Getting Things Cooking In The Kitchen

Our kitchen makeover is officially underway!  As I mentioned in my last post, we wanted to make our existing solid wood cabinets work better for us.  They are solid wood and still have a lot of life left in them, so it doesn't make sense for us to get rid of them.  But we could change them up a bit to make them the best they can be.  The first step in reworking the cabinets was to remove the gigantic microwave shelf and the appliance garage.  We hoped ditching these two things would open things up a bit and provide us with more countertop work space. 

So Adam and my dad got to work on tearing out the microwave shelf and appliance garage.  The appliance garage came out pretty easily after removing some trim around it.  The microwave shelf required a bit more muscle.  All the banging intrigued Archer and Lyla, while Jazzy didn't particularly care for it.  Adam and my dad took the bottom of the shelf off and then Adam managed to cut off the sides in a nice neat line.  Our plan is to possibly add some corbels and trim around the cut portions to help finish off the raw edge of the cut part.  And of course we'll be painting the cabinets, which will help it look more finished. 

Even with just tearing some things out of the kitchen, it already looks so much better!  It looks bigger and more spacious.  And there's more useable countertop space.  It's amazing how a simple change can make such a big difference!  Check out the before and after below: 

You might also notice we got our over the range microwave installed too!  And by we I mean Adam and my dad.  I did absolutely nothing to help.  My mom and I took the kids out to lunch and when we got back it was already installed!  They did have some electrical issues to figure out, but luckily my dad is an electrical engineer.  And Adam's gotten quite a bit of electrical experience under his belt from doing other projects around our house.

Getting rid of our microwave shelf meant we needed to find a new home for our microwave.  We didn't want to use precious countertop space, so we opted for an over the range model.  I was slightly worried it would impede on the stove top, but the low profile model we chose still allows plenty of space.  It doesn't take up any more space than the hood did.  It works perfectly for our kitchen. 

The next step in our kitchen remodel process was to nail down the countertops and backsplash tile.  We are happily hiring out these two tasks and both should be completed by mid-December.  We decided on a very pretty gray and white dolomite for the countertops and a gorgeous blueish/greenish/grayish scallop tile for the backsplash. 

Getting the backsplash tile proved to be quite the scavenger hunt.  I originally saw the tile at Home Depot.  The company that is installing our countertops and backsplash said they could order the same tile directly from the distributor.  Luckily the designer working with us thought to order a sample of the tile to make sure it's the same as the tile I saw at Home Depot.  It turns out that it is similar but not quite the same.  The original tile we saw is more even in the color tones.  The sample tile that was ordered had a little more variance with the colors.  So if we wanted the original tile, we would need to get it from Home Depot. 

Of course our local Home Depot didn't have enough sheets of the tile.  We looked online at several other Home Depots and one about 45 minutes from was supposed to have 80 sheets.  We figured that would be our best bet at getting enough of the tiles in the finish we liked best.  Well, it turns out there was a combination of the two styles of tiles at that store.  They were very similar, but you could tell they were different when they were side by side.  Adam and I decided that since we were paying so much money for this project, we wanted it to be done right.  So we went to several other Home Depots and rounded up all of the tiles available in the Kansas City area.  Then we sorted them into the two different types in our family room.  We were able to get enough of the original tile we liked.  So we returned the other set of tile.  Whoever ends up buying that tile really owes us for rounding up all of it in one place! 

Whew!  Luckily, getting our sink and faucet were far less complicated.  We just ordered both online from Home Depot and they were delivered right to our house.  We decided to get a single basin, stainless steel sink with an offset drain.  After reading some reviews of single basin sinks, we noticed a lot of people talking about issues with water not draining properly.  Hopefully getting a drain that is offset to one side will allow more of a slope for the water to run down.

I love the faucet we ordered!  It's very sleek and it has a matte black finish.  It was significantly less expensive than some of the other ones I was looking at because the brand is not as well known as some of the others out there.  But after doing some research, I found this model had good reviews and the brand itself seemed to have good reviews overall.

The sink, faucet, and backsplash tile are waiting in our basement for mid-December when it will all get installed!  I'm super excited for that step!  In the meantime, Adam is going to work on adding some trim detail to our cabinets.  Things are certainly moving along!   

It's Time for a Kitchen Makeover!

I am so very excited about what's about to go down in our kitchen!  Adam and I have plans to make some updates to our kitchen to make it a little more us.  We don't have the budget to completely redo everything, but we do have some money set aside to make some updates that will completely change the feel of the kitchen.  Here's a little glimpse of the look we're going for:

But before I talk about where we're headed, let's take a look back at where our kitchen started.  When we moved into our house, the kitchen was definitely dated.  There was pink backsplash tile, some very cheap-looking laminate wood flooring, and grimy white walls.  There were also a lot of gigantic features that made our tiny kitchen look even smaller.  There was a huge florescent light box in the center of the kitchen ceiling, a rather large light fixture above the sink, and the biggest microwave I've ever seen in my life.  Here's a blurry picture of our old kitchen in all its glory.  I don't even think a non-blurry picture would have made it look any better.

