Kitchen Update | One Room Challenge Week 4

Week 4 is kind of the hump week of One Room Challenge, and I can definitely say I started feeling some project fatigue last week. I notice myself getting tired of certain project tasks (NO MORE cabinet painting please) and nervous about others (will the recessed lighting fit in our current receptacles?). I’ve also started getting restless to go places that are not my kitchen and see people who are not inside my kitchen. I’m promising myself I’ll get out more when this whole thing is over–but with only two weeks to go, we still have a lot to do.

The tiling that I projected to be finished in week 2 is still ongoing, but we also effectively doubled+ the amount of area we’re going to tile. One exciting decision we made this week was to ditch our over-the-range microwave.

As soon as it came down, my first thought was, “I never want to put it back up.” So we’re not going to. We listed it on Craigslist, and Instead, we’re going to get a smaller microwave and store it inside a cabinet, probably directly above where the old microwave was. This probably wouldn’t work for everyone, and it will mean I have to use a small step stool or ladder to access the microwave, but I already need that to get to about half my cabinetry anyway, and it’s worth it to me to have the extra head room when cooking. The space feels a LOT bigger.

My mother-in-law also sold me hard on tiling the back splash behind the cabinets in the sun room.

Initially I was on the fence because I thought the sunroom felt like a separate space, but it also had wallpaper up before, which marked it off from the kitchen. Now that both rooms are the same color, it makes more sense to emphasize their continuity. Plus, one is unwise to ignore the wisdom of mothers-in-law. 🙂

Beyond EVEN MORE painting and tiling, this was a week of research. I picked up a can of Sherwin Williams Porch and Floor enamel for the kitchen floors, so now I’m trying to pin down exactly what this paint job is going to entail.

At most, there are 5 steps to the process:

1. Scuff sand
2. Clean
3. Prime
4. Paint
5. Poly

Everybody is in agreement about the necessity of steps 1,2, and 4. Luckily, we had the forethought to scuff sand the kitchen when we refinished the floors, so at least we saved ourselves some pain/mess there. There is some debate about the necessity of primer and polyurethane, though. Some wisdom (like that on the back of the paint can) says sanding and cleaning the floors is enough prep and the floor enamel itself is plenty durable without additional poly on top. The guy who helped at Sherwin Williams actually told me that poly would be “overkill.” I’m skeptical, though. I prefer to err on the side of overkill. There’s been a lot of interest in the floor project, so I’ll be sure to keep you updated with what steps we decide to use.

As a reminder, here’s what tasks we have left:

• Put glass or plexiglass inserts into to the upper cabinet doors around the windows (almost done)
• Finish installing a subway tile backsplash (both closer to and farther from done)
• Paint the floors
• Scrape the ceilings (this has been removed from the scope of the project for a number of reasons, though we’ll probably still do it eventually)
• Replace the sunroom ceiling fan with recessed lighting.

If anyone out there has had success in floor painting–please give me tips! Also please send us luck and energy this week! Hoping to show you some big progress next time around.

For now I’m going to see what the other linking participants are up to! Check out almost 150 other awesome projects here!