Metamorphosis Monday is hosted by Susan at Between Naps On The Porch. Please visit her site for a list of this week's participants.
Gosh, it's been 10 -- TEN! -- days since I've sat down and written a post, so I thought I'd better do a little blurb for Met Monday. Here are some before and after pics of the cabinet beneath my cooktop:
Is this ugly or what???
I took this pic a few weeks ago, after painting the outsides of my cabinets, but before removing the old cooktop. All that space-gobbling metal ducting is the exhaust vent for the triple-wide Jennaire cooktop that came with the house 22 years ago. The shelves are particle board, and had gotten chipped and stained over the years: in some places the surface was beginning to disintegrate from having wet pans and cutting boards placed on it.
We removed the old Jennaire before replacing the countertops and cooktop. Tearing out the metal ducting was one heck of a difficult -- and nasty/greasy -- job for my handyman/electrician/plumber. The original installer put that ducting in to stay! When it was finally gone, there were two gaping holes left behind -- one in each shelf, where the ducting passed through. We covered the holes with thin sheets of roof flashing attached with Gorilla Glue (amazing stuff!), and then I resurfaced both shelves with cheapie peel-and-stick linoleum tile.
Look at all that space!
The best thing about this project is that anyone can do it. The tile is the least expensive self-stick tile available at Lowe's ... I think I paid 42 cents per square foot. It's thin but not brittle, so it's super easy to trim with a razor blade or scissors. And because it's sort of soft and flexible, it molded itself over the small rise of the metal patches and the edges of the tiles still stuck nicely to the shelves. It took me less than an hour to do the two shelves, and Ray spent 5 minutes or so adding a little DAP around the side and back walls of the cabinet.
Not bad for a quick Sunday afternoon re-do, and it looks like a million bucks!
