Kitchen Renovation | The Before

So you know what this means, right? If I'm posting "befores" of our kitchen, the "after" is around the corner. I'm happy to post that our kitchen renovation is 100% done and the "after" shots will be revealed in a few days.

The before shots are so dramatically different than what we have now, that they deserve their own post. Above are some photos of what the kitchen looked like when we bought the house. The fridge is blocking the doorway, we had a rolly-dishwasher that you had to attach to the sink (that was blocking the doorway to the basement). We had gross peel and sick floor tiles and one ugly light figure. Over the last three years of living in our house we did small minor improvements to the kitchen to make it liveable (and clean). You can see a the "in between stage" in this post. More photos of the kitchen, and how we lived with it for 3 years after the jump.



So above is a shot of what we lived with for the three years after moving in. The kitchen's "in-between" stage is really quite nice. Small changes including new "peel & stick" flooring, fresh paint, and some updates to the eat-in area of the house really make the area feel better. But even with it being cleaned up, main issues still remained. The lighting was terrible, the cupboard space sucked, and our appliances were dying.  I'm pretty excited to show you the "After" because it's a huge improvement. :) YAY!

OUR $500 DIY KITCHEN REMODEL

We bought our house 3 years ago and the kitchen looked something like this:

Can you say DATED?!?

Even though it was built in 2002 and served as a model home for our subdivision early on, the wood everything and tacky wallpaper made it feel much older.

Thankfully Tedgar and I were able to see past this and envision something much more up to date, fresh and modern in our future kitchen.

We had to buy new appliances when we moved in, so we opted for stainless steel. This helped bring it into the now a little bit.

Then over a year ago, out of curiosity, we got a quote from a local home improvement company and to paint or stain our cabinets, install granite and a tile backsplash it was going to be roughly $12,000. Being the frugal DIYer that I am, I just couldn't stomach paying someone to do this project for us, and I knew Ted was handy (and patient) enough to tackle a future remodel - so I waited it out.

To help us "get by" with the kitchen as is for the time being, Ted added wainscoting and trim to the island and painted it a creamy white (Behr, lunar light) and I painted the walls a deep eggplant (an accidental color...long story) and the window and door trim the same creamy white (these were the only colors that sort of coordinated with the purple/mauve countertops and backsplash...barf). Then the addition of the updated pulls (which Ted got for free) and the butcher block island top (a very nice gift from Ted's mom) helped make the room feel more tolerable (I'm so dramatic, I know:).

We lived with this for the last year or so:

Until we decided to pull the trigger on a compete kitchen update (which took us almost 2 months from start to finish).

Here are the details:

CABINETS
While perusing Pinterest one day I ran across this blog post with very detailed directions on how to paint your cabinets WITHOUT SANDING them first, I got the bug to finally paint the cabinets. I quickly got my hubby on board and we set out to Home Depot to buy our supplies the very next day (which ran us about $65).

1. Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer for all surfaces*
2. Behr paint in lunar light (flat)
3. Minwax Polycrylic Water Based Protective Finish (semigloss)

* This is crucial and the only way I recommend painting    cabinets without sanding them first.









We immediately got to work and after 3 days of priming, painting and sealing, we were done with the cabinets. We couldn't believe how much brighter the kitchen had become.

That was exciting and all...but I couldn't stand having the fresh white cabinets and keep our existing purple/mauve laminate countertops and backsplash!



COUNTERTOPS
We wanted new granite (or similar) countertops, but with a new roof, a baby on the way, a home refi (and a few other larger expenses) we just couldn't swing it.

We investigated pouring our own concrete countertops, but decided that we were not ready to take the plunge quite yet, so I once again turned to Pinterest, where I stumbled upon this blog post with steps detailing how to pretty easily convert your existing countertops to polished concrete coated ones. We decided that this was the only way for us to go (at least for now until we are possibly ready to professionally update them in the future).

We ordered our 4. Ardex Feather Finish concrete mix from Amazon (1 bag was all we needed and it was under $20). It arrived on or doorstep a few days later and Ted got to work. He followed the directions on the blog very closely, and a few days later we had smooth concrete covered countertops.

Ted took an orbital sander to them once they were dry to smooth them out even more (thanks mom and dad). We wanted to stain the concrete a darker charcoal color for a nice contrast, so we went to Home Depot and got this 5. concrete stain in Dark Coal STC-35 (for around $25). We applied 2 coats with a spray bottle and a small paint roller.  We wanted the end result to be very high gloss (wet look), so after the stain dried, we applied 4-5 coats of this 6. wet look sealer (also from Home Depot for around $25).

