Our house was built in 1992 and when we bought our house in 2009, just about everything in that house was in great condition. Except it was all still from 1992. Okay, the carpet and slate tile were newer but literally everything else was straight from the 90's. And I love the 90's. That's my era. But... not in my house. Not anymore.
Well, we knew we had a lot of updates to do. We painted the whole house except for the two extra bedrooms. We changed out door knobs and light fixtures to help give it a little update. We should have scraped those popcorn ceilings then, but {sigh} more on that later... But the kitchen and bathrooms were in need of some serious facelifts. They had silly colors. They had wallpaper. Our guest bathroom even had linoleum. Linoleum. Bleh.
We decided to tackle the kitchen as one of our first big projects as it is one of the most lived in rooms of the house. And one of the most visible. It wasn't super pretty at first sight. When we bought our house, the cabinets were a strange kind of neutral brown. Kind of like the color of peanut butter. Only a lot less delicious. But not just that. There was a glaze on them. Kind of greenish? Because then it would go with the dark teal ceramic tile that existed as a back splash. The counter tops were a lovely neutral cream laminate material. We had a little stainless steel, a little black, and a little white all within the appliances. The walls were painted black {of all colors} and were completely flat because they had wallpaper on them at one time. We found remnants of that wallpaper behind the fridge and believe me, black was an improvement on those walls. Here it is in it's full glory:
WOWZA!
{I took these off of the Zillow website because I didn't actually take pictures of the house before we started working on it.}
We hired out for this big job - we used a granite guy and a painter to get the work done in the house. Our big improvements included the following ten tasks:
1. Get rid of that tile.
While you're looking, make note of that sink.
A shallow double basin.
Black faucet - the plastic kind, not the lovely kind.
2. Get rid of those countertops...
We decided to go ahead and get granite installed all the way up the back, mostly because the slate tile on the floor was busy enough as it was. We didn't want to add any more materials or patterns to the mix.
3. Install a microwave.
Did you notice? When we moved in, there was only a hood above the stove top. We decided to add a vented microwave above the oven to free up the counter space.
4. Paint the cabinets.
The cabinets are pretty standard, but also sturdy. We decided to lighten up the space by painting all of the cabinets straight up white.
5. Change out the hinges.
The old ones were brassy anyways, we ordered some nice new & shiny hinges for each of the cabinet doors.
6. Add above and below cabinet lighting.
We have some rope lights above our cabinets and puck lights underneath them. This is one of my favorite improvements in the kitchen!
7. Switch to a large basin sink.
We wanted a nice, big, deep sink to have in our kitchen so we went with a Kohler basic deep basin.
8. Add pulls to the doors & drawers.
I don't have a picture from when we did this, but we chose a basic stainless look to our pulls. I may decide to change these yet again to better match the style of our home now, but it is not high on the priority list.
9. Get new appliances.
We had gotten the dishwasher replaced (stainless model) before we started the remodel of our kitchen when it stopped working. It was probably original to the house, like most of the other things (air conditioner, water heater, seashell sinks, etc.) and just quit. I had really wanted to get a double oven, but most of the stand in double ovens have these high backs, which I didn't love. There was an Electrolux oven that I had my eye on at Best Buy that was exactly what I wanted!! Of course, it was pricey. And it never went on sale. And Justin said "no way" every time I brought it up. But then... they were having a floor sample sale and it was discounted... and we got it!!!! EEEK!! So, it came home and looked fabulous in it's new spot. We still have a white refrigerator, but aren't too concerned as the cabinets are white and it doesn't stand out. P.S. You can see the pull in this picture.
10. Texture & paint the walls.
We had our cabinet painter take care of this for us. I learned the hard way that adding texture on your own is no simple task. For me, totally worth the price tag. We painted our whole house essentially around these dang slate floors. I really like them - they're unique and add texture - but, they have been a little bit of a pain to work around. So, the walls ended up a greenish-beige to coordinate with the floors.
You know you wanted to see this picture of plain, painted wall!
You're wondering why I am posting pictures of our kitchen remodel from FIVE YEARS ago and have yet to mention why I'm excited about lights. Well, here it is...
When we had this work done, we did not tackle one little aspect of this kitchen: those fluorescent lights. Wait... you didn't see them?? Did I leave them out because I hate them?? Yes, probably. Go back to the top... all the way... and there they are. Bleh. We did take them down and paint the brown part white so they blend in a bit more with the ceiling. But... they're still there. And I never like to turn them on. We had some electricians come out and ask me if they were working and I couldn't give them a definite answer because I wouldn't even know!!!
Okay, here's a picture of them now in our kitchen as it currently stands:
The past couple of weeks I have made appointments with two electricians and three painters and are hopefully about ready to get moving on this, which will give me the opportunity to present our final kitchen sometime soon. So check back for our big kitchen reveal!!
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