Before & After - Pictures of My Tiny Galley Kitchen
We bought our house last May and loved everything about it except the [insert profanity of choice] kitchen.
The good news - it hadn't been touched since 1969, so no tragically bad renovation to jack up the selling price (we saw a lot of those while house hunting) and I wouldn't feel bad tearing everything out.
The bad news - it hadn't been touched since 1969, so there was peeling blue laminate counter tops where the longest piece of counter space was only 3 feet; just one full sized drawer (and a narrow drawer filled with take-out menus -- the POs clearly didn't cook much); a refrigerator you couldn't stand in front of to open; a bottom of the line range; and cabinets with so much paint, they didn't close completely with fixed shelves that were only half the depth of the cabinet. I only wish I had taken "before" pictures of the insides because you really had to have to seen them to believe how ridiculous they were.
Needless to say, I couldn't wait to tear everything out! Squeezing as much workable space out was a challenge. The kitchen is only 7x14 and has three doors. My goal was to maximize counter space and to use cabinets and drawers as efficiently as possible, while keeping with a style that fit in a 1928 bungalow.
We did the renovation in phases, so I had my pots and pans on the dining room floor for longer than I would have liked. But total time for actual work was only a couple weeks. Everything went really well - I was my own GC and found great contractors to do the work. Everyone showed up on time, did what they were supposed to and charged me what they said they would. I worked hard at getting everything planned and coordinated, but as they say, "it's better to be lucky than to be good."
Here's before:
And here's after - I love all my counter space and the airy feel from the glass front cabinets. I used:
-Ikea boxes with Scherr's doors
- Bendheim Vertical River Ice cabinet glass
- Top Knobs Sanctuary pulls in brushed nickel
- Ikea sink, faucet and integrated dishwasher
-Craft art black walnut edge DIY countertops
-pressed tin tile backsplash, also DIY
- custom stained glass panel from Etsy
- Frigidaire Gallery french door cabinet depth fridge and 5 burner gas range
-BM Pale Vista walls and BM Simply White window trim; doors and door frames are BM Roasted Coffee Beans (all of the trim in the house is brown)
Comments (37)
sas95
12 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
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12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Before and after pictures of my old house
Comments (8)I love your bathroom, too. We're in the same boat with a tiny one, 5 1/2 x 6 but our window is in the middle of the wall, above the tub. 2009 is going to be our bathroom remodel year and I've already planted the seed in DH's head about moving the window to the corner of the room so that we can have a stand up shower. Question for you salami - do you have a tub anywhere in your house and did not having a tub/resale enter your thoughts when deciding what to do in your remodel? Your house is great!...See Morebefore-after pictures of kitchen
Comments (13)Thanks, everyone. ppbenn: I don't *love* the floor, but I'm friends with it. When we considered the cost & disruption of replacing it, we decided not to. It also extends out into the entry way & hallway, so it would have added a LOT to the project cost. merrygardener, we did keep one of the lower cab units for storage in the garage (paint, etc.) and our project manager reused some of the cab doors for the basement understairs storage. Do you have a ReStore (Habitat for Humanity) resale outlet in your area? That might be a good place to check. misawachick5: It was a tremendous amount of work, and thankfully we didn't do a bit of it. It was all in the hands of capable professionals. Not an ounce of DIY blood in either me or my husband! More power to all the DIYers out there. :)...See MoreFinished Kitchen-Before and After Pictures
Comments (15)I love the color of the cabinets. That dark stain "just goes" in that kitchen.... perfect choice. I think that you should stain the door to match the cabinets. I think it would add a lot to that area. We purchased extra stain when we ordered our cabinets so we could stain a door. We used a wood conditioner first (which helps to even out stain and avoid the "blotch-iness" that your contractor mentioned). It turned out beautiful. And... if the stain doesn't look good.... you can always paint it!! But my vote is to stain the door the wonderful chocolate color of the cabinets....See MoreFinished Tiny NYC Galley Kitchen!!!
Comments (47)Someone asked about a picture of the light fixture. Since it's a small room, I was originally going to do a very simple flush-mount fixture, but then I learned about the existence of "semi-flush-mount": And while I'm posting more pics, here's the heating pipe in the corner of the kitchen next to the stove, taking up precious inches on the wall where all the appliances & sink had to be crammed. The contractor built a 6" wide fake cabinet in front of it so I could have a bit of countertop as a landing spot for utensils while I was cooking. The door of the "cabinet" is attached by heavy-duty velco (which isn't working out well - I'm going to have to find a better mechanism.)...See Moredarbuka
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