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Kitchen Before and After

Reading about kitchen transformations are always so much fun, especially when you get to see a kitchen before and after! So I’m going to revisit, in a manner of speaking that is, the kitchen in our former house. So get your hard hats out! I’ll be showing some of the things we did to transform this kitchen.

SimpleDecoratingTips.com Before and After Kitchen

Even though we kept the cabinets, and basic floor plan, we revamped or altered in one form or another, basically every surface of this space. We added new cabinets and built in a couple of pantries, added a 2nd sink, and opened up a few walls or doors, replaced all the appliances and plumbing fixtures and light fixtures. In other words, by the time we sold this house last year, the kitchen looked very different from what it was when we originally purchased it back in the mid 1990’s.

I cannot find any pictures of the kitchen from when we first bought the house, but all the cabinets were like this one, this is a picture of the cabinet that was in the master bathroom:

HometoCottage.com Before: dark wood cabinets

I had a big final master plan for the kitchen, but I needed to patiently pick away, to get my way there. I was working with a very limited budget, so to realize the final picure took several years to achieve.

The first year, I had my carpenter cut out the inside wood panels of the upper cabinets and install glass inserts for them. Then I painted the cabinets a light green color, and installed wood beadboard on the backsplash and walls to a 5′ height. (I bought all the beadboard with this factory finish blue, at a garage sale for just a few bucks!)

HometoCottage.com kitchen after phase 1

That in itself was a great improvement. Just getting rid of all that busy oak grain on the cabinets. But you can see, we still had the dark vinyl flooring, the ugly popcorn ceilings, the formica countertops, the old cheapo brassy hardware, the table in the center of the room, and one of my pet peeves: the fridge with exposed sides!

HometoCottage.com kitchen after phase 1 showing old sink and appliances and peninsula

Here’s another view of the kitchen after phase 1. This shows the ledge wall I had built behind the sink blocking a direct view from the living room to the back of the faucet. But the 4′ cabinet to the left of the dishwasher is still there… removal of that will be part of the 2nd phase.

HometoCottage.com before kitchen to sunporch 001

This angle of the kitchen is standing at the sink looking out to the sun room. In phase 1 it was still only a 3 season porch, so the existing patio doors were necessary. But you’ll see in phase 2 how we were able to open this up so much more.

HometoCottage.com before kitchen to porch new wall old peninsula 001

So at the end of phase 1 of transforming this kitchen, this is what we had, you can’t see it, but the table in in the middle of the room, below that chandelier that is too high for it. (I’d change the decor a bit now, but remember, this was still about 1996!)

The next small step in getting the kitchen changed was changing the flooring. What a welcome change that was too! I was so happy to get that faux ‘plastic’ brick off the floor, replaced with 5″ wide plank flooring.

When it finally came time to install the next phase into the kitchen plan, it was a big step, and a major job!

We cut a hole in the wall, connecting the kitchen, with a large doorway to the garage… yes, part of this change including transforming the garage to a dining room with a coffee bar transitioning between the kitchen and new dining room.

HometoCottage.com coffee bar from kitchen pantry

We built the floor up, from the old garage level, to be the same level as the main kitchen in this coffee bar area, (for the dining room, there are 2 steps down)

Oh, and one part of phase 1 I forgot to mention, is this pantry closet you see with the transom over the door. We built this in using an old door and antique piece of decorative glass. It provided great storage and divided up the ‘kitchen’ from the living room just enough.

In the final phase of the kitchen transformation plan, we were finally able to address the ceiling and the popcorn texture it had been sporting all these years! And what an important part it was, to make this room what it is now… With these high pitched cathedral style the ceilings are an important element to the space for sure. What a huge difference the gorgeous wood and beam ceiling made too.

This built in pantry cabinet was added in phase 2 or 3…

HometoCottage.com after final phase of kitchen transformation

The table and chandelier were moved out to the sunroom, which we insulated and installed new windows, creating a wonderful breakfast room overlooking the river below the meadow. (the chandelier I had found at a garage sale for $3, it was a wonderful vintage chandelier and I was sad to leave it behind when we sold the house)

HometoCottage.com doorway from kitchen to sun room breakfast room

Now, back to the main part of the kitchen. Let’s talk color for a second. Here’s a great example of how a darker color but with less vibrancy can actually give the visual appearance of lightening a room, by being less demanding. So, about 10 years after I originally painted the cupbards the more vibrant green shade I repainted them to a dark black/gray/green/brown color. (haha… it was an ever changing color.

