Our kitchen demo - the beginning!

This is part 1 of our kitchen renovation...

We started our reno in a pretty disorganized way - we really had so much to take out, we just grabbed a corner and got started. This wall (west facing into the sunroom) was THE wall, complete with boarded up window and a weird built in. Both were slated to go so this is what I offer up first ;) So you can see in this photo that I had already climbed up and ripped down the plexi glass that had previously lined the top of the cupboards. We had yet to free the window...


In this picture, you can see that we had taken down our useless stove fan (note to other home shoppers, always figure out where the stove vents). We had no idea that ours vented absolutely nowhere...so with it gone, we also took out the upper cabinet to make it easier to demo the weird built-in. You can see that once upon a time, the kitchen was blue. I later found some coordinating wall paper - I think this wasn't the previous wall treatment but the pre-pre as the wallpaper is painted over (yay) and there are at least two other paint colours on top of it.


Now here it is, the WINDOW! I can't even tell you how excited we were to discover that not only was the window intact, it was actually in perfect shape. Yay!! Only problem? The stove vent had been wired up behind the molding on the left side so that ended up biting the dust. :(



Now you can see that the built-in is gone! The space already feels so much larger, we also managed to salvage the lower cabinets (yay!).

Tools that we discovered made it all easy:
- Reciprocating Saw
- Pry bars (one big, one small)
- Patience
- A cordless driver
- Step stool
- Decent ladder
- Rubber mallet (for places on the walls that you want to be kind of gentle with)
- A shop vac (so much dust, it was such a great investment!)
- Box cutters
- Sheet plastic and tape
- Face masks and safety goggles
- Good leather work gloves (that are fitted)

And of course: a sledge hammer.

Lessons learned:
- Seal other rooms really well. I used plastic drop sheets and tape, it was effective though it made it hard to get to essential places like the bathroom.
- Score the walls first, especially the ones you want to keep. It helps to use box cutters - this will keep your lines nice and clean.
- Clean up often, have a fan on hand and make sure you open your windows.
- Figure out where your load bearing walls are, it's better to be safe than sorry.
- Have beer on hand (or other powerful motivator).
- Seal your heat vents - I used cardboard after I discovered that my hub had ripped the cover off (to protect it) and then promptly filled the hole and vent with crap.
- Plan for your garbage - we had two garbage cans and quickly discovered that bags were a really crappy way of dealing with the plaster we ripped down.
- Having good friends help you out is the best way to aleviate stress and make it all fun.

Glass kitchen cabinets via Home Depot

I saw this great picture via the inspiration gallery of Home Depot. The hub really wants glass cabinets in the kitchen and I thought this style was perfect...then I found the price. Pretty darling for over $2k, a bit out of the question for a kitchen makeover. I can dream - maybe one day, right?

Dealing with our kitchen cabinets

After we knew that we had the house, we went on this awesome decision-making roller coaster. At first we thought, "Lets reno the whole damn kitchen! New cupboards, new counters, new floors, new EVERYTHING!!" It was exciting but not at all financially realistic. After a couple of dreaming days, we realized that to really be able to afford this house we would have to live with the kitchen for a few years and settle on some updates. Basically, we had to accept that we would have to work with the ugly cupboards. After making that decision, we decided that there was nothing a coat of paint couldn't remedy and immediately embraced the idea. After all, I'm an avid refinisher and extremely detail oriented...But after doing all the measurements and truely assessing the state of the kitchen, we realized that we were actually pretty short on cupboard space. I knew then that we would have to buy some new cupboards but that our budget couldn't get us all the way there.

Ah!

The solution? Well, we are going to buy similar cabinets from Ikea (not my first choice but good enough) and paint them all out to match each other.



(It's all the same, right?)

We're hoping, of course, that the difference wouldn't be that noticable. Has anyone ever tried this before?? Anyway. Here is what we chose - the Aukurm series by Ikea in Lilje dark brown. Why the brown? Because it is actually wood - we want it to paint nicely and I just haven't had good experiences with painting up melamine. Here's to hoping it all works out!!!

