Our Tuxedo Kitchen Progress

THE DEXTER HOUSE

It's funny how completely my focus has shifted from the Dexter House renovation to the baby. He's now 8 days overdue and needs to come immediately, or I will go insane. I'm all about walks, squats, acupuncture, and anything else I can do or eat to get this kiddo moving. Wish me luck!!!

So the kitchen. You might remember that I went in a decidedly-not-white direction for this kitchen, as opposed to the Ravenna and Bryant remodels (you can read about those here and here). After hours of Pinterest "research" and daydreaming, I came up with a tuxedo kitchen plan that is primarily black and white with some natural wood elements thrown in to soften the overall results. The kitchen has white upper and black lower cabinets, butcher block countertops, and a cement tile backsplash, ala this:

But let's rewind a bit and look at the work that got us here. We bought inexpensive stock cabinets from a place in south Seattle and painted them. Painting cabinets is nothing new for us, but it's always a bit of a process. First we gave all of the cabinets a good sanding with 150 grit sandpaper and a palm sander. Then we removed all the doors and drawers and lined them up in the basement. I made sure to label all the hinges I pulled off so we could rehang them in the right place when the paint dried.

The Grit and Polish - Kitchen Sanding Cabinets

The Grit and Polish - Kitchen Paint Prep Cleaning

After a good cleaning, we masked off the countertops (I know, I know...I haven't even shown you those yet, but they deserve a post of their own!) and the backsplash and primed everything.

Looking good right?! Yeah, not so much.

Next came the paint. We started with the uppers since those cabinets are the same color as the trim (Benjamin Moore's Simply White). We didn't worry about masking the lower cabinets and walls since those would be painted later. After the uppers dried we masked them off and painted the rest of the kitchen, notably the lowers in Benjamin Moore's Onyx, high gloss.

The Grit and Polish - Wall Paint Kitchen Paint

When we pulled up all that floor masking there were a few spots where paint had soaked through onto my newly-refinished hardwood floors. After trying a number of products and putting in a ton of elbow grease, we finally tried Goof Off, which worked like a charm.

After another good cleaning, we put the cabinet doors and drawers back in place, and Papa hardwired my swing arm lights. Gorgeous, right?! I bet you already figured this out, but a couple of open shelves will hang under those lights.

The Grit and Polish - Dexter Progress 10

I'll tell you what, we have the worst luck with appliances (I wrote a whole post about it at the Ravenna House here)! When we finally installed the dishwasher that we had bought at a warehouse sale last March, it had a hole in the main compartment and leaked all the way through the floor to the basement. I got on the phone with customer service, and they got us a replacement dishwasher in a couple of days (happily a dishwasher with a custom/panel front!) but it showed up with a dented door. We were able to make it work, but still frustrating.

For all our appliance woes, I'll tell you that Blue Star range and Bertazzoni hood vent (both bought for a steal at the warehouse sale) make up for it. They are AMAZING! Garrett and I have been fighting over who gets to put the oatmeal on every morning. It is just that much of a pleasure to cook on these appliances!