It was important that the coffee bar and new built in pantry cupboard all connect and be part of the kitchen, so they and the main cabinets all got the same dark color, and all same new hardware as well as all same new granite countertops, this unified them and made the kitchen feel really wonderfully large. (if I would have done the pantry and coffee bar different colors than the other kitchen cabinets, instead of pulling it all together with the kitchen, it would have defined the kitchen space as just the area between the island and the stove area)

HometoCottage.com kitchen after final phase

Besides painting the cabinets darker, I painted all the beadboard lighter. Another part of this final phase was to chop off that extra 4′ cabinet to the left of the dishwasher, opening that walkway to the rest of the house up.

The island built by a cabinet maker from my design, was purposely painted and treated with different colors and details to created a freestanding furniture like piece. I also designed and had him build the big pot rack that hangs over the island.

HometoCottage.com island bun feet detail

With details like these bun feet, (here are similar ones you can order online)

HometoCottage.com carved corbel bracket on island

as well as these hand carved corbel brackets giving the granite overhang the added support it needs. (here are several styles you can order online)

HometoCottage.com kitchen transformation completed

The kitchen looked like this when we sold our house… who knows what the new owners will do to put their ‘stamp’ on this space.

The ‘moral of the story’? Have a plan! By having a road map, you know where you’re going, even if it takes you years, like it did in the case of the kitchen from our former house, it took me over 10 years to get to the end of the plan, but I knew where I was going. That way I didn’t have to do, undo, and redo, wasting time, effort and money. (and isn’t that a good ‘moral of the story’ for life as well? Have a plan… know where you’re going in the end, and be sure you’re working for that end!)

HometoCottage.com kitchen transformation before and after

Here are more kitchen renovations and ideas:

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Wall Mounted Pot Rack SimpleDecoratingTips.com
Antique Inspired Kitchen Island SimpleDecoratingTips.com
SimpleDecoratingTips.com THE KITCHEN REDO!!
SimpleDecoratingTips.com Our 100 Year Old House Kitchen Renovation Before & After
SimpleDecoratingTips.com Custom Kitchen Island Feature
SimpleDecoratingTips.com Condo Kitchen Renovation
SimpleDecoratingTips.com  Kitchen Stairs
SIMPLEDECORATINGTIPS.com kitchen transformation before and after
SimpleDecoratingTips.com Using an Antique Cookstove in the Kitchen
SIMPLEDECORATINGTIPS.com Antique Brick Cottage Farmhouse Style Kitchen Before and After
SimpleDecoratingTips.com Repurposing Cabinets
simpledecoratingtips.com pot rack in 100 year old house
HometoCottage.com pot racks!
simpledecoratingtips pot rack
Turning the Kitchen into a Masterpiece on a Budget SimpleDecoratingTips.com

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please feel free to follow and share this blog with your friends, as well as on Facebook, Pinterest, Flipboard, Bloglovin, YouTube and Instagram! I appreciate you reading along.

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Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I’m Liz, the author, and I’m so glad you’re here!

My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Redo Your Furniture!
The shop is stocked with amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!
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Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I'm Liz, the author, and I'm so glad you're here! My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Redo Your Furniture!
The shop is stocked with amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!


Disclosure Policy: According to FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that some of the content of this blog may be a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

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Sharing is great! Please feel free to share this blog with your friends, as well as on Facebook and Pinterest and Flipboard and Houzz and YouTube the more the merrier! I appreciate you stopping by. But please remember that all photos, images, text and content are owned by SimpleDecoratingTips.com. So anything you share, please be sure it always links back to my original post it came from. Please do not remove watermarks, crop or edit anything without written permission from me first.

Disclosure Policy: According to the FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials and shopping links. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

Disclosure Policy According to Federal Trade Commission guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. My truthful opinion will be what I state, no matter if I'm getting paid or not. Accuracy and truth are the priority for me on this blog's information, no matter if it's about a product or anything else. Not every product or service or store etc. may be mentioned in each and every post as an affiliate. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post.

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