Our Kitchen Remodel: Before & After
One of the best decisions we’ve made to-date was tackling the bulk of our remodel while we were still living in our apartment.
When we first walked through our now home, it felt livable, although the laminate floor was peeling, there were cracks on the walls (and in the concrete slab), and stains everywhere. In hindsight, if we moved in as-is, it wouldn’t have felt like “our home,” it would have felt more like another rental property.
Since we’re home pretty much 24/7 due to COVID, we were itching for this type of project and had a stronger appreciation for creating a space that we could confidently call “home.”
The biggest project on our radar was the kitchen. It felt closed off and dark, with strong creamy, yellowish tones. The space was inefficient and we recognized easy fixes to make it feel bright and open. This included knocking down the pony-wall that “separated” the kitchen from the dining room, removing the upper cabinets above the breakfast bar/desk, and overall gutting the kitchen.
We ended up taking it down to the studs since the outlets were ungrounded, the electrical was all messed up, and there was no insulation. Building it back up, we maintained a similar layout with the fridge, oven, and sink in the same placements.
Some changes we made include:
Adding a lot of canned task lighting and pendant lights, all on dimmers (mood lighting is important!)
Making the island as big as proportionately possible, since we both love cooking and wanted it to be a space to entertain
Subbing any upper cabinets for floating shelves
Utilizing Ikea cabinets all of which (except for one) have pull-out drawers that maximize the usable and accessible space
Putting small appliances, such as microwave, Nespresso machine, and toaster in our pantry that also doubles as our appliance garage
Click through to see all of the before & after photos:
