One Room Challenge Kitchen – Week No. 5

Hello, and welcome to week five of my One Room Challenge™  colorful kitchen remodel. We have three weeks left until the final reveal and I feel like I might finally be getting to the fun stuff (i.e. the pretty stuff.) This week we are tackling the cabinet soffit and my arch-nemesis…crown molding. These are the last tasks that need to be done before I can finish up my paint and includes a whole list of these things that need to be done in a very particular order.

If you’ll notice below I also updated my mood board to reflect the changes I made last week.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, The One Room Challenge™ is a biannual interior design blog and Instagram event. In each round, twenty design influencers are selected to take the challenge as Featured Designers, and transform a space and any blogger or Instagrammer can join as ORC Guest participants by linking their room transformation each week. Every Wednesday, the designers document their process while sharing their sources and professional advice over eight weekly posts. 

WEEK 1 / WEEK 2 / WEEK 3 / WEEK 4 / WEEK 5 (You are here)/ WEEK 6 / WEEK 7 / WEEK 8 – REVEAL

Be sure to check out other ORC Featured Designers and Guest Participants over at The One Room Challenge!

I also want to give a big thanks to Lights.com and Amerock for gifting products to help complete this project.

Here’s what I’ve been up to this week.

Build Out Soffit and Microwave Cabinet

My first task was to build a soffit for the upper cabinets but that couldn’t be done until I built out the microwave cabinet to go beneath. So, I framed out a box and even used hydraulic lift hardware (affiliate) on a door I salvaged from one of the old upper cabinets to create an authentic appliance garage.

To accommodate the microwave the cabinet needed to be 17″ deep which meant the cabinet above needed to step out a bit as well. To do this I took down the upper and built it out with a 2×6 frame attached to the studs that would then hold the cabinet out from the wall.

My one goal with the upper cabinets that remained was to fill in the gap between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling to add height. This process consists of building out a soffit, skinning it with thin plywood, and then trimming it out.

Complete Hood Venting Install

I was ready for crown and trim molding but before I could finish the crown I had to get the chimney for the hood installed and before I could do that I had to hook up the exhaust. See what I mean! So back to the attic for a project I thought was going to be fairly easy but it was was not. The firrings were not connecting as I planned and there was a lot of duct tape involved. In the end, I got it all connected so the chimney could finally be attached (semi)permanently.

Install Crown and Trim

With the soffit installed and the hood squared away I was finally ready to run that crown molding I was dreading. I will admit crown molding is a project I have struggled with in the past. There is omething about cutting the molding upside down that always gets me flustered so this time I sprung for the Kreg Crown-Pro Crown Molding Tool and took my time. This tool was a game changer for me and I have to say the crown molding didn’t turn out half bad.

Last night I even got a chance to put on a coat of paint. You know what that means? Wallpaper wont be far behind!

To-Do List

Another plus, this week I crossed off a few items on the To-Do list but didn’t add any new ones. This finally seems like real progress!

• Demo cabinets
• Peel Thermofoil and paint cabinets
• Run new electrical for lighting and hood
• Reinstall cabinet and drawer fronts
• Repair Drywall
• Paint ceiling
• Cut out old tile behind range
• Install new tile backsplash behind hood
• Build out cabinet soffit and microwave cabinet
• Prime and Paint hood
• Install hood and connect ductwork
• Remove plantation shutter and repair trim
• Trim out soffit and repair crown molding
• Paint soffit and trim
• Demo Bar top
• Cut butcherblock for shelving
• Bar top construction
• Install floating shelves
• Tile back of bar
• Install cabinet hardware
• Hang wallpaper
• Install faucet
• Install lighting
• Recover dining chair seats
• Sew roman shade