Room Makeover: Kitchen Renovation | One Room Challenge Week 1

It’s official! We are about to tackle our Kitchen Renovation, and we will be documenting the entire process here on the blog and on youtube! AHHHHH! This is so incredibly exciting. I can’t even begin to tell you. I’ll be jumping into this falls One Room Challenge. You can catch my other ORC spaces here. But, if you are new, or not familiar with the one room challenge- I’m going to share a little bit about what it is!

“The One Room challenge™ will provide participants with a supportive, enthusiastic forum in which to share the process of transforming a room. The ORC is not a competition, but rather a celebration of creativity, inspiration, and original ideas. Welcome!”

It is so fun to be a part of this, and great motivation for finishing off rooms in the home, or even just making huge progress. There are 20 featured designers who share their updates every Wednesday. You can find them on the ORC website. And then on Thursdays, guest participants can share their updates as well through a link up. So it’s just a whole bunch of makeover goodness!

 

So let’s talk about my “room” We are going to renovate our kitchen!

We just completed refinishing our floors in the dining room and kitchen which was a messy job… but worth it. They are now much more brown, not red/orange, and no longer give us and our four kids splinters! Win!! So that was the first step in this kitchen reno. Our kitchen is an original 1940’s (approx) kitchen complete with grain bins and hobbit height counters. Unfortunately the lowers are so impractical for a modern family that essentially we don’t use them for much other than silverware, tupperware, and dishcloths.

When we first moved in I painted the uppers using a $17 qt of flat paint in the color “Marina Isle” from Behr, and it made a huge difference in me loving our little kitchen for the last 6 years. I have tried to figure out every possible way to save those upper cabinets and keep them in our kitchen. Sadly if we kept them as is, and just replaced the base cabinets there would be 10 inches between the bottom of the uppers and the countertops.

I’ve tried to figure out if we could cut off the top portion… trust me! They’re so cute. But the rest of the kitchen is full of issues- and my husband is right that we are better off to replace everything and make it functional. So- he’s promised he will do what he can to save them when tearing them off the wall… but they are built in place. so fingers crossed!!

Ok moving on…. the rest of the room leaves much to be desired. There is NO built in dishwasher. There is ONE outlet that is available to use in the entire kitchen. The room feels very closed off from the dining area. The ceiling has a hideous texture on it- and one light fixture… it is incredible poorly lit! Not to mention there is essentially no storage. It’s just not designed for today’s appliances and kitchen accessories. I think it’s very possible it originally didn’t have electricity. lol. Because honestly there are hardly any outlets or light fixtures in this house.

The Before:

This is what the kitchen was like when we moved in.

We built a 30x20ft addition, and now it is time to renovate the existing home. The addition took the house from a 2 bedroom 1 bath (with a standing shower) 900 sf house to a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house with a great room and open loft family room. You can see more about our House here.

Our oven died last  year- so we bought the range we really wanted, had a gas line put in and bought a gas range. (it’s from the Frigidaire Pro series and we have been really happy with it. It is a standard width, but offers a 5th burner/griddle plate) This included moving the location of the range. I wanted counter tops on either side, and I also wanted to create some area in the kitchen with symmetry. So we moved it to the sidewall opposite the sink.  Our kitchen is approx. 11ftX12 ft wide.

So we have been living with this piecemeal kitchen for so long. We had a rollaway dishwasher that finally bit the dust… and at this point the writing is on the wall. So- kitchen reno is happening! It is time. EEEE!

The Project:

The biggest changes will be to the layout of the kitchen. We have to take down a wall guys. Which we are no strangers to, but I hate removing these walls because they are plaster and literally like cement on the walls. It is really hard and messy to rip out. It’s not a structural wall which is always great news!

I threw this together using the IKEA home planner to give you an idea of how this space will flow after the reno. It’s not perfect, but it gives you a pretty good understanding of the layout. Don’t mind the random plant? What is that. Be warned that the IKEA kitchen planner is a bit of a diva.haha. It just doesn’t always co-operate….

I really want to add seating “in” the kitchen. The room is too narrow for an island- so my solution is a peninsula. People love islands, I get it- but I have learned that I have to work with what suits the house best,  so a peninsula is going to check that box off by adding lots of counter space and additional seating!

The actual counter will overhang the cabinets…  but this image gives you an idea!

I also really want to add a pantry “in” the kitchen. Our pantry is currently just outside the kitchen, and is open shelving that we built in.

We will still use this area for storage, but honestly living out of town and with 4 kids- there is not enough pantry space! I am really looking forward to some closed food storage.

We opened up the doorway (that you saw in the before picture) last fall and framed it in with a rustic “beam.” I love the interest and texture it adds. This also allows us to run cabinets the full length of the wall, as we’ve relocated the traffic path.

Alright. I could talk about this forever- but let’s not! So, here is the list:

• refinish floors
• remove wall
• frame in pantry
• apply pine (painted white) to the ceiling
• install potlights in the ceiling
• add electrical/usb outlets
• install base cabinets
• install upper cabinets
• run water/electrical/install built in dishwasher
• new countertops
• install cabinet doors, toe kick, sidepanels
• tile backsplash
• replace windows
• replace sink/faucet
• replace countetops
• purchase/replace fridge
• add central vac outlet
• purchase/install cabinet hardware
• enlarge and replace kitchen window

The Inspiration:

source: devol kitchens

source: devol kitchens

I am loving the soft putty/mushroom color. It’s a bit warmer than white. A classic shaker door is my favorite and reflects the original cabinets in the home. It’s such a timeless style. We will be going with a white apron front sink, and I am still finalizing hardware selections.

So, I’m just a girl, living in a world, where I have to make 9000000 decisions. I care about the details, I want things to last, and serve our family well. But I also want to have fun. We are renovating this home for our family, because, well, we live here! Our current kitchen has been featured on really amazing sites like Apartment Therapy and Country Living, it’s been used as a product image poster child for Behr Paint… people have told me they would “NEVER EVER” rip it out. They’ve said they’d drive across the country to buy it… I am not kidding! So, is there a little bit of nervousness in announcing to the world that we are pulling it apart and starting new?

Yep.

But…. I have to live with this kitchen! It’s really cute in pictures (yes there is also mismatched hardware and a gross kick board) but it just doesn’t serve our family.

I want the new kitchen to suit the cottage style I love and not look like it came out of an ikea catalogue. So, how are we going to tackle this kitchen?

We are going to use Ikea cabinet boxes and drawer components, paired with custom doors, toe kick and cover panels from a Canadian company called “Kitch.” They create multiple door styles in hundreds of colors, to the exact dimensions of IKEA cabinet boxes. Ikea doesn’t offer a narrow shaker style, but guess who does?! Kitch!! So- it’s really a match made in heaven.

I can’t wait to share the entire plan with you guys. There is a lot to coordinate- but I know the end results will be so worth it!

-Miss Ash

This project is in collaboration with: