Finally, some pictures of my kitchen renovation

[Pea-n-Me]

This was a DIY renovation. I "designed" it and DH did most of the work himself.

We are in the midst of renovating pretty much the whole house, so we had to budget. We kept our appliances since most were fairly new, and we kept the ceramic tile floor as well, fortunately we'd bought extra when we installed it years ago.

Where the far left bottom cabinet is [in the first and second pics] there used to be a peninsula. The island gives a much better work flow than being trapped over by the sink.

Cabinets are IKEA. The island itself is made from two base cabinets and is all drawers, which I really love.

It may not be Taj Mahal, but it's a huge improvement from the 1964 kitchen we've lived with for the past 20 yrs.

BTW, the color on the walls was inspired by Mickey Mouse's shoes.

Added a sunroom off of kitchen, also, where sliding glass door was before.

 

[Kit'smommy]

It looks great.

 

[CruiserMom]

I love your new kitchen! I really like white cabinets, I know the stained cabinets are all the rage now, but I just love white cabinets! Your countertops and wall color are gorgeous too. You should come design a kitchen for me!

 

[daughtersrus]

This was a DIY renovation. I "designed" it and DH did most of the work himself.

We are in the midst of renovating pretty much the whole house, so we had to budget. We kept our appliances since most were fairly new, and we kept the ceramic tile floor as well, fortunately we'd bought extra when we installed it years ago.

Where the far left bottom cabinet is [in the first and second pics] there used to be a peninsula. The island gives a much better work flow than being trapped over by the sink.

Cabinets are IKEA. The island itself is made from two base cabinets and is all drawers, which I really love.

It may not be Taj Mahal, but it's a huge improvement from the 1964 kitchen we've lived with for the past 20 yrs.

BTW, the color on the walls was inspired by Mickey Mouse's shoes.

It's beautiful! I'm so jealous! I'm usually not a fan of white cabinets but I REALLY like them. I never would have thought to look for cabinets at IKEA. Most of their stuff seems to modern for me. Were these stock on the floor or did you have to order them?

I love the glass doors. Do you have lights in them or just the under cabinet lights? DH installed some under the cabinets for me a few years a go and I love them so that's a must if/when we redo our kitchen.

Congrats again. It looks great!

 

[JessicaR]

It looks beautiful! Very warm and inviting. You did a great job.

 

[4nana]

Beautiful job, your DH did great ! Nice you designed and did the work yourselves and can have that great sense of accomplishment! Looks like work space is much more pratical now. Good work! Our house is 33 yrs old, we spice it up little by little, but we're itching for a face lift in main areas!

 

[MIGrandma]

Very, very nice!! Want to come do my kitchen now? The last (and probably only!) time it was remodeled was back in '74.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

I love it!

Can you come out to Indiana and design my kitchen?

 

[daughtersrus]

I have an odd question. Do you have any problems with your refrigerator being right next to you stove? I've always seen at least a small cabinet between the two and I always thought that was so to keep the heat away from the fridge.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Thank you all!

I really like white cabinets, too. We had white there before (well, more like dull gray, lol) and they were always what I gravitated toward when looking at new cabinets. The pics were taken at night, which, in pics is hard to show the true colors. During the day it's really bright and sunny and at night it's warm and cozy. I'm happy with all of my choices. (I had a really long time to think about it!)

Very warm and inviting.

Thank you. That was the look I was going for. We renovated the adjacent living room a couple of years ago and it has the same colors and theme. The house in general is the type of house you can come in, kick your shoes off and get comfortable. We are about to build a sunroom off the kitchen and the colors and theme will be a little different, but complementary.

I never would have thought to look for cabinets at IKEA. Most of their stuff seems to modern for me. Were these stock on the floor or did you have to order them?

They have most of them in stock at all times so you can walk in and buy what you need. My DH made a mistake measuring and drilling one of the drawerfronts for the pull but walked into IKEA the next day and bought another one, no waiting. (One bit of advice: Go early during the kitchen sales, the place is mobbed.)

With IKEA you have several options for doing your kitchen. They work with design companies who work exclusively with IKEA. So in planning, you can either plan it completely yourself (they'll help you in the store and there is an online kitchen planner on their website) or you can hire one of the design companies they work with to come in to your house and help you figure out what you need. (That's what we did and it was well worth it and surprisingly affordable. A nice bonus to this was that, within two days they emailed us a nice set of "plans", and we were able to give copies to the electrician and the countertop people, for instance, so they had all the exact measurements. This seemed to simplify the whole process a bit.)

