KITCHEN TRANSFORMATION

Kitchen phases

when we moved in we got right to work on ripping out the upper cabinets and the fleshy -colored tile from the countertops and backsplash. We weren’t ready to go all out on the kitchen flip so I got creative to make this space usable in the mean time. For the last 7 months we’ve managed and it honestly didn’t look bad. This was both a positive and a negative. The plus side of course being aestically we were achieving a pretty good look. The negative was the current look didn’t motivate us to get going on our permanent design change.

Here’s how we got by: 

1. the walls were a mess behind the cabinets. Seriously there were cereal boxes modgepodged behind them. Still confused about that...Anyway, we fixed the walls and put up two walls with a ship lap look. Really proud of both. The wall behind the sink is reused from the old entry way and guest bathroom floor I ripped up. The feature wall is Pergo flooring from lowes in the open box section. We were able to buy enough boxes to cover at only $5 per box!

2. The countertops were free scrap pieces cut to size and screwed in. They ended up looking much better than the tile and were really functional.

3. Backsplash. The backsplash is contact paper on craft foam board. It turned out so good. I measured and then cut the foam with my exacto knife. Next I wrapped the piece like a present in contact paper. Last I nailed it up for a perfect fit.

4. Lower cabinets: We kept all the lower cabinets. I sanded, primed, and painted. I cut thin boards to make the shaker style border around the doors and drawers. We got a great deal on amazon on gold pulls.

5. New sink: well old sink. $10 at the ReStore. I love it. It’s exactly what i wanted.

AND NOW 

And now we are finally doing the real kitchen work.

We bought boards at lowes for the countertops. We sanded, stained, and then sealed with three coats of poly. I love them. They look fantastic. The color and warmth are exactly what I was hoping for.

Ross soloed the kitchen backsplash. We used penny tile left over from a previous house project.

While Ross did backsplash I finished up the last of the cabinet updates. We had to make some adjustments in the cabinet/drawer design because putting handles on some of them made it impossible for some of the drawers to open. Another problem we faced was the new fridge we ordered didn’t fit into the existing fridge spot. To fit, we had to cut down back the counter and cabinets on the left side of fridge. We put in a “built-in” wine storage by screwing in some wine bottle holders from IKEA.

On the other side of the fridge we are doing open bottom storage because the dishwasher is perpendicular to those cabinets and with handles the dishwasher does not open. We will do the same concept open storage directly across by the stove because of the same type of non opening issues. So as you can see we had to get creative, but in the long run I think this will bring a lot of custom and unique character.

This kitchen is definitely not cookie cutter!

We still have a bit of finishing left, but overall our kitchen is 90 percent done and 100 percent better. Next projects to finish up is built-in banquette seating and upgrading the pantry door.