Hi everyone! I am finally going to reveal our kitchen remodel that we completed last fall!!!! To say I am late in this reveal is an understatement, but better late than never right?
We built our home in 2001 and we do love it. Of course, our family was young and we were saving for braces, dance lessons, and college so some of the finishes were "just ok," Fast forward to 2012 - our one and only child was in her fourth year of college, most of the child raising bills had long been paid, and we were ready to make some interior upgrades. It was fun having contractors do most of the work - Mr. Bluebird was recovering from major back surgery at the time, so he was limited on what he could do. Normally, this would have been a do it yourself job. Throughout most of the reno, I was down and out with pneumonia - we were a hot mess of a couple, I'll tell ya! But in the end, we wound up with a beautiful to us kitchen!
I don't have too many shots of the kitchen "before," but I did manage to scrounge up one from Christmas 2011. That's Mr. Bluebird to your right - looking deep in meditation! As you can see, it was a basic builders kitchen - golden oak cabinets, very plain. By this time we had just upgraded to stainless steel appliances and we had also installed our tumbled marble tile - both stayed during the renovation, along with the cabinets.
Here is a similar view today. As you can see, we had the cabinets painted white and the walls are painted a merlot. Obviously, with the wall color I went against the current trend of greys and blues - I almost went that way, but with a lot of soul searching I knew it was just not me, and I chose a color that I return to again and again in my décor. We also had granite installed throughout. Originally the snack counter came out about ten inches further to accommodate stools, but this always messed up the placement of our kitchen table, resulting in the light fixture being off center. So, I had them shorten things up and we have not missed this little sliver of counter, but have loved having the table placement corrected!
We also replaced a space wasting desk cabinet in this area and purchased a deep, three drawer base cabinet in its place - the greatest decision EVER! Oh how I love those drawers! When we built the house we had the desk put in so that the computer could be in the kitchen and we could watch over our then fifth grade daughter! Well, daughter is almost twenty three and with laptops and tablets, who needs all that kitchen space dedicated to computers? Not this girl! We did have a tambour doored appliance garage put in to conceal the cell chargers, incoming packages, odds and ends - a quick close of the door, and presto! It looks clean & tidy - although clearly, it is not!
Here's that same area looking all kinds of orderly. If you note on the side of the appliance garage to the right, there is beadboard. We installed beadboard on all the side panels of the cabinets and on one backsplash area of the kitchen to give it a farm house feel. The sides were just smooth oak and kind of blah. The beadboard gives it some charm.
On this side of the kitchen, we had four of the doors cut out and outfitted with a specialty glass called Winterlake - beautiful. And when the cabinet lights are on, it gives such a cozy feel. We also installed another smaller appliance garage in this corner to house the Keurig, can opener, and a few other necessities. I don't like a lot of small appliances out on the counters, but since they are a necessity, this seemed like a good solution for us.
Here's a look at that corner with the tambour door open - Keurig, etc. easy to use, but stored out of the way most of the time. We replaced all of the original lighting with farmhouse style fixtures. I will post info on all of the products we used another day. Looking out the window, you can see our beautiful new pavilion that we had installed this summer.
A view of the eat-in area. The light fixture is one of the favorite things we did in the kitchen. Since purchasing this I have seen it crop up at several other bloggers' homes. Also, you can see in the background the Packer/Giants football game is on - sadly, the Pack did not win this week!!! Boo!
Before the reno, we had a funny little vacant space here, so we had a wine rack custom made - it was a simple little add on that really packs a lot of visual punch.
A close-up of the tumbled marble back splash Mr. Bluebird installed several years ago. Would I have chosen something different if this was not already installed? Probably, but I do still like it and since it is very neutral, I am happy to keep it.
Since my original spice cabinet was lost when I decided to have glass put in the door, I found this awesome spice drawer organizer, and truthfully, I like it so much better - easy to see what I have at a glance.
So, there you have it - our little kitchen reno. Hope you enjoyed the tour! I will share some of my sources and the total cost to complete, if any one is interested. The bottom line is this: the original footprint of our kitchen worked for our family (with the exception of the desk area), the cabinets were good quality but outdated. We were able to work with what we had to get a new, up to date kitchen for a fraction of what it would cost to start from scratch. (We also had the floors replaced - that will have a future post of its own, as it is a lengthy tale!)
We love the transformation and would not change a thing in the choices we made. That, to me, is success!
*Just put up the cost & source details post - check it out if you are interested.
Thanks for stopping by,
Jane
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