Throwback- 1st House Kitchen Renovation

As we are getting into our biggest kitchen renovation to date, I'm thinking back on our previous homes and the kitchen transformations we took on in them.

Back in 2016, we moved into a house a month after getting married. One of the first projects we took on in this house was a kitchen refresh.

Before:

While the before photo doesn't look bad, and lots of people thought we were out of our mind to rip it out, it was merely a photogenic space. The cabinets were in bad shape and lots of drawers weren't smooth to use, and the bases of a lot of the drawers were damaged. The walls were grungy and in need of new paint. The only appliance that was in good shape was the refrigerator- the dishwasher was literally rusted out on the inside of it. The granite counters weren't bad, but Drew was not a fan of them at all.

In our townhome kitchen renovation we tried to do as much as we could with existing pieces and did quite a bit of work on the refresh ourselves. In this kitchen, we did a lot of research on new products at affordable prices. Kitchen renovations can be extremely expensive if you're not careful, and we wanted to stretch the budget within reason while still getting a lot of new items.

Here's what we did:

1. Brand new cabinets

New cabinets make a world of difference in any space, but especially when the old ones were in bad shape. The new cabinets were slow close drawers and doors. (highly recommend to anyone) We went with a light grey color to update the space while remaining neutral.

White cabinets were very trendy at the time, but neither of us like white on cabinets- they're likely to get grungy very fast and will show EVERYTHING that's been on them. I don't think a lot of people think about that when installing white. However, if you love it, go for it. In the end, your space should be your choice.

2. New oven and dishwasher

A simple, but huge improvement was replacing the oven and dishwasher. We didn't necessarily get ones that matched the refrigerator, but they coordinated close enough by being stainless steel.

Your kitchen is going to be the most used room of the house, don't force yourself to use appliances that don't work for you.

3. Replaced the pendant lighting exteriors

This small update surprised me! We had talked about replacing the pendant lights, and looked at a few options that were about $100 each.

While we were at a store looking for other things, I found some stainless steel pendant exteriors that were about $15 a piece and figured why not try them out? They worked perfectly. Big impact. Big savings. Big fan of that!

4. New Quartz countertops

While the granite wasn't terrible, it wouldn't work to reuse. We donated those tops and replaced it with a white veined quartz that would coordinate well with the rest of our choices. We visited a few places around town that sold slabs and landed on this one- both for price and look. Looking at slabs may have been my absolute favorite part of this process and I'm not sure why.

5. New subway tile backsplash

Oh, we learned from the previous renovation in the townhome. This time, we hired someone else to do the tile for us. We wanted a simple white subway tile with white grout- very straightforward.

The contractor we hired knocked it out in an afternoon and it made such a difference. There are few things in life as satisfying as newly laid tile. The white tile went all the way up and helped brighten the space a lot.

After:

I really loved the way this kitchen looked when it was done, and it was probably the room that was toughest to move away from. (Especially now as we're in-between a several month demolition process and the new kitchen.)

We lived in this house for almost 5 years and the kitchen hosted many gatherings and memories for us. I'm so glad we did that update as soon as possible after moving in, even though it was an extremely stressful time.

If you're on the fence about a kitchen renovation, take into consideration the amount of time spent in the kitchen. The time and money is worth it, despite the months of stress leading up to it.