Our kitchen…stripped.
Okay, so it isn’t about happy motherhood exactly, but since this month’s theme is “home” I hope you’ll indulge some kitchen renovation talk! We’re right in the middle of ours – which also happens to be our first real remodeling project – and I wanted to share our progress and plans.
First of all, I have to admit that I had no idea how all-consuming a house renovation can be. I figured, “Hey, pick up some new appliances and cabinets, bingo! We’re done!” Um, not quite. I really under-estimated how many decisions each step would involve: everything from where to put the lighting (and what kind to use) to how deep a sink we’d need.
We’ve also run into some surprises, like when we discovered that the hardwood floors beneath the vinyl-subfloor-vinyl-subfloor layers were not salvageable even as a base for another kind of flooring: they needed to be completely torn up. A crew has been here tearing up floors and laying new subfloor over the last few days, meaning our refrigerator is in the dining room and we have no stove. (I’m on the hunt for microwaveable recipes.)
Since we’re on a tight budget, there isn’t much room for mistakes…and I want to get as many of the details (big and small) as possible “right” from the get-go so the kitchen is as functional and pretty as we can possibly make it (and so we don’t have to do this again any time soon!) I feel like I’ve done nothing but work on the kitchen for the last week, and the funny part is that we haven’t even personally done anything yet besides shop and plan and discuss and plan and discuss and shop.
Still, that’s felt like plenty. Here’s what we have done:
We’ve picked out a refrigerator and range.
For appliances, we went shopping at our local overstock/scratch-n-dent/used appliance warehouse. I’d intended to look for a Whirlpool or Maytag brand, since they tend to be firmly in our price range and have a lot of the features I was hoping for. But, we discovered a matching, gently used Jenn-Air stove and side-by-side fridge. The range has a double electric oven (top of my wish list) with convection, and a gas cooktop. The price was unbelievably low for Jenn-Air, which is considered top-of-the-line, and both appliances had cool features like fridge shelving that raises or lowers by turning a little crank. I was literally ooh-ing and ahh-ing in the store. You’d think I’d never had a “top of the line” fridge before. Okay, that’s because I haven’t (though I think our current fridge may have been considered top-of-the-line when it came out…in 1979.)
Jon and I had disagreed a bit about color – I actually love the look of white appliances and think stainless is really over-done, but because black and stainless are more popular right now, it’s really difficult to find a nicer gas stove in white – and especially hard to get a good deal on a used or overstock one!! I still tried to shy away from stainless, but Jon thought black was too dark. And then we ran across this pair…and got such a great deal that we couldn’t pass it up. So, stainless it is. (Lesson learned: don’t make loud claims about things you will NEVER do or NEVER buy because chances are good you will have to eat your words.)
We’ve picked out cabinets and countertops.
We’re going IKEA all the way on this part. After extensive research, it seems like the best value we can afford, and I really like the cabinet style above (Lidingo) with butcher block countertops. The photo above is a user’s finished kitchen from this thread at IKEAFans – in this photo the countertops are actually not IKEA but look very similar to the IKEA counters in other photos.
Speaking of cabinets, that was another decision that I agonized over. We’ve finally decided to put up only one upper cabinet, directly above the dishwasher (for mismatching mugs, plastic bowls, etc). We’re hoping the fridge on the other side of the sink will balance out that side, and then on the other wall, flanking the range hood, we’ll have open shelving – inspired by kitchens like this one from Better Homes & Gardens:
We’ve had open shelving in the kitchen for the last year and a half, and it was one of the only things I loved about our “old” kitchen. We don’t have that much plastic ware and other mismatched stuff that I need to hide away, and though I’ve heard a lot about dishes getting dusty, with five kids we use everything on those shelves – even the larger bowls – regularly enough that they do stay clean!
For lighting: we’re doing a few pendants. I bought this pendant light at Lowe’s for my office a few months ago:
But it’s kind of wasted in there because it doesn’t hang down quite low enough to be visible from other rooms and also isn’t really bright enough for an office.
Then I saw this matching, smaller pendant:
So we are thinking of getting 2-3 of these for the sides of the room and then moving the large lamp from my office to the center of the kitchen.
