One year ago, we finished our kitchen renovation almost three years after moving into our "new" house. Although I personally love a bright and shiny Before & After, I wanted to document the process, and share information about our contractors in case anyone is interested. Below is a shot of the kitchen when we first looked at the house. We purchased it from the original owners, who had lived there since 1982. For the most part, everything was structurally sound and well-maintained. However, from an aesthetic standpoint we decided to do a gut renovation. GULP. The Lowdown Ceilings: Dark-stained planks Cabinets: Original (but refaced with a distressed cream finish) Counters: Navy blue laminate Appliances: White, and all grouped together. There wasn't anything built in on the right side of the room (out of frame) Floors: Wood laminate On the left is a half wall which separated the kitchen from the family room. Since we planned to replace the floors anyway, it was no problem to remove it. On the right is the original kitchen island, which had a detached bookshelf. It was too small for the space and the butcher-block top had seen many years of use. Step One: Demo the entire space so the floors could be installed. We hired K&K Floors and they were efficient, reasonably priced, and performed quality work. Highly recommended. You can see that we removed the half wall, painted the ceiling and window frames white, and installed plantation shutters. Since we were moving the oven and the refrigerator, we had to do some drywall, ductwork, and electrical on the rear wall. Throughout the renovation, we set up many makeshift kitchens. At one point, I was washing dishes on the deck in a laundry basket. Step 1.5 should be "Live in a Hellhole." You can see the new Brazillian Cherry hardwood floors in some of the following photos. When they were first installed, they were fairly light, but have since darkened over time. Because of the darkening effect, we couldn't put down any rugs for several months. Step Two: Install the cabinets. The contractor we used for the cabinets was a custom builder called The Proper Carpenter. He was absolutely phenomenal: Reliable and reasonably priced, with meticulous attention to detail and outstanding customer service. He provided us with advice and assisted with the overall kitchen design, in addition to actually building and installing the cabinets. Very highly recommended!
I wish I had some shots of the granite installation, but the installers came while I was at work! However, it was great to work with Euro Stone Craft. They were pretty patient when explaining all the different types of stone, and did a nice job of installing everything. I also missed the appliance installation (as well as the shopping, thanks to my husband!) We purchased everything through Bray & Scarff, who were competitively priced and seemed to have a lot of expertise regarding installation. Also, our new dishwasher had a problem within the first few months, and they quickly fixed it! In addition to the cabinets, my husband installed 3-piece crown molding and built a ceiling piece (trimmed out with molding) to hang the lighting pendants and mirror the design of the island. He also removed the soffit over the sink and installed down lights. TA DA!!! Project Summary Recommended Contractors & Vendors
Floors: K&K Floors Cabinets: The Proper Carpenter Counters: Euro Stone Craft Appliances: Bray & Scarff Lighting: Restoration Hardware Paint Color: Nigerian Peony by Ralph Lauren Painting, drywall, electrical, demo, and molding were done by the homeowners. Well...one of the homeowners. ;-) Happy Thursday!
11 Comments
5/18/2012 08:20:14 am
OH MY GOSH!! That turned out AMAZING. Y'all did a fantastic job on everything...you would never even know it was the same room. Love the cabinets, the counters, the appliances, the lightness. but what really makes it for me is the plantation shutters. They just really give it a clean classic look.
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5/19/2012 09:52:50 pm
Kelly, you're the sweetest! You know what's funny about those shutters? I have to take photos with them CLOSED, because the window frames underneath are still only half painted! Shhhh, it will be our secret! ;-)
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Julie
5/21/2012 10:07:31 pm
All I can say is WOW!! You guys put so much work into this room and it is absolutely beautiful! I love love love the contrasting colors of the island. Your husband did an amazing job on the ceiling and the molding- it looks awesome! I'll be right over for coffee... ;)
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5/28/2012 10:38:12 pm
great work of kitchen designing. You make kitchen so well and systematic and unique style
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Heather
6/7/2012 02:43:51 pm
Linked to you from remodelaholic...Love the look of that granite on the island...is that also black granite on the rest of the kitchen? We are about to embark on a kitchen gut job and I've been scouring the web for inspiration...yours is gorgeous! One more question...have you been happy with your refrigerator placement? I've been contemplating moving ours to get it out of a corner, but have concerns about having to walk around the island every time I want to get to it...have you found this to be a hassle or not a big deal?
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Heather, thank you so much! Yes, the counters are "Absolute Black" granite. I really like it because some of the other black choices have flecks of other colors (like green or gold) and this is BLACK, as the name suggests. ;-) RE: the refrigerator placement, I'm very happy with it. It's not inconvenient at all, and in fact, it's closer to the family room and back porch so people can easily grab drinks, etc. The one design element I would have done differently is the dishwasher/trash configuration. The trash and recycling cans are in a pull-out drawer in the island, which is great because it's hidden. However, when the dishwasher is open, I can't have the trash open too, which I don't like. Also, when the dishwasher is open I have to step over it to get to the cabinets on the other side...I'm probably not doing a good job of explaining and I'm not sure how we would have gotten around it, but the tight space between the dishwasher and the island does make me a little crazy. I love everything else...thanks again for your nice comments! :-)
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8/3/2012 11:15:35 pm
Wow! What a transformation. I love the black wood on the island. Great, great work. Thank you so much for sharing it. :)
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Nina
4/22/2016 07:51:02 pm
Thank you for posting this! I live in a similar built in the 80's colonial and I am constantly looking for realistic renovation ideas. This is perfect and almost the exact layout of my current family room/kitchen!!
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5/17/2018 03:46:44 pm
Hey what a brilliant post I have come a cross and believe me I have been searching out for this similar kind of post for past a week and hardly came across this.
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