***Just a warning. The concrete stain has a navy blueish tint to it for a couple weeks or so after it is applied. We sealed over it while it had the blue tint. It eventually turned to black, so don't be alarmed (like I was). :)***



BACKSPLASH
Tiles came next...we knew all along that we would go with 3" x 6" subway tiles.

We have enough white subway tiles already on hand to complete the project (we got them for free awhile back), but felt that they might be too much white.

After collecting samples from various places, we finally decided on 35 sq. ft. of light olive colored glass subway tiles from My Tile Backsplash. This was our only "splurge" for this project (ran us just under $350 shipped).

We removed the old tiles and realized that there was no way around the fact that no matter how gentle and precise we were, we were tearing off drywall with each section of removed tile (nothing is ever as easy as you think it is going to be). We decided that Ted would just rip the walls out from behind the older tile and re-sheetrock the areas that were damaged. We purchased the new sheetrock (for around $10) and Ted measured, cut and installed (he is my hero).



WALL & ISLAND PAINT
I painted the walls a deep shade of grayish green (Martha Stewart, thunderhead for about $25).

Then for the island I mixed the same wall paint with the creamy white paint (Behr, lunar light) in a ratio of 90 (thunderhead) / 10 (lunar light) and painted the island. I used the same paint mixture to paint the insides of our one double glass front cabinet and then installed 3 battery operated lights inside the cabinets to add some much needed light and interest.


...and FINALLY here are the finished results:

I think it all came together pretty nicely (if I do say so myself) and the grand total was only $520!!

If we would have used the tiles we already had on hand it would have only been $173...crazy! We are very happy with our splurge though.

If you are interested, you can see a few of our other home improvement projects here:

Dining Room

Nursery

Half Bathroom 

Bathroom

Living Room

Other home updates:

+ New roof added April 2013

+ New stair carpet added October 2012

+ New living room, dining room, hallway and nursery carpet added December 2012

+ Painted all trim white

+ Painted fireplace white

+ Added fence in back yard

+ Added landscaping


Still on our list:

+ Tile master bath

+ Tile jack and jill bath

+ Recarpet master and 2 guest rooms

+ Backyard and deck overhaul

+ Retile laundry room

+ Paint exterior

+ Eventually finish basement

What's in store for you

Welcome to my kitchen remodel blog! If you’re here hoping to get an idea of what’s involved in a kitchen renovation then you’re certainly in the right place. This project was my first attempt at having a kitchen remodeled and it was quite a learning experience. I hope this blog can help other first timers, or anyone out there looking for ideas on layout, cabinets, lighting and everything else that is involved in a kitchen remodel. This project was a collaboration between myself and Greentea Design, a Toronto-based company that carries a very unique line of Asian-inspired cabinetry that I completely fell in love with. They were instrumental in the creation of what turned out to be my dream kitchen.

I’d like to give a breakdown of what sort of topics I covered throughout the remodel process on this blog. To begin I explained how terrible the kitchen was when I moved in and included photos to demonstrate the extent of it’s horrid state.



I provided hand-drawn sketches to Greentea of the layout I wanted and they produced digital 3-dimensional images of what the kitchen would look like with the cabinets and all the fixtures I chose.



There were a few posts after this where I let readers in on all the purchases I had made for crucial kitchen elements like appliances, lighting, countertop, sink and plenty others.



Demolition began, which was mainly executed by my boyfriend and I. That was a lot of fun (and work, but it was SO satisfying).



The kitchen needed to be completely gutted (more so than I had anticipated) so there were a couple of posts explaining what needed to happen and how I had the space modified to accommodate the cabinets.



The flooring was a bit of an odd choice, and I explained my selection and the process of getting the flooring done in time for the arrival of the cabinets.



The cabinets arrived, to my delight, and with them came my amazement at how easy it is to “install” free-standing cabinetry.



I included a post about the installation of all the light fixtures I had selected earlier on in the process. This was one of my favourite stages as my previous kitchen was severely lacking adequate lighting.



The countertop was installed and I was able to snap a few photos during this process.



I then blogged about some of the finishing touches made to the kitchen (placement of accessories, the hatch that was created to access the basement…).



In my last couple of posts I expressed my utter disbelief at how amazing the cabinetry was at allowing me to finally have an organized kitchen (with the help of 25 drawers!!). I also blogged about my delight at finding the perfect dining table (and explained why the first one that I had built didn’t work out).



For photos of the final product.....well, come see for yourself in the many posts below. ;)