1 Year Later...The Kitchen Reveal

1 Year after demolishing the kitchen I felt it was appropriate to finally do the kitchen reveal. It's not 100% complete, but it's so close...and it's come a loooooooong way.

Original kitchen

Shall we say vintage built in oven and stove

Gotta love the lace curtains

Dining room view from the living room

Dining room view from the kitchen

Progress:

The hole after the original cabinets, stove, and oven were removed.

Preparing to paint the cabinets

Removing the old pink backsplash and sadly we had to sacrifice the drywall.

Painting the cabinets

Functional, but still working on it

Installing the new countertop

After:

Kitchen view from the dining room

Kitchen view from the garage entrance

The new stove and oven which is beyond amazing. I have yet to burn anything I was cooking in this oven (I did burn a pan that I had stashed in there and subsequently forgot about the next time I preheated the oven, oops). Seriously, the previous owner had only ever cooked brownies in it. Oh it's a dream. And just for a close-up comparison here is the original version.

Dining Room

Dining Room view from the kitchen

A few of my favorite things besides the wonderful stove/oven are the photo gallery wall and the chevron rugs in the kitchen. The photo wall in the dining room is a display of our loved ones and I can't wait to change out the pictures as our family continues to grow. I also LOVE the brown and chevron rugs in the kitchen. It was love at first sight when I spotted the chevron rug at a Kohl's in our area. Unfortunately, they only had 1 in stock. I couldn't pass it up and I continued to stalk other Kohl's to find a matching rug. When I was in Kansas this past summer I found a matching rug at a Kohl's and I about had a heart attack I was so excited. So, the rug made the trip on the airplane back to Ohio, though a few pieces of clothing were left behind...priorities people.

This is the final major project...pantry doors. Kyle custom built the pantry to fit in this location (since there was a big gaping hole there after tearing out the cabinets). It is quite functional complete with rolling shelves for easy access, however due to the custom nature of the piece finding pre-made cabinet doors that fit and match the style of the existing cabinets has proven difficult. Kyle thinks he can make them himself and while I have complete faith in his woodworking abilities a year later the pantry is still sans doors. Maybe this summer...maybe not...at least it's functional.

Breakdown of what we (i.e. mostly Kyle) did:

Removed built in oven, stove, and cabinets

Installed new appliances (all courtesy of Craigslist except the microwave which we bought scratch & dent at Lowe's b/c it matched the range)

Installed a new outlet to accomodate the microwave

Painted the walls

Sanded and painted the cabinets

Installed new flooring

Installed new countertops

Installed mosaic glass/stone backsplash

Installed beadboard on the kitchen bar and the dining room wall

Installed new baseboards

Fixed the plumbing (several times)

Installed a garbage disposal

Built a pantry

Switched out ceiling fans

Installed new door

Made & installed a pendant drum shade for the dining room

As for a cost breakdown I am too lazy to pull all the receipts so I'll give you a rough idea of how we did this with as little expense as possible while also realizing that a nice kitchen could help sell this house in the future.

Appliances (microwave, refrigerator, stove/oven, dishwasher): under $1,000

Countertop: $650

Flooring (kitchen & dining room): $500

Cabinets: $100 for paint supplies

Back splash: $100

Those were the major expenses and so far they have been worth every penny (we'll see what happens when we try to sell the house). And as much as I try to stay out of the kitchen it really is one of my favorite rooms in the house.

Updated: Kyle finished the pantry doors.  It was going to be very difficult to DIY doors that matched the existing cabinets.  Then we saw some frosted glass pantry doors and that that would be a good complement to our white cabinets. Here's our solution for the pantry door w/ frosted glass.  And to round out the kitchen I had to add a fun handmade towel!