the researching I did online everyone said that this isn't necessary, that you can just tile straight over drywall. I just don't feel comfortable with that. I also primed it to help with moisture.  And that is where we are with the tile. 

I primed the walls on a Sunday and could only take it a couple days like that before I painted it.  It was bright!!   I am so freaking happy to be done with the painting.  We are still getting used to the light color (Olympic's Tightrope matched to Valspar Ultra Paint and Primer in one).  I even painted the ceilings (which is totally for the birds), spray painted the can light rings because the were yellow, and I caulked around the windows. Stuff just kept popping up that I needed to fix!  Now we just need to rent a saw, buy thin stet and grout, make cornice boards for the window, and buy new placemats. I think that should be it???  

You can kind of see it in the last picture but here is a close up of the fabric for the cornice boards.  It is heavy duty upholstery fabric and the brown pattern is velvety.  2.5 yards at $5.00 a yard at Hancock Fabric with a 40% off coupon came out to $7.88!!!  Man I love finding a good deal like that!