Our Kitchen Remodel + Liz’s Beautiful Things Review

Just a few short months ago, John and I decided we were ready to tackle the process of updating our kitchen. My first decision that I knew had to be made, was booking Liz’s Beautiful Things to paint our kitchen cabinets. I had followed her page for so long, and admired all of the kitchen transformations for a couple years. I couldn’t believe we were finally ready to take the plunge ourselves. I’m going to take you on this journey of updating our kitchen, and share my experience and review of Liz’s Beautiful Things to paint our cabinets!

First Things First

Like I said above, we decided to paint our kitchen cabinets first. I knew if we did not change a single other thing in the kitchen, I was dying for white cabinets. We had updated our last house from stained cabinets to white cabinets ourselves. I love the freshness that white brings. Reaching out to Liz is very simple, you can contact her on Facebook, or Instagram for a quote. You will send pictures of your kitchen to her, they will respond with a quote. Then should you choose to book, they require a 30% down payment to schedule your first consult.

I know for me personally, that felt like a big investment up front. Sending payment to a person you’ve only chatted with online feels scary! But I feel by this point, you either know you are going to use them or you aren’t. She has plenty of pictures, reviews, and a social presence that made me feel comfortable with the down payment to get the show on the road.

The next step

After the down payment on the kitchen cabinets, we scheduled our initial consult. Liz is usually booked a few months in advance, but well worth the wait! I would be nervous to book with someone who didn’t have any work lined up. 🤷🏻‍♀️ We put down our down payment at the end of August, and our first consult was scheduled for October 14th.

The consult

Liz’s team messaged me to confirm our consult, and we also received a call from Liz when she was on her way to our house. They let us know ahead of time that all decisions were to be made at the consult, so to plan to have your significant other present if they are a part of the decision making process. John wasn’t able to be home that day, but my sweet neighbor was able to walk over and talk through some of the decisions with me! It’s a lot! Haha! I knew I wanted white cabinets, but didn’t realize there would be a couple different shades of white, and if you know me, you know I tend to overthink! Like a lot. 🤪

We decided on Annie Sloan Old White, and decided to add on the distressing service that she offers. I wasn’t sure about the distressing, but with the antique rustic look we were going for in our kitchen, it ultimately felt like it would fit in perfectly that way. We paid an additional deposit at this consult (for a total of 50% up front) and the final 50% was to be paid upon completion of the project.

The waiting

So, our final project date was set for January. On January 13th, the team would be arriving to pick up all of the doors and drawers to be painted in their warehouse. This eliminates mess and time in your home, plus they use sprayers to get a nice even coat on the doors. They were then scheduled to return on January 19th with the completed doors and drawers, and paint the actual cabinets that day. Initially, a 3 month wait felt like for.ev.er. I was anxious to get the cabinets painted, but also knew that 3 months would give us some time to do any other updates in the kitchen that we wanted!

Granite, Lighting, Backsplash Oh My!

So I know I started this post by sharing that if I ONLY got to paint my cabinets I would be a happy camper. However, John shared with me that we would most likely only be updating our kitchen once, to do it right. In other words… YOLO! We decided that we would update the counter tops, backsplash, and lighting over our dining room table, and island. Oh and with the new countertops, we can’t forget sink & faucet! Okay. I think that covers it all. Oh wait. Also the pantry door. Okay NOW we are done. If you give a mouse a cookie… She’s going to want a new chandelier I’m just saying. 😂

First item: Lighting

At this point in our journey, I knew that I wanted something farmhouse style, but wasn’t entirely sure of whether I wanted to go antique farmhouse, or modern farmhouse. Antiques from our grandmother’s generation have a solid place in my heart, but I also felt drawn to some of the pretty champagne gold accents I have been seeing trending lately. We went to a few lighting places in SA that John works with, but nothing was really meshing.

