Home Improvements

I bought a fixer-upper in 2010 and man have I put a lot of work into this house.  Paint on the walls, carpet ripped up, new driveway, lots and lots and lots of yard work.  The latest improvements include putting a new floor down in the kitchen and building a kitchen peninsula out of an old dresser.  This spring or summer, I hope to stain the cabinets.  They're the original 1960's cabinets, but I love them and only want for them to be darker.

Old Floor

New Floor

I had already put this same floor tiles down in the adjoining laundry room.  I got that done early before I bought a washer and dryer.  And I knew it'd be important to redo the kitchen floor before we put together the peninsula.  I used very easy, very sturdy peel and stick tiles.  They're thick enough that you can't bend them easily.  When I put the flooring down in the laundry room I had to use an exacto knife and many, many blades to cut the tiles along the walls.  For the kitchen I was able to use a dremel tool I bought recently.  That made the job go by so much quicker.

Old Dresser

This dresser was part of my bedroom suite, but didn't fit into my bedroom in our new house.  First it lived in the dining room and stored china and table wear.  Then I bought my first real china cabinet and the dresser moved into the kitchen.

It was great to have it in the kitchen for storage, but the flow of the kitchen just didn't work with it and a round table.  Finally I decided to convert the dresser into a peninsula and get rid of the round table all together.  Thankfully my step-niece was in the market for a free kitchen table so she came with a friend and took it away.

Dresser Made Into a Penninsula

The first step was to paint the dresser.  Since I hoped to stain the cabinets a dark wood, I thought it'd be nice to use the peninsula as a splash of color.  The blue is actually more of a peacock teal.  I used a primer so I wouldn't have to sand it and that worked okay, but I was shocked that it took three coats of paint to cover the dresser completely.

Everything Back Into Place

The counter/table top is from Ikea.  The legs of the peninsula are the corner posts you'd use on a deck.  I painted the legs and attached it all with screws and L-brackets.  I didn't attach it to the floor, but unless we take it apart, there's no way it's coming out of the kitchen.

Recovering the Stools

My parents got the stools (counter height) for me for Christmas.  Before I got them all put together, I bought new fabric and stapled it to the seats and finished putting them together.