Kitchen Reveal

We are finally finished the kitchen (mostly).  Well, enough to post about it, anyway.  We still have a small bit of moulding and painting to do, but other than that it’s finished and gorgeous (if I say so myself!). 

It’s been a long time coming, and we put more work and money into this room than any other room in the house.  Our overall budget for initial house renovations was $10k, and about $4k of that went to the kitchen. 

When we first got the house, all of the walls, including the kitchen were yellow.  We liked the ceramic floor tile, but the backsplash and countertop had to go.  Between the horrible installation and the ugly, permanently dirty look that the counter tiles had, we were too happy to remove them.  The cabinets were newer (4 years old) and in good condition, but the uppers were installed crookedly, so we had to remove them and re-install them to be level. 

The original counter ended at the end of the dishwasher, leaving an extra 26” of usable space between the cabinets ending and the door, so we decided to add another shelf to that space to increase our storage and counter space. 

 Here is our kitchen!

Table and fridge.

I am so happy with how everything turned out!  There are obviously some things that we need to finish - small bits of moulding, the second light fixture (a pendant which will go over the table), and the shelves and bookcase, but all of the major projects are finished.  It's been a lot of work, and we're almost there!

 Kitchen Before - notice the crooked cabinets

Kitchen Before - the unnecessarily small countertop

Removing the backsplash was actually pretty fun, because we got to hit it with a hammer.  Don't forget to wear goggles and gloves!

 

 Getting the cabinets straight required a lot of work.  It took several hours to put them back up!

Removing the countertops was less fun that the backsplash.  We just wanted it over by then!

We couldn't find a matching cabinet (and believe me, we looked everywhere!), so we decided to make our own.

Finally getting the countertop installed was such a huge step. We were originally told there would be a seam near the sink, but when they came back it was all one piece!

The backsplash was the most time-consuming project.  Neither of us had done any tiling before, but it turned out really well!

 

The bookcase has been my pet project.  There was originally a teeny-tiny cupboard there, with a door that opened awkwardly into the kitchen entry. We decided we would rather have a bookcase and open shelving than a cupboard that is exactly one aluminum can deep.

We still have to paint and install the shelves, but it's getting there.  I wanted to put baskets here, but Matt was against that idea, so we comprimised with these black canvas bins from Target.

The table fits perfectly in this space!

In case you haven't noticed, I love open shelves.  These floating shelves were only $20 each at Home Depot.  I'm probably going to change my mind about what to display here, but I like it for now.

I also made a dry erase board with a picture frame and a piece of fabric.  It was super easy, and it covers the ugly phone jack that we couldn't find a cover for.  A tutorial can be found on Make and Takes.

One thing I'm still not sure about is the bottom of the bookcase.  I'm not sure if I want to keep it open and put trim around the bottom, or try to close it off with drywall.  What do you think?

I'll probably try to figure out what to do by the weekend because I would love for this project to be finished. Anyway, here's the cost breakdown for the kitchen:

Eco by Cosentino Counters: $2800
Jeffery Court Mosaic Tiles: $365
Mastic/Grout/Sealer/Tiling Tools: $85
Cabinet Materials: $100
Paint/Spackle: $40
Shelves: $20x2 = $40
Light Fixtures: $30 (the one over the sink was free- we took it from a bathroom)
Moulding: $125
Table: $260
Bookcase Shelves/Drywall: $40
New Outlet: $5 (my dad did the electrical work for free!)
Oven/microwave/dishwasher: free! (came with the house)
Refrigerator: free! (Matt’s parents gave us their old one)

Grand Total: $3890

Not too bad for a new-looking kitchen, huh?  It’s been a lot of work, but we’re both so happy with the results!