Kitchen Renovation Photos

Hello friends! Happy May!

We just finished a major project in our home that I'd like to share. It feels like true renewal and spring colors and breezes over here! 

Basically what happened was that we needed a 3-bedroom house, but we owned a 2-bedroom house. We love our location and our little dead-end street and we HATE MOVING, so we decided to stay put and renovate. Actually, the house originally had 3 bedrooms but the kitchen was extended into one of them. All we needed to do was wall off the kitchen again. 

Here is the kitchen side of that story!

 

BEFORE: This is standing in kitchen looking towards living room. Linoleum floor, normal door-frame, greenish paint.

Renovated: The entry has been widened, the paint is now "Cantaloupe Slice," and look at that floor! Our contractors reclaimed a lovely rustic-quality oak floor that had been buried under linoleum for 50 years. It is gorgeous.

BEFORE: Same vantagepoint but looking into the corner toward our back door.

AFTER: We now have cabinets between the entryway and the range.

 

BEFORE: Standing in the living room doorway looking toward the kitchen's north corner. (We removed all of the cabinet doors right before work started.)

 

AFTER: I am loving the new contrast of dark countertop with light cabinetry. The range was moved over several inches to fit cabinets on both sides.

 

BEFORE: Looking toward our sink & windows. Observe that HIDEOUS wood paneling over the sink.

AFTER: New sink, new lighting.

 

BEFORE: Having the huge refrigerator here was a temporary solution due to walling off the third bedroom. That blank wall on the right covers our chimney.

AFTER: New narrow profile, counter-depth refrigerator, and the chimney space was cut back to allow custom shelving to fit in.

I love the whole new kitchen so much, but there are a few little sweet features that make it extra awesome. Full thanks to the pros that helped us design and execute this project (I love contractors!)

Ridiculous that we have been living without a range hood for almost 10 years. Ventilation! Light! A clock! What an incredible invention.

Our cabinet expert squeezed in this 3-inch-wide "spice pull" next to the sink. No more sorting through layers of spice jars on a cabinet shelf. Each is completely visible when the spice pull is out, and tucked out of the way the rest of the time.

A tilt-out holder in front of the sink.

We haven't quite figured out how we'll use this, it could be great for bottle brushes or "downgraded" sponges.

Look at that bitty fridge! It is perfect for our kitchen. At first I worried we would need to keep our large fridge... because we're AMERICANS. But after just a few weeks this Summit fridge seems quite capacious.

If you leave the door ajar for too long, an alarm sounds.

The freezer section is kind of shallow, but we're working with it. It has 3 drawers and the only thing that won't really fit is the Cuisinart ice cream maker insert. I can live with that.

Trash and paper recycling get tucked away in a cabinet.

Our contractor carpentered up the shelves according to our measurements, including a catfood caddy area and feeding area below that. (I know the dishes don't quite fit. It's OK.)

This is a double-layered drawer, with a sliding top drawer that pushes back to expose another sectioned drawer beneath. Our cabinet guy said, "You'll thank me for this," and we DO. THANK YOU!

I'll do a separate post later about the third bedroom—it is occupied and loved but definitely still evolving.

I hope you enjoyed this virtual kitchen tour!