The Adored Abode

Work on our kitchen remodel has officially begun! This has been a long time coming. Other projects around our house took much longer than expected to complete (I’m looking at you popcorn ceiling removal and hall bath remodel), which put our whole house renovation timeline behind what we had optimistically hoped for in the beginning. One thing with renovations you hear time and time again is everything takes longer than you expect… well I can attest that is most certainly true. What’s important is that we have finally started work our kitchen!

We are keeping the original layout of the kitchen and using the existing cabinets to save money. We really want to keep the costs on this remodel as low as possible because hopefully in a few years we will be ready to completely gut and re-work the entire kitchen and laundry room area, but until then we want to update the kitchen and make it more our style.

The kitchen layout is not my favorite. It feels closed off by having the peninsula in the middle of the room and it makes the working area around the range, sink, and dishwasher very small. However, as we did not want to replace the flooring at this point and the tile is not continued underneath the cabinets we were stuck with the existing layout. I think by updating all of the cosmetic features, removing some upper cabinets, and upgrading the appliances the space will feel bigger at least to me. Let’s start at the beginning.

This is what our kitchen looked like when we first moved it. A perfectly functional kitchen, just a bit dated. We love the big windows and natural light, but still felt dark despite all the natural light flowing in.

The upper cabinets on the right side of the kitchen were pretty small and not very useful for storing items other than random small kitchen items. The dark upper cabinets on this side made the kitchen feel smaller than it already is. Plus that microwave. I mean, we are fairly certain it is original to the house meaning it’s almost 40 years old and it still works (which is amazing), but I was certain every time I turned it on it something was going to catch on fire. Luckily that never happened, but we knew the microwave had to go. Honestly, I am surprised we lived with it for 9 months… it’s amazing the things you can learn to look past, especially when your entire house is a construction zone.

We started ripping out the upper cabinets on this side of the kitchen a few months after we moved in, one cabinet at a time over the course of a few months. Then one day when I was out of town Nathan, his two brothers, and a friend decided to tear down the remaining upper cabinets, the microwave, and the backsplash. I was so surprised and thrilled to see that when I got home. Seriously, that man knows the way to my heart.

We have taken our time making decisions regarding this kitchen makeover. We want our kitchen to feel classic with rustic and modern touches, similar to how we envision the rest of our house feeling as well. I have put together a design board to show you the direction we plan on going!

There has been a lot of thought that has gone into the decisions we needed to make for this kitchen. I woke up two nights in a row having night sweats about the cabinet knobs and pulls – you would think designing the kitchen was performing brain surgery, but alas it is not as my sweet husband has to remind me on a regular basis. Regardless, I have still spent countless hours thinking about/researching/agonizing over the minutia, but knowing I designing a kitchen for our little family that is going to hopefully be functional and pretty sure does make me happy.

I will do many kitchen “progress” posts with details of each step of the way and the why behind our decisions, but here’s a list of everything I can think of that we plan on completing for the project.

• Paint kitchen cabinets
• Use existing laminate counters for “faux-crete” concrete counters (inspired by Young House Love)
• New backsplash
• New cabinet hardware
• New faucet
• New appliances (range, dishwasher, microwave, vent hood)
• Install a custom vent hood cover
• Install open shelving for the range/sink side
• New light fixtures
• Paint/stain laundry room door & re-hang
• Paint window trim
• Custom roman shade for sink window
• Hang curtains in breakfast nook
• New dining table
• Stool for desk area
• Rugs for under sink & patio door

I’d love for you to follow along in our journey! Up next is how we painted our kitchen cabinets (yes they are already painted – I know, I know I’m holding out) and the lessons we learned along the way. Suffice it to say there were plenty of lessons learned!