Kitchen Renovation

( I edited this post to add photos of the second round of changes in here where i painted all of the uppers mint! It really lightened things up and I love how it looks!)

For anyone who follows me on Instagram, you know that for the last 58364927637 years I’ve been talking about our kitchen renovation. Okay, more like 9 moths, but it really feels like forever! I follow along with so many other bloggers and DIY’ers who seem to knock things out so quickly and it’s definitely easy to start playing the comparison game! It may have taken us a long time, but we saved money and did things as we could. We had a long time to think about things and designed slowly to make sure all of our decisions were the right ones! We didn’t hire out a single time and did everything ourselves with a 2 & 3 year old in tow! We made mistakes and we fixed em’, we under and over sourced plenty of times, but in the end we learned so much! We now know how to tile, and have all of the tools! We can install a sink and know enough about electrical to install our own boxes and light fixtures! Big shout-out to my parents who showed me as a kid how to DIY a home and have been with us every step of the way, lending a hand and their time and teaching us alllllll the skills!

Okay, sorry for the little monologue, I’m just kind of emotional over here! I’ve never had a kitchen that I LOVED, but today I do, and here she is!!!

Enjoy some before and Afters as you scroll!

I’m honestly obsessed with everything about this kitchen and looking back, there isn’t a single thing I would change!

This kitchen originally had some really old and cracking bluish ceramic tiles! Our first step was to get those all out! We ripped up all the tiles, I scraped mortar off the plywood for a solid week straight and then we tackled our first tiling job! I wanted something simple and timeless. Something chill that would allow me to get a little crazy with some of my other details! We went with a basic white marbled porcelain tile and I’m so happy with it! Tile is a huge commitment and what we chose will allow me to change up other details of my kitchen in the future; i.e. cabinet color, wallpaper, rugs!

The cabinets were in really good condition and I liked all of the placement! Of course I played with the idea of removing the uppers and doing all open shelving. Then I remember that that’s not functional for our family by any means! I’m not a super put together or organized kind of gal. Our cabinets are all very full with things that we actually use and are not always cute or organized and definitely need to be hidden away until the end of time. Ergo, all cabinets stay! I knew I wanted a dark cab, but not black, so we went with a deep teal called “Thermal” by Behr! It’s a great shade and goes perfect with the cabinet hardware that I chose from our favorites, Pepe and Carols Handmade! We went with the Modern Lucite drawer pulls in brass and they look so good paired with the dark cabinets and add a little glam!

Next was back splash and counter-tops! I envisioned a gorgeous backslash waterfalling onto the counter-top with the dreamiest and veiniest of marbles. . . and then I remembered our budget. Our old counter-tops were tiled with large tiles, and I’ve always loved how easy they were. You can set hot things anywhere and there is no risk of damage and basically no upkeep. We decided we were going to keep the tiled counter-tops, and just swap the tiles! Tile counter-tops are coming back you guys, I’m tellin’ ya! I wanted to keep it a little modern, so I went with the square 5”x 5” Cloe tiles from Bedrosians! Naturally I went pink and the combination with the deep teal does not disappoint! We actually ended up tiling over all of the old tile because of some issues we ran into when trying to take the old tile off. That was probably the best decision we made this entire renovation. It saved us time and money and I will tile over allllllll the tiles.

Once we finished up all of our counter-top tiling, we went to install our first sink! I knew I wanted something different and definitely not stainless or white! I checked out Signature Hardware and instantly found the sink of my dreams! The Rossini double bowl granite composite sink in BLACK! This sink is so deep and spacious and the complete opposite of our old one and I LOVE it! We paired it with the Steyn kitchen faucet with spring spout in the antique copper and It’s a perfect fit! I love the way the copper looks against the black sink and it plays perfectly with the fun pink counter-tops!

We didn’t like the cutout above the kitchen sink, mainly because the view is right into the kids’s playroom, and that is NOT cute. I still wanted to let in the natural light from the window, but not see the mess. Hello glass blocks! We decided to snatch some up in a blush pink and they look so cute with the pink tiles! We bought them individually and made the glass wall ourselves and Nate then made this giant frame in the arched shape that we installed onto the cabinets and over the top of the glass block! One of my favorite architectural features in here!

