SHEs Organized

The Problem:

My kitchen is 'old' (at least 15 years since it was redone, but I have no idea.) And cheap, except for the flooring which is now cracked tiles (the sway of the building cracks them.) At first glance it looks 'fine' but the cheapness shows up when used daily.

The building is 56 years old so quirky to begin with. There are concrete support pillars in several spots so that the walls aren't unbroken up. The walls are plaster with cracks and bubbles and a few decades ago were painted with latex over oil. So in many spots the latex paint just rubs off when you clean the surface.

The kitchen cupboards are thermofoil (vinyl over MDF) and the vinyl is yellowed and splitting from the UV from the windows (the kitchen faces west) and dryness in the apartment. Plus age (thermofoil has a rough lifespan of 10 years.) The cupboards are starting to pull away from the uneven ceiling in places, the shelves are not adjustable (except a couple are in the pantry cupboard) and the doors/drawers are not straight (so I can't pull out two side-by-side drawers since they catch on each other.) In many places, the shelf edging is held on with clear packing take. I asked the super how to fix it and he said it can't be fixed, so now I'm focused on stopping further deterioration.

My appliances are all over 18 years old and I suspect my dishwasher is over 25 years old. Only the dishwasher looks 'old' because the plastic face plate is yellowed. The appliances work well enough and I have a big fridge compared to the regular apartments so I hope it keeps running. I don't pay for my electricity so energy efficiency means nothing to me. The new dishwashers take 2 hours to run a cycle, mine only takes 50 minutes so I know it isn't as energy efficient but I don't want a new one until I have to have a new one.

My counters are laminate and, from the dryness/sun, the sides of laminate are starting to come off.

There is no backsplash, just plaster wall.

The new owners will not update the kitchen. We offered to pay part of the bill but they don't allow that. Nor can I just renovate it myself without permission because I don't own the apartment. If I do update it without permission, I'd have to tear everything out and return it to how it was when I leave. Yeah, like is going to happen....

The Plan

I've been dreaming about changing the kitchen counters for a while. In January, I learned about recovering kitchen counters with contact paper. And adding a backsplash using either contact paper or vinyl tiles.

So I spent hours going over what was available, watching videos and dreaming. For almost 3 months the items were in my Amazon "for later" cart. I selected a 'stainless steel' backsplash and marble counters.

When I put the cling vinyl on the window transom in the dining room it was a test of my ability to work with these products and matching, if that was going to be a thing. I passed that test.

Ken's away right now, so I ordered the stuff to come in and planned to do the work while he is away.

The interim results:


My actual kitchen doesn't have a lot of uninterrupted counter space because the radiator can't be blocked. So we added a fold down shelf to the right of the sink and a counter-height cart to fill in that space.

I started by recovering two sets of drawers I have in the eating are to get a sense of how the paper works. That went fine and they look better.

I then did the cart and folding shelf. The unfinished edges of the cart's countertop (3 of them had no laminate) made it a challenge because the contact paper won't stick to the chipboard edges. So they've been taped in place with clear packing tape (a theme in my kitchen!) The same was true for the folding shelf. And in both cases, since the sides can't be stuck tight, there were air bubbles. So, while doing the work, I was very unhappy.

On the other hand, the results are giving me joy.

The work from now on will be easier (no unfinished edges) and harder (I'll be working with 3' wide rolls of contact paper.) It is highly recommended the project be done by two people and I think I will have to wait for dh. At least to do the largest counter.

If I decide to not go ahead, the backsplash paper (which I just tacked up, I didn't install) looks AWFUL with my ivory/cream counters. On the hand, when I put the marble paper down in front of the backsplash paper, it looks awesome.

Here are my before and after photos of the cart and shelf.

I like the marble look.

But honestly, I didn't notice it at first because that view is amazing! I looked at your photos for some time before paying attention to the countertop.
What caught my attention -
1. The view!
2. Shiny sink
3. Uncluttered counters and shelves.
4. Marbled countertop.

The view does hide a lot of 'sins' in this place! Most people are here for hours before they see the cracked plaster and bits of ceiling falling down.

The shiny sink and clear counters were because I was taking photos. The sink is still pretty clean, the counter stuff has been returned.

I was looking at the counter to the right to see how the contact paper would be wrapped around the corners there. When I looked under the lip, I learned the counter is level(ish) but the gap between the counter and drawers ranges from 0 to 3/4" from left to right.

When we put up the six vertical pressure fit curtain rod holders in the living room, there was on that had a different number of pieces to make up the length because the floor slopes so much to that corner. There's enough in the way that you don't notice the drapes to the left pool on the ground more than drapes on the right! Nothing is plumb in this place!

