Our Kitchen Renovation Reveal: The Details
Designing our kitchen was a years long process. We saved money; there was a pandemic; we did a bathroom renovation; we saved more money. It took a long time to get here, but I’m so happy with the completed design! More importantly, our kitchen functions so much better for us- more storage, more counter space, and more light!
The Design
My original drawing of our kitchen design, once I settled on a color scheme and basic cabinet layout.
The end result is pretty darn close to this!
I went through a few iterations of the look of our kitchen before landing on the final product about 2 years ago. I thought of different colored cabinets (navy blue and dark green to name a few), a bold and patterned backsplash, terrazzo countertops. You name it; I probably drew it out.
Like most people, my style has grown and shifted over time, and I landed on a classic black and white kitchen with vintage touches as my preferred design choice. I’m a color lover, so I had to bring in bright happy colors through wallpaper. But I wanted the foundation of the kitchen to be a very classic French-inspired look that felt like it could have been original to the house (with some modernization of course).
The Renovation
We started with a major foundation and floor fix. We knew going into this that our kitchen floors were in dire need of repair. Both the fridge and dishwasher had leaked for years, causing soft and bowing floors and an unusable dishwasher. We had multiple beams and all of the subfloor replaced before installing new floors that match the rest of the house.
Fixing the floors was, obviously, the first step. There was a giant hole in our house for a few days. Once the new floors were in, however, the renovation process went relatively smoothly. Will and I built all of the IKEA cabinets ourselves (I’ll write a separate post about the IKEA design process), but we did hire a professional to install them. Our house is so old that nothing is straight; we knew we were not equipped at installing the cabinets in our wonky house.
After cabinet installation, it was countertops, then backsplash. We also had some electrical work done - never overlook the placement of outlets and light switches! Moving our light switch to a more natural location when you walk into the room has changed our lives for the better!
Then finally……the fun part! We installed our new appliances; I installed the wallpaper and then set out to style everything.
The Layout
The layout pretty much stayed the same since we moved into our home and began dreaming of our future new kitchen. We knew we wouldn’t move any major appliances (to save money), and we wanted to extend our one wall of cabinetry to include a pantry.
A trip to IKEA last year sparked our peninsula idea. We saw an IKEA kitchen even smaller than ours displayed with a small peninsula. We thought, “if it works here, it can work at home!” And I’m so glad we did. The peninsula is easily my favorite part of the whole room. It creates more prep space, a resting area for groceries, and an extra place to sit and hang out while one of us is cooking. I can’t tell you how nice it is to just have a place to put groceries when we walk in the house.
The only appliance we moved was the microwave in order to have a more traditional hood that also serves as a focal point to the whole room. Otherwise, the sink, oven, dishwasher, and fridge are in the same location as before.
My Favorite Moments
The Hood Vent:
I’ll be posting a more thorough look at the hood vent design process soon, but I wanted to share it here too. I wanted our oven wall to kind of serve as a ‘summary’ of the whole room. When you enter the kitchen, you see the wallpaper, the black, the brass shelves, everything! In order to incorporate the wallpaper on the oven wall, I needed to find a unique way to bring it in, and I thought the hood vent was the perfect spot. I designed the look and had my carpenter build it. Once installed, I painted it black to match the cabinets and added leftover wallpaper to each side. I love it so much and think it works as a great focal piece to the space.
The Wallpaper:
Once I settled on a black and white kitchen, I knew I needed to bring in color with the wallpaper. Honestly, I never even really considered another print. I’ve been a fan of the Schumacher Citrus Garden wallpaper for years, and thought the citrus theme and bright colors added just the right amount of color and whimsy to the design. Even better- the print is an archival historic print even older than my home. The matching fabric on the Roman shades above the sink add a touch of softness and texture while giving a very vintage matchy-matchy vibe. While it was a splurge, I can’t imagine our kitchen with any other wallpaper. The bright colors, bold print, and darker elements to tie in the dark cabinets make the whole design come together.
The Details:
Wallpaper: Schumacher Citrus Garden (shown here in the primary color way)
Cabinets: IKEA Lerhyttan Black Cabinet Series
Cabinet Hardware: IKEA Eneryda
Backsplash Tile: The Cement Tile Shop (Ivory)
Barstools: Anthropologie
Glass & Brass Open Shelving - Brass Hardware
Ghost Menu Pictures: Vintage Menu Art
Oven - We have the induction range in black. Unfortunately, that color is no longer made.
You can also read about kitchen renovation and design process on our Apartment Therapy feature. What room should we tackle next?
All photography by Kia and Co.
