Renovations: The Kitchen

The Kitchen was and will continue to be my favorite renovation. The house seems to be very small from the outside but on the inside, the kitchen and living room hold all of the space. We believe that the house was just a simple one story with a basement until one of the previous owners came along and made it a split level and the kitchen and living room hold all of the space.

There were pictures online but they really didn't do much to show the enormity of the kitchen. But it did show some "not-fun" things like all the wood grain. and the lack of appliances. and the lack of light fixtures. And the missing cabinet door. But that left a blank canvas of possibilities. (quick! someone put that on a throw pillow!)



I really liked the window above the kitchen sink in pictures. But then I came to see it and it was just a modern beige pane window turned sideways. The big window door let in a lot of light but it hung weirdly on the hinges and took a running start to get it open. I actually broke the door knob off trying to open it once. During that first day we brought the family up, one of the first things we did was remove the old laminate flooring. But there was definitely some more work to be done. But hey! I prepared for this by obsessively watching HGTV for two months in Pensacola before I came down.

Originally, we were going to keep the cabinets. I was going to paint them and find a cabinet door somewhere. They were shaker style and I was planning on painting them white. It was going to be an HGTV wet-dream. But the half rotting cabinet under the sink and the warped shelves were discouraging. So we gutted those too.
In all the years that I had been on my Dad's job sites, I had honestly never seen cabinets installed or removed. They've always just been there.... But me, my brother, and brother-in-law removed these ourselves and it was surprisingly easy! They're just screwed in!

You can also see that we replaced the old beige windows with these white ones. To be honest, I don't miss the old pane above the sink. It matches the other windows and probably saves a little bit more on our heating costs.

One thing this house really taught me was the power of paint! Crown molding is a very nice touch but I hated the wood-grain, same with the bead-board. So in true HGTV fashion, I painted it white. And it really opened up the kitchen! I also painted the ceiling with Kilz primer to lessen the harsh contrast of the oil based paint and the patchwork the previous owners did on the ceiling. And to cover the trim. I've literally never seen blue trim before but I'm sure it didn't look that great with the previous set up.

So with the old cabinets gone, we went for a slightly more connected cabinet plan. White cabinets were ideal but this light oak was cheaper and you can't argue with that! And this kitchen was way too big to not have an island (which, in hindsight, sounds like a pretentious white person thing to say) and with that, we gained a lot of storage space.

I'm sure the Lowes up here got really tired of me coming in everyday during the construction. I'm surprised they didn't start a kickstarter for me after how homeless I appeared to be in my paint clothes.
Anyway, the most exciting part of the renovation was the details. Like the light fixtures. The three outlets helped further press the want for the island. We wanted to find something that provided a lot of light and symmetrical since it would hang over the island. The light strip coordinated really well with the hanging center piece and it has brought in a bunch of light. Like it's so bright that I may have to repaint again... (would not recommend painting in eggshell!)
We found these chairs in a peddler's mall kind of place for only $100! It's insane how difficult shopping for those bar stools were! Some would look great but not be as sturdy, or vice versa. But these hidden gems have a wicker seat and a stain that matches the cabinetry.
At the beginning of the year, my mom, who's always looking to update our house back in central kentucky, and I made a New Year resolution to add 35% more greenery. It was kind of a joke but we both like herbs and all sorts of vegetation. That's kind of why I have a dying mini palm tree on the island. also because it was like $3.00 at Lowe's...
But anyway, this is the kitchen renovation, I will make a future post about the many details that went into the kitchen. But right now, I'm hungry so if you have any questions, feel free to comment below!