At the end of October we planned to go to Warrenton Antique Days, and it was there that I fell in love with 2 lighting pieces, and a set of hardware that absolutely solidified the fact that our kitchen would be Antique Farmhouse. Obsessed was an understatement. Our island light was handmade by a farmer couple, out of products from their BARN. How cool is that?! The chandelier above our table, was exactly what I had in mind for that space. Lighting & hardware. Check check. While in Warrenton I was also on the hunt for an antique door for our pantry, but could not find any that would fit, or wasn’t absolutely falling apart. We came home with no door, but more on that soon.

Next up: Granite & Backsplash

This was a BIG decision, and one I was very thrilled about making. John works with Sublime Custom Stone for all of his jobs, so there was no question about where we would go for our own personal kitchen. We fell in love with a granite from Brazil, named Blue Nile. I knew I wanted something white with some darker movement through it and this one looked so pretty. Now for the decision of backsplash.

Y’all I STRUGGLED with this one. I had fallen in love with a few white washed brick looking kitchens on Pinterest, and couldn’t get it out of my mind. But, I also knew our granite had quite a bit of movement in it, and they say if your granite is busy, your tile should be PLAIN. I discussed the choices with our tile supplier in Boerne, Cinar Interiors, and she led me to a porcelain brick like tile, named Havana Malecon. The name was representative of the streets in Cuba, which felt so cool to me. It was an old world type style, and I fell in love with the color scheme. The tile comes in a few different colorways, so we took the samples back over to the granite place to set it up next to our slab, and picked one we thought would go well.

The Pantry Door

I mentioned before that I wanted to do a stained antique looking door for our pantry. With all of the white in the kitchen, and the pantry door being pretty prominent in the center, I knew I wanted a contrasting piece. We shopped in Warrenton, and we shopped at Picker’s Paradise in SA, a place with literally thousands of doors. But did not find a single one. So, what does a carpenter do? Makes one himself. We went to Lowe’s and bought the materials for our door, and John really outdid himself in building it.

Sink & Faucet

The final items I haven’t talked about yet are the sink and faucet. I would like to say I knew exactly what kind of sink I wanted, single, or double, color, or stainless. But I flat out did not know. And I debated it for quite some time. We ultimately went with a large white single basin (oh my gosh, so nice to have that undivided space!) and an antique bronze faucet. I loved the pop of color the faucet provided against the lighter colors of sink and counter. I found both of these for a very reasonable price on Amazon! You can find the sink here, and the faucet here.

3 months flew by

Being married to a contractor has lots of benefits, one of them being that my hubby was able to do A LOT of the work himself in our kitchen. 😍 He demoed our countertops, installed our sink faucet, installed the backsplash tile, built and installed our pantry door, and installed our chandeliers. I am forever grateful for all the work he put in to making this project possible! The 3 months that at first felt like forever to wait for our painting, actually kind of flew by, and allowed us just enough time to get all of those things in place before Liz’s team came in to deliver the final icing on the project!

Painting Day!!!

The much anticipated day FINALLY arrived! On January 13th, one of Liz’s team called me to let me know that they were on their way to pick up doors and drawers. I had prepared for this day by emptying out all of the drawers, and clearing off the counters. They were here when they said they would be, and worked quickly to remove the doors (labeling each piece so that they would go back in the right spot). And were out of my kitchen as fast as they came!

They returned a week later, and with a crew of 4, knocked out my entire kitchen and laundry room painting in one day. I was surprised and impressed with how quickly it was finished! They did a phenomenal job on the cabinets, and were very helpful in recommending care tips, and even left us a can of touch up paint and wax. The cabinets will have a one year warranty, so I am very happy to have that peace of mind that they will stand behind their work for so long. All in all it was such a wonderful experience.

The Final Transformation

So there you have it friends. My kitchen completely updated in the course of a few months. We are always having family over, and hosting parties and get togethers here, and the kitchen is always our main area to spend time. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen working, creating recipes for the blog, so I am excited to have an updated space to work in as well. Thank you for reading and following along, if you have any questions or want to chat about the remodel, leave a comment below or feel free to reach out on social! If you are in the San Antonio area, and considering getting your cabinets repainted, send Liz a message! Tell her Tina sent you! I can promise you will NOT be disappointed.