Sink: I’d wanted a farmhouse sink with an apron, but they’re pretty salty ($400+ from what I have been able to find.) But we did find a brand-new Kohler double cast-iron sink on Craigslist for about $100 (supposed to pick it up tomorrow.) I’m definitely realizing that costs add up quickly and sometimes you have to let go of certain elements your “dream” kitchen to make room for a new dream.
Our biggest compromise so far has been flooring. We originally wanted to use Marmoleum click, but just couldn’t swing the cost, especially after the unexpected surprise of having to tear up and rebuild the whole floor. We considered ceramic tile, vinyl, sheet linoleum and every other imaginable choice, and have finally settled on…cork! The more I read about it the more I think I’m going to love it, and we can DIY the installation, which will help us save money (we weren’t prepared to take on the job of laying ceramic tile!).
Cork flooring from The Corkhouse
See? Almost done! All we have to do is choose a paint color…decide on a backsplash…purchase a range hood and/or microwave…put together the cabinets…lay everything out…put down the floors…oh, man. I guess I better get back to researching.
Thanks for coming along for the reno ride with me! Would love to hear if you’re planning a kitchen remodel, big or small, or have been through one and lived to tell about it. What would you do differently this time around?
Hi there,
What great ideas! i survived a kitchen reno about 3-4 years ago. The choices were so overwhelming! How would it all look together???
I love how everything turned out, but there is one thing I would have done differently. I went from a small galley kitchen that only had 4 little drawers so when I picked out new drawers I went with the DEEP ones. In reality I only needed 1-2 of those. Since I only have 2 shallow drawers (1 for flatware, one for knives and other sharp things) I have to put all the utinsels in a deep drawer which means a big pile of spoons/spatulas/whisks/ladels, etc. in one deep drawer.
OH — and a tip for cooking without a stove. Try the crockpot – you can plug it in in any room. one of my fav recipes: pork roast + bottle of salsa verde (I like the one from Trader Joe’s, but anyone works). Let it cook all day. Then use forks to “pull” it and serve with tortillas and colslaw.
homemade colslaw (it you are into that sort of thing)
1 cabbage shredded, 1 green apple julienned
1 T mayo, 1 t grainy mustard, 1 t lemon or lime juice, 1 t sugar, salt and pepper to taste.
Good luck!
Jen
We remodeled the kitchen in our first house and I swore I would never do it again. We do have one of the double ovens and it is great. Especially with kids! You’ll love it for sure.
We did a renovation several years ago and the Ziploc steam bags were a lifesaver at meal times…no dishes to wash and way cheaper than carryout! And the food turned out very well too-I still keep a few bags when I need to get something healthy on the table in a hurry.
We remodeled our kitchen about 15 months ago. The biggest tip I can give is to triple and quadruple check the people you hire. And then check again. Our guy ran out of money half way through our kitchen remodel, and we discovered that he’d used OUR money to pay for his LAST client’s work. It was a long, drawn out,
miserable disasterlearning experience.Emily, that’s awful! The contractor we’re working with has done a lot of work for us and is charging as he goes (rather than taking a big chunk right up front.) We trust him and he does good work. I think the hardest part is that some of his estimates (for the work other people are doing, not his own work) have been wildly off, but part of that is because of the old-house “surprises” we’re running into along the way.
Ooooh, Megan! It’s going to be so beautiful when it’s done! Despite it being an extremely soft wood (?) cork is treated in such a way that it lasts *forever*. When we replace the carpet in the living/dining rooms and hallway, cork is what I want. One of my neighbors had cork installed in her kitchen and invited me over to take a peek-it’s the loveliest thing ever! And my best friend in CA put in a butcher block counter (it was handmade, on site) and it is also beautiful.
I love the idea of open shelving-it’s one of those things that just really doesn’t allow you to accumulate clutter. I wish, when my time comes for remodelling, that I could do open shelving. But alas…4 ill-mannered cats renders that dream impossible. I can all-too-easily picture them traipsing across my plates as well as anything else that’s in their way.
I hope you’ll continue to share photos along the way…
Lisa
I am, as always, inspired! And I want to know how you like the IKEA experience and if you think the cabinetry and countertops are a good idea. Every time I get an IKEA catalog I mull over the possibilities, because ours need replacing, but then I shy away thinking that even if they’re affordable, they aren’t the best and so I should wait till I can afford something more spendy.
