Monday, June 18, 2018

FULL HOUSE Renovation Before and After - Kitchen

I finally have the before and after shots put together so I can show you the changes we made to our house.  Without being too dramatic, I have to say that the change is pretty dang spectacular...if you ask me.  And Jeff.  We are still enjoying the newness of everything and marveling at how much more efficient our kitchen is now.  Plus we absolutely love the color change with the white cabinets and our first-ever granite countertops.  As a reminder, we kept our appliances because they were in good condition and/or felt fairly new.  We replaced the cabinets and countertop, and added a single-bowl undermount sink, new faucet, tile backsplash, tile flooring, as well as a trash bin pullout drawer and our coffee station.

View 1:
We made the pantry area a little narrower but a million times more efficient, which allowed us to make the countertops on either side of the stove three inches wider.  You wouldn't think that small amount would be noticeable, but it is.  We also changed the cabinets, which were a jumbled hot mess of pots and pans inside, to pull out drawers, complete with a hidden drawer in the largest one on each side, for pan lids and other items.

Here's an open drawer, with the hidden drawer partially pulled out:
I knew I would enjoy having the lids in their own drawer, but I didn't anticipate just how pleased this simple thing would make me.  No more banging and clanging as I reach for a pan - just take one out, and then open the lid drawer and find its mate.

Oh, and we not only have a cabinet over the refrigerator now, but it's pretty deep.  Not gonna lie, I have to open the fridge doors in order to open that cabinet if I'm not using a step stool, but it's great to have so much extra storage for items that I rarely use:
Not only do I get all of that storage, but the kitchen looks neater because we can't throw anything on top of the refrigerator now!

Another new thing for us was having a tile backsplash - again, a first after all these years:
I wanted to keep the backsplash simple so that all of my colorful accessories would pop.  This is a matte subway tile with dark gray grout.
 

View 2:
Quite a difference, right?

This side of the kitchen looks the most changed.  We had the bar lowered to counter height, which not only opened up the room immensely, but it made the countertops about 12 inches wider.  You can see the trash bin that we added to the left of the dishwasher, which extended the entire cabinet section an extra 18 inches.  It's taking up the same amount of space as before, only now you can't see our trash and recycling cans.  Another thing we did was to make the drywall on the left side of the upper cabinets even with the cabinets.  It's nice to have complete clearance under the entire set of cabinets now.  The outlet for the garbage disposal/outlet was moved over, which makes for a stretch for me to flip on the disposal, but the other option was doing an air switch, which meant drilling a hole in the granite, and we just weren't completely on board with that.

I also changed the drawer set to make them wider, eliminating that silly cabinet on the edge.  I think I've shown you the insides of the drawers in a previous post, but I can't resist showing them once more:
Probably more than you wanted to see, haha, but everything is so organized that I wanted to show my drawer contents to the world!  They also have soft-close dampers, so you can't slam your finger in a drawer...plus it's just fun to watch them close the last few inches on their own.

The black granite countertop is really hard to photograph - it washes out so easily in most shots, whereas in person, it's beautiful.  When we started this project, I wanted black countertops, but Jeff was not on board.  My mom suggested looking at honed granite, which is a matte finish, and I really liked that.  Once we made our trip to Houston to look at full slabs of black honed granite in the granite yards, Jeff was fully behind it.
This is the best close up I was able to get, showing the true color.

We chose our slab but shortly before installation, the granite guy came out to measure so he could start his cuts, and said that the slab was short by three inches...which just so happened to be the extra three inches that we added on to the trash bin because we decided we wanted the cans to fit in horizontally, so we could have both trash and recycling there.  Our contractor made a call to the granite yard, and they did have the same granite in a longer slab, but instead of getting one that was 2 cm thick, we had to get the 3 cm thing slab.  Jeff jokes that our trash pullout probably cost us an extra $500 - I actually have no idea as we haven't reconciled everything with our contractor.  But honestly, it's one of our favorite changes to the kitchen, so it was worth it.
 The trash bin that changed things...
 
