Design

Before and After: Kitchen Renovation

by Elizabeth

It’s here! The big kitchen reveal! This post has been a long time coming. I’ve shared some peeks, but not the full before and after! We’re still waiting on the railing to be installed for the staircase in the back (where the chandelier is), but I couldn’t wait any longer to share it with you!

The kitchen was the most significant part of our renovation. We completely gutted the space, knocked walls, changed up the floor plan, rebuilt an archway, installed new windows – essentially a complete bottoms up of the space. And by we, I mean our wonderful friend Nick who is also a contractor, though I will take credit for the design! I picked out all the finishes and we worked together to lay out where all the cabinets and appliances would go. It has been my dream to take on an interior design project of this scale ever since I was a kid spending more time decorating my Barbie house than actually role playing. And I couldn’t be more happy with the results!

The original kitchen probably hadn’t been touched in over half a decade, aside from maybe some new appliances, but even those had to have been at least 30 years ago. The space was dark and closed off with a wall separating it from the dining room and walls enclosing the stairwell down to the lower level. So we said take them all down! Just removing the walls opened up the space so much, and taking over the breakfast nook to extend the kitchen really enlarged the space.

We found out during the inspection that there was an old brick chimney in the corner of the room that had been closed off by plaster. We thought about taking it out to regain the space but once we realized the effort (and cost) that would entail, we decided to see if we could save it to use as an accent. We were so excited to uncover that it was mostly in good condition and only need a few bricks replaced and a good cleaning. I’m so happy we saved it!

For our cabinets, we went with Semihandmade. Custom cabinets can be a big expense, and while IKEA is a good budget friendly solution (with better quality then you might expect), they don’t offer a lot of styles. I first heard about Semihandmade from this Chris Loves Julia kitchen makeover, and I was intrigued (go check out CLJ if you don’t already follow! Also they have their own Semihandmade line now!). Essentially, the concept is you use IKEA cabinet frames with Semihandmade fronts, so you get the modularity of the IKEA system with a semi-custom and more elevated look. In the end, it costs more than going all in IKEA but definitely less than completely custom!

I mentioned this in my kitchen design board post a while back, but our floors were inspired by a bathroom from Whitney of Carpendaughter. I’ve started to see a lot of people using this tile, but I think we were the only fools to do it in the kitchen, as it does show a lot of dirt. That is my only complaint, but I still love it! And I guess it makes me more aware of when things are in need of cleaning!

It is so hard to believe sometimes that this is the same house we bought nine months ago! I get so happy every time I enter the kitchen and hope you are inspired by it too!

Sources: