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House to Home: The Kitchen Before and After

I covered some of this in an old blog that I used to have, but I wanted to share updates to our kitchen.  We bought our home two and a half years ago with a desire to put in some sweat equity.  Built in 1989 it was in a great location, but not in good condition.  Everything needed cleaned, painted, or replaced.  As I continue on with this House to Home series, you’ll see more of what I mean.  For now, let’s focus on the kitchen.

The Before:

the kitchen during demo
the kitchen after removing the wallpaper
the walls after removing the wallpaper
the old cabinets and counters

Unfortunately I did not take pictures prior to beginning our work.  In the pictures above we had already removed two layers of wall paper from the walls and bought new appliances.  There were no appliances when we moved in, which is common with foreclosures.  After removing the wallpaper we did the following:
1. Prepped and painted the walls
2. Painted the ceiling
3. Painted the trim
4. Replaced the door to the patio (The door seen in the before photos had some rot issues)
5. Painted the cabinets
6. Replaced the cabinet handles and drawer pulls
7. Replaced the old ceiling fan with a light
8. Replaced the old flooring
9. Replaced the counter tops
10. Made and installed a window treatment

Pictures of our Progress

the kitchen after painting the walls and cabinets, new floors and counters
Yes, I know the kitchen is awfully cluttered.  I’m in the process of decluttering.
the other side of the kitchen where the shelves will go
The green tape marks out where we might put the open shelves.

Still to do:
1. Replace the light above the sink
2. Install the back splash tiles that have been sitting in our garage for a long time
3. Make and Install open shelves above the counter opposite the sink
4. Major decluttering (in progress!)

My goal this year is to have those last few items done before June!  In the next few House to Home posts I will focus in on the details of the different parts of the kitchen remodel.  We did a lot of the work ourselves and it saved us a ton of money so I definitely want to pass on our experiences to you all.  Tomorrow I am going to talk about one of the things that I think made a huge difference in the kitchen, and that was painting the cabinets.  I used a Rustoleum cabinet transformations kit and I will share all about it in tomorrow’s post.

Mary Martha Mama