adding a kitchen shelf

When we retiled the kitchen to make way for the hood, we were left with a big open space between the counter and the newly installed hood. It looked much nicer than it had before we took the giant microwave out, but it was still missing a little character (and storage space). Lindsey keeps the oils, salt and pepper, etc. in a wooden box behind the cooktop but it has to be moved every time we cook so it doesn't burn... not a great situation. So she came up with a solution: since the inside of the cupboards had to be painted white anyway, she wanted to make a little addition of a shelf between the cupboards. Now, when she first suggested this to me I was worried about a full shelf over the cooktop, thinking that the heat wouldn't be a good idea under the shelf... understandable right!? (Lindsey says: "He often acts as my common sense, ha!") Once she made it clear that it was only to be about 4 inches deep I was on board!

It's fun to make something out of nothing even if it's a really simple project like this one. We felt somewhat more proud of this project than others because it was an idea that started in our minds and came out exactly as we wanted!

I started by measuring and using my awesome miter saw to cut the pieces that the shelf would rest on. Because it isn't a very wide space and the wood we were using was good quality we didn't need to anchor the middle of the shelf. The shelf is 3 3/8 inches deep (quite a random number but it was half of an existing scrap of wood) and about 34 inches long. 

         

I used a drill bit to make pilot holes in the wood blocks as well as the adjoining cupboards in order to make screwing in the screw a bit easier. My first block install went fine until I put the screw in - the wood split, proof that even "easy" projects can be a bit frustrating. I was thankful that this happened on my first go-round because I could start fresh! 

       

After I got the blocks flush to the bottom of the cabinets and attached with no splitting, it was smooth sailing. We had planned to just attach the shelf with liquid nails (our favorite adhesive so far) and start painting. The plan would have worked brilliantly had we not run into a slight leveling problem. It wasn't any measuring or installing on our part, the cabinets are actually about 1/4 inch off from one another and when you are looking at a long "straight" shelf that isn't straight - it's quite noticeable.

All we had to do was add a scrap of wood with the liquid nails, wait for that to dry and then putty in the gaps! Not really a whole lot of extra work, just some unexpected problem solving! 

  

 

Far left: liquid nails to hold left side of shelf, Middle left: liquid nails with added piece of scrap,

Middle right: caulking the gaps, Far right: the side with the added scrap has been filled and caulked

Once everything dried and the shelf was set into place, it was time for the first layer of paint. As you can see, Lindsey does all the "make it pretty" work as she is a bit better at it than I! We used Glidden eggshell white paint which matched the kitchen cabinets. After one layer of paint, it was very clear that more than one layer of paint was required and the "unfinished" edge of the shelf needed to be sealed between the first and second coats of paint. 

Once the putty sealed fully we were able to finish off the painting and "set up shop" with our new shelf; so far so good! 

We have had a busy weekend - just wait and see what we have coming up next. 

Thanks, as always, for reading and following along with Lindsey and I as we refinish and set up our home! 

Until next time, Rob

I just had to add on this picture that Lindsey took while I was cleaning some duct tape off our front window. Our dogs are so fun!

It's hard to see, but that is Oswin's silhouette and Harlee is down in the darkened left corner. 

baseboards and caulking and tiling, oh my

Well we finally finished some projects that have been waiting in the wings; the end to two projects that honestly could have been finished weeks ago but it has been hard to get our butts in gear to finish. 

BUT WE FINALLY DID IT.

As you know, we put a walkway into an existing wall to create a dining room out of a bedroom right when we moved in. Doing this required us to take the baseboard moulding off the wall and well, it was never replaced. So now, almost two and a half months later, we replaced it. It's amazing how moulding can change a room (both living and dining room) and make it look complete! Project #1 COMPLETE!

The other project was completing the kitchen. We had replaced our cooktop and taken down the microwave which left an ugly un-tiled background for everyone to look at (for about a month and a half).

We looked around for tile to match the existing white but it's not just simple white tile, it's actually dimpled (you can tell in the picture above wherever the light hits the tile). This proved to be difficult to match, therefore, we just decided to get something that would "go" - it's ok in fashion, why not in your kitchen?

Since the space that needed to be covered was only about 34 inches by 6 inches we decided on a preset pattern that would match the existing tiles. The dark tile line of tile (as seen in photo above) is a forest-y green so we had to go with that family. We ended up with this seafoam, forest green, white and charcoal tile pattern.

We split each square into halves (6 inches high) and applied liquid nails to each individual tile (through the mesh on the back. 

We had to snap some of the tiles to make it fit better behind the cabinets: pliers and muscles were all it took to get the smaller tiles to break. Thankfully the breaks didn't have to be clean because they were only on the ends and were getting tucked away! 

Once everything fit properly, I was able to just start putting the tile up. We only ended up needing three sections, this was definitely an easy tile job. 

We had to add some random tiles and foam insulation so that the hood would seal properly. We didn't bother to grout these tiles since they would A) never be seen and B) were merely being used as placeholders.

After the tile was up and we let the adhesive set properly we mixed the grout and started sealing. We used grey grout since the existing tile was grouted in grey and we wanted to match as much as we could. We didn't even get close to using the half a bag (7lb bag) that we mixed even with the bathroom touch ups that we did - next time we'll know!

After about half an hour Rob sponged down the area to diminish any residue where there shouldn't be any. Once the wall was done it was all about the hood and therefore, I was tagged out of the renovation game - Rob and my Dad rewired, reinstalled and (thankfully) didn't even get electrocuted! ha!

The final step was to caulk around the new hood so that people - taller than myself - couldn't see the seam between the hood and the surrounding cabinet. 

In the end the tiling project ended up costing only about $30 and the only took about an hour (including waiting time)! I wouldn't call myself a pro or anything but it made me feel more comfortable for any future tiling endeavors! The guys might say that they will leave the electricity to the professionals from now on, but I think they did a great job! 

VOILA! 

Many thanks to Dad Brand for helping us with all our little projects!

p.s. the four dark dots on the tile in the "before" picture above were large sinkers and needed to be removed, leaving four large holes in the tile. I just added some caulk - as you can see in the after picture - and I am just waiting for it to completely set before removing the access! No more gaping holes in the nice tile! yay!

until next time, Lindsey