Thursday, May 13, 2010

kitchen

Here the kitchen we got when we bought our new house.
It was big and bright
but not the best quality!

I apologize for the mess, just normal state at our house!

We first had to buy a fridge since the previous owners left with their!
But already it was an uplift!


Shortly after that I changed the handles everywhere.
Then we had to wait....
until our previous house was sold!
It took almost a year
(we rented it in the meantime, but it was not the same)

We finally were able to purchase new appliances:
a stove with a convection oven, with
 a flat cooktop (no more uneven heat)
and a dishwasher that actually washed the dishes
(the swearing level dropped dramatically after that!)


So here was our kitchen after 1.5 years.
Still the same cabinets with not efficient storage and
 dangerous drawers.
And same level of mess!



After going many times to our local IKEA, we decided
to redo our kitchen ourselves!
Doing on a budget, one section at a time!
Less overwhelming and less money at once.

So we started with the corner.
That little countertop would always get all the mess,
so it disappeared!


Voila!
Clean and modern and plenty of storage!


We waited a few weeks, and then
we removed  the top cabinets!
The new day, we learned that my husband's position was in jeopardy!
Talk about stress!!!


By then the backsplash was gone and there was no going back!
We installed the upper cabinets.


We waited there for quite some times,
wondering what to do.
The kitchen was half done,
not ideal to sell a house!


His situation got a little better,
so we decided to carry on and to make it work.
The island was next, it is much bigger
and with a lot of storage, great for pots and pans.
We reused our old countertop!
(for a few months!)


Then we waited, wondering which countertop to purchase.
Laminate to save money or
granite to keep up with the neighborhood?
I spent a lot of time at Home depot and Lowes
and local countertop places,
pricing out options.
My local granite supplier made me a great offer
and we ran!
It was slow season for him, and
fast pace for me!
We had to install the bottom
cabinets in 2 days!


and there it was!
Finally it was coming together!


We did not install the countertop,
the pro did it (not easy at all!)
but I love it! 
True joy!


By then it had been over 9 months since we had started
and IKEA was changing its color and style!
So I was able to get the last few cover panels and details I needed.
Of course I also needed to repaint the kitchen
as the previous color turned pink with the wood color.
We chosed a beige-green (depends on the light!)


And there it is, almost done.
We decided against a backsplash.


We added a picture frame above the stove,
with 3 pictures of olives.
(the middle one is from here)


I must say I love it!

so here it is
before



and after




Happy day!

PS Mon cheri's situation is resolved!
He had to find a new job.
We will be moving soon!
I hope all our work will please potential buyers.




Furniture Feature Fridays

Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special



14 comments:

  1. I love your new kitchen it is beautiful! You did a great job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Big improvement and well done. Hope it helps with the house sale! Jane F

    ReplyDelete
  3. It looks great - so fresh and modern. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Morgane!! Thanks for stopping by the blog! I had so much fun making these tags and loved how they looked so decided to make some for my Etsy shop....and YES....of course you can ask for more..LOL! Love your kitchen redo, how long have you been working on it??

    ReplyDelete
  5. The kitchen looks great! It looks so attractive! Where are you thinking about moving? best of luck!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What an amazing makeover...looks outstanding!

    Blessings,
    Linda

    ReplyDelete
  7. The transformation is remarkable. You were so smart to do it in stages (it amazes me how nice IKEA cabinets look). And the granite(!) ooo, la la!

    ReplyDelete
  8. All I can say is "Whow"! You did a wonderful job!
    Sandy

    http://thewondersofdoing.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow. That certainly is a vast improvement. You've really brought it up to date. Great job.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Awesomeness! I LOVE your kitchen, it is so light and bright. The cabinets are fabulous and unique. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow WOW WOW!! What a difference!! How exciting!! I'm loving the new look!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I can't believe you have to move after all that. WE do have the same moving timeline, just after we finish a major project!

    ReplyDelete
  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Beautiful! Some lucky buyer will have a great kitchen. In the meantime...enjoy!

    ReplyDelete

Merci pour vos commentaires, I will get back to you as soon as I can!

Christmas crafting: it was a busy month!

This December was very busy with a lot of crafting, sewing, quilting, baking. I found it easier to share on Instagram (not something I thou...