Denise, I know what you mean…I waffled a lot, wondering if I should go for a more high-end brand. But the thing is…ALL of our cabinets plus countertops are going to cost less than $1500. Even the middle-of-the-road brands from Lowe’s or Home Depot would have been at least $3500. From what I’ve read, the middle-of-the-road brands aren’t any higher quality than IKEA and actually might not be quite as good. Custom cabinets or high-end brands are way out of our price range, and I don’t see that changing any time in the next 5 – 10 years. And in the meanwhile, I want a functional, pretty kitchen I feel good about.
Maybe one day when the kids are all out of the house and we’ve got more cash to spend, we’ll consider upgrading to a spendy custom kitchen…but it’s also possible we’ll decide we’d rather use that money to travel or something else, ya know? So I didn’t want to wait for a tomorrow that might not ever come.
Here’s an interesting thread about the quality of IKEA cabs: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/good-questions/should-i-use-ikea-cabinets-in-my-kitchen-good-questions-106581 I will definitely update and let you know what I think when they’re in.
We remodeled our kitchen in our old house (when I say “we”, I was involved in the planning, but my DH and my Dad put it all together) about 5 years ago. We also did IKEA cabinets, my Dad and DH put them together themselves and installed them. ITA about how it reduces the cost, and we never had any issues with quality, after our kitchen was done we lived at that house for another three years and everything was awesome. DH’s favourite part about IKEA was being able to design everything ourselves and try out all our designs on their kitchen design software. He drove me a little nuts with it but in the end after about 20 different versions, we ended up moving the fridge and dishwasher which made a HUGE difference, I never would have thought to do that but the old kitchen was very poorly designed. Good luck with your kitchen reno experience looking forward to seeing the “after” pics!
We lived through a kitchen remodel, on a very tight budget. Very tight. First of all, I love your appliances and your choices. Looking great.
We chose KraftMaid cabinets, and I highly recommend them. They were affordable, surprisingly Lowes had the highest price around, I found the lowest price at a high-end kitchen and bath remodeling company. We were buying cabinets only as we had an installer. It was a huge surprise to me that they had the lowest price. I loved that you can customize the size at no additional cost. My pull-out pantry is my favorite feature, followed closely by a pull-out pots & pans, bread drawer, silverware drawer, cutlery drawer, cutting board all-in one. Very cool. I also love the teeny-tiny, previously completely impractical, 7″ wide pullout beside our stove where I now keep all oils, vinegars, sweet spices, salts and pepper, etc. Love it! I also loved all the choices about butt-doors, etc. I discovered that I love having butt-doors, I can put much more in my cabinets. The one thing I would change, if I could, is I would have gone with white or off-white cabinets. I love that look. At the time, it seemed like a waste to me to have brand-new painted cabinets, but now I fully admit how much I love them and wish I had gone with them, though our Maple are lovely.
We did granite tile for the counters. Love that, though we have a very small kitchen so there’s not a huge amount of grout.
Our floor is Wilson Art. I don’t love that. We just ran out of money/motivation and I couldn’t figure out what I wanted. Cork was definitely high on the list of consideration though. I think you’ll really like it.
Our light is wonderful. It holds 3-100w bulbs which would be too much for a lot of people, but for us, it’s perfect because it keeps things nice and bright which is cheery to me. We also have a nice light over the sink, under the cabinetry, which I love.
One splurge we did was a tall, pull-down kitchen faucets. I love it! I was warned it wasn’t appropriate in a small kitchen, advice which I ignored and I’m very glad I did. I think it looks great and functions beautifully, just as important.
Good luck. It’s not easy, but I know you’ll love it.
We did not redo our kitchen, but moved into our home a year ago, and I must second Mom24’s plug for the pull-out pots & pan drawers. I have 2 lower ones and absolutely LOVE them. Also love that our cabinets run to the ceiling; thought this would be wasted space but it’s actually great – we fit so much into a pretty small kitchen, and when you consider how many things you might only use a few times a year, a stool is no big deal. Good luck! I do understand your work load, as we are now working on renovating the back end of home (which had not been done before we purchased) and it takes ALL my spare time. Thankfully I love that sort of work.
Oooh, very intrigued by the cork idea. I’ve been reading about it for years, and if we ever get a chance to enlarge our tiny kitchen, I’d love to try it. I’ll be eager to hear more about it!
we have that IKEA counter top and REALLY like the look. the kitchen (which was remodeled right before we moved in) is our favorite room and EVERYONE comments on it and I think part of the reason is the counter top gives the kitchen a really warm feel. I second the recommendation on using the crockpot – have you ever been to this website: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ ? TONS of great recipes!
