Tag Archives: Formica

Meanwhile…

We are still working on finishing the backsplash
in our kitchen. Well, I should say Michael Luke is still
working. He is doing an amazing job but it’s hard for him to
find the free time to finish it up so it may be another week or two
before I post finished pictures. Meanwhile… Remember back at the
beginning of the year? When we replaced our kitchen
counters with Formica 180 FX in Dolce Vita. Well,
our kitchen counters weren’t the only thing we replaced.
We figured while we were at it why not replace the counters in the master bath as well.
Replacing the counters was already on our To-Do list. So
since we were already paying for labor and the additional cost for
the actual material wasn’t that much extra we decided now was as
good a time as any. Our white porcelain sinks looked so beautiful with the Dolce Vita counters that I had to add more white accents. Like the family picture of us in the
white frame.
You may have noticed in the picture above that there is a small strip of wood exposed underneath the counter. This is because our new counters sit 3/4″ higher than our previous ones. This small change in height
might have frustrated some people but for me it was the go ahead to
paint our existing cabinets a beautiful white. In case you
are wondering I haven’t been secretly working on painting them yet.
Priority numero uno is to finish the kitchen first and then
maybe work on sprucing up the master bath some more. I was loving the white accents so much that I swapped out the pottery
that Noah’s supplies used to sit on for this beautiful Vera Bradley
tray. I also relocated this keepsake frame with our room key from the first night of our honeymoon at The Peabody. The white just looks so amazing on the
counters that I can’t get enough of it right now!
Future plans for the bathroom include painting the cabinets and walls as well as installing new floor tile throughout the entire bathroom. To be honest
though, I don’t see any of that happing too soon. We need to
finish the kitchen first and then we will have a better idea of a
timeline. Meanwhile… Do you have any projects that require more
of your free time to finish them? Are you getting any of the snow
from the storm that is pummeling through the north east. I
don’t know what we would do if we ever got that much snow at one
time. Just a half an inch of snow shuts down the entire city
here in Birmingham!

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The “Sweet” Reveal

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I once had a teacher that said, ” Excuses are for losers”. And while it has some truth to it I can’t help but share my excuse for taking so long to get this post up. Life. Yeah, it just happens like that. Things get super busy and end up going not as you originally planned and some things just have to take a back seat. Things like… editing the pictures for this post and then actually writing the post.

One of the things that has been keeping us super busy is our adoption process. I don’t want to go into detail yet since that would be a totally different tangent than how the post originally started out and I would probably yet again let another day pass without sharing our kitchen counter reveal. So here it is… with as few words as possible because let’s face it we all would much rather see the pictures than here me ramble. 🙂
Ok, let’s pause for just a second. In case you are new to the blog or might have forgotten the counters are actually laminate. Gasp! That’s right laminate. We chose Formica 180fx in pattern Dolce Vita for kitchen renovation.

We love it! One of the reasons we chose this pattern was because of all the striations in it. It really helps to lengthen and elongate our somewhat small kitchen. Another reason we chose Formica 180fx is because of it’s price point. It comes in under both granite and solid surface counters but still has that high end look. Which is what we were after… with out the big price tag. Because sometimes spending the big buck just doesn’t make ~~sense~~ cents.
We chose to extend our new counters all the way to the wall versus having a back splash like our previous counters. It gives me a little extra counter space but most importantly will look sharp with a white subway tile backsplash extending all the way down to the counters.

Noah photo bomb. She was practically in the kitchen the whole time I was shooting. I just tried to work around her for the most part.

Our white sink really pops against the darker counters. Which totally build my excitement for the addition of the white back splash! formica dolce vita The Dolce Vita laminate has an etchings finish to it. Which gives it more of realistic stone feel but doesn’t have a bad hand to it.

Now for a look back at where we started and what we have left in the project we call Operation Bring Sunshine to the Kitchen.

Before:
Kitchen In Progress:

What’s Left to Do:

Operation Bring Sunshine to the Kitchen

~~new countertops~~
paint upper and lower cabinets
under cabinet lighting
~~new refrigerator~~
~~new above range microwave oven~~
paint walls
tile backsplash
add cut out to pantry door
clean grout in tile floor
new hardware for cabinet doors and drawers
replace ceiling fan and light

What do you think of the Formica 180fx? Can you see considering this as one of your options for new counters? To be honest if I spent the big bucks I would splurge on a solid surface counter instead of granite. My heart swoons for Corian’s Witch Hazel. Let’s just say there is a hospital out there covered in it right now because I love it so much!

Are you a dark or light counter person? If you could splurge or already have which would you prefer… solid surface or granite? Do you know that some solid surface actually prices out higher than granite?

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Cut That Out

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Last week, I mentioned that our kitchen counters had a story of their own. A story I really could have done without but have tried to find the silver lining in it and have learned to be thankful for what I do have. Ok… enough rambling and onto the story.

So back on January 7 our new kitchen counters came in. ML left for work that morning so excited that when he came home there would be new counters. Counters that looked like this…

Formica180fx_3420_DolceVita

Formica 180FX Dolce Vita.

I was excited too and so pumped when the installers showed up on time and ready to work. I had been a little nervous all morning because thoughts kept creeping in my head like… what if they ordered the wrong pattern? Or what if it doesn’t look good.

Thankfully, the correct pattern was ordered. Whew! And thankfully they looked ~~good~~ amazing. Amazing until the installers took my beautiful Dulce Vita counters outside to cut the sink cutout…. for a double bowl sink that I don’t have. No double checking or measuring before cutting. Nope. They just cut a big hole in my counter and then brought it inside only then to realize their mistake. This was not very “sweet”.

kitchen dolce vita

I was heartbroken. Michael Luke was at work but his response to the picture was, “That’s beautiful and hideous all at the same time.” And it was the truth. There was no fixing it because the hole extended over my junk drawer (does everyone have one of those) and my utensil drawer.

The installers felt pretty bad about their mistake so I didn’t give them a hard time. Even though for a minute or two I wanted to scream at them. Especially when one of the guys said that it would only take about a week to get a new counter in.

A week! These took six weeks because they were special ordered.

After the damage was done they left promising to return in a few weeks with my new counters for a single bowl sink. They left. They left without putting my existing counter back on and reinstalling my sink. Was I supposed to just take a break from cooking until my new counters came in? I’ll answer that one for you. NO!

Thankfully, ML stopped by Lowe’s on his way home the next day and explained to them what had happened with pictures for evidence. They apologized and promised to send someone back out to fix me a temporary solution until my new Dolce Vita counters came in. The guy they sent was really nice. He reinstalled my old counter and sink and commended me on being patient the past couple of days… more patient than his wife would have been. I was thankful to at least have a sink and dishwasher back in working order. Especially, since I had been using my half bath sink for cooking and washing dishes for the past several days. That experience reminded me that I should be thankful that I have kitchen with running water and a dishwasher. That I don’t have to walk miles everyday just to find fresh water. That here in America we really do live the life of luxury.

Yesterday, Lowe’s brought my new counters for the second time. I’m pretty sure they triple measured them before cutting them this go around. Everything went smoothly and now I can’t wait to get the kitchen back in order and show you the true reveal pictures of our kitchen with our new Formica 180FX Dolce Vita counters.

Have you had any projects go not as expected recently? Has a mishap in one of your projects reminded you what you have to be thankful for? Or maybe you are just thankful that yours always goes smoothly because any other way would just be horrible. Haha!

P.S. Want to follow along on our kitchen update but think you might have missed a post? Check out these posts where we shared our kitchen idea board, kitchen budget breakdown, new microwave, and new refrigerator and how we chose our kitchen counters.