Our Kitchen Renovation
From dungeon to haven, we love our new kitchen.
When house hunting, we saw finished kitchens that we didn't like.
When we stepped into this kitchen, we got excited.
To everyone else, it was a small, dark, ugly creature. To us, it was a blank slate, begging to be renovated.
Weston's family helped us with demolition.
Weston did most of the installation work himself, tirelessly laboring after work for weeks in order to get it finished before we moved in, while I was at home with our new baby!
We carefully came up with the design together.
Since it's a small, galley kitchen we knew the had to pick colors to make it brighter and thus seemingly bigger.
White was a given. After many discussions and compromises we decided on a white/grey marbled counter top and added a pop of color to the white kitchen with a light green bottom cabinet.
The green we chose was used in the two homes I grew up in, which makes my new house feel like home.
We originally wanted marble counter tops, but then we found out they are very high maintenance and easy to stain. No thank you!
We went with quartz, a highly durable material that still gives you a smooth finish. We found a style that has the marble look we wanted. Win, win!
Carolina Custom Surfaces offered a reasonable price and did a fantastic job with installation and minimal seams.
At first we wanted a unique, white tile backsplash, but after seeing the dramatic price differences and how our preferences were not that different, we went with the classic subway tile!
It was surprisingly affordable.
"Let's line all our walls with subway tile!" - Weston
We went with a grey grout to give contrast to all the white.
We were torn between a farm sink and modern sink. We went with the modern sink to unite the kitchen to the rest of the house style, which is somewhat midcentury modern/ Scandinavian look (think Ikea).
One of the best decisions we made was OPENING THE DOORWAY! Weston's family (who have worked in construction) suggested we do not knock the entire wall down (since there was plumbing behind the wall), but rather enlarge the doorway, which matches the enlarged doorway to our living room.
Just look at that difference!
Much more open and bigger.
On the other side that wall was a cabinet. We took it down, which gave us room to open the doorway, and free space to make the kitchen feel more open when you walk in.
The removal of this cabinet allowed more room to the doors leading to our outdoor porch. We were going to paint the doors an accent color, but ultimately decided on white, to create a seamless look.
We chose a sliver handle to replace the gold one, since it matched our appliances.
We got a new stove! We moved the microwave to the other side of the kitchen and added a range hood instead. We like the function and look of it.
We considered installing open shelving to make the kitchen feel even more open, but I knew keeping up with shelf organization would be unrealistic. I like to hide my mess when possible, especially when I'm chasing after a little one all day.
We kept the cabinets and painted them white to save money and materials. The process was much more involved than we expected, but it turned out beautifully.
In the "before kitchen" the light would flicker on with a horrible buzzing noise that brought you back to a dreary school cafeteria. We replaced them with recessed lighting and a modern light above the sink.
We replaced the floors with a tile that looks like wood and removed the popcorn ceiling.
We removed a rather large cabinet that stood right when you walked in, blocking the view of the kitchen and making it feel smaller than it was.
So far we do not miss the extra cabinet space, and we love the extra open space.
and there you have it!
Seeing the difference from the original kitchen to our current kitchen is amazing! The process was a long one, but definitely worth it. We love our new kitchen and have already started making wonderful memories cooking dinners with friends.
Sources:
Floor & Backsplash - Lowes
Lighting - Home Depot
Appliances - AJ Madison
Paint & Primer - Sherwin Williams
Countertop - Carolina Custom Surfaces