Friday, December 09, 2011

Kitchen Remodel part 1

Five and half years ago we moved into our lovely home. The first thing I said to my husband when I walked through this kitchen is, “You gotta let me paint these cabinets.”

This is the picture I took on our first walk through.  It’s ok if you gasp, I nearly cried. Diggin’ the purple/brown walls, huh?

Kitchen Cabinets

I am so not a fan of the rustic look. Nor knotty alder. After we moved in Paul said he liked this kitchen and therefore crushed my dreams of having a white kitchen. I am not sure why. After all, this is how we transformed the brown kitchen cabinets in our old house:

Post 2-Kitchen

Lots of beadboard and glossy paint. And then some subway tiles.

kitchen remodel in old house

I am still proud of the above kitchen. I remember we spent $1,000 on the above remodel—paint, backsplash, and granite tiles. That was a lot of money! Look hard I am working putting up the backsplash? You can read about it in this super old blog post from 2005. I saw the below photo and that’s what inspired the red lower cabinets:

red&cream kitchen cabinets with beadboard backsplash

I didn’t care if I got tired of the red because hey, those were probably $800 dollar cabinets. It’s not like I was ruining anything valuable.

Ok, Ok, back to my current kitchen, if you are still reading.

I’ve talked about this in a previous blog post so I’ll quit the whining. I don’t want to sound ungrateful. Because I am grateful I have a nice place to cook meals. This kitchen just isn’t my style. At all.

I’ve done what I can by adding a white subway tile backsplash, adding a hood that actually vents outside (microwave is in pantry) and painting the island white. (I painted the island white just six months ago thinking it would calm me down.) But it’s time for a change. These cabinets have fulfilled their knotty alder destiny. At least in my home. They are for sale now. $2,000 or best offer.

DSC_1714 copy

Maybe being from California is the reason I am drawn to a coastal look—white cabinets and bright tiles. So we’re moving forward! I hired the talented Benjamin Blackwelder (his website doesn’t work in internet explorer) after seeing the below kitchen he designed in the Parade of Homes 6 months ago.  (You can read all about the kitchen by clicking here.)  I walked through this kitchen gasping. Finally a cabinet maker in Utah that wouldn’t try to talk me out of a white kitchen. (I asked about white cabinets in our first home in 1997 and allowed the idiot salesman to talk me out of them. “Oh they are too expensive, you don’t want them.”)

parade of homes

I am so excited. This kitchen has been a dream of mine for at least 8 years. I have worked so hard this year on my business saving all my pennies (a few nickels and dimes too). I have my range picked out, the Carrara marble for the counters, and the tile.

kitchen pics

Demolition begins the week after Christmas, stay tuned!

8 comments:

Candy said...

LOVE it! It's going to look so great! I too love the crisp clean starkness of white cabinets. So fresh looking. And then when you add in a pop of color (espeically that gorgeous aqua/teal/blue!) it looks so great!
Can't wait to see it!

ottspot said...

I loved that Parade of Homes kitchen too! What is with men and the rustic look? Not to mention, I think whoever does 95% of the kitchen work ought to get to choose the kitchen...

Kathy said...

Love, Love, LOVE the color scheme! I will be so excited to see the completed project!

Ilene said...

You deserve it!

Your living the dream, Cynthia. Keep us posted.

Lindy@4-chairs said...

If you need any design help let me know! Benjamin is the best!! Good choice.

Mary said...

I'm glad you included the picture that inspired your project. Beautiful! I especially like that Benjamin Blackwelder used varying colors of wood on the floor. I have started such a floor in my master bedroom, though I had never seen anything like it. I'm glad to know the overall effect is so great!

Heather C. said...

Hey Cynthia--Heather, Laurie's sister here--my friend just did a major remodel of her kitchen and, while I'm sure you have all of your ideas nailed down, I thought you might like to see her before and after pics. Enjoy!

http://betterafter.blogspot.com/2010/10/jaynas-kitchen-of-lust.html

Anonymous said...

I totally have the same feeling as yours when I saw the photo of your original kitchen. I am also into white cabinets because they just give off a very relaxed and refreshing feel. Your inspiration kitchen is really stunning. Certainly, even other
home builders Missouri out there will find your post helpful. I do hope you were able to do what you wanted for your kitchen. Can you please share some of what came about of this project? Thank you.

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