I showed you pictures of the kitchen the way it was when we bought the house
here. Those were taken before the first round of renovations were done in early 2010. Clearly, the kitchen needed some serious help. It was like a cave in there!!! I avoided it like the plague and wanted to change it immediately, and thankfully my husband’s fresh chocolate chip cookie cravings agreed with me. We didn’t have the budget or the know-how to do a thorough job of it then, but we knew with a toddler and another little one on the way, that carpet had to go ASAP!! We bought some tile, tore up the carpet and layers of linoleum underneath, and with the experienced help of family we got the kitchen floor tiled in no time. At the same time, I had my sisters come over to help me fill the grooves of the old paneling with drywall mud, sand, and paint the walls so they no longer resembled a dark country barroom. I will have to write about that experience—surely there are others out there who have dark paneling they want to change but don’t have the money or time to completely remove it.
Here is the kitchen after the tiling and wall facelift!
Better than before, no? It is no House Beautiful, but an improvement over the previous dark cavelike atmosphere.
This makes the room look tilty tilty uncle milty.
Much brighter than before. That back area used to be so dark!
I call this the middle stage of our kitchen. Better than it was, but still a ways to go (see that ceiling and the old falling apart cabinets?).
I think the cookie production may have increased slightly after this.
Liz
This makes the room look tilty tilty uncle milty.
Wow, I can't believe the difference! I can understand not wanting to make any cookies in the "before!" It's so much brighter and happier now!
ReplyDeleteKelly @ View Along the Way
www.viewalongtheway.com
@Kelly
ReplyDeleteYes, it was so much better after we lightened and brightened it! It was a great temporary solution for us, cause I simply could not stand the brown cave any longer! I hope to post the "finished" pictures of our kitchen the way it is now when I get a chance. We completely gutted it in 2012 and it is completely light and bright now, floor to ceiling! :)
Did you have to lay new tile on the entire kitchen floor? If not then what is under your kitchen cabinets? When you put in new cabinets, did you tile under the old cabinets?
ReplyDeleteWe did not remove the cabinets to tile under them. We tiled around the existing cabinets and under the appliances. When we put in the new cabinets, they were the same depth and almost the same configuration as the old ones so we did not tile under those (though we did need to tile under the place where we now have our fridge). The new center island/peninsula has tile under it--we didn't remove that before putting it in. I hope that answers your question, feel free to ask if you have more!
DeleteYou did a great job. What color is the back beadboard of the cabinet?
ReplyDeleteRandi--I believe you are talking about the back beadboard on the hutch, right? I painted that Amazing Gray (by Sherwin Williams but color matched to an Olympic brand paint).
DeleteThanks!