For cabinet installation, you again have options. You can either completely DIY, you can have the design company come in and do it completely for you, or the design company will send a person in for one day to help show you how to do it (the latter of which we did, and again, it was well worth it and very affordable). My DH took cabinetry in high school and installed my mother's kitchen cabinets a few years back, but these cabinets are a little different, they hang on a track. DH knew he'd be able to do it but it was a lot easier to have someone come in to show him how and work beside him on some of the more tricky parts (there were a few). That worked out great and by the end of that day, they'd done about 80% of the job, and DH was then able to finish it himself easily and confidently. Would definitely recommend that option if you aren't on a super, super strict budget. (Actually, it could possibly pay for itself in the long run if there are fewer mistakes and aggravation, extra time off from work, etc.)

 

[minniebeth]

Really pretty! Enjoy making many memories in your new kitchen!

 

[mamamary]

Your kitchen looks beautiful!!

 

[MushyMushy]

I love it! Where did you get your countertops? They're very pretty.

 

[aprilvaca04]

Oh my word, what a beautiful kitchen. That's incredible that you did all that yourselves. Enjoy!!! It looks so inviting...

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I love it!

Can you come out to Indiana and design my kitchen?

Sure! Are you any good with landscaping? Maybe we can switch off?

We've been watching HGTV, DIY network and similar shows, as well as reading books, magazines, websites, etc, for years. We got a ton of ideas there.

The funny part is, I enjoy planning the inside of the house but am absolutely LOST when it comes to the outside. I get really frustrated watching Yard Crashers and such as I have absolutely NO CLUE where to start when it comes to fixing up my own yard and we have a lot to do there, too.

One thing at a time, I guess.

 

[antmaril]

Your new kitchen is lovely!

Well done

 

[krcit]

Beautiful!

 

[Bren's Mom]

GREAT job, it's gorgeous!

I was interested in the Ikea info you gave also, thank you. We redid the old kitchen at our 'starter' home ourselves and ended up not going with Ikea because I was very unsure about the whole thing. We did use a free kitchen designer at a local lumber yard, they designed the kitchen and delivered the cabinets for free. And then we paid a local cabinetmaker's young apprentice to come for a day and help my dh get the hang of hanging them. That worked out very well. So I think that when we redo the kitchen in our current home I'll consider Ikea now that I know what some of the options are!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I love it! Where did you get your countertops? They're very pretty.

Thank you. It's called Baltic Brown. We went to a local granite fabrication plant and looked at slabs. They broke off samples (with a hammer ) for us to take home. (I did not do well there: "OMG, What are you doing???? Don't hit the granite!!! LOL)

Probably the hardest choice of all for us was the countertops. We went through lots of ideas, from butcher block (which is featured a lot at IKEA), to tile, to Corian, to quartz, etc. We even considered concrete, glass, and soapstone. We looked at samples of everything and compared prices on all of them. I really wasn't planning on getting granite. I actually bought a bunch of really pretty slate tiles for the countertops (a deal I couldn't pass up) but friends who have tile pretty much talked us out of it (and I know the difficulty they've had with theirs) and a little research after the impulse purchase made me agree they probably wouldn't be a great choice, so we were back to square one. (We will use those on the floor in our upcoming half bath renovation, though, so they won't go to waste.)

The Corian I liked was quite expensive, even on sale. I wound up getting a better price on the granite, so it became kind of a no brainer. I liked the people a lot (they were very patient with us out in the freezing cold looking at samples and breaking off pieces for me even after I changed my mind several times) and they also promised we'd have the granite installed within a week after template, which was done the day after cabinet installation, so that was a deciding factor, too. They came through exactly as promised and did a great job.

The whole renovation took about 3 weeks, total.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I have an odd question. Do you have any problems with your refrigerator being right next to you stove? I've always seen at least a small cabinet between the two and I always thought that was so to keep the heat away from the fridge.

Ha! That kind of freaked out the cabinet people, too. We had to convince them it worked for us, to leave it alone. It was arranged that way when we bought the house, and we've never had the need or desire to change it. It's not a problem with heat or flame. If we moved it or added something between the two, because there's a set of stairs beside the fridge and space is at a premium down to the inch, we would have lost the ability to have a corner cabinet with carousel, which was a Must Have for me, so we left it as it is. Ah, the joys of living in a small house.