happy 1 year, kitchen!

It has officially been one year since we moved in to our home. In order to recap all that has changed with each room, I plan on posting the full renovation processes we have taken on so far. 

To kick it off, we will start with our kitchen.

When we first saw the house, the majority of the kitchen/hearth room area was brown. 

 

I could kick myself for not taking more photos of the kitchen before we began renovating.

We first saw the house in December of 2010 when we were in Louisville visiting Gentry's parents over Christmas break. I have always loved interior decorating, but I had never taken on a huge project before. The first time we walked through the house I began having tons of ideas in my head of the different things we could do. It was a bit difficult to see past all of the brown, but pretty soon we had a color pallet picked out, & a new floor plan in place.

This is the inspiration we used for our kitchen redo:

We did not end up painting the upper cabinets white, but we did follow it pretty closely with other things.

This is not high-tech whatsoever, but here is an idea of the original floor plan:

We chose paint colors while Gentry was working at Lowe's in Jackson, TN. 

For the kitchen cabinets we went with Eddie Bauer's Fig color (EB47-3)

 We painted over the paneled walls with Valspar's Homestead Resort Parlor Taupe (7003-1)

We used Valspar's white high gloss for the inside of the cabinets & all of the trim & crown molding.

We also purchased the refrigerator & oven there after they had a water leak that got the boxes wet, but nothing was damaged. We paid less than the original refrigerator price for both appliances.

 The next phase was the gutting phase. We began this process in late June 2011. The house was miserably hot, & the fumes were pretty strong from time to time.

We started by taking down the overhead cabinets above the bar area.

Then we took out the soffit & patched up the ceiling.

Then we took out the fluorescent light & the small fan & installed three can lights. We also took all the other cabinets out along with the drawers and lower cabinet doors.

Then the half wall went up to separate the kitchen & hearth room.

The next step was to install the electrical in the walls before putting the cabinets back in. We also created a space for a new dish washer since the original kitchen did not have one.

I painted all of our cabinets outside. We decided to go ahead & give the insides a fresh coat of glossy white, which ended up making them feel new.

Here is a look at the new floor plan:

We put the cabinets in, then installed the appliances.

We ordered our black counter tops from the company that supplies them for Lowe's & ended up saving a ton of money by picking them up there & installing them ourselves.

Eventually we installed the white subway tile back splash.

& with the other things we have done since then, it brings us to our kitchen today:

 

& there you have it. We love our kitchen! We are basically done with this room of the house, & have really enjoyed how it turned out.


{alli}

a better look at our kitchen

Since we've installed the display cabinets, pantry & crown molding, I figured it was time to take up-to-date photos of the entire kitchen. I've posted photos of the demolition process, as well as the kitchen progress back in December. After the last post on the most recent kitchen updates, I decided it was about time to take photos of the entire space, & not just the side with the new display cabinets. 

Here are some photos I snapped a couple of days ago while the kitchen was clean :)

Remember when it looked like this?

etsy prints

flea mall finds $.25 each

Remember when it looked like this?

Crown molding & painted baseboards make a big difference!

letter holder how to

 It's crazy to think that when we first saw the house there was nothing on this wall.

chalk board how to

& now you've come full circle.

I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend!

{alli}

what we've been up to

I'm getting really bad at blogging lately. & it's not because we haven't been doing anything at our house. Recently G & his dad built display cabinets & a mini pantry in our kitchen. The doors are built, now they just need to be installed. I'm so thrilled with how things are coming along!

First we painted the paneling above the existing cabinets with glossy white paint.

Then the frame for the display cabinets went up.

Then I put a couple of coats of our cabinet paint on the outside. 

Now all I had to do was paint the inside of the frame and the ceiling.

We still had a bit of a gap between the ceiling and the paneling, so I used some caulk to fill in the gaps. I used it again after the installation of our crown molding in the kitchen.

I love the crown molding!

I feel like the ceilings seem taller with the addition of these display cabinets.

Here is a look at the pantry they built in the awkward space to the left of our refrigerator:

Our narrow garbage can fits perfectly in the bottom of the pantry. I am pretty excited to add the doors though. 

Here is another addition to our kitchen:

I found these fruit & veggie prints on Etsy & have loved the pop of color they add to this corner.

Our hearth room has changed a little bit since the last time I posted an update.

I recently rearranged the displays on our bookshelves.

The cabinet doors have been built, and one side has been installed.

Here is a closer look at the doors on the other side waiting to be installed.

I love how they turned out!

G also built a new medicine cabinet for our master bathroom while I was out of town two weekends ago. It is from a photo he found in my Restoration Hardware catalog. He still has to add some more detail & stain it, but I love it!

I'll leave you with a peak at our bedroom with the new wall color. We love it!

{alli}