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Need another picture of the entire wall where the fridge is.
Is there a functional problem with the kitchen or is she concerned with the aesthetics? Does she want an island for the increased workspace or the storage?
Sometimes it is easier to draw out the space, marking the plumbing locations and start from scratch, especially if you are already planning major renovations. Often what is already there keeps you from seeing what could be there.
Unfortunately I do not have one of that wall, it basically goes Sink, Dishwasher Fridge, so there is not much counter. Just the counter above the dishwasher between the sink and the fridge
We are tying to not have a MAJOR renovation, just new floors new counters, paint and possibly have a movable island built. tryign to keep cost down and I will be doing most of the labor myself.
I did find a picture of when we looked at the house and the kitchen was painted off white, im surprised how many people hate the red, I dont love it, but I dont think its that bad.
Nice structure. Is the wall load bearing between the doors? Those are some tiny door openings. Can you open that whole wall and make the kitchen larger, then you would have room for more wall counters on the opposite wall and room for an island. The white kitchen picture is nice and well worth aiming for.
Not a fan of the burgundy wall, it makes the room look smaller. But if that was her choice so be it. A white would make it look larger.
Yes its load bearing, those two openings go into two seperate rooms as well. I would love to redo the entire layout of the three rooms, possibly make the kitchen even bigger, but thats not going to happen until someone drops another 40k into my bank account.
Great post, do you have any before and after pictures? id love to see how it came out. We painted our dark stained cabinets in our last house a glossy white and they came out great, but it was a hassle that I am familiar with!
Quote:
Originally Posted by fallingwater
Love your inspiration photo. I love this style myself and earlier last year we rehabbed our kitchen. We were also on a budget. I painted my cabinets. I have no issues with this but many do not like the idea of painted kitchen cabinets. I think it works out beautifully if you do it right. DONT skimp out on quality paint or cut corners on prep work to get the job done. It does take some time but being patient and doing it right means years of enjoyment. I have painted several kitchens this way and always been pleased with the outcome.
So this is what I did. I painted my cabinets white (I did seriously lean toward a pale green though). My floor is in great condition, a blue/gray ceramic tile that we could not afford to replace so I felt white cabinets were the best solution, to work with what I had. I took the upper cabinet doors off and had the centers removed and replaced with glass. A local glass place did this for us. This cost me around 60 dollars I believe. I felt it was a key factor in opening up the space and it also is attractive to display dishes. We replaced the counters with granite, a whitish granite with blue/gray movement. Now our intention was to replace the counters with Formica. They have a line called FX something that mimics the look of marble but after pricing it out, granite was actually only 200 more. Granite has come down drastically over the years. My husband preferred the granite, he felt it was worth the extra 200. I think because we have an L shape counter, the cost of no seam in the Formica shot the price up significantly. We didnt want a seam in the formica. We do have a seam in the granite but you have to search for it.
We then replaced the appliances with SS. We got the stove and overhead micro first because the stove died shortly after we moved in. So we had a combo of different color appliances. When we went to do the rehab, we replaced the white dishwasher and then I found an awesome deal through Menards (not sure if you have one in your area) on a fridge. They do a lot of online specials. They had a SS fridge for 629. I went to Lowes and they sold the same exact fridge for around 900. Since they price match, they gave me the same deal as Menards. It was actually kind of funny because the sales guy made extra notes so he wouldnt get chewed out by management that he gave a fridge away. lol.
You can do a very nice rehab for little money. Just be creative and look for deals. This time of year is actually great to start such a project. Many home improvements stores need to get rid of excess stock or old UPC codes. So you will find a lot of deals right now. The online deals can be pretty amazing, so look at the Home Depot and others websites. Just make sure you know what you are looking for and take good measurements before ordering. Otherwise you will be shipping things back.
As far as the island goes, make sure you got room. It looks like an island would be too tight in there. I REALLY wanted an island as well but I opened my oven door and dishwasher and realized its just too tight however I do not have a place to put it out of the way if I wanted. Just dont do the kitchen cart thing. Those are yucky IMO. Keep the color palette light and airy. The beams in your kitchen are really cool and instantly add a lot of interest. Im jealous.
Good advice, It is a hard space to visualize from the pictures, and its a hard space to mentally design with what is there. (for me at least) We cant afford to change the "layout" right now and the vaulted cieling and natural wood beams are not going anywhere. Dont want to replace the cabinets but I am willing to paint them.
I was thinking about above the cabinet lighting and I like the idea of some sort of trim above the cabinets. was also thinking of doing a nice backsplash with the counters. will have to look into the slate flooring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 43north87west
It could look much better without a lot of changes. The biggest issue now is the color, which isn't bad--there is too much of it, and it carries up to the ceiling giving a very imposing look, making the room "top heavy". There is no backsplash, so the upper cabinets look lonely. For that space, I'd recommend a bit darker floor than what you have now, dark counters, and lighter walls/ceiling.
Since you are not totally sure about what you want to do with the space, paint it first. You might want to consider matching a lighter shade to the cabinets, then deciding if you still want to change cabinets. Don't factor in the floor or counters, because those should both go. The cabinets aren't my favorite color, but with the right walls, counters, and floor, they would look much better.
