{kitchen reno}

Hello friends! Happy Saturday!

I want to take a break from my usual art sharing to chat about our house today.  I don't know if I've mentioned this on the blog yet, but we're renovating our kitchen!!!

We've lived in our house for seven years and put up with a truly horrible kitchen for all of that time. And I'm not just talking about 80's cabinets or a laminate counter instead of granite. This kitchen is OLD and FALLING APART, big time. Like drawer fronts falling off and a faucet that is so janky we have to use two hands to turn it on in case it pulls out of the sink. 

It is embarrassing up in here friends. 

But a week from Monday the reno is starting and I'm still pinching myself that we're really doing this. Here is a before photo from waaaay back when we moved in and the room had CARPET. 

No worries...we remedied that right away with laminate...

And over the years we've painted the cabinets and tried to add touches to spruce it up, but when the bones are bad, not much helps!

So here's our plan:

• White modern cabinets
• Farmhouse sink
• Industrial faucet
• Dark gray laminate counter
• Lots of open shelving
• White subway tile backsplash with gray grout
• Island with cook top 

We're doing this on a fairly small budget, although a complete gut job is anything but inexpensive! Keeping to laminate for the counter (we have a TON of counter space), subway tile backsplash, and lots of shelves instead of all upper cabinets is keeping the cost down quite a bit. 

Here are a few inspiration photos I've pinned...

The two biggest chunks of the reno cost are the cabinets and appliances, which include a new fridge and wall oven. We decided to do the lower cabinets and appliances from Lowe's. The few upper cabinets we're using are from IKEA, as well as the open shelving. 

Why split the cabinets between Lowe's and IKEA? Well, on a practical level, Lowe's is close-by, they offer easy financing (IKEA doesn't anymore), and they will deliver the cabinets fully assembled. Not having to assemble all of the cabinets is a HUGE plus, because we have a crap ton of lower cabinets. 

Why IKEA for the uppers? I had my heart set on these cabinets...

And Lowe's didn't have anything comparable that didn't cost about 4 times the price. (Like this whole cabinet cost the same as the piece of glass for the door at Lowe's.) Whew! 

We also purchased our shelving and brackets at IKEA. We're using white shelves and these brackets...

We'll have open shelving on either side of the sink instead of cabinets. I'm super excited about how that wall will turn out. This photo has a similar feel to how ours will look, with the same industrial faucet and IKEA sink, as well as the window centered over the sink...

One of the biggest changes is that we will be removing the soffet over the cabinets. I know that will really open up the room, not to mention allowing us to move the cabinets up higher which will help tremendously! 

Another big change is that instead of our range, we'll have a separate gas cook top in an island, and an under the counter oven. Dan found a clearance gas cooktop at IKEA a few years back that we've been keeping in storage. He is beyond excited to start using it. 

Changing to an under the counter oven also means that we'll have a super long, uninterrupted wall of counter space which will be heavenly! The vent hood will be replaced by a wall microwave which will also free up counter space. 

For the island we're picturing a butcher block top and turquoise painted base similar to this...

We purchased two open stock cabinets (one was a lucky Goodwill find and the other from the clearance section at IKEA) to use as the base for the island which saved tremendously on cost. 

And finally here are a few of the finishing touches we'll be using!

We bought the smaller version of this pendant light for over the sink (from IKEA)...

And these bar stools are at the top of our favorites list...

So there's the kitchen reno in a very big nut shell! 

I can't wait until the process starts so I can share the durings and afters. And I really want to give encouragement to those who are on tight budgets like us. It may take a lot longer than you would like, but eventually these house projects can happen! 

XO,