 
 When we got rid of the higher counter bar, we lost an electrical outlet that was in the wall, so our electrician wired a new one on the side of the trash bin.  When he was working on it, he asked if I'd like the outlet to have USB chargers in it - I didn't know that was an option, but I'm glad we did it.
 
 There is only about 7 inches of overhang, so we didn't have to use any added support underneath the counter, which I was happy about.  We considered having it extend enough so we could put low bar stools underneath it, but at this stage, we didn't think we'd use it enough to lose more space in the family room.  Maybe if we had young children at home, that would have been nice, but it wasn't needed for us empty nesters.  The edges of the granite are done in a waterfall finish, which we thought went well with the style of the cabinets.
 
I love our new sink so much - I have wanted a single-bowl sink forever, and now I finally have one.  Plus, because it's mounted under the granite, there is another inch of depth.  I also had the drawer done as a tilt-out, and I store scrubbing items in it.  Makes for a nice look when the kitchen is clean - no sponges hanging around.

View 3:
The added panel on the side of the refrigerator, along with the deep upper cabinets, makes it look more built in.  And how do you like change to the wall to the right of the fridge?
WE LOVE OUR COFFEE STATION!!  Yes I'm shouting, because it's everything we'd envisioned, and more.  This was a new thing for our contractor to do as well, so it was fun for everyone to watch it come together.  I like choosing which coffee mug from the shelves above to use each day, and I love seeing them on display like this.
Everything coffee and tea related fits in the cabinet.  It's so nice to have it all in the same area, and super handy to just reach for whatever you need.  

If you made it to the end of this post, I thank you for sticking with me.  It's the longest of the reveal posts, I promise, but we basically got an entirely new kitchen, so I really wanted to show you everything.

Details:  Tile is made by Pier, colorway Balboa.  Granite is Virginia Mist honed, in black.  Faucet is by Delta, style is Mateo.  Drawer pulls and cabinet knobs were purchased via Houzz.com.  All paint is Sherwin Williams - walls are Silverpointe, cabinets and trim are Extra White.  Light fixtures are original to the house, with the exception of the under cabinet lighting that we love.  Cabinets were custom made by a very talented local cabinet maker.

37 comments:

  1. Very nice. Great improvements to your kitchen! Are those special coffee mugs? Have you collected them with a special theme? Like city or state or something else? I clicked on the picture and still couldn't tell. I really like the idea of a coffee station though very cool.

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    1. Thanks! Yes, they are a collection of mugs - the Starbucks You Are Here mugs that I bought from places I've visited.

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  2. I'm so happy for you and so jealous all at once - you have so many perks in your new kitchen that fix the very things that annoy me about my own. Plus the colors are just gorgeous! The area actually looks bigger with the lighter cabinets and lower counters. Lots of enjoyment to come for you there.

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    1. It's funny, that's what we said - the kitchen looks a lot bigger, and it's the same footprint (although less floor space because of the trash bin extension. We really love it.

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  3. Everytime I read one of your posts, I want to redo my house. After being here for 20 years, we need an upgrade! Your place looks amazing! You did a great job with all the details. Love it.

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    1. I'm really glad we bit the bullet and went for it, daunting as it seemed. It feels like we are living in a new house!

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  4. Loved this post! You did a super job with the decisions you made. I love it!

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  5. This is total kitchen porn and I LOVE IT. Oh man...you're giving me kitchen envy! It really looks great. :)

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  6. Just what I wanted to see! How beautiful. That's interesting about the 3" vs 2" granite, because just a bit ago I realized that one of the reasons my granite was cheaper was because it is probably 1". But they put that lip on it so it looks bigger. I'm fine with that. Another funny thing? When you showed your cabinet over the fridge, I thought, I wonder why they didn't do that for me? So I went and looked, and how about that--there are cabinets up there. But so high I've never thought about using them. Anyway, I LOVE LOVE LOVE your kitchen, and all the convenient things. I love your drawer organization. Mine need a little work. And your coffee station is the coolest. Robin just gave me an Oregon Starbuck's mug and I thought of you.

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    1. I am cracking up at your newly-discovered granite above the fridge! But I get it - being the same height, it's not something you can easily access.