If I was redoing the kitchen for myself (edit: assuming the cabinets were *not* being replaced or repainted), and without actually seeing the space, I might consider something like this: Warm neutral walls (and possibly an off white ceiling) in a light shade that works with the cabinets and the wood tones in the adjacent rooms, dark solid surface counters with a little bit of warm coloring, a backsplash that works with the counters and cabinets, and a slate floor because it has a nice, natural look and would work with the exposed beams, the cabinets, and would transition well to the warm colored floors in adjacent rooms. I'd probably try to match some nice looking crown molding on top of the cabinets to soften up the abrupt, unfinished look on top, and make them look a bit more proportional to the height of the ceiling. Experiment with some accent pieces over the cabinets, and maybe something on each of the high walls. Maybe find a ceiling fan that has a little more modern look--but the existing one might be OK. Don't paint the exposed beams. Add under counter lights if you don't have them.
If you want to go with the light colored cabinets (assume you'd paint them), I'd also go with dark counters, probably still with some warm tones. Lighter color on the wall, but probably not white. Do something to break up that huge wall above the doorways on either end of the room. Install a backsplash to ease the transition from counter to cabinets. I'd probably still do a slate floor, but you could do a few other things too. Again, you want to avoid the "top heavy" look especially because of the high peaked ceiling, so the darkest shades should preferably stay at or below countertop level. And the floor should be darker than what it is today.
As far as the center island, it's hard to judge the space well because of those tall walls. You might have room for a small island with a fold up extension, or a mobile island that you could roll out. I think to accommodate a permanent island, the whole room would have to be rearranged.
Since it's load bearing how about just painting that wall a white so the doors are not so pronounced. Right now the doors get all the attention and they seem so narrow. Don't know if that's optical because of the burgundy color and height.
Why not move the fridge to the opposite corner where the phone used to be in your before picture? Then you could extend the countertop past the dishwasher all the way too the wall and build cubby holes with baskets in the empty space beneath the counter (since finding cabinets to match might be difficult. You could also build a bench underneath the window with storage beneath to bridge the gap between the moved fridge and the floating countertop/appliance bar.
If you wanted to change the look of the kitchen to be more like the painted kitchen you linked to, you could replace a couple of the doors on the upper cabinets with glass fronted doors. The 2 upper cabinets on either side of the sink could be moved to the opposite wall and open shelving could be installed in their place. I agree with your idea to add crown molding to the top of cabinets ( definitely remove the valance over the sink as it looks dated). Are you painting the cabinets bright white or off white? A warm gray could work or even a pale butter yellow? Definitely put in some under cabinet lighting.
A subway tile backsplash could be nice in a contrasting color or what about beadboard painted the color of the cabinets. A slate floor could work, but there are some great heavy duty porcelain tiles that could work too. I think a larger tile rectangular tile laid in a running bond pattern would look great; maybe in the 8"x 22" range?
Why not move the fridge to the opposite corner where the phone used to be in your before picture? Then you could extend the countertop past the dishwasher all the way too the wall and build cubby holes with baskets in the empty space beneath the counter (since finding cabinets to match might be difficult. You could also build a bench underneath the window with storage beneath to bridge the gap between the moved fridge and the floating countertop/appliance bar.
If you wanted to change the look of the kitchen to be more like the painted kitchen you linked to, you could replace a couple of the doors on the upper cabinets with glass fronted doors. The 2 upper cabinets on either side of the sink could be moved to the opposite wall and open shelving could be installed in their place. I agree with your idea to add crown molding to the top of cabinets ( definitely remove the valance over the sink as it looks dated). Are you painting the cabinets bright white or off white? A warm gray could work or even a pale butter yellow? Definitely put in some under cabinet lighting.
A subway tile backsplash could be nice in a contrasting color or what about beadboard painted the color of the cabinets. A slate floor could work, but there are some great heavy duty porcelain tiles that could work too. I think a larger tile rectangular tile laid in a running bond pattern would look great; maybe in the 8"x 22" range?
Awesome, thank you, Great ideas, im not sure if the fridge will fit near where the phone used to be but im going to find out!
Why not move the fridge to the opposite corner where the phone used to be in your before picture? Then you could extend the countertop past the dishwasher all the way too the wall and build cubby holes with baskets in the empty space beneath the counter (since finding cabinets to match might be difficult. You could also build a bench underneath the window with storage beneath to bridge the gap between the moved fridge and the floating countertop/appliance bar.
If you wanted to change the look of the kitchen to be more like the painted kitchen you linked to, you could replace a couple of the doors on the upper cabinets with glass fronted doors. The 2 upper cabinets on either side of the sink could be moved to the opposite wall and open shelving could be installed in their place. I agree with your idea to add crown molding to the top of cabinets ( definitely remove the valance over the sink as it looks dated). Are you painting the cabinets bright white or off white? A warm gray could work or even a pale butter yellow? Definitely put in some under cabinet lighting.
A subway tile backsplash could be nice in a contrasting color or what about beadboard painted the color of the cabinets. A slate floor could work, but there are some great heavy duty porcelain tiles that could work too. I think a larger tile rectangular tile laid in a running bond pattern would look great; maybe in the 8"x 22" range?
Oooh, seeded glas cabinet doors and painting cabinets two contrasting colors....anique cream for uppers, pale sage for lowers? Might want to consider getting different door/drawer fronts if not too expensive. Shaker style would look great.
i like your kitchen it does not look country at all. the other one looks country
i think you should keep it the way it is but i would remove that STUFF you have on the right side of the stove that can catch on fire. and your frig clean that up to much stuff on it and get a matching frig to go with your stove.
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