For the kitchen, the obvious and economical choice was to just paint the cabinets and leave the floor plan exactly how it was. I absolutely LOVED the yellow wall oven, but getting anything else to "match" would have been super difficult for the time crunch we were in. The fridge was right by the garage door, and just took up too much space. The sink was at the end of the counter, not my favorite setup. But, again, it would cost more to change all this around. As I began removing the doors, I realized just how bad the cabinets were, and saving them really wasn't in the cards. That, of course, freed us up to change some things around.
Here are a couple of before shots
It is tough to see in these before shots just how yellow that tile was. It was about the same color as the wall oven.
The Inspiration
I had seen this picture a loooong time ago from The Effortless Chic.
I love her entire house. There is something very California and “midcentury inspired” about her home. The straight lines, the colors, the simplicity all spoke to what we were trying to do. It is tricky being in design. Often as you look for pictures of inspiration, you end up finding what you were thinking of in your head already executed by someone else. Jenn’s kitchen was the epitome of cool for me, but it was also something I had already been mulling over. I was already thinking of a green cabinet with white tile backsplash. Jenn’s kitchen was the right blue green color with the right handles and the right stainless steel appliances. And while I am inspired by her kitchen, I am not copying it as there were elements I was already playing out in my head. But I will tell you, the fine line between copy and inspire gets waaaaay blurred in my kitchen.
Here are the elements that made this space sing. Fireclay tile in White Mountains and Top Knobs on Amazon.
We decided to change the layout of the kitchen a bit so we could have a better flow. We got a freestanding electrical range to free up wall space, and moved the fridge to where the oven had been. We got a counter depth fridge so it wouldn't feel so intrusive, and ran a water line to that wall for ice. We moved the sink to the left so we could put the dishwasher on the right and have counter space on either side of the sink. I still hand wash pots, pans and our fancy dishes, so having that space to the right is a good drying space for them.
Because we were tight with our budget and time, we decided on IKEA cabinets. I can put these together pretty easily, saving us the time a contractor would charge to put them together. I also painted the cabinet doors. I read a lot of tutorials on this. At the end of the day, the sprayer we tried was not even, so I rollered the primer and paint on. This produced tiny bubbles that I didn't like, but weren't actually that noticeable. But it's a lot of work.
The other reason we went with IKEA is because I didn't have to rent a truck to pick them up.
These fit in my car in three loads. And that was helpful because I could bring them home, unload and build what I had, and then go back for more. This helped me to not feel as overwhelmed as I would have had I had them all at once. I basically sectioned off the kitchen and purchased them in three different trips.
This ended up being the room we spent the most work on because it was work I could do on my own. We had so many contractors here working on tile, plumbing, drywall, floors and paint (I just couldn't paint as fast as they could) that it was nice to be able to do something to help.
See the finished kitchen here.