A Small, Unique Kitchen Renovation Plan

DIY Kitchen Renovation Plan

Friends, it’s been quite a while since I’ve shared words with you here. Today I am super excited to share our latest project with you. We are renovating our kitchen. As you know, if you follow me on Instagram, we’ve been working on our house since June and things are finally taking shape. I feel like it took forever to fix a few problems that we found from twenty three years ago when the house was built.  We have joined in as a guest participant for the One Room Challenge to help push this project to completion. Please keep in mind that we are doing 95% of the work ourselves and we both work full time. It’s been a huge undertaking but it’s been very therapeutic for us both. We learned that we miscarried in August so the renovation has been a nice distraction and has helped us heal our hearts.

Before I get into details and the MASSIVE to do list (go ahead and get yourself a large beverage), let’s have a looksy at the before photos. I will then show you a mood board for the space and go into a little detail and the hopes we have for the space.

Before the Kitchen Renovation

We purchased our home knowing that we would eventually renovate the kitchen. When we were looking for a house, a dated kitchen was on our list of requirements. It helped us save a lot of money when purchasing the house, allowed us to see how we would use the space (six years actually) before remodeling, and taught us how to live with what we have. Here is the space. These are photos from before we moved in.

It’s nothing special but it was a functional kitchen with a pantry, fridge, electric oven, and dishwasher. Oh the things you miss when you’ve been without for so long. About two years ago, we had the house painted and the wallpaper removed. Well, we didn’t have them peel off the wallpaper, they actually floated plaster over the paper because removing it would be way too expensive and painting over wallpaper is a HUGE no no in my eyes. Plus, there was TWO layers of wallpaper so to steam it off wasn’t an option because the steam couldn’t penetrate the double layer of wallpaper. The floors have since changed as well.  We wanted floors that went under the cabinets instead of tiling around them, knowing that we would be changing the kitchen eventually. Changing the floors actually started this whole kitchen renovation process. One thing led to another really.

The bar area has never really been functional for us. Both of us are super tall 5’10” and my husband is 6’5″. The narrow lifted bar area never gave us enough space with our legs. We plan to take this down to countertop level and extend the bar out. This will hopefully let in a little more light because the counter on the other side of the lifted bar is really dark.

We tossed around the idea of changing the footprint (layout) and even had someone come out and give us an estimate on opening up that load bearing wall where the microwave sits to give the space more light and a view into the living room.We QUICKLY decided against that when they mentioned $10,000.  I’m not sure if that is reasonable or not because we only received one quote. After that, I was determined to make the space work with the existing layout because the estimate also mentioned moving plumbing around, etc.

The next photo shows the breakfast nook area. We plan to tile this entire area and into the window sills. We had a table there for a short while but we didn’t really use it. It basically collected things. We decided to turn this area into a place for my plants. There are four windows here and I plan to keep the existing roman shades since the are custom sized and still work great.  I’m going to dye them and add an intricate trim to the edges. I’m still undecided on the lighting for this space. I don’t like fixtures that show the bulbs but I also don’t like round globes that catch bugs.

The New Kitchen Mood Board

Runner/ Pendants/ Possible DIY Pendant Option  /  Countertops /Beveled Subway Tile / Compost Bin / 

Herringbone Ceramic Hardwoods /Copper Teakettle

To say we’ve been super picky with selecting items for this space is an understatement. We’ve thought long and hard about each design and function and especially quality.

If you remember from my first One Room Challenge, the art was a HUGE design piece where I drew inspiration. With this edition of the One Room Challenge, I’m designing the space around this runner from nuloom. Ob. Sessed.

Floors- we have changed the floors in the entire downstairs roughly 1200 sq. ft. We learned a lot along the way and plan to share the process.

Cabinets- We will do dark lowers, light uppers. Since the space is small, I wanted to keep as much light as possible. Plus, I’m super excited for the dark cabinet, light counter contrast. We will be using Ikea boxes which will provide interior organizers to help maximize space. I’m most excited about the pull out blind corner shelf. We can’t access that HUGE space right now because it’s so far out of reach.  We chose semihandmade for quality reasons but also for the fact that they can be repainted if we tire of the dark lowers. No worries, more info on this later.

