Kitchen Reno Reveal

Soooooo.....ummm this is awkward....it's been a while hasn't it? Not to worry I didn't give up completely on design and just crawl under an unembellished rock to die. I'm not going to list my boring excuses...work, finally exercising again, finally cooking again....blah, blah, blah. The point is we've been busy and finally have something to show for it. Guys, we finished our mini kitchen overhaul! All the exclamation points (did you miss all my exclamation points?)!!!!! 

I am completely in love with our new space! It feels a million times better in here and I'm just so darn excited that my vision for the space came to life thanks to our hard work. Mostly Chad's hard work but I did paint every single cabinet myself-totally worth it! The kitchen finally came out of the 90s and now feels modern, classic and clean. The only downside is that it's making some of the other spaces feel very dated (I'm looking at you bathrooms). 

Many months ago I did a post on the kitchen in our new house and what we had done for the time being to spruce it up. I had thrown around idea of painting the cabinets dark green and redoing the floor with a graphic pattern. How closely did I follow my original plan? Pretty close considering we had a tight budget. After testing some paint samples the green was just not working for me. I love the contrast of the black cabinets with the wood and brass knobs. Also a huge thank you to Chad's mom who, while visiting in September, suggested removing the upper cabinets on the back wall to visually lighten the space. It totally changed the space and having the open shelving back there is one of my favourite bits-thanks Paulette! I'll go into more detail on the process because of course I took a million pictures. Here is the before, the during and the AFTER:

Hello fresh new kitchen! Let me tell you, I do not miss that special splatter paint backsplash tile or the chipped laminate countertop. In pictures the floor didn't look that bad but it was scratched and kind of a strange greige colour.  

Ok, now on to the process. Below is where we started when one night I magically convinced Chad that we should just start ripping shit out. Luckily the tile wasn't incredibly secure so didn't damage the drywall too badly when we pulled off the old tile. The kitchen felt more open the minute we pulled those upper cabinets down!

We took off all the cabinet doors, set them up in the garage and used paper cups to support them. I mostly followed the steps outlined in the Young House Love tutorial. I can't recommend the Benjamin Moore Advanced paint enough. It's definitely more expensive but a gallon covered our entire kitchen. It went on beautifully and didn't leave any brush marks. It seems to be holding up quite well.

The butcher block countertop installation was a whole other story. The issue "we" had was trying to cut the corner seam with an uneven back wall. After much swearing and threats of "just having no countertop" we decided to not do an angled seam and simply have two pieces meet at a straight seam as you can see in the picture below. It's not perfect but I think since it's in a hidden corner it's not as noticeable.

In the middle of all of this we also had our windows replaced because they were rotting out and birds had made a home inside the sills. It's nice to have windows that we can actually open now.

Chad's officially a tiling pro now so this was one of the more straightforward parts of the project. We used white subway tile mainly for cost but you also just can't beat the look of clean, classic subway- especially when you have lots of other patterned elements.

For our flooring we went with Vinyl Composition Tile (VCT). We chose this option mainly for its low cost and ease of installation. My dream tile would be a patterned cement tile but we don't exactly have an extra million dollars hanging around. We easily glued this flooring right over our old greige plastic tiles. It allowed us to still create an interesting design and is easily maintained. Lying VCT is also fairly straightforward as long as you don't do it on an angle or make any type of pattern. Obviously, I chose the most complicated option. You can see in the photo below (on the left near the wall) where the floor hadn't been continued and we had to fill with cement to level out the floors. Again I say "we" which means I stood there with a glass of wine and watched. Laying out the majority of the pattern was "easy" it was more difficult to get the corner areas once you had to cut things on irregular angles.

Whew, that makes me tired just remembering...I think that's enough of the process photos. It took us a few months of slowly working on projects during the weekends and weeknights but it was totally worth it.

I re-purposed our old bar cart/table by using up some of the leftover cabinet paint and tucking it in the corner that had been previously unusable due to the french doors taking up all that space. 

We sealed our Ikea wood counters with the sealer that they have at Ikea. We debated using a varnish but in the end I liked the idea of easily being able to touch up the wood with a quick sanding and keeping the natural finish. I love the black sink we got from Costco, it blends in nicely with the cabinets and is easy to care for-no worrying about scratches or marks like I did with stainless steel. 

The opening shelving is made from brackets from good old Ikea and the wood was just planks we picked up from Lowe's. I used a light natural stain on them to match the counters. I wasn't sure about mixing all the metal finishes in the kitchen. Would our silver faucet and stainless steel dishwasher go with the brass knobs I had found at a salvage store? In the end I love how the brass warms up the black. I think it's key to repeat the metals in a few areas so I brought in brass accessories throughout.

Much to Chad's delight I found this cool light fixture at Lowe's and knew I had to change out the multiple black pendants we had for something sleeker and modern.

