I've been working on my kitchen remodel for the past six weeks, so I guess it's time to post a few pics and start telling the story. Here's a bit of background:
Our home was built in 1986, and we're the original owners. We moved in at the end of February 1987. It's a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom home, with formal living and dining, plus a large family room, indoor laundry room, and breakfast room, about 2400 s.f. total, single story, slab foundation. The family room, kitchen, and breakfast room run along the back of the house, with the kitchen in the middle, divided from the other 2 rooms with upper and lower cabinets.
Looking through kitchen from breakfast room to family room
Looking into the kitchen from the family room.
Yes, it's messy :o) The fridge broke the day before I took these pics, so all of the stuff that had to be kept cold is in two large coolers on the breakfast room table, and everything else is spread across the counters.
As you can see, we have the original builder's "custom" cabinets, which are unstained/unvarnished ash, rubbed with Danish Oil. That's how they were intended to look, and they needed to be oiled several times each year. We've talked about replacing them since the day we moved in, 22 years ago, but have never gotten around to it.
For the past few years, we've avoided the issue because we've been planning to move out of state. You know what they say about the best laid plans ... my mother died 2 years ago (and I'm still probating her estate), and then my 94 year old father-in-law passed away on Halloween last fall. Prior to that, we were certain we would move by the end of this year. Now -- to remain driving distance close to my mother-in-law -- we know we'll be here for another 1 to 3 years. And the kitchen was making me nuts!
One side of the kitchen is a U-shaped counter, against the outside wall. We put in Pergo floors 3 or 4 years ago, and absolutely love them! The white wooden baseboards need painting, due to Swiffer scrapes and scuff marks.
More messies, due to the broken fridge (which was repaired, but it took 3 weeks to get the part!). This large window is bumped out over the patio, and collects a lot of junk. The sink and tile are original and need to be replaced.
Dishwasher looks great and works well, but is getting old. I had planned to keep it, but after working on the kitchen for the past six weeks, have decided to replace it since I'll have a plumber here to put in the new sink and disposal.
When I took this pic, I must have been trying to hide the coolers on the other side of the counter :o) The stainless steel Jenn Air cooktop came with the house ... 4 burners plus an electric BBQ grill in the center, with a downdraft vent. Loved the BBQ (it was so much faster than charcoal), hated the weak vent (which broke several years ago and hasn't been repaired), and we replaced both two-burner units 2 or 3 years ago, due to discoloration. We're replacing the cooktop with a smaller 5 burner solid-glass cooktop, and are looking forward to gaining a LOT of lower cabinet space when the large metal conduit and downdraft exhaust fan are removed.
Ugly overhead fluorescent light fixture, though not as bad as some. It's huge ... you can only see 1/3 of it here. To hold down costs, it will stay.
The opposite wall -- from left to right -- holds a pantry, the fridge (love my bottom freezer!), upper/lower cabinets, and a double oven. The door between the breakfast room and the laundry room is on the far left.
My original plan for this spot was to add an appliance garage where the free-standing Lowe's cabinet is on the countertop (which we use for bread). I know that I want to make this countertop contrast with the countertops on the other side of the kitchen, and am thinking about using black slab marble.
Double ovens, installed less than 5 years ago. Baseboards are dusty, and I've already started priming the tiny wall next to the oven.
Looking through breakfast room from laundry room door. There's a fabulously huge bay window and a lovely coffered ceiling above the table. Window treatments, wall decor, and most of the molding has already been removed.
Bookshelf is moving out, as is the ceiling fan. All of these pics are so messy, because I'd started doing some of the prep -- and generally moving stuff around -- before I took the photos.
So ... it's late December and the kitchen is screaming for attention. I'm tired of the yellow walls, and tired of a cooktop that takes up so much space but only has 4 working burners. I'm thinking of painting the kitchen walls and ceiling a light buttery cream, to match one wall in the family room, plus the entry hall, the hallway in the bedroom wing, and the master bathroom. I've been longing for bright white kitchen cabinets, like the ones I had in my previous studio/office. And I definitely want wallpaper in my breakfast room again ... I LOVE wallpaper and the ambiance it creates.
To kick things off, Ray cleaned out all of the cabinets, to get rid of unused items and duplicates we don't really need. Three of the four adults in this house are serious cooks (see my What's Cooking sidebar, on the upper right of this page), so we sometimes accumulate an overabundance of kitchen toys. Once we'd sent the extras to Goodwill, we installed some nifty rolling wire baskets to help keep us organized, and I wrote a Met Monday post about it here.
While Ray was working on the rolling baskets, I started the Official Research Phase: digging through my clippings files, looking at books and magazines at Barnes & Noble, visiting model homes, building centers, and kitchen showrooms, and spending lots of time online looking at other people's kitchens. My guess is that Ray's the only person who was even mildly surprised when I did a 180 and started designing a totally different kitchen than the one we'd talked about.
Coming Up ... Inspiration Photos
