Three years ago, in spring of 2012, I started a simple kitchen makeover on a shoestring, blogging about it in three successive posts (here, here, and here) — all relevant to The Green Sheep because of the recycling theme, right? “Use what you have!”

Over this stretch of time, we have continued chipping away at the following changes:

• painting the island a “greige” color
• hanging a pendant light above the kitchen sink
• switching out the linoleum for laminate flooring
• adding a back-splash made of ceramic floor tiles

…and IT FEELS SO GREAT. Done for now. (The lamp and tiles were from our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Only the flooring was brand new.)

The back-splash was the latest project, completed this month, so I’ve got pics:

Here’s the finished product — very subtle, just as planned:

And here’s the full kitchen, as we use and love it everyday. You can see the pendant light, painted island and new flooring now. The cabinets are a bit worse for wear; I haven’t been incredibly impressed with how the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation product has held up. And yet! There’s no doubt in my mind these changes have made me a better cook ;). Also, there was no island prior to the start of this remodel. Of course, it’s now a favorite workspace and gathering spot.

At some point, I will repaint and put up new art on the walls — as one of my daughters gifted me a couple of her paintings. Woo hoo!

As long as I had made a mess in one part of the house, I decided to keep on going. This past week I’ve been working on the back hall. It was one of the earliest-painted parts of the house when we moved in, late 1990s. In my desire for color, I went for green stripes. Although it made me happy, it’s now dated. The only pic I have is this recent one, once I started repairs:

I now chose a very light gray for the walls (“Is it going to look white??” asked both a daughter and my husband separately) and painted the trim plain white. I’m going for peacefulness this time around. Here’s the same corner after patching, sanding, priming, and painting:

So there you go, an update. How about you all? Any other do-it-yourselfers who’ve got a project to report? I’d love to hear!