Before and After: Jess and Jon’s Kitchen Remodel

August 22, 2018

When Jess and Jon asked me to help them redesign the house they were moving into, I wasn’t exactly prepared for the amount of work that it really needed…especially the kitchen remodel. Repainting the terra cotta walls was an easy fix, but the honey maple cabinets with the reddish brown granite counters and black granite flooring were almost painful to look at. The house was already very dark due to the lack of natural light coming in. The added dark color palette was not doing it any favors.

Design

Since they had a limited budget of around $15,000 to renovate the entire house, we had to make some decisions about where to invest the money. We decided the flooring had to go. Not only was it dark and dated, it was uneven and poorly installed. We decided on an engineered oak flooring that was lighter and looked more sophisticated.

For the color palette, I knew we needed to bring in more light so I had the walls painted in Behr Polar Bear which is a white with a hint of warmth. The cabinets were also painted in the same color. To add interest, I had the lower cabinets painted in Behr Black Boudoir.

Cabinets and Counters

I decided that we shouldn’t replace the cabinets and that we should just paint them instead. They were in decent condition but just needed a little bit of leveling. This would end up saving a lot of money for our tight budget. I also removed a large portion of the upper cabinets and had open shelving put in instead. While removing the corner cabinets over the sink was an obvious choice to let in more light, my proposal to remove the upper cabinets on the other side of the kitchen was a little risky as we were taking away a lot of storage. In addition to removing the uppers, I also wanted to remove one of the lower cabinets and and step down the counter to create a little desk. This would help to break up the overwhelming mass of cabinetry and create more usable space.

Before and After Kitchen Renovation: Stove and Sink

While the appliances were not ideal, they were stainless steel and in working condition. Towards the end of the remodel, Jon and Jess had a little bit of extra in their budget so they bought a new dishwasher. A champagne gold faucet and apron sink added a bit of modern farmhouse, elevating the whole space.

Before and After Kitchen Remodel: Champagne Faucet

I was most concerned about fitting a decent sized dining table in between the kitchen and the living area. It was a really tight spot and Jess didn’t want a round dining table. She wanted something that was affordable and could seat at least 6 people. I was able to find a dining table from Wayfair that was the perfect size that allowed enough space to get to and from the kitchen.

Before and After Kitchen Renovation: Dining Table

Construction Notes

The flooring proved to be a major issue during installation. When the contractor started to remove the granite tiles, he unfortunately discovered 2 more layers of flooring underneath including linoleum and ceramic tile. This added a lot more time and labor to the project, but it was worth it to remove all the extra layers so we could install the hardwood onto a clean subfloor. This leads me to my public service announcement: DON’T INSTALL FLOORING ON TOP OF EXISTING FLOORING.

With every project there are always things I wish were done differently. I would have actually had Jess and Jon hire a professional cabinet painter to come do the cabinets instead of the general contractor. The paint job was decent, but there wasn’t enough time between coats so the paint remained sticky for a long time and ended up chipping in a few places. I would have also had a carpenter do the open shelves especially at the corner. The cuts that the contractor did were a little too rough for my liking.

For the tiling work, we hired a tile specialist instead of having the general contractor do it. I would recommend this to anyone getting tile work done in their home. You will usually get better results than having your general contractor do it.