Kitchen Updates

It’s been a while since I’ve written about our kitchen renovation. We made a few more updates recently that I’m excited to share, and I think the space is coming along nicely. I actually really liked the wooden cabinets when we moved in, but after a while we noticed that the kitchen doesn’t get much light for most of the day. As a result, we were always cooking in the dark unless we flipped on the artificial light.

Here’s the before:

We installed the wooden shelving from our old kitchen (remember the $400 update we did before selling last year? Crazy!) in the new space a few days after we moved into the house. I love having all my bulk ingredient at an arm’s reach, and I think it looks pretty great.  Part of me wants to remove half the wall these shelves are on to open up the kitchen to the dining room, but then I’d lose all the storage.

We also did the floor with vinyl tile + grout.

Oh, and we also made a DIY pot rack using plumbing pipes.


After spray-painting the cabinets white . . .

And hand-painting the backsplash . . .

Here’s where we are today:


Two big improvements:

A new faucet (which I’ll write more about soon) and our new counter-depth, side-by-side refrigerator (this one by Frigidaire Gallery). Our old fridge was an off-white color and the freezer handle snapped off long ago. We also have a water softener, so I hate the way our water tastes out of the faucet, we’re planning to hook up the water component soon -- its filter is awesome. I also really like this style of fridge better than our drawer freezer because I do a lot of freezer cooking. Now I can stack my meals and keep stuff better organized.

Here’s a closer look:


So, we’re at this point when the project is nearly “done” -- but our countertop color does annoy me because the rest of the space is relatively cool and doesn’t jibe with the warm brown. I thought the backsplash might tie it all together, but it still looks a bit jumbled. At the same time, they’re totally functional and in excellent condition, so I don’t see changing them anytime in the near future.

I’m hoping to do another couple updates with budget breakdown and then stick a fork in this project. It’s awesome to have the room where we spend the most time so personalized. Especially since we’re planning to be in this house for a long time.

Happy Thursday!

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