If you've browsed my Pinterest then you know I was obsessed with having shelving in the dining room. We'd kept the old cabinet there because there was no flooring underneath (thanks old owners). With new flooring in place I could finally have my wall-to-wall shelf. I bought four of these simple Ikea units to create one giant bookcase/shelving unit. I have a lot of stuff, a minimalist I am not, and with no other real bookcase in the house I am thrilled to have a designated place for all my tchotchkes.

I'm loving how the metal legs of the Ikea shelving mirror the metal dining table legs. I also love that I can now constantly rearrange this space. Nothing better then a Friday night with some wine and styling!

So that's it-our new kitchen. I hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse inside our improved space and seeing what some budget friendly updates can do. I've been re-arranging a few of our other spaces so hopefully I'll have time to share these with you soon. 

The New House-Kitchen/Dining Room

Okay so not exactly a week after but hey, I'm trying! Onto the second room reveal of our new house. Again, it's not a shocking before and after or anything as we haven't (yet) done any major renovations in the kitchen/dining room. I think it still looks much better after we removed the popcorn ceilings, added a light fixture over the dining table and of course, painted everything white. The other thing that I think made a huge difference in modernizing the space was throwing out those hideous bar stools. Don't worry I didn't really throw them out. I sold them on Kijiji, so they are hopefully happy in their new home and perhaps reminiscing about the good old days when it was acceptable to sponge paint every surface in your house. The new bar stools were a major score from a consignment store here in Ottawa. Here's a before and after of the kitchen/dining area from the real estate listing versus today:

It's looking a little less late 80s, early 90s, right? We still have big plans for the kitchen which you can see HERE. Phase one will be: paint the cabinets, new cabinet hardware, new back countertop and a new floor. Phase two will be to completely gut and redo the kitchen... someday. I'm not sure how the people before ever used the dining area as there was not a single source of light other then from the kitchen pot-lights. Maybe they liked eating in the dark? 

In terms of layout and functionality I'm really enjoying the space. There is a huge amount of storage and it has all sorts of built-in drawer accessories like pull-out shelves and in-drawer organizers. I still have a few empty cabinets which is quite a luxury. The only thing I'm not crazy about is having a vent hood floating over the island. I've hit my head on it a few times and when we have people over it blocks anyone standing on the kitchen side of it. When we re-do the kitchen someday, it's something I may think of relocating. I do love having an island and I love our built-in fridge. I also love having built-in garbage drawers so you don't have to have garbage/recycling sitting out. Something to definitely keep in mind if you're redoing/planning your kitchen. 

Our mini-oven isn't turning out to be a problem because it's not like I'm cooking a turkey every day and the oven has all sorts of custom oven trays to fit it perfectly. Chad re-jigged the microwave opening and made ours look built-in as well.

In the corner near the bay window there was a weird little granite remnant telephone table floating on the wall that we got rid of. Chad is in the process of building us a table but our old little round table is a nice placeholder for now. 

On the wall in the dining room side there use to be a full tv cabinet. I wanted to remove the entire thing but it turns out they didn't finish the flooring underneath it. It's a bit wide to be a real buffet but again it's a good placeholder until we re-do the entire kitchen including the floors. Here's a view of the kitchen while we were still in "Dexter mode" removing the popcorn ceiling. You can see the how imposing the old built-in cabinet was and also get a glimpse of the weird floating shelf in the corner.

Again, I've reused mostly everything from our last house. The mint cabinet and bar cart along with the large artwork I made for the black feature wall have all been reworked into this space. The black drum shade is from Ikea and has a copper interior which gives a nice glow and ties into the other copper pieces in the house.

My good old Ikea striped rug is still hanging on despite numerous attempts by the cats to try and destroy it. A good wool rug can withstanding anything. I also use a lot of Bissell spot lifter carpet cleaner. No one has asked me to say this-obviously-but THIS product is the best and seriously gets everything out. 

A few people have mentioned that our kitchen doesn't look THAT bad. It isn't, really, until you get up close. The back countertops and back splash look like they were sponge painted. The crappy laminate countertop also took a beating when they installed a new dishwasher. There are also some weird stains that are permanently etched into the countertop. See not dirt just a mystery stain!

I took another close up picture so you can also see the metal edging around all the cabinets. I think this must have been the height of chic in the early 90s. I also cannot wait to change out the back splash tile. I've never wanted a simple white subway tile more. The one plus is that all the sponge paint-y-ness really hides crumbs and dirt. 

I can't leave you with a picture looking at this, so one more view towards the dining room. I'll show you the master bedroom and the world's ugliest master bathroom next. 

