Kitchen Reno Part IV: The End Result
Happy Sunday everyone! It's a beautiful afternoon, and I'm so happy to be home on the couch with all the windows open just soaking up these last days of summer. Also, my cat keeps trying to hold my hand right now and it's adorable. He doesn't want me to pet him, he just wants to hold my hand. BFFs!
Today I'm going to share the best part of our kitchen renovation saga - the end result! If you've been following my blog, you've seen my posts about the before, prepping for the renovation, and the renovation itself!
It's been a long and arduous journey, but truthfully not nearly as challenging as I thought it was going to be. The hardest part of the entire thing for me was living with the clutter and disarray that comes with any reno, and the lack of a kitchen to prepare meals in. We ordered a lot of takeout, and it's difficult to stay healthy when you do that.
In this post I'll share lots of before and after pictures, and try and answer some of the key questions we had prior to the renovation.
Layout Before & After:
Below is the layout of our kitchen before the reno. The fridge was located outside the kitchen at the top of the basement stairs. The cabinets wrapped around the wall and bordered the door, making it feel very closed in. The dishwasher opened up into the sink area, making it impossible to rinse and load the dishwasher at the same time. The sink was also not centered under the window. The far side of the kitchen had no counter space or cabinetry. The large square in the corner that you see is the chimney, which you'll see we couldn't remove. We were able to gain a few extra inches by redoing the drywall over it, but unfortunately it's still there
If you want more details on the "before," check out this post!
This is what the new kitchen layout looks like:
We removed the cabinets from the wall next to the door, making it feel more open and spacious We didn't loose counter space or storage though - we added upper and lower cabinets on the wall that used to be empty. We also moved the fridge to that wall with storage above it. In the space outside the kitchen where the fridge used to be, we created a pantry. We moved the dishwasher to the area next to the sink, and centered the sink under the window. Lastly, we removed the soffit that ran along the ceiling above the old cabinets, which allowed us to run the cabinets all the way up. It makes a huge difference!
This is obviously a very small space (roughly 10x10) and removing walls wasn't an option for us. We did what we could to maximize the space and make it feel more open and airy. The space in the center of the kitchen is rather large, so you'll see in the photos below we ended up adding a rolling kitchen cart. It's perfect for extra counter space, and if we need more space during a party we can just roll it out of the way!
How long did the renovation take?
From demo through painting, the renovation took about 5 weeks to complete. That was exactly what our contractor had predicted! The workers were at our house at least five days a week, sometimes more, from 7 am until about 4 pm.
Where did we get our appliances?
We bought our appliances from both Sears and Costco. Check out my breakdown of our appliances and what I like and don't like in this blog post.
Did we stay within budget?
Yes we did! Despite a handful of unexpected costs, we came in right at our budget. We even spent more money on the counters than we original intended, but we still stayed on target. Yay! Those HGTV nightmare renovations aren't the standard after all.
Before/After Photos:
Sink & Dishwasher Before:
Sink & Dishwasher After:
Dishwasher Location Before:
Dishwasher Location After:
Empty Wall & Fridge Nook Before:
Empty Wall & Fridge Nook After:
Pantry Area/Fridge Nook Before:
Pantry Area/Fridge Nook After:
Backsplash Before:
Backsplash After:
Counters Before:
Counters After:
What's In Our Kitchen:
I hope you love the products I recommend! Just so you know, My Ocean State of Mind may collect a share of sales from some (not all) of the links below.
We obviously went for a very neutral palette in this kitchen just to make sure it would appeal to buyers in the future when we sell our house. For now, I'm enjoying accessorizing the space with little pops of color. I've picked out some of my favorite kitchen accessories and shared them below!
Hardware: Oil Rubbed Bronze Drawer Pulls & Knobs. These aren't the same exact ones we have, but they are very similar!
Light Fixtures:
Over the sink:
Pantry Area: It looks like the same light we ordered is no longer available, which is sad because I'd love to put it in my next house! Luckily, I found the one below which is very similar:
Faucet:
Cabinets: White Shaker Style Cabinets from Builder's Surplus.
Paint: The wall color we chose was Sherwin William's Requisite Grey, and the trim was Valspar in Whisper Softly. We chose Requisite Grey because it's a nice neutral "greige" color that's all the rage right now, and we thought it'd be great for resale.
Artwork:
The artwork is from this awesome Etsy shop called Brixton Creative. We love movies, so just about everything on the walls of our home is a reference to movies we enjoy. In our kitchen we have:
Napoleon Dynamite Print:
Home Alone Print:
Dumb and Dumber Print:
Other kitchen items I own and love:
There you have it! The before & after of our kitchen renovation. What the photos don't capture is that amazing brand-new-kitchen smell. The old stinky brown kitchen is gone forever! I couldn't be happier with how everything turned out.
I think that just about covers everything! If you are about to undergo your own kitchen renovation, I wish you the best. If I missed anything or if you have any questions, let me know in the comments below!
