Kitchen re-do Part I

If you've spent a little while around here, you know that 3 summers ago we bought the house I grew up in from my parents.  They moved into a condo and we jumped back into home renovation.  You can read about the mudroom renovation here, the powder room here, and the addition here.

Next up was the kitchen.

You can tell in the before that some things were pretty dated.  The wall color was a warm terracotta color but the counters and cabinets had been there for.ever.  The conversations with  my folks about moving in had been going on for a number of years and so they didn't really want to make major decisions and purchases (like counters or cabinets) when they knew we'd be moving in eventually changing things up. Everyone just made it work.

This is the view standing in one doorway, coming up from the entry.  It is a pretty standard kitchen--not too big, but definitely workable.  What is nice is that at the far end, under the window, is a breakfast bar.  We eat quite a few meals here.

This is the view standing from the living room looking in.  We did need to get some new appliances (a few that were planned and a few that were surprises.......).  You can see the dining room off to the left.

Those little swaths of gray-blue on the walls?  A peek of what was to come.

 Here's the view from the dining room with the entry on the left and the living room on the right.

When we J started working on the kitchen it was just before the holidays.  We had gotten the referral for Mei Mei but had no idea when we'd be traveling.  All that being said, we wanted to do as much as we could but without dropping a lot of coinage.  Simplest way?  Paint!

The walls got covered in Quietude by Sherwin Williams  which is also what we used in the treehouse (cannot believe I have not done a post/reveal about that!), the powder bathroom, mudroom and entry.  The cabinets got painted white and instantly the room felt brighter and more updated.  He also added some stainless behind the stove and we got a new hood.

At one time there had been some water damage from a leak over the breakfast bar so that needed to be addressed and some wall patching done.  J also changed up the lights which helped to brighten things up since the only natural light comes from the window which looks out onto our screened in porch.

Speaking of the breakfast bar.  How to re-do it?  When J's folks had built their house, his dad had bought a bowling alley off of e-bay to use as workbenches.  Yes, J's ability to "re-use" comes naturally!  I would have never thought to use it, but he had some left over and it was the right size (at the right price) so we decided to go for it.

I love it!  It took 3 men to lug that heavy, cumbersome plank in, but once it dropped into place (and stayed there) it totally changed the feel of the kitchen.  It is maple, suuuuper thick and nice and glossy.

 

In the next post I'll reveal the finished room with the new tile backsplash and the countertops.