Our next big decision and probably the most important was appliances! All of our old appliances were. . . .well, old. Lots of age and grease and dents and I was so happy to see them go! I have nothing against stainless, it just didn’t match the aesthetic I was going for. I was over the moon to partner with Cafe Appliances on their stunning line of matte white appliances! I have all brass accents in here, so I went with the brass pulls and knobs on everything and they are just the most gorgeous and sleek appliances I’ve ever seen!

For the fridge, we went with the Cafe french-door refrigerator with hot water dispenser! The hot water dispenser is the best feature in the entire world and I use it daily! I love the small touchscreen and I connected the fridge to my phone so I control features from anywhere!

The dishwasher is the Cafe built-in dishwasher with hidden controls! By far the best dishwasher we’ve owned and I love that It’s all digital! The rack set-up inside is perfect and our dishes have never been so clean; I’m still geeking out over it!

We went with the matching Cafe over-the-range microwave in matte white also! We don’t use our microwave a lot and heavily debated even getting one. We discussed keeping it downstairs or in the garage, but in the end we decided to keep it functional for our selves, even if it’s a rarity. When a microwave is this pretty, it really doesn’t matter though!

Onto my all time favorite appliance, our range! We got the Café 30" Smart Slide-In, Front-Control, Induction and Convection Range and I’ve never been more in love with an appliance! If you don'‘t know about induction, it basically cooks through magnetism! It is the quickest and most energy efficient way to cook and it has been life changing! Something I never thought I’d say, but if you need me, I’ll be cooking!

Once all of our tiling was done and appliances installed, we looked up at our old and dated track lighting! I played it nice and safe on the floors, which means I get to have fun on the ceilings, right?! I’m a huge fan of wallpaper, and I knew I wanted to incorporate it in the kitchen in some way, so we did our first ceiling wallpapering project! I’m a huge fan of Divine Savages and they are definitely known for their wallpapers! They have so many amazing choices, but we went with the Deco Martini in arsenic! A fun pattern and I love how it looks with the cabinets!

With a wallpaper so fun, we definitely needed some really fun lighting! There are so many options out there but I fell in Love with the Reese flush mounts from Troy lighting! The name definitely suits them and I love the fun shape and the gold against the wallpaper! I grabbed 3 of them and love my ceiling aesthetic so much!

We had another little nook with cabinets and counter-tops on the other side of the kitchen as well! We also debated pulling it out and possibly knocking out a wall, but in the end, functionality! Every one of these cabinets is being fully used and closed concept is so underrated! I like that my kitchen is it’s own little entity and that I can hide any kitchen mess behind a wall! It’s what works for us, but it definitely needed some help! I didn’t get rid of any cabinets, but still wanted my open shelving and this was the perfect spot for it! Some of you might remember, but Nate had built us a beautiful kitchen table! It didn’t suit us anymore and the top was in storage, so he cut it up and made me some beautiful live edge shelving! We needed some brackets for these 6’ shelves, so once again went back to Pepe and Carrols Handmade! They really do everything, and we ordered these stunning custom ceiling shelf brackets! I have never seen anything like them and I sent her my shelf dimensions and she custom made this set to fit my shelf perfectly! I wanted a little bit of extra lighting and I love sconces over shelving, so we installed two of the Barron wall sconces from Hudson Valley Lighting! I love the art deco shape and the black and brass details! I know I said I had a lot of ugly things to hide in cabinets, but I also have a lot of really cute things I wanted to display and this situation makes me so happy! The cutest coffee corner there ever was!

Once everything was all done, I got to finally decorate my kitchen! I ordered all of the fun things, like mint small appliances and iridescent silverware and mugs and was ready to pick out a rug! Some people might say a rug doesn’t belong in the kitchen, and those people are lame. Rugs should always be in the kitchen especially when they are as cute as this one! I got this beauty from my friend Lise from Souks Du Monde and it completes our kitchen! She sources the most amazing rugs and it was so hard to chose! I wanted something warm too pull out the pinks in here and this beauty does just that!!

Okay friends, that’s it! The story of our 9 month kitchen renovation. The tale of a couple of dreamers who don’t give a damn about re-sale and do what they want. Whose children color on the walls while they are tiling the floors. Who screamed at each other when the sink she ordered was the wrong size. They drank many a bottle of champagne as they worked into the night. He told her not to do things, and she did them anyways and realized he was right. . . and visa versa.

Thank you guys for caring and for following along!

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