White Kitchen Remodel

If you’ve been a reader around this little ole blog for a while, then you know how long this post has been in the works. Today I am just as ticked as can be to announce that the big kitchen remodel is finally complete! I can’t wait to show you all of the amazing changes we’ve made. I feel like I’ve given birth. This kitchen is officially my baby! Presenting…

Aahhh! Oooohhhhh!!! Eeeeee!!! I’m squealing with delight over here.

Let’s just refresh your memory with some before and photos, shall we?

Before, the kitchen was partitioned off with a weird beam going across and a wood pillar in the middle of the room. The cabinets were all knotty pine and the floor was made of pine shiplap planks. Yep, it was like having a log cabin floor and it was impossible to clean. The backsplash was blah, the countertops had been tiled over with granite tile (and it was done really poorly). And the layout was not very functional. If you opened the dishwasher, you couldn’t access any of the cupboards in the peninsula and you couldn’t reach the cupboard above the dishwasher to put dishes away. Plus the space between the bar stools and the kitchen table was pretty tight and when we had guests over, people were always bumping into each other right there. Major traffic clog.

We started in January of 2016 by replacing the flooring throughout the kitchen, dining and living rooms. You can read the detailed tutorial we wrote for Wayfair about how to install your own hardwood floor.

At the same time we replaced the flooring, we rotated the cabinets that made up the peninsula to sit flush on the back wall, turning our U-shaped kitchen into an L-shaped kitchen.

Then we built a custom island out of pre-fab cabinets from Home Depot.

We DIY-ed our own laminate countertops and even found a way to have an undermount sink with laminate countertops!

Then came the marble subway tile backsplash. It is my favorite part of the kitchen, hands down. Here’s a progress shot:

We removed the cabinets that used to hang down above the peninsula and added floating shelves to fill in the space visually and give me a fun place to display pretty dishes and seasonal decor. I love the warmth and character the shelves give the kitchen!

One way we saved a ton of money on our kitchen remodel was to reuse our existing cabinet boxes and just put new doors on. My husband built 30+ new cabinet doors all by himself. Isn’t that amazing? We chose a timeless shaker style and I love the clean look.

We added a walk-in pantry to what used to be an awkward space at the top of our steps.

We also added pendant lights above the island.

Then we built the upper cabinets up to the ceiling and topped them with crown molding. And guess what? It’s not regular wood molding… it’s foam molding! I wrote a whole post all about why we chose foam crown molding.

I searched the entire internet for barstools that I loved and in the end, we decided to build a counter height bench to go at our island instead of traditional bar stools. I shared the building plans here. So far I can say that I LOVE not having to chase down the stools that my kids drag all around the kitchen.

It is so much more fun to cook in this kitchen. The flow is so much better!

Now there are four separate work zones, which means four adults could easily work in this kitchen at the same time—one at the large counter space to the left of the sink, one at the stove, one on the front side of the island and one on the back side of the island! There is plenty of space to open the dishwasher and put dishes away. And the center section of the island is a pull out garbage can, which is something I’ve wanted forever and absolutely love.

If I were to do it again, there’s not much I would change… mostly just doing things right the first time instead of learning from our mistakes as we went along. Ha!  I would choose a lighter color of wood flooring. Our floor is gorgeous, but it’s hard to keep clean.

Source List 

(some affiliate links may be used)

• Solid Maple Hardwood Floors from Shaw Floors in Montrose/Brandt Point Brown
• Laminate Countertops: Formica Basalt Slate Scovato Finish
• Foam Crown Molding
• Marble Subway Tile Backsplash
• Undermount Sink
• Moen Edison Kitchen Faucet
• Wall and Island Paint Color: Sherwin-Williams Rainwashed
• Kitchen Cabinet Paint
• Floating Shelves Tutorial
• Cabinet Hardware Knobs and Pulls
• Globe Pendant Lights
• Wall Sconce Over Floating Shelves
• Chandelier
• Rug