stainless steel stove for less

We have lived in our current home for about a year and a half now. We are blessed to have a large, very functional kitchen. While there is nothing actually wrong with the kitchen, I have known since we moved that I wanted to make some changes. Since we made over this kitchen I have fallen in love with bright cheery kitchens. 

Anyway, I thought I could hold out a while longer, but lately I have really been itching to get started. One of the overwhelming things about starting a kitchen update is the thought that it has to be expensive. Well, I have challenged myself to update our whole kitchen for less than $200! I mean, cabinets, counters and all! 

We shall see if it can be done! I mean a kitchen update for less than the cost of a new iPhone??? 

So, I finished my first project this weekend. I took our two tone (white and black) stove from 1993 to 2011 with........ stainless steel paint! This stove has bugged me from day one! But it works perfectly, so there was   no justification for a new one. Not to mention that blows my whole update budget more than three times over!

Enter Thomas' Liquid Stainless Steel. I had read about this stuff a while ago, but my recent itch for an update finally pushed me to make the purchase. It cost $35.00 with shipping. 

I ordered it online (http://www.liquidstainlesssteel.com/) and got in on Friday. I started the process that night. The first step was to scrub your stove. Then... scrub it again....and again....and again. This step is not fun! I ended up using lemon and baking soda to get all the grease drippings from down the sides of the stove, between the cabinets and stove. It was during this process that I made a very disturbing discovery! Warning... if you have a weak stomach like me.... look away. 

Yeah.... this little guy was in a trap that we DID NOT place! Which means he has been back there since well before we moved in! Note to self.... clean behind the stove more often. I was gagging and hubs wasn't home so I had to deal with this myself. My boys found this hilarious! Me.... not so much. I am NOT good with this kind of thing!

Anyway.... back to the point! After I figured out a way to dispose of this without ever touching it... or touching anything that touched it (figure that one out). I moved on. Obviously I scrubbed a little lot more. 

Then got started layering on coats of the stainless steel paint. The key to success with this stuff is to paint on VERY thin coats. You actually want to get that streaked look that stainless steel has. So brush on with long deliberate thin strokes. The longest part of this process is waiting for coats to dry. I would brush one on, then go watch an episode of Bones on Netflix, and repeat. Bones episodes are definitely crucial to the process. :)

I ended up doing 4 or 5 thin coats over all. I let that cure over night. It is supposed to be a minimum of two hours before you add the top coat. I then applied three coats of the clear top coat using the same horizontal strokes. I love the finished product!

See how my cabinets match that pumpkin there? Not for much longer!

Stay tuned to see if I can complete my kitchen with the $165 I have left in my budget!!!

UPDATE: Read here for further information about my experience with this paint.