Plans for the New House-Kitchen/Dining Room

Are you sick of my countdown yet? 5 days left, just in case you are wondering. 5 days until we start tackling the popcorn ceilings, ripping out the red carpet and re-painting everything. I promise this will the last of my plans, hopefully the next update will be an actual live house tour. The last room I'm planning for is the kitchen. This one is hard because it was the room we spent the most time and money on in our last house and we really ended up loving our kitchen. The kitchen in our new house-not so much. I think I mentioned it before but it seems like this new kitchen was renovated sometime in the late 80s or early 90s and they made some strange choices. Choices that involved splurging on a sub zero fridge but then cheaping out on laminate for HALF the counter-tops. Splurging on a top of the line vent hood and then cheaping out on laminate floors. The cabinets are custom as they are all irregular sizes but sadly they are wrapped in metal edging. Here is a little more detail:

While I'd love to simply gut the kitchen and start over, that is not gonna happen. The cabinets are good quality wood and the appliances are higher end. Looks like at least for now we're going to try and do some updates to bring it out of the 90s and into this decade. I've always loved darker kitchens and since these may not be our cabinets forever it's a bit easier to take a risk and test out painting them a deep shade. I also love a patterned tile so we're going to try and find a budget way to incorporate that-either a back-splash or a linoleum tile cut into a geometric pattern. Apart from how labour intensive it is to cut all the tile (sorry Chad) it mimics an expensive cement or ceramic tile at a fraction of the cost- $300 vs. $5000. A bit of inspiration below:

Via: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Forrest green or olive green kitchens have been popping up everywhere-or maybe it's just since I got it in my head that I wanted one. This is the option I'll go with if we can change the floor. I'm thinking the green cabinets will clash terribly with the beige-y laminate floor. In this option I'd have my green cabinets, a fun geometric floor (my mom says it will make everyone feel dizzy and sick but I still love it), a neutral white back-splash thanks to the trusty cheap white subway tile and then I'd replace the damaged back laminate counter with a wood, probably throw in some brass knobs/pulls for good measure. 

Option 2 is if we decide to keep the floors as is. We're not really sure what material it is. It may be able to be re-finished to match the other floors or to something less yellow. Or... Chad may decide that he is not willing to figure out how to cut a million linoleum tiles exactly the same size. In that case we have option 2- the same floors but black cabinets to pull out the black stripe in the flooring. If budget allowed I'd get my geometric fix with some back-splash tiles, maybe use white concrete counter-tops and throw in some Lucite (acrylic) pulls. 

In the dining room portion of the kitchen/dining room Chad will be building me a very large table. I'm thinking something rustic and farmhouse style to pair with the modern Eiffel chairs we already have. I don't have a picture but the far side of the kitchen has a weird low built-in cabinet that's been spray painted to match the cabinets. That will be removed because it's proportions are all off. In it's place I'm deciding if I want a china cabinet, a buffet, some kind of open shelving, or maybe just a huge gallery wall?

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So many possibilities and so much painting and scraping-wish us luck! I think I'll be taking a little break to get everything done and then get settled but don't worry I'll be back with some exciting new developments. Chad's break is definitely over!

Le Weekend

Happy Friday everyone! It's been a while since I did a Le Weekend post but there were just so many things that sent me down an internet rabbit hole this week I had to share.

1. Inside Closet  is a blog I stumbled on a few weeks ago and if you like French fashion and decor then be prepared to lose a few hours. Just look at this French women who casually has a handmade tree in her living room!  I love that the author describes the blog as one that shows girls who ask themselves as they're getting dressed: "What the fuck am I going to wear this morning? Yet always end up looking different, beautiful and comfortable in their own shoes."
2. While reading a old favorite, Desire to Inspire, I came across this stunning kitchen makeover from Amy Sklar Design Inc. This kitchen was actually in her own home and I love that she resisted the urge to take down all the walls and open it up but rather make it a petite jewel box. The light fixture, the walnut counter top-all so good!
3. From Amy's design page I clicked on her blog tab only to find out that her blog From the Reservoir is a project she started after loosing her mother to cancer."Since beginning on February 23rd 2014 it has been my goal to wear a piece of her clothing, jewelry, or an accessory that she passed on to me, for a total of 365 days (Not in a row, sorry, I am also a mother of two, a small business owner, wife and friend. I tried to do it in a row, and it almost broke me.)  I believe it is a fitting tribute to this incredible woman with the greatest sense of style I've ever known. A digital archive, a love letter, a journal, a remembrance for your children and future generations. I love you mom". I read the whole blog in almost one sitting. It is a beautiful tribute to her mom and extended family who had amazing clothes. She also does a great job of mixing vintage with modern. 
4. I've loved Pencil and Paper Co. since seeing them in a magazine spread many years ago. I sadly was not following them on Instagram and boy was I missing out on all the sneak peeks they give. Like this kitchen in the perfect shade of grey with a vent hood that I'm keeping in mind for my next kitchen. 
5. Well isn't this just perfect-A Guide to Wes Anderson's Paris-double hipster and I'm all over it. Messy Nessy Chic is another Parisian sharing her what she calls her "cabinet of curiosities." If you're anything like me this should give you a few hours of being a virtual tourist. 
6. Although Apartment Therapy isn't a new find (you can see our bathroom makeover here and our Iqaluit house tour here)  this house tour reminded me why I love the simple but graphic punch of black and white. 
7. The Kitchn, which featured our kitchen renovation here, showed off a spectacular kitchen remodel of an Eichler home. This led to me reading up on all of Karen and John's projects over on Destination Eichler ,including their  DIY concrete countertops and the Semihandmade doors on their Ikea kitchen.  
8. In the spirit of more DIY, here's an excellent way to dress up a boring closet door. 
9. Ever since we got back from Ireland, I've been craving Irish soda bread. This recipe looks worth a try.

