Budget KITCHEN, with PAINTED laminate counters!

After pressuring hubby endlessly since the DAY we got our house 4 years ago, I got the green-light on the shoestring kitchen re-do this Spring/Summer.  Over the course of the summer, I:

* painted the ceiling a faint blue;

* painted the island;

* bought a paint sprayer & sprayed all my cabinets (myself!);

* painted the walls (noticing a trend here: PAINT, PAINT, PAINT) to match the walls in the family room; 

* changed the cabinet hardware; 

* installed under-cabinet & corner cabinet lighting (IKEA)

* added hooks to the island (IKEA peg rack/removed the hooks/installed them on the island);

* PAINTED my LAMINATE countertops & poly'd them my own version of faux granite (no kits purchased - just a good primer rolled on, a million shades of acrylic craft paint on the island, glaze, & glitter all over the island counter) 

* installed a brand new travertine & glass tile backsplash (we bought with gift cards over time & all the tile was sitting in our basement, ready for install!)

TOTAL COST OF BUDGET RE-DO: (about $700!!!)

I love my rug!  Found originally on Home Decorator's Collection....then hunted it down on overstock for WAY less moolah.  Yay me!  HOWEVER, it's going to be swapped-out in place of some gorgeous (busy) drapes.  I'm sure I'll use it again somewhere, someday.  :)

Close-up of my painted island countertop.  If you happen to think it's pretty, I promise you'd think it was gorgeous IN-PERSON.  And WAY sparkly.

Thinking I'm going to make my own little curtains for above the window......
....and as for the faucet....OMG it is BEAUTIFUL.  I'll post pics once we have it in!
The tile was the first job I've ever done...and hubby too.  It took 12 hours the first day.  And a few hours the next day grouting.  I thought tiling was bad.  Grouting was AWFUL.  LESSON LEARNED.  I had to spend 3 days SCRAPING each tile in order to get dried grout OFF!  YUCK!  Of course, we love the outcome, but it was a PAIN!  The new switchplates are going to be stone, to blend in.  The old were black.

Hubby put in IKEA lighting in this corner cabinet & underneath the uppers.

Yes, you saw two antique kitchen scales.  I can't help myself.  Love 'em!

Sorry this one's blurry...

View facing the family room...

And here's the family room view from the kitchen.  The two spaces are TOTALLY open to one another, so I didn't want to fight that.  I use complementary colors for both rooms.

We put the lighting in over the last year.  And we had the floors installed when we originally moved in (we love them), along with brand new appliances 4 years ago.  So, just what I spent this summer to get this end-result: LESS THAN $700 (as stated earlier)!  About $400 of that was just the backsplash!  Here is a photo of one of the stages of the kitchen as of 2 years ago (during the holidays):
(I will see if I can dig up the ORIGINAL...which is NASTY, just warning you when it comes....)

I can't stress this enough - while I am very pleased with the kitchen, & need to still get the new switch plates up & faucet in, I NEVER feel 'camera-worthy'.  I am pleased with my space, & LOVE & am obsessed with all things decorating, I never feel like my work is 'done'.  So I've always been shy about showing off photos of the house.  I am forcing myself to break-free of that however, because if I continue on that path, I will NEVER post pics, because the house is LITERALLY never done.  Whenever friends/family come over to visit, they wander the house looking for "what's new" that Susan did.  Haha.  The house is ever-changing.  So, keep checking-in with me, because the entire home is ever-evolving.....!