Remodeling the Kitchen. Before, In Progress and After!

Before.  

Apparently, we never took before pictures of our kitchen.

(Pictures from the WFRMLS.) 

While these pictures actually make the kitchen look nice...they are quite deceiving.  No doors, dark paint...it was kind of a dark and dreary place for a while. 

These are the true colors. 

In progress.

We did the kitchen in quite a few steps.  One day, the husband's sister was in town, she happens to love to paint.  So we painted the uppers cabinets.  I decided I don't really want doors on the uppers, so we just painted what was there.  A few months later, we were so worried that #ohniceandchubby would start pulling everything out that she could reach from the base cabinets.  So we thought we should hurry and try to get it done. 

She never did.  She still hasn't even really tried to open the cabinet doors we put on.

  

Nonetheless.  We broke the bottom part into two different, well three stages.  Right side first.  Once that was done, we moved onto the left side.  The last stage was a bar, that I need to just clean up to take a picture. 

We couldn't afford new flooring, so we just kept the slate.  The husband ripped out the old cabinets and figured all the new cabinets out.  We bought our cabinets from Lowe's.  They are the unfinished already built cabinets.  We had priced out new doors to try to keep the existing bases, but they were too expensive and would have to be custom built.  It was just ridiculous.  So we signed up for the Lowe's card and got going.  

When I was feeling well enough (of course I'm always painting while pregnant and nauseous.) I painted the cabinets "Ridgeview," which is what we've accented all throughout the house. 

Our countertops are Beech Butcher Block from Ikea.  I almost had a heart attack during the whole process.  Ikea had just decided to discontinue their full butcher block line and was converting over to a semi-laminate butcher block.  Which, I didn't like.  So we bought what they had left, which was just barely NOT enough (as you can see just above just to the right.) We just hoped that we could think of something along the way.

A few days later, I got a wild hair and decided to call and see if they had anyone who just happened to return the same butcher block.  No one did, BUT they had just received a new order of Beech Butcher Block and it was now in stock.  Why the sales person didn't know there was another order coming in...I'll never know.  So the day it came in, I drove the truck down and bought the rest of our countertop! 



Isn't it lovely?  I told the husband we couldn't have some weird lacquer going on them, so he found some kind of nut oil that's non-toxic etc.  Our sink we found in the clearance section of Ikea.  We always hit the clearance section first, it's a must.) 




While, I much would have preferred some super nice custom cabinets or something, we realized that we may not be in this house forever, so for future rental purposes, we bought what we could afford.

Man, that husband of mine is AWESOME.  Seriously, all things are possible with him.  I really like what our kitchen looks like now.  It's such a difference.   I love it and him. 

After.

Ta-Da!  See how bright and happy it is now?  I'm not a color coordinating kind of person.  I prefer to put whatever colors I want, wherever I want, and I feel like my kitchen is the place I can do that.   I was also kind of modeling the colors and themes after this pin. 

I really like the open upper cabinets.   It's not as hard as I thought keeping it semi organized.  Plus, it gives me an excuse to buy cute thrifted containers and have everything exposed. Granted, I'm still working on some of the shelves as far as their cuteness goes.  And there is still a spot to the right that needs to be painted.  But one takes pictures when one actually has the kitchen cleaned right?!

See our magnet board on the end?  Which...apparently, needs to be painted still.  Whoops.  Our refrigerator may be stainless looking, but it's defiantly not magnetic by any means.  How lame is that?  So, the husband bought me some metal board and put it on the end of the cabinet.  I can't even tell you how often Aiko is there playing with the magnets and pictures.  We love it.   Our fridge is in a weird spot I'll admit and it's not quite finished.  We couldn't move it into a more practical spot without doing some serious remodeling.   We'll show you that one day when we finish it completely. 

I've been on an orange kick for a while, it's nice that it fits in with my kitchen too.   You may remember the slate backsplash that was in there before...well, it still is.  We tried to pry it off, but between the plaster walls and whatever the previous own put up the slate with, it will not come off.  So, instead, the husband covered it up with bead board.  I don't love bead board, it looks amazing, but was not something I would have chosen.   But it was the right price and easiest to cover up the existing backsplash. 

You'll see above the stove a space for a microwave.  I've been fighting it.  (The hippie in me would prefer not to have one at all, but I've lost that battle.)  I like hanging my pots and different things up there.  The husband even has a thrifted microwave to hang there.   The current microwave sits as far away as possible, which is shown later.  I hate appliances sitting on the countertops.   I only let the toaster oven sit out because I had to compromise. 

I do just love bright colors.  Rachel Ray has this awesome line that started my orange pot obsession.   I've never seen her show, but the pots were on clearance at Shopko and I've slowly been gathering up various colors.  The mixing bowls I thrifted the other day.  

Now, while I love my countertops, there are just a little touchy.  You can't let water sit too long otherwise it wears off the oil.  Which, it's good that it's gotten me in the habit of constantly wiping the countertops, but we've had them in 6 months and have had to refinish them again already. 

I just love it though.  Such a happy place.  I spend probably 60% of my day in here, cooking, vegging and feeding that baby!  So glad we have it done before this next baby coming!