our kitchen : before
so your first thought might be “wtf you just finished the backyard, why are you starting on the kitchen now?! are you crazy!?” yes. yes i am.
we have a great room (open concept as they would say on property brothers), so the second you walk in the front door, you see the kitchen. so i think i’d also be in less of a rush if the kitchen was tucked away somewhere, hidden behind doors. but it affects the entire great room, which will be 80% greater once it’s pretty. it’s also a really dark room due to a huge tree in our front yard, so i think the brightness of the new kitchen will brighten up the room tremendously. the kitchen will be our last huge project, so i just want to be done with it.
so here is our kitchen, before we moved in — in all it’s horrible glory. these photos were taken prior to painting everything white, to removing the huge light fixture and ceiling fan, and as you can see we demo’d the upper cabinets above the sink prior to even moving in.
cuuuuuute? as you can tell, the kitchen literally couldn’t be less my style.
the process has been pretty stressful so far and we haven’t even begun, but it’s really hard to figure out every step and every detail when you’ve never done anything like this before. just like i struggled and learned a lot during the backyard, there has been a lot of googling “how to source this“, or “how much should that cost”, or even actually signing up for a consumer reports account.
what we’re planning
cabinets
we weren’t sure for a while what to do for our cabinets, but ended up feeling ikea was the best for us. i’ve never actually had a drawer organizer that properly fit inside the drawer — so i was super excited about all the ergonomics and organizing accessories they offered. we’re customizing them ours with semi handmade doors and drawer fronts. we’re doing matte white upper cabinets and wood lower cabinets. at first i wanted to do all white, but we decided ultimately this combo would be more visually interesting.
appliances
we’re replacing literally all our appliances, we got a gorgeous bertazonni range which wasn’t the cheapest option – but i have always dreamt of a pro style range, and i feel like it makes a kitchen. i only wish we could have changed the footprint of the kitchen a bit to highlight it more — but we ultimately decided to keep everything where it is. we got the rest of our appliances on super sale on july 4th, like that white fridge which makes me drooooool. and it filters ice, which is a huge deal when you live in the valley and your ice tastes like butt.
also, we decided to do a built-in hood after hashing out what to do about range hoods with high ceilings — we’re just going to build a panel to match our upper cabinets and hopefully have no issues with that.
floating shelves
the upper cabinets we already removed above the sink will be replaced by some floating shelves. the only thing is that they’ll be totally uneven, the right side will be much longer than the left. think that’ll look ok?
countertops
we’re planning pure white counters (caesarstone maybe?), which will for sure brighten up the room and be so photogenic, hopefully. also planning a waterfall on the edge which i’ve always dreamt about.
other things
even though i originally had my heart set on a matte black faucet, we decided to go a little less hip and do satin nickel — this way it’ll match the stainless appliances better as well as the door hardware. so i think we’re gonna stick with that for simple hardware as well.
SOURCES
sink / hardware / faucet / fridge / bar stool / pendant light
that’s basically all i know right now. the reno is scheduled to start in like two weeks! so excited. any advice? any thoughts? kisses!
i’m so excited to see this (& everything in general as i mentioned on instagram) it’s my favorite series of yours lol
thank you jade! mine too 🙂
Yay! Internet stalk your contractor so you don’t get screwed over, that’s my only advice! Cheaper is never better. Except when it’s at the flea.
hahaha good advice — we’re going with our family contractor who did the backyard pergola too. he doesn’t have a computer lol
we have exactly the same taste in everything, so much that it’s scary. sigh. lol.
hi taste soulmate
I have a similar fridge and love the ease of it so much!
It’s going to look so good! We’re hopefully (fingers crossed) starting our kitchen renovation after Thanksgiving. Welcome to the crazy club! I’m trying to over think everything before we start so I make sure it’s what we want.
I love the white fridge, I can never get away from the whole “appliances need to match” thing so I’ll be looking forward to how it works in the grand scheme of things.
As far as advice, don’t worry about being a pain. Check in with your contractor (often) to make sure you all are on the same page. It’s crazy how much can be lost in translation.
This is probably the reno I have been waiting for the most!
I’m sure you’re waaaayyy past design advice, but maybe as a triple-triple-triple check, REALLY think about counter space. And not just counter space for cooking, but also for serving, for organizing, for whatever! There is no bigger frustration than cooking a nice delicious meal in your gorgeous new kitchen, and having to walk half way cross the kitchen to slice an onion while also keeping an eye on a hot pan. Argh! Will be redoing my kitchen for this exact reason!!!
Also, budget for eating out (or in?) more than you already do. And the budget for this should be for at least a couple weeks longer than you plan the project (Just in case your project goes longer). All those quick meals you can prep at home right now go out the window when one week you have a stove but no sink one week, and the next week you a sink but no stove!
Also, stick to this budget!
Best of luck and looking forward to seeing the beautiful finished kitchen space!
thank you cristina! trader joes has been crucial — but we’re eating out a pretty good amount too. we’re losing a little counter space to gain a tall pantry but i think in the end that will be way worth it.
Hi, Your design looks great! For what it’s worth, I am doing what you are doing right now in my kitchen. Since you are going with all white counters, you should consider going not with a name brand like caesarstone, but with a “brand” that may be available at your stone yard. Our stone yard, carries their own brand of a caesarstone equivalent and we ended up choosing it. We saved over 3000 dollars on the counters and they look exactly the same as the higher end stuff. I think they are made by a name brand but then the stone yard puts their own name on it. So, you may want to seek out a stone yard that offers their own brand. Ours was from MSI stone in VIlla Park Illinois. Its called “Q” Premium Quartz.. http://www.msistone.com Check it out,maybe you can find something like it near you. You can spend the money you save on something else fun for your kitchen !:)
such a good tip! thanks nancy.
My family DIY’ed our kitchen about 8 years ago with IKEA cabinets and they’re still going strong! I think it still looks unique and people love our cabinets that pull up to open instead of just open like a normal door. Good luck!!!!
thank you marcella!
Your kitchen looks beautiful! Nice job!
wow what a transformation! Come do my kitchen!
Its look amazing. i would love to design my kitchen with white limestone
Hi there. Its very interesting post. you have renovated your kitchen very nicely.
Your kitchen looks beautiful! Nice job!
its a very nice article
Excellent Article.