Hooks via Spazio of Montreal

A while ago, I was in Montreal visiting family I decided to buy the latest copy of Montreal Home Magazine partly for inspiration, partly to figure out where people go home shopping in Montreal. As always, it confirmed that there are a lot of home stores on Saint-Laurent and the antiques are on Notre Dame. But then, in amongst all the adverts I noticed a beautiful ad by Spazio. It had a website listed (of which I was totally sceptical as most websites associated with home decor and the great Montreal are defunct or never updated) - imagine my surprise when I found it both active and updated. The best part? They sell architectural antiques! The next weekend, I dragged my hub back to Montreal and we checked it out. My favorite parts were their light fixtures (of course) and their massive collection of hardware (oh my god, it was amazing). Check out these hot hooks I got for $5 each! They are finding a home in my new kitchen, I love them.




Company Info:

Spazio: Architectural Antiques
8405 St-Laurent Blvd (sorry to say, the best way to get there is to take the 40. They have lots of parking though you better bring some change as it is metered)
Montreal, Québec

Lighting for the kitchen

I found this great light via Home Depot (by Hampton Bay). For $34.99, it's hard to go wrong. I love the school house style, the finish - and especially the price. I'm thinking about buying two and putting one in each window. I've checked them out in store and they are small so I'm not firm on them.

Our Planned Kitchen Renovation

So we get our house at the beginning of November - after that, it will be the mad dash to do a full kitchen makeover. I would call it a full renovation but we are planning on working with the existing cabinets. We're going with all stainless steel appliances (minus the dishwasher, we'll replace that in a couple of years) and a colour palate that matches the rest of the house better (white with various tones of gray). We're planning on doing the following:


From this shot you can see my cute hub and the full view of our ugly kitchen. We plan on painting the cabinets, ripping off the weird plastic slide stuff at the top, replacing the counter, freeing the window, putting in new hardware from my favorite store (leevalley!) AND putting in a marmoleum floor. For the cabinets, I was thinking white on the top, dark gray on the bottom but am totally open to suggestions. We are going to do all new light fixtures (mixture of potlights and pendant) and a tiled backsplash. And yes, we plan on doing most of this (minus the wiring) ourselves. I'll share my plans as I figure them out - as well as before, during and after photos.


This is the future home for our fridge - the wall here is actually the back of a closet from our office. We plan on ripping out the backs of the closets and restoring the original footprint of the room, this will gain us at least a foot in floor space. We also plan on replacing the sink cabinet and removing the cabinet above the fridge. With the new space, we'll add in floor to ceiling cabinets around our fridge from the ever-handy IKEA as we are actually in pretty short supply of decent cabinet space.


This is the wall that our kitchen shares with our office. The previous owners used the office as a bedroom - I think that it was originally a formal dining room. You can see the awesome closet (vintage wallpaper included) that we will be ripping out and the great wall panelling on the closets that were added by the previous owners (also slated to be ripped out). We will be adding an island/bar table here and a sliding door to separate the office from the kitchen. Hopefully, we will also remove all traces of the aqua wall colour.


And last, but not least, is the wall that separates our back entry from the kitchen (with ugly re-utilized shelving system). We are (hopefully) going to salvage the lower cabinet and are planning on ripping everything else out (including the wall!). Our back entry opens into a sunroom addition, which will hopefully become a three season or year-round space. With that, I want to integrate the space more with the overall house and am hoping that removing the wall will make the back entry more integrated with the kitchen. We'll also be moving some of the other cabinets around and plan on moving one to this side, adding more valuable storage space to the kitchen.

More kitchen design via Kvanum Living

Originally posted here - all images from Kvanum Living. I love the details involved with each - especially the granite or marble surrounds on the sinks. Beautiful! The soft gray and the use of cutting board for counter is definately something that is going to be a part of our kitchen reno. The question now is what shade of gray...