I’ve been putting off this post for a while because I want to show the whole house before and after us moving in, but it’s not all done. While we are all moved in and construction is done, and we are growing comfy and more settled into our home by the day, there are still a lot of things we want to do. But from what I hear, no house is ever fully done so no time like the present?!
As soon as we bought the house and moved in, we started a kitchen remodel. The kitchen was original to 1975, except some of the appliances. It had to go. Be forewarned, I am terrible at taking before and after pictures. It’s just not something I think of until after the project is done, but I’m trying to get better!
From the front door through the kitchen and into the laundry room there were four different types of flooring. Black tile, linoleum, new vinyl flooring, and more (but a different color) linoleum. We replaced it all with wood look ceramic tile and I absolutely love it. We completely gutted the kitchen but maintained the general layout. It went from a closed off closet of a kitchen to an open eat in kitchen with plenty of room to maneuver. There was a door going into the laundry room that we removed and replaced with a pocket door. The laundry room also had a door leading to an outside deck that we closed off. It was such an awkward door! The solution was to remove the back window in the kitchen, install a slider door, and extend the deck to make getting in and out of the house and onto the deck much more efficient. It wasn’t always the easiest process, and it felt like it took forever, but we have already hosted many gatherings and spend so much time in the kitchen making memories and delicious food. It was definitely worth it!
Here is the kitchen before we purchased the house and the laundry room after we moved in. Check out that flooring!!!
After we moved in, we ripped out the flooring pretty quick haha. It’s dark but you get an idea of how small it was in there. That’s my husband for size reference LOL, and the other picture is from the opposite corner of the eat in area. Don’t you love the cabinets?? In the third picture you can see the door to laundry room, the door in the laundry room leading to the deck, and the back window that we turned into a slider door. Looking at these pictures brings me right back to living out of kitchen boxes for months and feeling like we were camping in our own house!
During construction. Just taking out the upper peninsula cabinets made such a huge difference. But we weren’t stopping there! Look at that vintage wall paper. Now that I’m thinking of it, I should have tried to keep some of it and make some art with it. Maybe next time?!?
While there are many things I love about the kitchen, one of my most favorite things is this hutch. It’s a 1940’s bakers hutch that I bought for $100 off of Facebook Marketplace and turned into my kitchen island. It was my first time redesigning a piece of furniture and I loved it from beginning to end. It went from this one piece into three different things. The bottom is my kitchen island. The top went into the laundry room above the washer and dryer for some cabinet storage (painted blue like the island), and the slide out counter top went downstairs into my office/craft room for me to use as a magnetic board. How about that for redesigning and repurposing!?
I painted the hutch this blue color, added some wood detail (which is actually contact paper!!!), and it got raised up off its castors with these wood risers, and then a skirt was put around it. I didn’t want anything to be able to get under there making sweeping and cleaning difficult.
Here’s the finished product. Kind of finished. Still have some decorating to do and as I’m writing this and inserting pictures, I’m realizing that there isn’t a good picture of the slider door and that there is stuff laying around on the counters and table. Stager of pictures I am not! I’m sure I’m leaving out all the details you actually want to know, feel free to leave questions and comments to get the deets. I’d love your feedback and decorating suggestions, we still have spots to fill!!! Oh, I should add that while I love DIY projects, this was not one of them. I designed the kitchen and we had a contractor come in and do the work.
I think my kitchen has turned out beautifully, especially when I see my whole family gathered around.
Elizabeth
