Easy to do kitchen fix up that YOU can do yourself!

Wow, it's been a while and I promised you all a post on a few new products I found this fall when I spruced up our 1959 kitchen. Our home was built at the end of the 50's, and the kitchen was never updated at all, in fact we had a pink Oven, stove top and dishwasher when we moved in about 23 years ago.The dishwasher never worked so it was replaced way back then, but the stove and the oven still work great today, so we haven't really found a great need to replace them. However, we did hate the pink so when i was redoing things i took them both apart and found a really good epoxy spray paint in white and painted them. They turned out looking like new, so I'm very happy with the outcome, it cost me about 8 bucks for the can of really good epoxy spray paint.

To top it off, we had pink Formica counter tops with gold flecks, really ugly, but in good shape. So I scoured the internet and found a great product to "refinish" the Formica and give them a granite look. The kit was bought on the internet and arrived a couple of days after I ordered it and for the 80 bucks that cost, it was well worth a lot more when i finished redoing the tops and saw the finished product. People, these are things you can do yourself to make things look much nicer at reasonable prices.

It was easy and it was actually fun to do as well, and you can use this in bathrooms as well. The first thing to do was clean the Formica really well with an SOS pad and rinse really well. Then tape off around the tops so i don't get paint where I didn't want it.Then, and by the way the kit came with all the paints and applicators as well, I used the black automotive primer that was provided with the finger roller that was provided and then let it dry for 8 hours. I did this at night before bed. Next was the fun part, you rip the sea sponge they give you into a few smaller pieces, 1 for each color that your going to use. You merely dab the sponge in the paint, and get most of the paint off the sponge and dab it on the black top in no particular pattern, that is critical. While it's still wet you use the next color and the next until it looks the way you want it too. You let that dry for about 8 hours as well, by the way it's an acrylic paint. Then you lightly sand it with very very fine sandpaper to get what ever little "peaks" there are to be flat and then roll on then Acrylic clear automotive paint on top, let dry 4 hours and re-coat. It's that easy and most folks who come in the kitchen thing we replaced our tops with granite.

The next new product we used was this sticky rubber like mat instead of wonderboard for the tile behind the stove top. You peal off the back side and stick it on the wall, then you peal off the plastic on the front and stick your tile to it. It's a very fast, clean, quick way to get your tile up and you can grout right after you put the tile up instead of waiting a day, and that's really nice.This product is great up to a 6 inch tile, it's not recommended for bigger tiles. I used sheets of 1 inch tiles and mixed them for our back splash, all done in 1 afternoon, this means you can do this during the day and be cooking dinner this afternoon with new tile!

Of course we washed and painted the cabinets and doors and replaced the knobs and handles, this was one of the most expensive things to do, those knobs and handles are expensive but they sure do look nice and for a quick picker upper in your kitchen it's fast and easy to do and is almost a remodel all in it's self. Our 1980's flooring had to go, another major cost, but not nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be. We used a new product and it worked great and looks even better, in fact, it worked so well and was so easy to install, I would recommend you do this your self as well. We found at home depot a new linoleum plank flooring, it's easier than Pergo and is water resistant to top it off. This means if it gets wet it won't buckle or warp like so many wood based products do and it looks so nice as well. We needed to strip off the old flooring, if yours has not rips in it you can go right over the old stuff you already have, as long as it's flat and smooth. Mt nephew came over and we laid the entire floor in one afternoon, it's that easy. AND...best of all, it cost as much as the CHEAP Pergo, so the price isn't bad at all and again this product could be used in any "wet " area like a laundry room, kitchen or bathroom.

We're loving what feels like a new kitchen for well under $1000 bucks, in fact I think it was more like $800 bucks for everything we did. Now if you own an older home and want to "fix" it up these products are great, in fact if you are an investor and need some quick fix it up ideas these are great for that as well because with minimal experience at fixing things, you can do this work your self, you don't need a contractor for this kind of stuff. If you have any question feel free to email me or call me and I'll tell you what I know. So for now, take care, and be good humans!