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Monday, October 18, 2010

Before and After - Kitchen

Here is our new kitchen.  It's everything we want.

But it's not where we began.  This is how we began:


Our original kitchen
We built this house almost twelve years ago.  At the time this was exactly what we wanted.  We were young and just so happy to be building a house.  Who knew from granite?   I remember that the big choice with the builder was between formica and corian. We did the standard tiles in the kitchen and standard cabinets and appliances.  It's amazing how much our tastes have changed.  I'm glad we didn't upgrade anything, since a few years ago we gutted the entire kitchen and started over.  We removed all of the tile and put in beautiful hardwood floors and stained them in a dark color.  This was a bigger job than we realized.  If you remove tile to add different tile it's not a big deal because you are only removing the tile.  When you remove tile to put in a hardwood floor, you have to remove the tile, the mud base and the wire beneath.  The day they removed the tile I came home and when I pulled up outside the house the dust and smoke leaving my house was so bad that I thought the house was on fire.

The kitchen is a very large space, but the way it was set up it seemed like two small spaces.  The kitchen had a peninsula which we thought we loved until we really started working in the kitchen and realized it locked the person cooking into one area and separated them from everyone else.

Peninsula which divided the kitchen
 The kitchen also had a desk area.  Sounded like a great idea at the time.  However, the reality was that it was a pile collector.  No one actually sat there and worked.  When we would have parties we would set up the desk area as the bar area with all of the sodas and drinks and ice set up.

Desk area before
This is the after of the same space.  We had the cabinetry wrap the corner and made an actual bar area.  There is a beverage refrigerator and well as two locked cabinets with drinks for any of our over 21 year old friends.  The glass cabinets house my wine glasses.

Another view of the old kitchen
Here is the after.  I still loved the table and didn't really want to get rid of it.  Instead I painted the table base and all of the chairs a bronze color (originally it was grey which didn't go with the new kitchen).  I then reupholstered all of the chairs in a fabric that coordinated with the new color scheme.  The tablecloth is actually no longer on the table - instead I have four place mats that match the window treatment.

Chandelier is by ABC Crystal.  It was perfect for over the huge island.

View of the valance and window treatment over the sink.

It was a huge project.  The project did not go smoothly...at all...there was a very bad middle section, but in the end it turned out just the way we wanted.  Let me know what you think of the kitchen.

-Judy


I'm joining the following link parties.  Come see.
betweennapsontheporch
cottageinstincts
thediyshowoff
thegirlcreative

7 comments:

Vanessa said...

Hi Judy! Oh my goodness! I think I may have mentioned it before in another comment, but your kitchen is unbelievably gorgeous! Truly, that is my favorite color combo (cabinets and counters) and really what I would love to have in my own home. You guys did such an awesome job and it is such a lovely and welcoming space!
Vanessa

flwrgirl said...

I love what you have done with your kitchen. I am also going to attempt to do my kitchen pretty soon. I absolutely love the color of your cabinets. By any chance, do you remember what color they are? Any help is much appreciated.

Anonymous said...

I love your kitchen. Do you know the name of your granite and tile ?

Bonnie@Creative Decorating said...

I'm just going through some of your posts of your home. It is beautiful. Love this kitchen! I am working on my kitchen now.

Cindy @ Dwellings-The Heart of Your Home said...

Your kitchen is beautiful! Did you use a local cabinet maker? What color are your cabinets?

Jennifer @ Rustic Renditions said...

Saw you over at my blog Rustic Renditions. This is STUNNING!!! I am almost finished with mine, but I wish I would have seen this first LOL! Absolutely gorgeous :)

Kristi said...

hi Judy, your kitchen is beautiful! I have very similiar cabinets, love them :) I am helping my friend doing the layout in her kitchen (she is remodeling also) and was so happy to see your island with seating because it was exactly what we were looking to do with hers! I linked her here :)
Kristi

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