Oh my decorating & designing goodness, this kitchen remodeling project was a doozy!
Our home is my childhood home, and I realize I’ve gone full circle in my house to home life. Familiarity and fabulous memories from the past, the nail & hammer present, and the next generation future offers a comfort we can, and are, easily living with.
Design tweaks, adjustments, and repurposes have been met and mastered.
Eight foot ceilings I love to hate have been embraced, especially when the architect gave us his bid on raising these puppies two feet.
Heavy, and I mean h-e-a-v-y five figures later, that’s a big negatory!
Please excuse the fact that I can’t help myself with the homage to the song Convoy from the 1970s.
Casey Kasam’s Classic American Top 40 is on the radio, and between the before pictures and the flashback tunes, I am swimming in 70s nostalgia.
The kitchen is a multipurpose high traffic area of the home, and ours is no different.
When my parents built the house in 1965, the kitchen was a design marvel among the ranch house set. It underwent two decor remodels that simply did not stand up to the test of time or design.
When we took a real look at the kitchen as the present homeowners, we realized this space needed some space.
To give you some idea of what we were working with, I am posting before and way,way before pictures of the space in question.
The first order of demo was to take down the wall at the end of the kitchen as seen in the first picture of me with my paternal grandparents.
Immediately after the first demo we tore down the breakfast bar, broom closets, and cabinet built ins shown in top right picture.
My thought process was to incorporate the formal dining room space into the kitchen. I’m all about removing walls to open up a space.
We are picture deficient of the demo process. Just imagine dirt, dust, and chaos.
You get the picture.
Dave and crew salvaged, saved and strategically placed existing cabinets in with purchased solid wood prefabricated cabinets.
Dave removed the door and drawer fronts off both the old and new cabinets. He ordered sixty MDF cabinets doors and twenty-nine MDF drawer fronts.
He primed all with oil base KILZ interior oil stain block and primer, and finished out the cabinetry in Sherwin-Williams Pure White.
The wall color is (was) Sherwin-Williams Anjou Pear.
Counter tops were born from sheeting the new cabinet tops with 3/4 ” CDX plywood as the base. I selected MS International 12″ square granite tiles for the counter tops.
For the backsplash, we went with 12 X 12 ceramic paired with 6″ copper half round rope metal molding wall tiles.
Slab granite was definitely a consideration, but the $$$ difference between the two is money we can spend elsewhere.
Dave won the “discussion” of bull nose vs. wood trim for the counter top front edging.
Dave dressed up the upper cabinets, existing fluorescent light fixture, and ceiling molding with decorative molding from Home Depot.
The Sub-Zero refrigerator was moved from our previous home and repainted to match the new cabinets on site.
A casing was built to house the refrigerator to match the new cabinets. Dave repurposed the doors as side casing decoration, adding them to the refrigerator casing.
We removed the original windows and installed Pella replacement windows from Lowe’s.
I knew from the get- go I wanted 13″ X 13″ ceramic floors with the tiles laid diagonally, and I am thrilled with the result.
I was adamant the original Baccarat crystal chandelier my mother selected forty years ago fit into the overall look.
The breakfast area chandelier is from Lamps Plus, and the pendant light from Home Depot.
Amerock cabinet hardware was purchased on clearance from Lowe’s.
Let’s build something and save money while doing it together, Lowe’s!
Both corbels framing the window above the sink and the ceiling medallion were purchased from Wish I Had That.
And now, without further ado, may we present a preview picture of our new kitchen.
****UPDATED****
Click on the picture to begin the updated kitchen remodeling project tour