To continue to big theme, there was also a grand swagged chandelier in our little eat-in kitchen area.   

Adam and I didn't waste any time getting rid of some of that ugliness in our kitchen.  I wrestled that gigantic microwave into the garage on the first day we had possession of the house.  Adam ripped up the old flooring.  We tackled taking down the florescent light and getting rid of the pink backsplash together.  

Next, we turned our attention towards making the kitchen livable for us.  We had hardwood flooring installed throughout our entryway, dining room and kitchen to help unify all the spaces.  We moved the large light fixture above the sink to our entryway and replaced it with a smaller, more appropriate-sized one.  

We added a mosaic tile backsplash, which tested our young marriage in ways we had never experienced before.  I spray-painted the 80's brass cabinet handles and hinges with brushed nickle spray paint.  Finally, we put up a fresh coat of paint.  

Given our budget and limited DIY skills, we were very happy with the result.

Flash-forward 6 years and we're ready to make some changes.  We feel pretty confident in the direction we'd like to take our kitchen after living with it for a good chunk of time.  There are a few things we want to make sure we address.  We feel like the wood cabinets and the hardwood flooring are too similar in color.  There's not a lot of difference between the two so our kitchen feels very heavy and dark.  We aren't in love with our Corian countertops and we especially hate the white Corian sink.  The backsplash tiling job looks pretty amateurish and we don't love the tiny mosaic look anymore.  

So, we have been working on a plan to makeover our kitchen!  Here are the major components we'd like to accomplish: 

1.  Get new countertops.  We've been looking mainly at quartz since they are easy to care for, but also saw a pretty sweet slab of dolomite that just might change our minds.  

2.  Have a new backsplash installed.  Adam and I have decided tile work is just not in our skill set, so we'll definitely be hiring someone else to do this job.  We're leaning towards picking a bright blue-ish color in a fun shape.  We've seen some fun scallop and hex tiles we like so far, but aren't sold on one in particular.  

3.  Paint the cabinets light gray.  We like the idea of differentiating the cabinets from the hardwood flooring and think paint will do the trick.  We are planning on using chalk paint since you don't have to sand the cabinets before painting and it's non-toxic and virtually odorless.  While I love the idea of white, after seeing little graham cracker hand prints all over our house, I think gray might be a better option.   

4.  Make some minor modifications to the existing cabinets.  The shelf that previously held the world's largest microwave takes up a ton of wall space.  So we bought a low profile microwave/hood combination to put over our stove.  This will allow us to remove the microwave shelf and allow for more open space.  It's hard to use the countertop above the current microwave shelf because it comes down so low and juts out so much.  Removing it will open things up visually, but also allow us to better utilize the countertop below.  We also decided to remove the appliance garage.  After visiting the last countertop showroom, the designer there convinced us it would open things up and give us more counter space.  Adam also wants to rework the woodwork above the sink.  The wavy design drives him crazy and he'd love to showcase some of his woodworking skills in that spot.  He also wants to add some trim pieces to the ends of the cabinets and the peninsula to add a little more visual interest.

5.  Paint the walls a lighter, cooler color.  Neither Adam nor I enjoy the creamsicle color of our kitchen and family room.  When we picked it our, we were trying to find a color that would go with the chocolate brown color of our living room and the cream color of the hallways.  We've since decided a light gray or blue is more our speed and will still coordinate with the other rooms visible from the kitchen.  

6.  Find a new light fixture for our eat-in kitchen.  We still have the light fixture that came with the house.  It's too big and heavy for the space, so we'd like to find something better suited for our small area with standard-height ceilings.  Since we have a smaller table in that area, there's also no need for it to be swagged, so we're looking for a fixture that can hang straight down.  We've found a few we like, we just have to narrow it down.  

7.  Replace the cabinet handles and hinges.  I tried to convince Adam I could just spray paint the existing handles and hinges again, but I couldn't talk him into it.  The hinges have definitely not held the spray paint well.  The handles have held up well, but Adam feels like we need something a little more our style.  I can agree with him there.  I definitely wouldn't pick the handles we have now given the choice.  

8.  Replace the window treatments in the kitchen and eat-in kitchen.  While I still adore the roman shade I made from our old faux-wood blinds, it won't quite jive with the rest of the kitchen.  So I'll likely make another one using fabric that coordinates with our new kitchen.  We've also decided to replace the faux-wood blinds in the eat-in kitchen with some bamboo shades.  We love the look of the one we added to our half bathroom, so we'll get some more for the eat-in kitchen.  I like that you can open them all the way up to let in lots of light and keep exploring hands off of the shades.  

9.  Replace the sink and faucet.  Since the Corian sink and countertops are all one piece, we'll have to replace it along with the countertops.  We are going to go with a single basin in a stainless steel finish.  While we're at it, we'd also like a new faucet.  We're trying to find the perfect matte black faucet that doesn't cost a fortune.  

I'm so excited to get the ball rolling and can't wait to share the progress along the way!