One Room Challenge | Rental Kitchen Makeover Week 4

YIKES! It's week 4 of the One Room Challenge. Trying NOT to freak out over here. I am ridiculously behind. Panic has set in. The past 3 weekends I have had houseguests, combined with my day job, taking graduate classes AND NOT having a handy husband leaves me incredibly behind.

Let's just bring you all up to date: I have decide to makeover our kitchen as a guest participant for the One Room Challenge. The goal is to makeover a space in 6 weeks, a goal I sadly may not finish on time. I am making over our kitchen on a shoestring budget since we are renting and am only doing cosmetic upgrades. 

Let's see the inspiration pics as that is ALL the pretty I have for now.

 Design: White Sparrow Farm

 Design: Emily Henderson

My progress so far:

• Relaxed Roman shades are sewn. Just need to install them
• Wall stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils arrived
• Contrasting wall paint for stencil design is purchased, I chose Black Ink by Benjamin Moore
• Shiplap from Metrie is measured and cut
• Cabinet knobs are purchased. I bought these from Amazon
• Area rug arrived over a week ago - YAY!
• Sanded and stained stool seats (not sure I like the stain, doesn't seem dark enough)

What needs to be done:

• Install shiplap and corner trim
• Find corbell or bracket for island
• Paint wall and stencil backsplash
• Install Roman shades
• Finish painting stools
• Strip and stain kitchen table (I may not get to this)
• Recover kitchen desk chair
• Recover kitchen desk area bulletin board
• Install knobs
• Clean outside of cabinets
• Accessorize and style kitchen

This weekend will be a CRAZY busy weekend! Wish me luck!

I'd like to thank Metrie and Cutting Edge Stencils for partnering with me on this project!

One Room Challenge | Rental Kitchen Makeover: Week Three

Well, welcome back to the One Room Challenge. We are onto week 3! If you are new here, you can read pop over to week one and week two to see my inspiration and ideas for my kitchen makeover.

I am participating as a guest participant for the One Room Challenge along with hundreds of other amazingly talented bloggers and influencers! The One Room Challenge has 20 featured designers that you can follow along as well!

 My guess is you want a kitchen update?? Nothing too exciting happened this week.

The ONLY thing I managed to do is to sew all 3 Roman shades. They will look like this shade I whipped up last year!

They aren't going to get mounted until I am finished stencilling the backsplash. The stencil and supplies from Cutting Edge Stencils were shipped out last week, and arrived yesterday! Yay!

I decided last minute to refinish our vintage kitchen table which is a library desk from the 1920's. After asking on Instastories, it seems the consensus is to stain it dark walnut like my coffee table or this table I refinished for my daughter last summer.

The shiplap from Metrie still needs to be applied onto the island, I just need a free weekend with NO houseguests. I have my daughter flying in this Easter weekend. Last weekend my brother-in-law was visiting. I am hoping to sweet talk my lovely hubby (who isn't a fan of DIY projects) to help me install the shiplap on the kitchen island.

Last week I snagged some stools for the island and I'm going to strip the seat and stain walnut and then paint the legs matte black.

I'm still hunting for affordable cabinet knobs. I need 50 and since we are renting this house, I don't want to spend too much. I kind of like these from Lowe's.

The best part of the kitchen makeover arrived this week, the gorgeous wool rug from ECarpet Gallery! It is simply stunning!

Wish me luck in getting more accomplished this week! Yikes!

One Room Challenge | Rental Kitchen Makeover: Week Two

Bonjour! (That's French for hello - we are bilingual in Canada, eh?)

Welcome to week 2 of the One Room Challenge! If you are stopping by for the first time, welcome! This is week 2 of the One Room Challenge where you have 6 weeks to makeover a space. I am a guest participant but there are 20 bloggers/influencers who are featured every Wednesday. They knock my socks off every as do guest participants! It is such an inspiring event. If you want to start at the beginning, pop over to my week 1 post!

In the last minute, I  decided to makeover our kitchen on a shoestring budget. We are renting, so we can't renovate, but for the past 4 years I have been scheming how I can add a bit more personality to the kitchen. We have partnered with Metrie and Cutting Edge Stencils to add that layer that this kitchen needs. Shiplap is going onto the kitchen island and the backsplash is being stencilled.

I finally chose a wall stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils thanks to my followers on Instagram who helped me decided between two patterns! I went with the Florenza tile stencil in a 6" x 6" size. Now I need to find paint to match our counters, I don't want stark black but a more softer muted shade. 

The fabric and lining have been cut for the Roman blinds. I purchased all the "bits" needed, like dowels, brackets, etc. Would you believe the fabric I am using is actually drapery from Ikea? When we moved in, I removed the horizontal blinds from the large picture window in our kitchen and hung Ritva drapes from Ikea. I bought another package of drapery to use to make the Roman shades so they will match. As well, I want to keep the window drapery neutral as the wall stencil is quite busy.
I'm creating blinds just like the ones I made for last year's One Room Challenge.

After searching for a few days, I finally found the right sized runner rug (I needed about 2' x 8') and with the right colours! I ordered it through E-Carpet Gallery (not sponsored). I stumbled across them via Cat Theirren's Instagram account. They have affordable Persian rugs and the best part - shipping was FREE!!!! For us Canadians, that is a BIG DEAL!

Another score this week were vintage oak counter height stools that have similar lines to my kitchen chairs. They will get painted with Fusion Mineral Paint in Coal Black! Or maybe another punchy colour, like navy....not sure. 

I am kind of winging this makeover as I go along. Hope you stick around and come back next week to see what I come up with next!

If you want more up-to-date info, follow along on Instagram and Instastories! Click on the icons on the top menu bar to find me!

One Room Challenge | Rental Kitchen Makeover : Week One

I've been on the fence about joining in the One Room Challenge  and decided to throw in my hat again as a guest participant. Having made over my son's room into my sewing room last year on a tight budget, I am inspired to spruce up our rental kitchen.

For those of you who don't know, the One Room Challenge is where you makeover a room in 6 weeks. Better Homes and Gardens is co-hosting!  Every Wednesday, 20 featured designers and influencers post the updates on their room makeovers. On Thursday, guest participants link up their projects! There have been some amazing room makeovers in the past. Can't wait to see what this season brings!!

We have been in this house for 4 years, still renting since moving back to Canada 10 years ago. This house we are in currently, received a cosmetic renovation before we moved in, but the kitchen is lacking character. My plan is to give this space some character without breaking the bank. Living in a rental doesn't mean you have to sacrifice style. Follow along as I add a bit of style to our lack lustre kitchen using shiplap, fabric, wall stencils and accessories.

I am excited to be partnering with Metrie who have supplied the shiplap that I will install on the kitchen island. I'm still deciding on a wall stencil pattern and sourcing new hardware. The blinds are being replaced by relaxed roman shades, just like the ones I did for my last One Room Challenge makeover. The cabinets are not in the best of shape but I'm leaving them as is, instead I am switching out the knobs for something prettier!

Here are some inspiration pictures:

 Design: Emily Henderson

Design: White Sparrow Farm

The current state of our kitchen, blah and boring.

TO DO:

• Shiplap island
• Source bar stools
• Source vintage runner
• Stencil backsplash
• Sew relaxed Roman blind
• Switch out knobs
• Accessorize

Come back next week and, fingers crossed, I have made some progress!