KITCHEN UPDATE ON A DIME: PART TWO

KITCHEN UPDATE ON A DIME: PART TWO

Without fail, every DIY project I attempt reaches a point at which I sit back, survey my surroundings, and wish with my whole heart that I had hired someone to do the job. Below is a photograph of this exact moment in the whole covering-my-kitchen-counters-with-a-giant-granite-looking-sticker effort:

After choosing to ignore the one consistent piece of advice in every single video and comment on

Amazon

("get someone to help you!") and deciding to attempt this by myself, I got, like, one side sort of done and was sad sad sad.

Covering your ugly laminate counters with a giant sticker that looks like granite (SHUT UP IT DOES LOOK LIKE GRANITE) is hard. And yes, doing it alone was probably harder, but I honestly can't imagine a scenario in which I would still be speaking to the person I asked for help after trying to do it with together. 

Lo, after a few hours of sweat and (almost) tears, the green counter was gone!

Pretty nice, right?

But my dreams of a "new" kitchen were bigger than just getting rid of the green. I wanted to add a counter where there was just a sort of half of a wall with a top (best shown in the picture above). I really, really wanted to make a kind of "breakfast bar" there to provide an alternative to the dining room (in addition to the "the floor of the family room" which is where my kids currently eat most of their meals).

After much research (and a trip to New Haven), I was the proud owner of the

IKEA SALJAN Countertop

,  four

IKEA EKBY HENSVIK Brackets

, and four

IKEA INGOLF Bar Stools

. All I had to do was get it on there (this part I did have help for, and a good thing I did because the new counter is level/properly attached and supported/actually safe for children to be around, none of which would be true had I done it alone).

Add some sticker granite to that bad boy, and we're SO CLOSE to finished...

All that's left is replacing those three recessed lights with pendants (which is waaaaaay easier than it sounds, thanks to lights like

this

) and my Kitchen Update is a wrap!

XO

ABC

MEASURING, MATH, AND HEAVY LIFTING

MEASURING, MATH, AND HEAVY LIFTING

RETAIL RECOMMENDATION: BUDSIES

RETAIL RECOMMENDATION: BUDSIES