Kitchen Improvements, Part Two

At the end of August, we finally started on our final renovations of the kitchen in our house. We had started this project years ago with most of the big changes, but had saved the lights for another time. Well, lights turned to ceilings which turned into an entire downstairs project, so things got a little messier than we had intended. Of course, the end of August also means the start of school so that is why I am just now getting to posting some pictures!

I posted an update a few months ago {link here} about our kitchen and how we had plans to make changes to the lights & ceilings. Our intention was to remove the popcorn ceiling, repaint the ceiling, & add can lights & some pendant lights. After getting a few quotes & discussing with the painters especially, we had our plan. But what we ended up having done to the house were a lot more improvements than just in the kitchen. We decided to go ahead and have all that work done and in addition to it, remove the popcorn ceilings in the entire downstairs, which included the landing & hallway upstairs as well as add crown moldings in the kitchen to match what is in the living & dining rooms. I figured we could just live in the bedrooms only for a few days until the work was completed, but that was a BIG mistake.

Luckily, my parents went over to the house before I brought the girls over & they told me not to come home. I ended up taking the girls to my parents' house for the week, and just went over to the house each night to check on things, lock up, & get anything we needed for the next day, as well as each morning to open up the house for the painters. When I saw the house, I was sure glad I listened to them! It was a busy, busy week - lots of back & forth trips and also the beginning of the school year for the girls... a little bit rough.

It took about 4 days to get through the whole process of the ceilings, but the moldings still had to be installed after that, so probably 5-6 days for the entire project. We moved back into the house before it was completed entirely though. I was surprised at the different that it made in the whole house. I'm glad we did it!

And the best part, the kitchen is looking great with it's new can lights & fancy pendants. I got a great deal on them from Pottery Barn as they had a sale on lighting plus I had a coupon. The more difficult part about the lights was finding the right bulbs to go inside them - brightness, color, LED/non-LED, etc.

Overall, we are happy with our new kitchen lights & ceilings. Taking down popcorn ceilings is a messy job & an expensive one, but I would not do it myself. I love the difference in the ceilings, but next time around - we will do something like this before we move into the house!!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

{removal of popcorn ceiling, addition of can & pendant lights & crown moldings}