One of the things that made me nervous about undertaking the kitchen renovation was that I felt unqualified to design a kitchen.
Who was I to say what would work or what was a good idea?
Somewhere along the way I realized that there’s no one right way to do things, there are instead a thousand right ways. And few wrong ways too but that’s another post.
It was a very satisfying and empowering experience to realize I am certainly qualified to make decisions about the space I want to live in. We took resale into consideration with many of the decisions but overall we decided our desires, logic, and opinions were the most important.
I am loving our kitchen more each day, even through this week of no electricity, and so far have only found very minor things that I would have done differently.
Behind my sister you can see where the old kitchen door is taped off. Tate has gutted it and we will be turning it into an office/guestroom.
Project stats:
8 weeks from tearing into it to moving in. There is still some trim work and we will probably put a built-in counter where the sewing table is to the right of the fridge but we are in.
1 trip to Ikea. Countless hours spend on ikea.com. I am thrilled with the cabinets and countertops so all the research definitely paid off.
83 trips to Lowes…maybe more.
0 real fights, a few arguments over minor decisions.
2 friends generously helped out.
12 hours is the time it took Tate to do that damn beadboard ceiling.
A billion hours is the time Tate put into the kitchen overall.
100:1 is the time Tate put in compared to the time I put in.
1,000 times I have said thank you to Tate.
$300 is what we spent on new appliances.
$8,500 is what I estimated the project would cost.
$5,000 is what Tate estimated.
It’s much closer to his number thanks to his hard work.
Hard to remember the space used to look like this:
Wow, this is just gorgeous! You are both incredibly skilled and I loved seeing what you did with this space. It gives me hope for what our kitchen might look like someday! 🙂
Thanks! Have faith in yourself and go for it! It’s SO rewarding!
So Gorgeous!
It’s STUNNING faith! I would love to cook in there with that light and counter space.
Katie, we would have a blast cooking together in there!!
So impressive. It looks gorgeous…but 83 trips to Lowes? My God, that is like a theme from my worst nightmare.
I want to come over and cook in your gorgeous new kitchen with you sometime this summer before we move, can we make that happen? 🙂
Hopefully I overestimated by a few dozen, but yeah, it was nightmere-ish at times. 🙂
And yes! We will cook together in here soon!
Oh my gosh, what a beautiful, open space!! That must be fun to get to use the new space.
Oh and I’m curious where you are storing all your dishes? In the lower cabinets?
Tate and I have about 4 bowls that we eat out of regularly, those are kept on the open shelf and in the pantry. Our full set of dishes are in the hutch in the dining room.
So gorgeous. Love the artwork too! And the shelves.
Do you have power again!?
What a wonderful open and sunny space! I love it!
What a beautiful space you (both) created!