Mysa Home Styling is all about cultivating contentment and joy at home through cozy and functional spaces. This blog is filled with inspiration and encouragement to help you create a home you love!
December 12, 2016
Happy Monday!!! Today I want to share with you how we updated our kitchen in just two weekends, using removable wallpaper and open shelving. When we moved in we knew that we’d want to do some work on our kitchen eventually, but it’s not quite in the budget for us to do a whole overhaul right now (counters, backsplash, cabinets, appliances, etc). So we decided to make an update that has a lot of impact, but didn’t take very long or cost very much. This will hold us over until we have a whole kitchen renovation in the budget… it seriously makes the kitchen a much brighter, happier place to work!
Below I’ve included a couple before/after shots side by side (CRAZY, RIGHT?!), followed by some process shots and how-to ramblings… so if you aren’t interested in that kind of stuff, scroll down for ALL the beautiful after photos!
Here’s a view looking into the kitchen from our dining room. When we bought the house there was a cabinet hanging down over the peninsula that we tore out right away—for obvious reasons!
And then in this view you can see the whole wall better. The before photo here was after we tore down the overhanging cabinet.
Take down the cabinets! We had a couple friends come over to help out, but besides needing some more brawn, this was a pretty simple step. After removing the trim and shelves from the cabinets, we unscrewed and applied force when necessary to take the cabinets down. Brian also did some electrical work with the light above the sink prior to taking the cabinets down.
Spackle and sand any holes, clean any mold or residue, and prime! As you may have noticed in the previous photo, we actually had a couple mold spots on our ceiling under the cabinets. It revealed a larger problem of lack of insulation up there, so Brian put some insulation in the attic above the spot, then we cleaned everything up and applied a couple coats of Kilz primer to the wall and ceiling, then applied a coat of ceiling paint.
We chose to go with a removable peel-n-stick wallpaper for our wall, both to add interest, and to hide any imperfections in the wall. The gold speckled wallpaper is from Target and we ended up going with two rolls. We have lots leftover, but because of needing to match up the pattern, you’ll need more than you think. This stuff goes on like a giant sticker and can be repositioned quite a bit (trust us!). We followed the instructions on the package and are super happy with the results!
Lastly, we installed our shelves! We bought simple black L brackets and white shelves from Home Depot… we were really trying to do this project on a tight budget! But I also like the simplicity in the shelving we picked out since it really lets the wallpaper and dishes shine. As you can see in the above photo, we installed our first shelf directly above our backsplash, so we just drilled it in with long screws. On the drywall, we used toggle bolts to secure our shelves (don’t want our dishes crashing to the ground in the middle of the night!).
Alright, so now on to the good stuff! 😉 Here’s what our kitchen looks like now!
On the longer shelves to the right of our sink are our everyday plates and bowls, along with some serving bowls, favorite recipe books, and other decor. I love leaning cutting and serving boards up against the backsplash since they don’t take much space, but add a little something to the counter. The Kitchenaid we received as a wedding present sits at the ready, in hopes that it will entice me to bake and cook more! 🙂
We installed this new faucet a month or two ago, and it’s one of my favorite upgrades we’ve made to the house. If you look at the before photos above you can see the old faucet was short and, well, old! This tall one makes dish-washing and pot-filling so much easier, and we love having the sprayer attached to the head of the faucet.
Here’s the other side of the kitchen—still filled with lots of wood cabinets… for now! 😉
On the shelves to the left of the sink are our glasses. We opted for two shelves instead of three on this side to give a bit more breathing room, and allow space for some artwork. I like that the two sides aren’t exactly identical.
I am obsessed with Mrs. Meyer’s soap, and my current favorite is “Iowa Pine!” It straight up smells like a Christmas tree and makes me so happy every time I wash my hands! The little dishes scrubbers are from Grove Co. and I love how I can keep them out since they’re so cute!
And here’s the whole view again! I’m really loving the drastic improvement, and although it did take some time, I feel like it was relatively easy for how big of a change it brought to the space. Thanks so much for taking the time to read! It’s so fun to get to share our adventure in homeownership with you. Would you ever consider tearing down some cabinets in favor of open shelving?
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Gah!!! I am obsessed, you definitely need to submit this to some magazines!
Thanks, lady! We love it too! It made such a difference!
I’ve already submitted it to Apartment Therapy and The Kitchn. Any other recommendations?
Love the open shelves! Someday, once I can make everything that needs to go on them look pretty!
Thanks, Beth! And believe me, we have plenty of cupboards filled with tupperware, mismatched cups, and sandwich bags! 🙂 I could never do ALL open shelving! But I do love how much easier it is to empty the dishwasher and set the table now.
I can not wait to see your house when we come in January!
Agreed! That will be so much fun! 🙂
I can not wait to see your house when we come in January!
I love it. I think you should keep the cabinets on the other side (for food storage) and paint them all a nice bright color (yellow? robin’s egg blue?). Of course, you might have a better imagination than me and come up with something even better.
Thank you, Pearl! We’re definitely planning on keeping the cabinets on the other side for now… lots of cooking supplies and our 2 shelves of random mugs we just can’t seem to part with. 😉 I would love to paint them… I’ve thought of doing all the lower cabinets a darker color and the top cabinets a brighter color. We’re happy with how things are for right now and we’ll see what happens when we get the itch to do another DIY! 🙂
I love it. I think you should keep the cabinets on the other side (for food storage) and paint them all a nice bright color (yellow? robin’s egg blue?). Of course, you might have a better imagination than me and come up with something even better.
Thank you, Pearl! We’re definitely planning on keeping the cabinets on the other side for now… lots of cooking supplies and our 2 shelves of random mugs we just can’t seem to part with. 😉 I would love to paint them… I’ve thought of doing all the lower cabinets a darker color and the top cabinets a brighter color. We’re happy with how things are for right now and we’ll see what happens when we get the itch to do another DIY! 🙂
First, what an amazing transformation. So bright and pretty. Am i seeing correctly that you did NOT update floors, cabinet pulls, or the counter tops? I have a kitchen that was redone in the 80s (?). I’m hoping to retain the wood beadboard cabinets and refresh the rest around them.
Thank you! Yes, you are seeing that correctly. We just focused on that one wall (wallpaper, shelves, light, and faucet) for the mini facelift! We may do some of those bigger updates down the road, but didn’t have the budget for it now. It’s on my list to spray paint the cabinet pulls black, but to replace them entirely would be quite the project since they are an odd size that’s not standard anymore. I love doing these “in-between” updates that are more affordable and quick to tide me over until it’s time for a bigger overhaul!
First, what an amazing transformation. So bright and pretty. Am i seeing correctly that you did NOT update floors, cabinet pulls, or the counter tops? I have a kitchen that was redone in the 80s (?). I’m hoping to retain the wood beadboard cabinets and refresh the rest around them.
Thank you! Yes, you are seeing that correctly. We just focused on that one wall (wallpaper, shelves, light, and faucet) for the mini facelift! We may do some of those bigger updates down the road, but didn’t have the budget for it now. It’s on my list to spray paint the cabinet pulls black, but to replace them entirely would be quite the project since they are an odd size that’s not standard anymore. I love doing these “in-between” updates that are more affordable and quick to tide me over until it’s time for a bigger overhaul!
[…] year here, so you can see that makeover and what our kitchen looked like before this big renovation here. But I just had to share where we started when we bought the house compared to now! It’s […]