Sunday, February 13, 2011

Drum Roll Please.....The Big Kitchen Reveal, 6 Weeks in the Making

It's been a long 6 weeks, and we nearly lost it a few times in the process, but we made it and we LOVE OUR NEW KITCHEN!

Here's a look at what our kitchen looked like before...sad, dingy, and crying out for help.
Problems with our kitchen:
  • 50+ year old cabinets that didn't open or close correctly with nasty wrought iron hardware. Every time we took out our pots and pans there would be saw dust inside from the old drawers
  • Tangerine colored walls
  • Ugly dirty beige porcelain tile, stained grout and broken tiles everywhere
  • Exposed washer and dryer. I love having the washer and dryer on our first floor, but I hated how they were out in the open.
  • An extra door. That's right, there were two doors going outside from the kitchen. One by the washer and dryer (which we kept) and another in the kitchen (which we closed up).
  • No storage, I never had enough room for all my stuff. We just stuffed as much stuff as we could into the cabinets, it was a disorganized hot mess!!
  • Ugly, bright blue laminate countertops
  • Small opening between the main kitchen and the laundry area


and here's our new kitchen......


View from Living room looking into Kitchen
 


close up of our Caesarstone countertops (Raven) and white glass and Stone mosaic tile
 


New Stainless Steel appliances and IKEA Adel White cabinets and Stainless steel hardware
 


My husband's coffee & tea bar. He loves his new Keurig. I hate throwing away those little K-cups so we got a plastic filter that way he can use regular coffee instead of the k-cups. Better for the environment!
 


One of my favorite features, chalkboard wall and vinyl monogram decal. This is the side wall of our new laundry closet. You can also see our half bathroom in this photo. We didn't do much but repaint the walls and wainscotting. My father also helped me install 12" x 24" vinyl tile, Ozoloc (http://www.tomkt.com/ ) There's no adhesive, so it the tile basically floats over our old gray and pink 1950 floor tile.
 


Remember that annoying wall that separated the main kitchen from the laundry area? It's gone now. We also put a full glass french door in place of the 50-year old energy deficient wood door we had (it's not shown but just to the left)
 


Porcelain tiles, yes, Porcelain tiles, not hardwood (Marazzi tile, Metalwood)
 

Love my huge undermount stainless steel sink. I actually scored a great deal for this sink on http://www.overstock.com/ . They have a ton of home improvement products on their website and everything ships for only $2.95!
 

View of breakfast bar looking into our living room. In March we're putting double french doors in the living room that will go out to our screened three-season porch. Pendant lighting and surface mounted lighting in the rest of the kitchen is from IKEA.

My favorite part of this kitchen is that it looks like we spent a pretty penny on our new kitchen.....but we didn't. We saved a ton on handling the demo ourselves rather than having our contractor do it. Our contractor added a 6" soffit and crown molding to the top of the IKEA cabinets which in my opinion make them look custom-built. We assembled every single cabinet ourselves which saved a ton of money too. IKEA's easy online kitchen 3D planner allows you to design your own kitchen, your own "custom" kitchen.  I waited to purchase the cabinets when I found out that IKEA was offering 40% off granite or quartz countertops. I saved $1300 on my Caesarstone countertops because of this promotion. We also waited until thanksgiving weekend to score all of our appliances from Sears, the sales were worth putting up with the crowds at the store. Overall, we couldn't be happier with our new kitchen. And we finished just in time to enjoy our Valentine's Day dinner tomorrow night.

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!



45 comments:

  1. This looks beautiful! Congrats. I'm sure it feels great to be done!

    ReplyDelete
  2. El it looks awesome. You really have such a talent and I can't wait to see it in person :) Hope to visit soon!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just came across your blog and LOVE you kitchen! Can you give more info about the kitchen flooring?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your kitchen looks amazing! I just came across it today on Casa Sugar. We are in the middle of an Ikea kitchen renovation and are also considering Caesarstone. How do you like the counters so far? I'd love to add a couple of your pictures to the inspiration galleries on my site and include you in part of a feature post. Let me know if you're interested!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Coming over from Jena's blog. I love your new kitchen. That backsplash is gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I absolutely love it. I love the colors! We're remodeling our kitchen and this look is very similar to what I'm looking for! Thanks for sharing!
    How are the IKEA cabinets holding up? I'd love a little product review :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. The best part about improvements is that they are wake up calls for owners, too. I noticed how all the clutter seemed to magically disappear from your new kitchen. Which improvement helped to manage that?

    ReplyDelete
  8. How's the Marazzi porcelain tile working out? We are considering this tile for our basement. Any cracks, scratches, etc., from every day use?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Really nice kitchen. Looks like what I am trying to do as well. I can't get my cabs to line up like yours. Do you mind sharing your measurements:
    1) upper cabinet height: 30 or 39?
    2) ceiling height?
    3) gap between lower and upper cabinets?
    4) height of your crown molding (space between uppers and ceiling)?

    ReplyDelete
  10. from where did u buy the glass and stone tile?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Upper cabinet height is 30". Our contractor added a 6" soffit and then added crown molding.

    Ceiling height 7' - 6"
    Gap between lower and upper cabinets, I believe it's 20"

    I ordered the stone through Garden State Tile, a tile rep that I work with on commercial projects. But I just saw similiar tile at Lowe's recently.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Eleana! Wow, what a transformation! The photos look amazing. Great job to you and your 'team'! Hello to your parents!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lovely and exactly what we are planning.can you tell more about the floor?
    Cold? Cost? Are you happy with it?
    How aobut the cabinets?
    Layout--anything you would change?
    thanks!!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks so much! Yes, it turned out really well. The floor isgreat, however I recommend you find someone that specializes in tile floor installation because working with 4" x 24" porcelain tile in a 60-yr old home is tricky because the floors aren't level usually. Teh cabinets are from IKeA and we're really happy wtih them. I would never have been able to afford this kitchen if it wasn't for IKEA. Just plan everything out online. They have a kitchen designer website where you can see everything in 3d and plan and bring this up at the IkEA store. Then the kitchen specialist at IkEA can help you get what you want off of your initial design. If you're willing to assemble each cabinet, then it's worth it. Layout, I would have made the peninsula a little bit shorter and opened the wall between the living room and the kitchen looking back, but other than that we're really happy. I didn't open the wall between the kitchen and the dining room because I wanted to preserve the formal dining room for entertaining and staying true to the original floor plan of the house.

    ReplyDelete
  15. My husband and I are remodeling the kitchen in an older house we just bought and are going to use the Adel Ikea cabinets as well. I love the wall color and mosaic tile. Can you share the brand/color for each please? Thanks so much, your kitchen is beautiful!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thanks! the wall color is Benjamin Moore - Kentucky Haze and the glass and stone mosaic tile is called Spirted in White that we sourced through Garden State Tile. www.gstile.com

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks for the info, I have a Benjamin Moore color wheel so I'll check out the color!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Sorry to bother you again, I check Garden State Tile and they have a Spirited Linear tile in Pure Water that looks the closest to yours, there isn't anything called "white." Maybe they no longer carry it? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Beautiful kitchen! Do you know the white trim paint color you used to match the Adel white cabinets? We are getting Adel white cabinets as well and I need to find a comparable white trim color. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thank You! Our contractor ended up taking one of the Adel cabinet doors to Benjamin Moore for a custom match because we wanted to make sure we had the right white to match.

    ReplyDelete
  21. How are the Adel cabinets holding up? We are looking at those and have heard mixed reviews.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hi! Love your blog! It looks wonderfully fabulous!!!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Your transformation looks FABULOUS! You did a really good job!

    ReplyDelete