Kitchen Before and After Pictures

The kitchen was the first renovation that we tackled, and the most major to date. As I mentioned, in the dining room post, we tore down the wall  that was in between the dining room and the kitchen to really open up the space and give us a ton of much needed counter top space. I wish I had more before pictures to show you how truly awful the original kitchen was.

We gutted the old kitchen and replaced everything from the wiring, to the walls, to the floor, and even the back door. The only thing we kept was the fridge!  To see my posts about the progress of the kitchen renos, click here. We still have a few things left to do here and there (as always, it seems impossible to completely finish a room)!

See how nice and open it is without a wall there? For additional storage space (cabinet spots were limited) I bought the Belmont Kitchen Island from Crate & Barrel (pictured on the right). It gives me just the additional storage space that I need and is great to house bigger items (like my dutch ovens and baking dishes). Plus, I have a little extra "counter top" space on the top of it.

Before:

Current:

We had to keep the layout fairly similar to how it was before but tried to utilize the space to get in as many cabinets as possible. We got extra tall cabinets, and put one up in every inch that we could. We even added the small cabinet over the peninsula which is great for showcasing glasses or dinnerware.

Before:

Current:

Before: 

Current:

By getting rid of the wall stove, and putting in a microwave over the range, we added a lot more counter top and cabinet space. Cabinet space is especially essential since we don't have a pantry.

 I love the peninsula, it gives me such a large place to prep. This is where I do the majority of my prepping. It is also has an overhang for a counter top bar. We use the counter top bar every day.

Before:

 Current:

 We expanded that completely functionless area to create as much storage as possible in the peninsula and added the pendant lights over top of it.

As you can see, we still need to finish off that light switch box. We had to move the wiring that was in the wall that was torn down and add a switch somewhere, this was the best spot for it but I think we are still trying to figure out the best way to finish it off.

I keep the dog food in those two canisters since we have no pantry or place to hide it. I got the canisters from allmodernpet.com.

There you have it! It was one intense and long DIY project but it was well worth it in the end. I think it took us (us being Casey, my dad, and me) about 4 months from the time it was gutted to the time it was up and functional. That was a looong 4 months! The only professional people who worked on it were the people who installed the granite. Everything else was 100% DIY.

Done: new walls, re-wired, painted, new moulding, added light above sink and pendant lights, new granite floors, new cabinets, new appliances, new granite counter top, new sink/faucet/disposal, subway tile back splash, painted walls and ceiling, new window, new vents/switches/outlets, under cabinet lighting, new ceiling light fixture, new back door

To-do: finish off light switch, finish boxing in the cabinets in a few areas, finish off transition between stove and dishwasher, install glass in open cabinets, finished off area below back door, finish off area around the window

Visit the renovations tab to see the rest of our before and after pics! Coming next, before and afters of our finished back patio area!

Linking up to:

 

Kitchen Before & During Sneak Peak

Okay, so I hate to admit this but the kitchen isn't completely finished yet. I mean once you get it to a certain point who cares if the trim isn't painted, a couple moulding projects aren't finished and you have no glass in your cabinet doors? Well, we care, but we just haven't had the energy to do those little menial tasks. But, we are turning over a new leaf and getting back to the grind so we can finish the kitchen once and for all. For now...

So here are a some sneak peaks at the before and afters. I was going to wait until everything is finished to post any but I can't wait any longer.

Yes, those spots on the trim/door/etc are nail putty still waiting to be painted over. And, yes, that is a piece of plywood in between the stove and d/w. But, keep in mind that the only people involved in this reno were Casey, myself, my dad, and the guys who installed the granite counter tops, tyvm. So we are pretty proud of how far we have come!

Before:

Almost complete:

Close up of the window, I'd like to get a roman shade in a cute green pattern here. Maybe something in stripes? I need to cover up those jailhouse bars.

Before:

Almost complete:

Before:

Almost complete:

Before:

Almost complete:

Before:

Almost complete:

Before:

Almost complete:

New Kitchen Items

*Shopping info can be found in this post.

Dog Food Containers - They are working out quite nicely as they are airtight and keep the food fresh.

Dog Food Bowl - Love that it is unique and goes with our statement color (mat is from Target):

Pendant Lights - ET2 Caps Mini Pendants from allmodern.com. I was a little worried about buying these over the internet since I like to see things in person to get a feel for them. But, these turned out perfect. They look especially nice when turned on (they don't look yellow like in this picture, more green). Plus, the price was right as pendants can be expensive.

As you can see in this next picture, we still need to paint the trim.

Belmont Kitchen Island:

Cannisters (mugs and mug tree also from C&B):

Love the new Joy of Cooking cookbook. Amazon says PW's cookbook is on the way, can't wait to get it!

Loving...

Ikea's magnetic spice containers. My regular spice rack is completely full and I needed a way to get all my extra spices out of my cabinets (space is tight). I bought a bunch of these from Ikea and love them. I just stuck mine on the fridge but they also sell magnetic strips that you can mount on the wall.

Backsplash Project

Project: Kitchen backsplash

This is our last major project for the kitchen (finally). We're using white subway tiles from Lowe's and white grout. We're having a little trouble with figuring out how to end the tiling. Typically, you would use tiles with a bullnose edge on the ends to finish it off nicely. However, the 22 cent tiles from Lowe's don't have options for bullnose edges.

It would have been nice if we had thought of this prior to tiling at least half of the surface area. If we had, we could have gone with a different type of tile. Unfortunately, this was not the case. And really, why would it be? We always like to make a lot more work for ourselves, it seams.

So, our option is to use a bullnose tile from Lowes that will create a sort of border on the edge. We're still figuring out exactly how to go about this.

I really want to get this project done this weekend so we can put the kitchen back in a nice, working order. We shall see. The tiling itself is really a piece of cake, it's the planning (or lack thereof) that is the problem.

We can haz cabinets?

Lolspeak style. Speaking of which, our bulldog Matilda (Matty) was recently on loldogs:



Pure awesomeness. Btw, I can not take credit for the captioning, only for the picture. Alas, I am not creative enough for lolcaptions.

So, on Friday I pulled an all-day painting marathon and we now have a green kitchen (we can haz green kitshun - see? not so good).
Here it is after the first coat:


And after working all weekend, we accomplished hanging up some of the cabinets. Unfortunately for us, the cabinet place totally screwed up the corner sink cabinet. (a) It is not actually a sink cabinet, just a corner cabinet, and (b) it is 3 inches too short on both sides in the back. However, being the crafty people that we are, we managed to work it out so that we don't have to return the cabinet and wait 6 weeks for a new one. This only took about 5.6723 hours to accomplish. Hence, our slow progress.

Top cabinets are in, the dreaded corner cabinet lurks in the corner...




A little peak at the granite tile floor which, I am proud to say, Casey and I laid entirely by ourselves with our own sweat, blood and tears. And yes, I am quite sure all three of those bodily fluids went into that floor. But don't worry, no other bodily fluids are present...


I was a little apprehensive about the grout color at first. We used what appeared to be a dark grey but it ended up drying into a light grey. I was hoping for grout closer to black. However, I think this is growing on me. Plus, I have lost the energy and will to care.
Next weekend: install appliances, hang cabinet over the fridge, put together peninsula cabinets.