Kitchen Renovation

The week before this past week, I was contracted by my father to redo the kitchen of my childhood.  The kitchen that has not been updated since 1987 and still has original light fixtures.  Got an image in your head?  Here, I'll help:

Granted, I took this picture with my phone so it's not that great anyway.  You're looking at white wall paper with some light blue and pink floral-ish design, yellowy/creamy cabinets, stove, hood and oven, white laminate counters and back splash, and burnt orange "brick" linoleum floors.  Oh, and OLD lights.

My father gets lots of home magazines.  He tells me the trend is to do black counters, if you have white cabinets.  So, it was my job to make the counters black.  Well, how am I suppose to do that and leave the back splash and cabinets alone?  Yeah...so, to his surprise, I did all that.  Under $550.  The most expensive stuff being the back splash panels and cabinet hardware (the old oiled brass stuff HAD to go).  Here's a rough breakdown of what happened:

Counters- by far the easiest part of this whole deal!

1. Clean 'em good, sand them, make sure there's no dust left.
2. Do a coat of oil-based primer.  Have the guy at the paint counter tint it towards your desired color.  Let that set for 24 hours.
3. I chose to just use Rustoleum's "Hammered Metal" paint in black.  So I did 2 coats of this, allowing ample drying time in between.  Then, let it set for 24 hours. 
4. Next, it was time for 4 coats of clear, glossy polyurethane (I used the hardcore stuff for high-traffic floors...counters get a lot of action).  You have to let that stuff dry several hours in between coats.  And you have to lightly sand with some steel wool in between too.
5. I let it set for about 2 1/2 days before putting stuff back on it.

Cabinets- by far the most time consuming and challenging!

1. Take all the knobs and pulls off (25 doors and 10 drawers).
2. Take all the doors and hinges off; pull out the drawers.
3. CLEAN all the dirt and grime that's been building up for who knows how long.
4. I used a nice can of Behr self-priming paint in "Nano" white.  I wanted the white to be really crisp and clean against the black.  I did 2 coats on the cabinets, drawers, and both front and back of the doors.  That took FOREVER.
5. Once everything was dried up.  Pretty new satin nickel hardware (knobs, pulls and hinges) went on.  The doors were hung.  The drawers slid back into place.

 Back splash- lots of cutting!

1. I got these wonderful panel things from Home Depot.  They have several colors and styles.  I went with some kind of brushed nickel.  Basically, it looks like lots of tin tiles...but so much easier to install.  
2. The trickiest part is getting them cut to fit the space and cutting for the electrical outlets and other oddities.  
3. From there, I just got some adhesive (fits in a caulk gun) and just went for it.
4. After it was good and dry, I used a clear caulk around the base. 

That's it in a nutshell.  Here's the after: 
 

Keep in mind, this was, again, taken with my phone.  Hopefully, I can get the lighting, walls, floor and appliances up to date soon.  It's a start though!