It’s Feature Friday! On Fridays, I’ll be featuring one room in my house in its current condition even if there are some things I’d like to change about it. If I do happen to improve something later, I can always revisit it when the time comes. Plus, I’d kinda feel dishonest if I only focused on “finished” rooms in my house. And if what they (the professionals) say is true, a room is never really finished anyways…you’re always tweaking it. Concentrating on just one room weekly should give me some time to tidy it up a bit, too. At least, I can throw all the toys into another room!
If you’re an avid reader of H*T, you’ve probably noticed the absence of my kitchen from the downstairs part of my house tour. Well, that’s because it’s been in disarray for the last few weeks but I’m happy to share it with you today! For fun, let’s see what my builder grade spec kitchen looked like before we tackled any DIY upgrades.
And here it is now after painting the cabinets, upgrading countertops, installing a new sink/faucet/backsplash and extending the island.
Pretty different, huh? In total, the renovations cost us roughly $3,400. We saved money by waiting to buy all purchases until we were able to pay full in cash. Which is why it’s taken almost a year to get thus far. In most cases, on large purchases you can get quite a deal offering to pay cash. We saved 10% on our granite countertops…complete with installation of the sink and faucet. It feels really good knowing that we haven’t put ourselves into financial jeopardy during the process of making our kitchen ours.
We replaced our builder sink and faucet with a Kraus undermount sink (9″ deep!) and chrome faucet-and-sprayer in one. Both were purchased from Overstock. We added IKEA hardware to the cabinets and drawers.
After a lot of thought, we decided to only do a 6″ backsplash along the window wall because 1) it may have looked strange just going up a few inches on either side of the window 2) it was cheaper than going all the way to the upper cabinets 3) we found inexpensive pewter tile to make a unique mod border that complements the cabinet hardware. All tiling supplies came from Home Depot.
I stole a very ingenious idea from some friends of ours who thought of hanging their kitchen towels from rings attached to their upper cabinets. (Thanks Jeff & Erin!)
Still need something for the window but nothing has jumped out to grab my attention yet so I’m holding off.
Handy Hubby DIY’d our glass front cabinet and I painted the interior gray with contrasting lime shelves for a pop of color.
The oven and refrigerator wall got tiled to the cabinets. I love the subtle geometric pattern and concrete-like texture of the backsplash. It’s a great contrast to the shiny black counters.
And then there’s the island. Oh, how I love that little island. It’s rustic and modern and warm and crisp all wrapped into one. To see how we DIY’d it, check here.
As strong as the urge was to go out and buy a bunch of new stuff to display on the open shelves, I filled them with bowls, baskets and cookbooks that we already had on hand. Another unnecessary shopping spree thwarted. Go me.
I even clipped a pair of blooms from my hydrangea bush and plopped them atop my scalloped cake plate to make a quick, FREE centerpiece for the island. I’m a little giddy over the fact that I’ve managed to keep that sucker alive long enough to enjoy clippings.
Our kitchen is open to the dining area. (We have no dining room).
The capiz chandelier helps to ‘dress up’ the kitchen and its utilitarianism.
And here’s how our kitchen fits into the bigger picture…
This is my “workin’ with whatcha got” kitchen. I still have some tweaks (window treatment, new flooring, creative way to hide my dishwasher, pendants above the island, etc) in mind but those will come all in good time when we can afford them and are willing to put in the time and effort to DIY them. For now, Handy Hubby and I are enjoying everything we’ve created and accomplished in this room…and it tastes good.
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