In Progress: Sneak Peak of white to dark remodel

12 years ago

Oh my gosh! I posted, I saw it, it disappeared! Ugh. So, here we go again:

We have a very small kitchen. The wall space is 10x11 and we decided to re-use the Corian (Dusk) counters and integrated sink to cut costs, so the footprint didn't change even one inch!

I love white kitchens with wood floors, but my white cabs were falling a aprt and needed to go, and my sweetie prefers wood stained cabinets. Compromise makes for a happy house...eventually!

So here are some befores:(Holy Clutter! I am duly embarrassed!)

And a few afters:

Note the "open display shelving" Yeah, not so much! The contractor, who will be referred to in the future as Mr. Moron, forgot to use the spacer on the blind corner cabinet. The cabinets are frameless, so without said spacer, the two doors that met in the corner butted against one another and neither one could open anything close to 90 degrees. Aaarrggghhh! Mr. Moron has been dismissed and now we need to decide if we should hire someone new to move each run over an inch and be able to put a door on a blind cabinet with limited storage, or just trim the shelves with our dark molding and keep it as display. Thoughts? We aren't short on storage, so we can spare it.

The lazy susan holds all of my mixing bowls and casserole dishes from small to large. It is so much easier to find what I need from this cabinet.

Here is the pantry wall. The fridge (stainless french door) will be on the left. I got sick of waiting for the drawer bases to be in stock and went with doors. Do I regret it? Stylistically, yes, but because I have so much storage for food in the 36" pantry, I have put the space eating monsters in those cabinets below- the Kitchen Aid, the crock pots, the monster popcorn bowls and the huge stock pots- things that wouldn't have fit in the drawers anyway. So, yeah, I'm a little bummed, but I'll get over it. Function was so important in this household with 4 kids from 15 months to 18!

The mirrors in place of glass was done to bounce light around the small area from the 4' wide window opposite this run. It was definitely the right move and accomplished our goal for that nicely. These cabinets hold glasses, wine glasses, dishware, etc.

The pantry cabinets have ROTS which I know aren't for everyone but that really meet our needs nicely. One fixed shelf has an outlet placed so that we can have a charging station in there and keep the clutter off of the counters. I even have my flour, sugar, coffee bins in a cupboard by themselves instead of on the counter. They are in there by.them.selves. (With 2 empty shelves- yay, me!)Over the fridge is a cabinet, too. Initially, I thought I would have baking pans there, but, found another home for those and moved my cleaning caddy up there. This worked out perfectly for us because it got the chemicals away from the cabinet under the sink that my baby can't seem to stay away from!

What do you think of the flooring choices here- do any work?

Here is our hardware- I love these knobs. Saw identical ones from Thomasville furniture for $22.99 each! Uh, no. No thank you! Not paying that. These are from Overstock and I got a 25 pack for 72.99-10% + shipping. $68 total. They weigh a ton and should help add sparkle. It looks dented or something or like there is a seam at the top. There isn't. It just has beautiful ridge lines across the length of that zeppelin shape! Love!

So, lots still to do: Backsplash, Painting- Grey/blue? green grey? BM Hush? Flooring- see some options above, hardware installation, trim work.

Best decisions- keeping the counters and adding significantly more light- undercabinet lighting, additional recessed lights in kitchen and adding recessed to the adjacent family room that was previously (kind of) lit by one lonely lamp in the corner. That room got 6 cans and 2 spots and the whole area- even with dark cabinets- is such a bright place.

The cabinets are gorgeous and very rich looking IRL, the pics do not do them justice, unfortunately.

The oven is installed under counter underneath the cook-top. The microwave has vacated the room and I am not allowing it back. I will have clear counters from now on. It is my gift to myself, the de-cluttering of my world! :)

Please chime in with any and all suggestions for walls and floors

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Comments (12)

remodelfla
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Decluttering is an awesome feeling so congrats on that! The wood is very rich and beautiful looking. Can you run the wood that's in the adjacent rooms into the kitchen?
prill
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Beautiful transformation. Can you tell me what your floor is?
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debbie1031
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you, Prill. The flooring options are Mannington Revolutions laminate, Diamond Bay collection. Remodelfla- thr flooring in the other rooms (living room and adjacent dining room are 2 1/4" oak original to the house (40 years old). I have considered that as well, but am hesitating because it means installing kitchen and family room and then refinishing LR and DR so they would be seamless. It's probably the right thing to do, but more work and cost than I'm up for right now! Maybe I'll just push through with everything but flooring- paint, hardware, trim, etc. and move toward some feeling of "finished" before coming to a decision on such a big area/cost.
NatalieChantal
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I love your new cabinets! They are beautiful... Can you tell me who makes them and the style/stain? I love how they bring out the countertop so much better than the light cabs!
marcy96
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Your kitchen looks beautiful! What a great transformation! As far as the blind corner cabinet, a similar thing happened to me - the wrong size cabinet was ordered and I couldn't open the door to the cabinet. My contractor took a piece of filler and made the cabinet opening an inch smaller, and then I ordered a new door that was an inch smaller. Screwed that onto the filler and now the door can open freely. He covered the filler with an overlay so you can't see where it connects to the cabinet. Since it was the cabinet company's mistake, they gave me the new door for free.

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debbie1031
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hi Marcy! Thank you! That is an option, just one we didn't trust our contractor to complete because of the many shortcuts he took that weren't done as seamlessly as we would have hoped. I know I could even buy the lazy susan hinges and hinge the perpendicular upper cabinet doors to one another with only the slightest cuts to the existing correctly sized doors. We have options certainly, I just won't let that guy near my litchen anymore! :(
Natalie, thank you! The cabinets are from Cabinet Giant in Kansas City. They are solid maple, cherry stained with a glaze; the Brindleton Maple Reserve Line of cabinetry. The drawers and pull-outs are full extension, soft close, and dovetailed. They are super affordable, probably because they are RTA. Each cabinet took about 7 minutes to put together, except for the pantries and lazy susan. About 1/2 the price of the stores. Their customer service was excellent.
phoggie
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
debbie~~ I love your kitchen cabinets, and those beautiful pulls....you did good, girl~~
I happened to notice that you got your cabinets in Kansas City....I live in KS and would like their address...do they have a website?
Thanks for the info.
debbie1031
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you, phoggie! It's www.cabinetgiant.com. They have all different styles,colors, finishes, and will do design work for free if you need that,too. Again, excellent customer service- would definitely recommend them to you or anyone. Good luck!
roarah
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
wow by replacing the white cabs, you have made it crisper and,ironically enough, brighter looking! 100% improvement. I love your choices. Great job and i think i agree with your DH stained wood was the right choice.
beaglesdoitbetter1
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Beautiful job debbie! I love the mirrored cabinets :) And everything else!
debbie1031
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you, roarah and beagles! Am truly contemplating very light wood floors because I think the brightness is from the lights reflecting off of the counters and the contrast with the floors? Do you think that is the way to go? Any thoughts on wall color? Interior designer friend stronlgy suggested green or silver grey....? The room faces south and gets a lot of sun if that makes a difference.
Laurie
8 years ago
We are looking to put in a new kitchen and are considering going with cabinetgiant.com. Would you recommend them? How have your cabinets from them held up? Thank you!

In Progress: Sneak Peak of white to dark remodel

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