A Brighter Happier Kitchen

In case you forgot, here's what we started with:

• Heavy, dark tile over the top of laminate, complete with rotting grout
• Pendant lights hanging between non-functioning fluorescent lights in a drop ceiling that belongs in an office or public school
• Fridge blocking a cupboard and eating a lot of floor space
• Non-matching appliances
• Minty-green painted wood paneling
• Oh, and stone tile backsplash
• Also, those cabinets were originally blonde. They are coated in a gel paint that is a mix of brown and black. Up close it's ugly and streaky.

 Fridge invading the room. And don't forget there is a cabinet to the left of it which is blocked but visible.

Below, see how close the counter is to the closet door? Yeah, that door barely opens.

The photos make it look much nicer than it is. We probably could have functioned with this kitchen. Except the rotting grout...that's pretty gross for a food prep surface, but I suppose there are always cutting boards.

Regardless. I decided this room was priority number one for repairs. My plan was to:

• Remove a couple cabinets so that the closet door opens, and so that I could fit the fridge in front of the other closet door to the foyer.
• Paint the cabinets white
• Tear out the counter tops and replace them with butcher block
• Tear out the back splash and do a green subway tile
• Pain the wood paneling another color
• Buy new lighting
• Replace the ceiling tiles with new tiles that look like old timey tin or copper ceiling
• Move the white stove down from upstairs and move this off-white one up there.

We did oh so much more than that, but not by choice.

My mom wanted to help by removing all the wood paneling. She'd fixed plaster before.

But as you can tell, our plaster crumbled to dust when the supporting wood paneling was taken away. Our house is about 30 years older than hers and in a more humid state.

Hey look, this wall held up okay. It's just covered in glue we have to scrape and sand.

So we added a major dry walling project to our plans.

Oh and we got my new counter installed!

Then my parents left and Chris and I were on our own again, without a finished kitchen. We delayed our move in by a month.

During that time, we cut a hole for the sink and installed it.

And we mudded and sanded the drywall some more.

And then my parents came back a couple weeks later to finish the job. 

Mom painted the ceiling. And Dad installed a simple oval LED light fixture.

Because the bottom half of the walls were weird, we opted to simplify our efforts and cover them with bead board.

Mom painted the walls while I painted the cabinets.

We couldn't get the off-white stove upstairs, so we left the white one up there, and I bought a stainless steel to match the rest of the kitchen. And a microwave to replace the disgusting hood that was there. Not my most cost-conscious choice, but man this room is so much better.

And thanks to Dad for doing the electrical.

We ended up demolishing the entire island, so we rigged this with the spare counter top and some cheap book shelves. Not the greatest, but hey, we can access that cabinet now!

 Also, my dad is a goofball.

Since then, I've done some touch-up painting (I'm not done yet), I did a portion of the tiling (I'm not done with that either), and we bought a real kitchen island.

See my tiling to the right? I still need to tile behind the oven.

I need to hang a picture or put some shelving in that open space. Can you believe the giant fridge used to be where that tiny shelf is?

So far, this was our biggest project and our biggest triumph. This kitchen is so spacious and easy to work in. And man I love that island for pastry making.