Friday, October 7, 2011

Kitchens - Roomspiration Finale

Today over at The DIY Showoff is the final installment of Roomspiration.  The big finale...kitchens.  The kitchen is the heart of the home and where everyone seems to congregate. A few years back we did a major remodel of our kitchen.  Here is a tour of the before and after photos of my kitchen.

Here is our renovated kitchen:


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

Our original kitchen
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
What a difference!!
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.


The DIY Show Off

Now it's your turn.  Head on over to The DIY Showoff and showoff your kitchen.  I can't wait to be inspired.  


I hope you all had a good time at Roomspiration and found lots of inspiration.  Thanks for participating!

Have a great weekend!

-Judy

13 comments:

  1. What a beautiful transformation! Your kitchen looks wonderful now.

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  2. Your kitchen is just beautiful, Judy! I think I need to check out this particular linky for some inspiration for mine. While the new place has the creamy white cabinets I've wanted, there is no window {condo downfall} and we are going to need to add lighting. I love your chandelier over the island.

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  3. I am glad i am not the only one who bought a house with a horrible kitchen that needed some great help!

    -Goldie

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  4. I love white cabinets best of all!

    =)

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  5. Your kitchen is gorgeous, Judy! It's a dream kitchen! Great transformation.

    Thanks so much for remembering to link up today and sharing the last Roomspiration party! I really appreciate it!

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  6. Hi Judy, This is an amazing transformation. Your kitchen is gorgeous.
    Hugs,
    Sherry

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  7. What an amazing transformation! You have such a gorgeous kitchen :)

    Linda
    http://lasteve1.blogspot.com

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  8. I just love your kitchen. Every time I see a picture of it I want to redo mine!

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  9. This is truly an amazing transformation! Just gorgeous! Love the window treatments. Everything looks so well thought out and executed with perfection. Thanks for sharing. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse

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  10. Your kitchen is gorgeous! Love it. I am your newest follower.

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  11. Beautiful remodel and I can't even imagine all the work you put into it. Your light over the island is so pretty, too.

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