As dinner was cooking, I was looking at the ancient dishwasher analyzing what looks so bad about it. It is the yellowed and cracked top edges of the console at the top. Then I looked more closely as to what cracked it (I couldn't imagine how I could do that through regular use) and realize it is rubbing against the underside of the lip of the counter. The laminate under the lip is all chipped from where the dishwasher door is rubbing it away every time I open or close the dishwasher.

Long story short - I can't put contact paper on there because the door will rub it off. The counter literally seems loose so maybe a shim will fix the issue but I don't know. I will put in a surface request to have them send someone to look at it.

Finished. For now.

Here are the photos:

First an overview of the kitchen work area aside from the my tea making area. The changes are the backsplash and the metallic under the sink and on either side of the stove:

These are my tea making area, so the change is the backsplash and the metallic under the sink.
I didn't take good before pictures of the long part of the L and the stove but here are my before and afters of that.

In case you can't read them, the towels are cross stitches by my childhood BFF. One says: "Grandparents - so easy to operate even a child can do it" and the other says: "My housekeeping style is best described as 'there appears to have been a struggle.'" I love them both so much because they sum me up so well, I leave them both out all the time instead of alternating!

Wow! just Wow I love it! Thanks for sharing.
This is very inspiring.

It really looks great Kathryn, not nearly as dreary as your description had me picturing! Very nice job on the updating.

The photo didn't come out well but this was a really useful hack that dh had seen just a week ago. Put a folding table onto risers when you are working on a project where you'll be standing all the time. It raises the table to counter height.

I had finished the recovering of the cart and folding shelf and started the tea making area before I remembered dh's telling me about this. He had noted it because he thought it was so great an idea.

I've circled the risers so you can see them better. but even so you will have to squint. For the spare bed we bought a new, high bed with head and footboards (after 43 years, it was about time!) so had the leftover risers from the old bed frame. I'm glad I kept them even though I had no idea how they would be used. Note: I opened the blind so LadyM could see the view!
We have a rectangular high-top table in the kitchen with stools so one can see over the balcony railing to see the view while eating. It is too high to use as a work surface, so I set up the folding table. For the past 7+ months, since dgs was no longer in the high chair (which I put next to the window so he could see out) or using the little table to eat at, since he now sits nicely on the high stools at the table when eating with dh, I had the high-top table sticking out from the window but I've moved it back to its previous home so dgs3 can go back to playing on the radiator (there is a strip of shelf liner on it to cover up all the missing paint and plaster and dgs uses that as a runway for his airplanes!) It also makes that part of the room, which is only 6' x 7' feel a bit bigger.

Here's the rest of the kitchen, BTW:
LadyM had commented on no appliances on my kitchen counters. That's because of the small amount of counter space near outlets. The microwave and toaster oven are used on the rack, and it stores a ton of other things. The 'glass-front' (now plexiglass) antique china cabinet came from my grandmothers but likely predates her as she used it for a cabinet to store her paints in her studio. I love having my daily use pretty things on display and the grandkids have been great about not touching things (although they do open the door and a few months ago I found that dgs had put some precious things of his own on display in it!)
The drawers on the other side hold a ton of stuff too. So I have more storage here than I did in the kitchen at the house.

It is about time for another purge of items. There are too many duplicates that don't get used but are kept because I have room. For instance: it is time for me to let go of my mother's daily cutlery, which is silver-plate so giving it away wasn't as easy as it should have been. I used it for a while as our daily cutlery after Dad died but went back to the stainless steel because I have more place settings of that. Actually it is two sets, mine from 1989 and my paternal grandmother's from 1970s, which my dad gave my grandmother and he liked a lot so I had it with mixed in with mine so he could use it when he was at my house, and now dh prefers it too (it is a better weight in the hand but only a set of 6 with some attrition, so I need to keep using both sets.) For formal use, I have 2 sets of fancy silver, my own, and my maternal great-grandmother's. So letting go of just ONE set of cutlery should be easy!

The changes are good ones! I would love to spend some time in your kitchen.

That plant looks so healthy and growing well. It brings back some good memories of when I had a similar plant that grew around the room. After a while I found it difficult to keep leaves green and they would eventually fall off and I was left with a long vine. Your plant has plenty of light, which I assume is the perfect growing environment for it. Well done!

p.s. Thanks for the view. I zoomed in to enjoy it.

LadyM: I'm surprised the plant is doing so well. The window is on the west so it gets sun even in the winter but the leaves around the transom are up against a north window that gets really cold and has no direct light in the winter. I thought they might freeze or at least suffer against the cold but they survived last winter (their first) just fine.