      How fun to have an Oregon Starbuck's mug - is it from the You Are Here series, or the new Been There series?

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  7. I have kitchen envy. It looks amazing!

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  8. Love everything about your kitchen. Especially love that picture of the sink towards the living room. What a difference in how clean lines make everything look more spacious. Hidden trash and recycling - swoon!!!!!!

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    1. Thanks! And yes, that hidden trash/recycling is better than we thought it would be!

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  9. I love it! And now I want a coffee station. I went with black granite 10 years ago and have never regretted it. Enjoy your new kitchen!

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    1. Good to hear about still loving your black granite! And the coffee station is pretty incredible, isn't it? I guess it's my version of an in-home bar, LOL.

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  10. Like Helen, I see so many things in your new kitchen that I covet horribly! The vertical dividers for baking sheets, the trash bin, the USB charger/outlet, and that fabulous coffee station, of course! It all looks SO polished and put together, Shelley - you two and your team did a great job! The one question I have is why you wanted a one-bowl sink? Where do you put your drain rack for dishes to dry? I currently have a 2 bowl sink and do prefer it myself. The guy who owned our house before we moved in was a plumber, but all the plumbing in the house is cheapo except my kitchen sink LOL

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    1. Thanks - it definitely was a team effort in coming up with ideas and making it all fit. As for the one-bowl sink, I have and use a dishwasher, so for whatever needs hand washing, I lay a dishtowel on the counter, set everything there as I'm washing them, and then dry and put them away. But I didn't grow up with a dish rack, and only had one in our first apartment when we didn't have a dishwasher.

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    2. Interesting! You're just way more organized than I am - I'm a lazy pants and like to let stuff air-dry :-) I don't have the counter space for a dish rack or towel on the counter either...hmm...maybe I should remodel, too!

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    3. When Jeff is by himself while I'm visiting my BFF, I'll come home to a counter full of drying dishes. Drives me crazy when he does that...

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  11. Wowza! That is ah-mazing! I love the white cabinets and the gray color on the walls. Very cool and classy!

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  12. I love everything. It looks fabulous! Actually it looks like my kitchen. I already had white cabinets, but added the stainless steel appliances. You and I have that same exact tile backsplash and I actually had black counter tops (laminate) but switched it white granite. I have similar black-ish draw pulls and cabinet knobs like you have too but just bought nickle ones today to swap them out. Thank you for taking the time to photograph everything and share it with us during this renovation! I really enjoyed it!

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    1. How fun - I really want to see pictures of your kitchen with the new granite!

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  13. I love seeing this! It looks like something from a catalog! The new color on the walls makes a HUGE difference too. It's so fresh.

    I get uber excited about organization in my kitchen too. One of my fave things is my storage (pyrex) cabinet. LOL. I like seeing everything and having it within reach.

    And the coffee bar is so fun! Sigh, I can't wait until I have my mug shelf. And I love the lid drawer!

    I am so glad you both love how it turned out, and that it all worked out, with all the little details you had to figure out!

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    1. Thanks - fresh is a good way to describe it, as the entire house feels fresh and new to us. :)

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  14. Gah - I love it!! I need to show Hannah the coffee station - that would be her dream!!!

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  15. I. Love. It. All! Your new kitchen looks so amazing! The coffee bar is super cool and so is the extra space for the trash can cabinet! Great job on choosing colors and everything! Can't wait to see more!

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  16. Wow, that was fun! Sooo lovely. Our kitchen reno is still being talked about (I need to get the courage) and your post gave me some good ideas.
    Thanks for sharing, it's so pretty. C.

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    1. If you have any specific questions, email me - I'm happy to help! There were a lot of crazy decisions we had to make that were kind of "shoot from the hip, hope it works" because we weren't prepared for so many possibilities.

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  17. Finally I have some time to catch up. I love, love, love the new kitchen. It's so fresh looking. I especially love all the extra's in the drawers, f.e. under the sink, what a great idea. Would love to have that under my sink. I can totally understand that you love your new kitchen so much.

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