Years ago when I moved into this house, the room I most wanted to change was the kitchen. It was dated with hideous colors and finishes. I was able to remove the foil wallpaper with huge sun flowers and repaint the walls, but that was it. Sadly this is the first room most people saw when they come to the house. The floors were an awful yellow sheet vinyl, the backsplash at the cabinets was a dark fake thin brick and the cabinets were a dark rather uninspiring looking circa 1960's cabinet with a gross yellow countertop. Sadly the Kitchen is the most expensive room to renovate. So until this year it remained pretty much in it’s original state.
The same folks who worked on the house last fall, and built my GRILL GAZEBO were back to do this work, so I knew I was in good hands. As an architect it was fun being my own client because I knew exactly what I wanted. What I wanted was based on years of hands on use of the Kitchen. The highlights of the new Kitchen design included:
- An extra 6' of new base & wall cabinets.
- New Shaker style cherry finish base & wall cabinets.
- Additional storage picked up in the corner base cabinet, which previously was a dead corner.
- Granite countertop with new sink & spray faucet.
- Undercounter lightng throughout.
- New tile floor & tile backsplash.
- Walls ceilings and trim all repainted in new color scheme.
- New Electric Cooktop with totally flush top surface (no knobs) & Turbo Boil Burner that boils a large pot of water in less than 3 minutes.
Once the project was underway I added the following tweaks:
- Addition of cabinet organizers to maximize storage space and usability of all base & wall
- cabinets.
- Duplex GFCI (Ground Fault) outlets with integrated LED night lights on a light sensor.
- A color coordinated retro looking trash can.
- A color coordinated dish set.
I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story. There are also some blog entries about the planning, the experience and the execution for the benefit of those who are thinking of doing this to their own Kitchens
NEW KITCHEN