Our House: Cool New Kitchen with Unique Island

New Kitchen

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I was going to wait to have the downstairs part of the house perfected and camera ready before writing about our recent progress.  However, with all of the small things we still need to accomplish, it would be months before any of my small reading public heard from me again.

You've not yet seen photos of just how "UH-GUH-LY" our original kitchen was.  Feast your eyes! 

All of the walls were painted red, and you always felt slightly ill. The backsplash is painted, white beadboard. The cabinets were in good shape, but the worn, white laminate countertops just never worked.  The glue down, engineered flooring was peeling or just missing huge chunks in places.  

The black on the island and inside of the cabinets on either side of the sink, has been painted and you could see all of the streaks.  It's really ashamed that you can't fully see and appreciate the crappiness from this photo Couple all of these things with the lack of real light and the poor design choices, and the kitchen was just dysfunctional. So we got to work...

...and removed the one window from above the sink and added a large new window to let in more light.  We then set out to find the best finished we could and stay within budget.  We found and replaced the window with one that was on sale at our local Home Depot.

That set us up to replace the sink and do our countertop installation from Legacy Granite. It has wonderful blue and gray veins running through it and is a great compliment to the backsplash we chose.

White Ice Granite

The bar are would definitely need reconfiguration too.

The whole house sound system worked, but finding new parts was too expensive and we couldn't find reliable information on what we needed to replace this 1970s model.  So, out it went.  As did the pull out storage cabinet on the right.  A trip to IKEA provided new cabinets.

AFTER: New Bar and Floors

The space really opened up and we were slowly seeing the beautiful swan that we'd imagined.

We were also fortunate to find some wonderful, blue glass tiles on sale at Floor and Decor.  

I can't tell you how just watching the guys during the install started to make such a huge difference.  Along the way, and as usual, we visited our favorite antique stores.  

My loving husband found a really cool island.  

AFTER: FInished Kitchen with Glass Tile, New Window, Induction Stove Top and Island

It's an antique, Danish drafting table and works wonderfully when hosting parties.

AFTER: Drafting Table Kitchen Island

You can serve quite a lot of food and it's a terrific conversation piece.

AFTER: Bar with TV

So, how do I wrap?  The kitchen is still a work in progress, but as you can see from some of the "After" shots, it's coming along and getting there slowly.