Okay. I would like to hear from home-owners, dreamers, creatives, penny-pinchers, rational types, and ALL of you opinionated folks…
To see if renovating our kitchen could be a reality, I am taking some time to pull my thoughts and research together this afternoon. Thought I would post it to my journal in hopes of feedback.
I have been thinking of updating the kitchen since we bought the house and have been looking at designs for about three years. Not only would we enjoy a nicer kitchen, but I am trying to think of this as an investment, as money that we will get back if we ever sell. I love our little house and can’t ever imagine selling it, but if our business takes off, Chris would like to move to a larger house with a pool. Part of the reason I also want to remodel is to get some more experience with contractors and the whole renovation process. Whether we sell our first house together or not, my dream retirement plan is to refurbish older homes for rentals.
| Our love nest is a 1920’s Tudor cottage. Smallish, but full of sincere charm. It’s in a fairly desirable area close to downtown, and since it was a sad little rent house before we found it, we got a really good deal on it. I’ve polished just about every corner so far. Similar houses on our block are selling well over what we paid for ours, so the equity is definitely there if we decide to remodel the kitchen.
The kitchen is original, with plain solid wood custom-fitted cabinets that are little wonky and beat up from the years and the house shifting on it’s piers and beams. The cabinets are well-cared for their age, and the paint is smooth, but they aren’t anything special. The kitchen is rather sunny with two double windows in the breakfast nook, and a small window over the sink. It has an adorable built-in hutch in the breakfast nook with windowed doors. It’s a fairly wide galley kitchen that runs from the dining room to our family room in the back. Our appliances are stainless steel. When we moved in, the cabinets were painted a very unfortunate, dreary, chocolate milk, dusty brown color. I am sure the hideous kitchen is why the house remained on the market for awhile. The fag in me can’t live with no kinda ugly, so me and one of my Butch buddies set out to sweeten it a little. Tore out the old brown ceramic sink and put in stainless. Tore out the old laminate countertop and put in some discount tile that I don’t really like. Painted the old cabinets a nice cream and added a few touches. Soft sage is the accent color now. The kitchen is no longer an embarrassment or an eyesore, but it is still kinda beat up and definitely lackluster. Only one floor tile is cracked, but we hate the flooring. The oversized slick ceramic tiles are dangerously slippery, and the grout always looks gross. |
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I really favor the traditional, formal look of rich, reddish cherry and black granite. Since I am not certain such a stern style would agree with our rather simple, sunny cottage kitchen, I am thinking of using alternating materials to define spaces, creating a “furniture” look by combining cherry and white painted cabinets, as if the room developed over time. Warm reddish-brown walls, and red clay saltillo floor tiles. (Saw some gorgeous mottled saltillo that was finished to look old.) I don’t have a ton of cabinets, so if the price is not astronomical, I think I would go custom as opposed to pre-fab. I still would need to talk to some kitchen remodeling folks to get bids on the cabinets, custom and standard. I just can’t see replacing solid wood with glued veneers. The room has high ceilings and I would like to add dark wood beams or a stamped tin ceiling. I would like to use a silvery metal-look tile for the backsplashes. |
| On the right is a photo of my sink and cupboard wall. I’d like to treat the two cupboards on both sides of the sink as furniture, with corbels holding up the upper cabinets, and glass windows in the doors. The “hutches” would be in cherry. The sink cabinet would be painted cream-colored, and I would pull the sink cabinet out to a different depth as a focal point, maybe even use an antique piece of furniture for the sink, painted cream. I would use dark granite around the sink and maybe butcher block for the “hutches” that will flank the sink (or maybe something more durable…a stainless surround for the sink and granite for the hutches?) Or maybe a continuous slab of granite for the whole length of this wall of cabinets? Your thoughts, please. Do you think the different countertop treatments would add to the furniture look, or just look…jarring?
(PS In case you are curious and squinting, the sign I made on the soffit above the sink says “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”) |
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Guests crowd into this breakfast nook and drag chairs in from the dining room. I’d like to be able to pull two chairs around a cherry-stained table flanked by an “L” shaped upholstered banquet along the walls, with storage underneath. Then about six people could sit there comfortably, and I would have storage for seldom used stuff. The windows are long ago painted shut throughout the house, so it would be awesome for kitchen ventilation and for some added roominess in this small nook if I could replace these old double windows with a bay window, maybe one of those prefab box bays. |
| There is an antique built in on the other side of the breakfast nook. Undeniably the cutest thing in my kitchen. I would leave it cream to match the new cabinets, and put in a cherry display rack above it to tie it in with coordinating woods in the rest of the kitchen. Maybe top it with granite. |  |
| This is the other wall of my galley kitchen. I truly hate it. It only has one cabinet, and I put that one in myself from Homo Depot.
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I got my eye on the Jenn-Air stove below, with a stainless microwave vent hood.
I’d like to center the range in this space with small cabinets on each side. To tie in with the two-tone wood theme, I am thinking cherry cabinets on the bottom, and cream on the top. Some interesting tile configuration to make a focal point behind the range. Dark granite countertops and handsome embossed tiles in a silvery tone for the backsplash. I’d like to make the biggo stainless ‘fridge look built-in with the surrounding cabinets, too.
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| This ugly ass wall separates my family room from my kitchen. I would like to knock the wall down at the height of the other cabinets and put a wooden (or granite) ledge and a support post. It wouldn’t be a real bar, but it would open the room up some, offer a little counterspace, and interaction with the family room when we are entertaining. Plus, this wall is the first thing you see when you walk into the kitchen. It is a natural focal point, but right now, it’s pretty dang ugly to look at. |  |
Below are some photos that show the style I am envisioning, plus some metal tiles… (of course, these photos are of much higher-end kitchens) Anyone ever tackled a project this size before? Kwan? Anyone have any input? If you made if this far, THANKS for wandering through my compulsion! And now… please tell me what you think.
PS. Please don’t share these photos with anyone. I am very private about my house.
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