Countertops– Quartz. Quartz. Quartz. Marble has no place in our home and it just doesn’t make sense to me why people put them in their kitchens. When I first saw these countertops, I fell in LOVE. They remind me of the swirls you get when you first mix different colors of paint. I will go into more detail later about options that almost made the cut and I even have photos of the slabs in person. GORGEOUS!

Roman shades-These will stay but I will dye them a vibrant mustard color and add a beautiful trim.

Beveled subway tile- Because it cleans easily, we are going to tile the backsplash using beveled subway tile we found at Home Depot.

Retro Barstool Chairs- The color. Oh em gee swoon! These will live at our new extended counter height bar. When I sent this design to my cousin, she told me it reminded her of chairs that our grandparents used to have. I love that they can be wiped down easily when kids come along.

New appliances- Our new fridge will have a water dispenser because our current one doesn’t. I’m tired of filling up the Brita pitcher. The range will have a gas range and a cool digital front. Movin’ on up…to the east side.

Sink- My dream sink. Blanco Anthracite Ikon. You may recall me kissing a sink at Haven two years ago. #noshame. Soon I will have my own to kiss whenever I want.

Faucet-brass and special. The end.

Plants Plants Plants- I’ve been growing my collection lately and I’m excited to show you my cool planters and containers.

Pendant lighting-these Feiss Cadence lights are a dream! However, they are slightly out of budget. I love that each light has two bulbs and that you can’t see the bulbs (hello LED). I plan for these or a diy version without a glass globe on the bottom to hang above the new bar.

Pantry-To give us more usable space, we plan to remove the existing pantry and use cabinets as a pantry.

Microwave- built into the lower cabinets

A huge kitchen renovation leads to hundreds of smaller tasks to get the job finished. We find that make a detailed, very specific list helps get things accomplished. Ours lives in a google doc and we add to it constantly. Here is the madness.

The DIY Kitchen Renovation Checklist

• Remove existing cabinets
• Sell cabinets on craigslist
• Reserve dumpster for demo scraps.
• Demo floor tiles
• Buy vs rent demo tools?
• Remove Formica backsplash using heat gun.
• Scrap floors to remove excess thinset
• Vacuum dust. That shit is everywhere!
• Remove countertops
• Move stove and clean stove for resell
• Remove microwave from wall
• Remove old insulation from wall
• Cut better lines in sheetrock and remove nasty sheetrock
• Repair leak in wall from upstairs drainage pipe (cabinet nail went through from builders)
• Test leak (failed!)
• Repair second leak found in pipe (nail went through same pipe from builders when they were installing siding)
• Test leak
• Close wall where leak used to be.
• Remove bar height countertop
• Fix sheetrock from bar demo
• Order kitchen cabinets
• Order countertops
• Order dye for existing roman shades (RIT color daffodil and taupe).
• Wash and dye roman shades to a perfect mustard color.
• Coordinate a fabricator for cabinets
• Order tile for backsplash and window wall
• Install tile for backsplash and window wall
• Fix sheetrock on stove wall
• Fix sheetrock on microwave wall
• Decide on Stove
• Order stove
• Decide on dishwasher
• Order dishwasher
• Decide on microwave
• Order microwave
• Find perfect dupe for expensive designer paint
• Order perfect paint
• Order cabinet doors
• Stove delivered
• Cabinet doors delivered
• Ikea cabinets delivered
• Decide on cabinet hardware. Knobs vs handles.
• set up spray painting shelter for cabinet doors
• Paint the cabinet doors and panels
• Plant succulents for kitchen renovation.
• Decide on styling items for kitchen reveal.
• Decide on lighting for kitchen bar area
• Decide on plant nook area lighting.
• Electrician to install can lights for kitchen
• Decide on kitchen sink
• Order kitchen sink
• Order faucet
• Paint back door
• Remove pantry
• Repair sheetrock from pantry removal
• Float plaster where old backsplash used to exist
• Add trim to roman shades
• Add fretwork to windows
• Make new dog bowl/toy box
• Sell old dog bowl/toy box
• Wash old trashcan
• Sell old trashcan
• Sell oven
• Sell microwave
• Order plant ladder
• install open shelves
• buy new pots and pans.
• Put together boxes for Ikea cabinets.
• Install cabinets

I’ve gotta go get to work.

Will update you soon!

Lura

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