Kitchen Gets a Makeover (of sorts)

We opened the blog with a picture of the sloping floor that led into the kitchen and a rather rough description of some of the “character flaws” that came with the house and became some of our projects.  Some were more fun and fulfilling than others and some were just things that needed to be done.  Renovating the kitchen was a little of both.

The tile desperately needed to be replace and the poor layout made it awkward for two people to move around.  The cabinets were not our style preference but were in good condition.  We knew that it wasn’t in our budget to do everything that we wanted to do but we could definitely get started with a fresh coat of paint on the walls and cabinets, a new floors, and a better layout.

So here is the current layout…

As you can see the hardest part was trying to figure out a way to lay the kitchen out in such a way that would allow for an open flow throughout the kitchen without sacrificing natural light.  There are four windows in the kitchen and a backdoor that opens to the deck.  Behind the back door is a radiator.  There is also a  non working chimney by the doorway entrance to the kitchen that once upon a time provided heat to the upper portion of the house.   Needless to say, there are not a lot of walls that could be made into productive counter or storage space.

We went through several scenarios and finally came up with a layout that would increase the amount of natural light that we get currently and give us a tab more productive counter top space and storage.  It also would allow us to expand and do other things down the road.

The work breakdown looks something like this.

• Paint the cabinets and island, and replace the hardware
• Replace the back door with a patio sliding door
• Remove radiator
• Install radiated floors
• Replace the floor with bamboo
• Move fridge
• Build a base cabinet
• Install cork counter top
• Move island an additional 2′ from the stove

First up, paint and hardware.

We decided to keep it simple and inexpensive by using paint that we already had for the trim throughout the house.  I did some research on hardware and planned on getting some from IKEA but on one of my many trips to Home Depot I saw that they had some decent mark down on bulk selections of pulls and handles, saving me a drive to Northern Virginia.  I bought brush nickle handles for the wall cabinets and matching pulls for the base cabinets.  Along with brush nickle hinges to complete the look.

I was now ready to get started on renewing the cabinets.  I took all the doors off the black iron hinges and filled in the holes from the previous hardware, smoothed out any rough spots with sandpaper, primed, and painted each door two coats of “Refined.”  Easy enough, moving on to the base and wall cabinets.  I allowed the cabinets amble time to dry before installing the new hardware but once I got it on and everything put back together it really made a huge difference.  Even the island looks great with its new shade of “La Fonda Jalapeno.”  I re-faced the seating of the bar chairs with some material I found at a local fabric shop and the kitchen was starting to take on a new persona.

At this point, we were only able to do the first bullet point on our list.  Stay tune, the rest will be revealed shortly!

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