I have never lived through a kitchen reno, but, from what you’ve said and from what I’ve heard from others, I think there’s a parallel between renovating part of your house and becoming a parent: you have no idea how all-consuming it is until you actually do it!
That is going to be beautiful when it is done! My husband and I would love to replace our kitchen cabinets and that style from IKEA is one that I have looked into. I will be very interested to see how you like it once everything is installed.
I have to say, Great Job! I am trying to convince my husband of doing our kitchen over. The choices and the decisions and all the other variables are overwhelming. This is for sure not an overnight project as I am learning. But I have been doing a lot of investigating and reading to try to learn from other peoples renovation. You did a great job relaying your experience and is appreciated. I will bookmark your site to show my husband. I also love the cork floor and the lights. Lisa
just moved into a new house and the kitchen needs a complete redo…many years in the future, though. we’ll have to save up as i don’t want to buy it on credit.
We just replaced the cabinets in my in-laws’ laundry room with the same ones you’re using and the results were fantastic! Super sturdy and they look beautiful as well. We chose a nice handle from Lowes, and also splurged for the soft close door hinges. I don’t know if you got those, but I would highly recommend them — especially if you only have a few cabinets with doors. They add a little bit of luxury to plain old kitchen cabinets. Good luck on the reno!
Wow! What a lot of work. I harbor fantasies of a someday kitchen remodel. But for now I’m just happy not be cooking and canning in the minuscule cave of a kitchen I just escaped from!
We are currently remodeling our family room to the studs (getting to the finish part now), and the kitchen is happening in the next year. I will be eager to see your outcome, and hear what you learned along the way.
I would actually recommend against a double sink-we replaced ours a week after moving into our house with this HUGE and affordable sink from Lowe’s and love, love, love it. I can’t seem to find it online-but I know they carry them in the store. I love it because you can fit a whole load of dishes in the sink or a giant stock pot.
That’s a great article. I would like to tell you thank you for sharing your idea’s. I will for sure bookmark your page.
Dear Megan,
I have read the comments and can attest to quite a few of them. I live in a house that was built in 1895. The only things that are still original are the outside walls, the support walls inside and the roof on the main part of the house. The priority was insulation so everything else had to go. We did all of the “destruction ourselves.” I never want to see another piece of lathe or crumbled plaster again. We found out the floors were not level and some of them were out by 6″. So we replaced the floor joists and the floors in the front of the house. We ripped up the original floor which was Hemlock and 2 1/2 “thick. We cut the floor boards in half and planed them and put them back down. We sanded, stained and sealed them. They are beautiful.
Then we replaced the front door, the living room window and then to our horror we found the reason for the floor not being level. We had a contractor build frames for the missing walls and a cement company pour the cement for the foundation for the front and long side wall of main section the house.
We had an addition built on the back of the house. Now we have a lovely breakfast/sitting room on the main and a master bedroom on the second floor. We did go through the kitchen renovation. It was not done properly and we are going to have to take it all out. It is a good thing that we used what cupboards were here and just moved them around.
After living with the kitchen “reno” for more than 3 years I know that I want cupboards to go to the ceiling. I know that I need proper lighting above my sink and under my cabinets. I need a lot of light. I want two chandeliers for the ceiling and they will be on dimmer switches. We are only two people so living without a dishwasher has not been a big deal. We bought a new stove and fridge but I wish I had a built in stove as I love to cook and bake a great deal. We have cats so I think open shelves are just not possible.
Having a deep drawer for pots and pans is a must. I slim cupboard for pans and baking sheets is also a must for me. A sliding drawer for the garbage pale is also a must. I am really happy having a large pantry cupboard beside my baking area. I want to move my microwave because it is too high.
Cork sounds wonderful for the floor. I have seen it in a home and it looked wonderful. The owner said it was the best thing she had done. I would like a piece of marble somewhere in my kitchen just for when I bake. We cannot afford marble counter tops but if we could that is what I would have. I love painted cupboards and that will never change. I also now know that I want them painted white. Our kitchen window is small.
I wish you all the best in your renovation.
Kim
Letters from the Shore