How To Upcycle A Vintage Kitchen...

And...turn it into an awesome laundry room! Yes, that's right...Hubs has worked his magic again in the upcycling department! 

This old house was in serious need of a sparkling fresh laundry room. The old "Maytag's" were still cranking out clean laundry after some 20 years and it was hard to say good-bye. They were part of the family. How well they knew us. They got up close and personal with my babies footie pajamas and sweet smelling nubby blankets. They worked overtime sudsing up dirty jeans and smelly sneakers. They kept us in fresh terry cloth towels and brightly colored sheets. They knew the toddler clothes and the teen clothes and ate their fair share of socks. They served us well. 

For their golden years they are now relaxing in the basement of someone else's home. Doing an occasional load of mix and match and still giving their all.

It was time to upgrade for "our" golden years! The laundry room had become a dismal and overcrowded cavern at the back of the house. It harbored all kinds of riff raff. Old coats and hats that hadn't been worn in years. Haphazardly folded linens and table coverings. Random shoes, some without partners, lining the ancient "Closet Organizer" that was no longer very organized. 

It was time!

Um...pretty much too embarrassed to post a whole lot of before pictures!

I longed for organization and function and storage to spare. We made a trip to the giant IKEA store about 40 miles away. We were wowed and overwhelmed with the amazing options available. We toyed with the idea of purchasing a hip and sleek IKEA system we could customize for our space. We could spend about $800.00 doing this and Hubs could sit on the floor for hours arguing with the Swedish instructions and matching screws and bolts to the proper holes.

I don't know...it just didn't seem like the right thing to do. We are "upcyclers"! We gave it some thought and decided to once again peruse the thrifty's for some vintage cabinetry! It didn't take long. A few options came and went and just didn't seem quite right for our space. Hubs was on a treasure hunt and needed to feel the right "vibe". :)

A few weeks into his search he found something promising. An amazing vintage kitchen set complete with original hardware. It wasn't pretty at that point. It was something of a mess. It had been re-painted with some fairly hideous metallicky paint and had some rusty areas along the bottoms. Know what else? It was 75 bucks! Oh yeah...the right price for sure!

Yeah...ugh...Can you see the vision???

Hubs got busy sanding and de-rusting and spiffying up each individual piece. We debated color combos back and forth and changed our mind several times. I wanted to meld vintage with contemporary. I snooped online for vintage kitchen ideas and authentic colors from that era. I wanted that clean sparkly fresh vibe as well. We started with one color of paint and changed our mind after a small trial run. 

Oh! They are getting pretty! Hard to tell in these pics but they are a light turquoise. 

The installation begins! I wish the lighting was better in this space for pictures. I want you to see how pretty the freshly painted gray walls look and how great they look with the turquoise. I guess you'll just have to trust me! 

Okay! Does it get any better than this? Hubs cleaned up all the original bling. I can't help it...it gives me goosebumps! I'm soooo in love with this.

Hubs did install a custom cut stainless steel counter top. It just doesn't get any sleeker than that! It's gorgeous!

IKEA did get a little bit of our biz...we picked up this shelving unit and it gives us a bunch of cool storage. Oh, and the old "Maytag's" were replaced with these bad boys...They play all this crazy Japanese anime music...welcome to 2013 I guess...

We have a ton of awesome storage space now. I'm still deciding what goes where and getting it organized but it is completely fresh and functional and looks amazing! 

I am pretty proud of this project. Sure...Hubs did most of the hard labor but I'm the brains behind the operation! Tag team!!!