I hope you have a lovely and relaxing weekend. I'm going to try and sort through a few more pictures from our Ireland trip, maybe while making the above soda bread? 

Kitchen Ideas-Round Two

So.....we still haven't sold our house for anyone who's wondering. Apparently everyone thinks it's too small. It's not small-IT'S COZY PEOPLE! I'm trying not to spend all my waking hours obsessing over what we should do to try and sell it and I suppose, like Chad says, I should leave that to the real estate agents. Well, that's easier said then done so in order to distract myself I'm spending my time in the most therapeutic way I know how....making pinterest boards and obsessing over what I want in my next kitchen.

When we moved into our current house the biggest job we (Chad) did was to completely gut the kitchen. You can read about the plans here and see the process here to finally get to this:

Hey there shiny kitchen! 

While it's hard to say what we'll do to our next kitchen without knowing where our next kitchen is, I know we (Chad) will have to do some kind of renovation as I rarely like what's in our price range. Even though I love our kitchen there are few things I'd do differently the next time around.

Change:

High Gloss Cabinets- they were Ikea ABSTRAKT in high gloss white and grey (which seem to be similar to the new SEKTION cabinets in ringhault high gloss grey) and they show any little smudge or fingerprint. 

Tile Floors-I'd also love to have continued the wood floors into the kitchen. 

Keep:

Our quartz countertops are amazing and have held up to Chad's abuse. I love the built in microwave, the seamless cooktop, the ice-maker and the garbage disposal.

In terms of the style of the kitchen, I've made a little round-up of some kitchen trends I wouldn't mind using in our next space whenever or wherever that may be:

Via: 1, 2, 3, 4 

This is a classic for a reason. If this next house is a house we plan on staying in for a while, maybe I should keep it classic and timeless. I love this combination mixed with brass and black. How amazing is that modern black light fixture in the top photo! Nothing says timeless and classic more than marble but would a Chad-kitchen survive marble? Would every little etched mark kill me or make me want to kill Chad? One of my favourite designers Orlando is redoing his boyfriend's condo and aptly named the project Orcondo. You can see his plan for the space in image three. I can't wait to see all the marble and brass goodness in that one. 

Via: 1, 2, 3, 4

Dark, coloured cabinets are still going strong. I love the look in our kitchen but would definitely go with a painted finish rather then high-gloss this time. I'm loving black, navy blue or army green and may be ready to take the plunge and paint both the upper and lower cabinets. The Remodelista outlines the pros and cons of soapstone (via number 4) and it seems like the only real con is that it is prone to nicks and scratches but it sure does compliment a dark and stormy kitchen.

Via: 1, 2, 3, 4

Patterned tiles are another trend that continues to have a place in my heart. While it may not be neutral it is still a classic as many of these patterns have been made for centuries. If you love patterned floors and haven't started following I Have This Thing With Floors on Instagram, you are missing out. So much patterned floor eye-candy!

While cement or encaustic tiles are the most traditional, there are some recent ceramic tiles that have all the pattern at a fraction of the cost. Lark & Linen Interior Design gives a few sources here. 

Via: 1, 2, 3, 4

A white kitchen with the warmth of wood-another good option! You can use a little- like on an island- or a lot-like all of your bottom cabinets. I like the modern look of mixing the white and wood so that it's a traditional update. Fingers-crossed I can get an island in my next kitchen.

Via: 1 & 3, 2, 4

Now this is an option that would also involve lots of smudges and marks but it may be worth it to have a gorgeous industrial style kitchen. The key is to mix in rustic elements like worn wood. The Remodelista lists how to get steel the look with Ikea components here. 

I obviously haven't narrowed down any of my choices but it looks like I may have some more time to mull this over. What about you, which kitchen trend are you loving? Would you incorporate any of these into your next renovation?