When we embarked on this home buying journey we knew we had a HUGE reno at the very beginning that would suck up a large sum of money (but not as near as much as some people guessed!). The biggest project was the kitchen, BY FAR.
To remind you all, this is what we started with.
Yep, pretty impressive space that absolutely scared away a dozen other potential buyers before our crazy brains came around. This kitchen was quite the ugly duckling, that took quite the transformation, and I think is absolutely, at least a very pretty goose, if nothing else. Not sure we're up to swan level, I mean, we have no big beautiful island or marble (we chose quartz), or gold...but you get the drift.
TaaDaaaaaaa!!!! Look, it's like a whole kitchen!
Life changing right here:
OMG- look at this side by side of me standing on the counter to get some real perspective of the change. It's so much more than just the finishes, but the space. Still not HUGE by any stretch of the imagination, but wow, big difference!!! Yes, I'm a wierdo that I have to stand on my counter so you can get a real glimpse of this space. I'm not sure how my huge pregnant self was able to squeeze into that kitchen before. I mean, look at that ridiculously small entry on the left....think skinny people.
This kitchen has pretty much been in this state since August. I know that is a long time ago, and I apologize, I really do. We still have some very minor items to do like put the glass in the cabinets and hang our two floating shelves on our giant backsplash wall.
But here we are. Kitchen 95% done. We're loving it. And we use it, case and point below:
A lot of people have asked me about specifics of our kitchen. Where did you get the cabinets, countertops, drawer pulls, FLOORS, all that jazz. I figured I'll give you guys a short run down of a few of these. Just cabinets for today.
Cabinets: We didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on cabinets because let's be honest. Nobody keeps kitchens around for 30 years anymore. I've seen people come in and rip out perfectly great cabinets because they just want a change, so why should I spend BANK on putting in super nice custom cabinets that by themselves cost me over 30k? Yeah, no thanks. We talked about some other options like Ikea and a few other inexpensive options- we have friends who have used some of these brands and have been VERY happy with them so we were willing to look into them. However, one late night of watching HGTV at midnight I saw an ad for kitchen cabinets from a company called CliqStudios. The commercial had really nice looking kitchens, and one kitchen in particular in the add caught my eye. "I want THAT kitchen! Right there!". These are just a couple examples of their kitchens:
A google search later and I was on their website, as well as a few others looking for honest reviews. Everything I found was GREAT. Especially the prices. There is a super inexpensive set up fee to sign up and get a designer. This designer literally called me on my cell phone the next day to chat. He was great. We talked about what kind of feel I was looking for in my kitchen, the size, and layout, really everything. If I had an idea he was very supportive, but occasionally would say- "So I know that sounds great, but have you thought about thiiiis......" and his ideas were way better because he does this for a living. I am a big fan of giving people that do things for a living fairly free reign. You want to talk about retention and student persistence in higher education? Yeah, I'm your gal- but remodeling kitchens- I basically have a far fetched pinterest page full of crazy ideas and no idea how much they cost or how to execute them.
Anyway, because were were BUILDING the space we couldn't officially order cabinets until the space was complete. We had drawn up an initial plan based on what we THOUGHT the space would look like, but who knows what we'll find behind walls and what we have to work around in a 90 year old home. Turned out that the day our contractor tore down the walls and built them back up, we ended up gaining an extra 7 inches more than our original plan. I'm not complaining about the extra space- however- this created a bit of a panic because 7 more inches in a kitchen plan will throw things off. I called our designer to tell him the news and he took it with ease. "No problem AT ALL- I'll have you three new options within the hour." and he did.... Just look at these renderings he throws together so easily.
These cabinets have been GREAT! Really, all of our bottom cabinets are actually drawers so it makes organizing SO much easier.
We were able to add in a large pantry as well and that pantry is full of drawers as well so you can easily slide out everything.
The lazy susans in the corners are super nice and wooden as well.
I honestly have zero complaints about these cabinets, and because they were such a great price we were able to devote part of our budget to nicer things like the appliances we wanted, the REALLY nice brick floors, the quartz counter top and our wall of backsplash that will soon have two beautiful hand made wooden floating shelves to house all of our jars of beans, pastas, and baking supplies!!
Until next time, happy kitchen cooking!!! We know we are!!
But here we are. Kitchen 95% done. We're loving it. And we use it, case and point below:
A lot of people have asked me about specifics of our kitchen. Where did you get the cabinets, countertops, drawer pulls, FLOORS, all that jazz. I figured I'll give you guys a short run down of a few of these. Just cabinets for today.
Cabinets: We didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on cabinets because let's be honest. Nobody keeps kitchens around for 30 years anymore. I've seen people come in and rip out perfectly great cabinets because they just want a change, so why should I spend BANK on putting in super nice custom cabinets that by themselves cost me over 30k? Yeah, no thanks. We talked about some other options like Ikea and a few other inexpensive options- we have friends who have used some of these brands and have been VERY happy with them so we were willing to look into them. However, one late night of watching HGTV at midnight I saw an ad for kitchen cabinets from a company called CliqStudios. The commercial had really nice looking kitchens, and one kitchen in particular in the add caught my eye. "I want THAT kitchen! Right there!". These are just a couple examples of their kitchens:
A google search later and I was on their website, as well as a few others looking for honest reviews. Everything I found was GREAT. Especially the prices. There is a super inexpensive set up fee to sign up and get a designer. This designer literally called me on my cell phone the next day to chat. He was great. We talked about what kind of feel I was looking for in my kitchen, the size, and layout, really everything. If I had an idea he was very supportive, but occasionally would say- "So I know that sounds great, but have you thought about thiiiis......" and his ideas were way better because he does this for a living. I am a big fan of giving people that do things for a living fairly free reign. You want to talk about retention and student persistence in higher education? Yeah, I'm your gal- but remodeling kitchens- I basically have a far fetched pinterest page full of crazy ideas and no idea how much they cost or how to execute them.
Anyway, because were were BUILDING the space we couldn't officially order cabinets until the space was complete. We had drawn up an initial plan based on what we THOUGHT the space would look like, but who knows what we'll find behind walls and what we have to work around in a 90 year old home. Turned out that the day our contractor tore down the walls and built them back up, we ended up gaining an extra 7 inches more than our original plan. I'm not complaining about the extra space- however- this created a bit of a panic because 7 more inches in a kitchen plan will throw things off. I called our designer to tell him the news and he took it with ease. "No problem AT ALL- I'll have you three new options within the hour." and he did.... Just look at these renderings he throws together so easily.
These cabinets have been GREAT! Really, all of our bottom cabinets are actually drawers so it makes organizing SO much easier.
We were able to add in a large pantry as well and that pantry is full of drawers as well so you can easily slide out everything.
The lazy susans in the corners are super nice and wooden as well.
I honestly have zero complaints about these cabinets, and because they were such a great price we were able to devote part of our budget to nicer things like the appliances we wanted, the REALLY nice brick floors, the quartz counter top and our wall of backsplash that will soon have two beautiful hand made wooden floating shelves to house all of our jars of beans, pastas, and baking supplies!!
No comments:
Post a Comment