Kitchen Remodel at Heart and Home

Today I'm showing you some pictures of my remodeled kitchen for Metamorphosis Monday. Hope you like them!






When we moved into this house we planned to do some remodeling. What we didn't know was how major our project would become.

The house had been built in the late 70's. It was a big mess when we got it. The family room had been painted pepto bismol pink, with teal green mini blinds on all the windows. One wall in the entry way was dark, dark blue, there was pink and blue wallpaper with ribbons and bows everywhere. All that might have worked in a different house, in a different time - but in this one, in the 21st century - believe me it was not pretty....


We spent a lot of time removing every pattern of wallpaper you can think of from almost every room in the house, quickly replacing cheap, tacky 70's style light fixtures, and painting every wall and most of the oak woodwork and dark doors and cabinets white to give us a fresh, clean palette. Then we lived here for quite a few years without changing anything else, just to get comfortable with the space, and to figure out how we used each room (and to brace ourselves for what was ahead!)


When the right time came, we decided to remodel the kitchen first. These before pictures tell you everything you need to know.

Lovely:




It still had most of the original appliances, some of which barely functioned. My cook top only had 2 working burners. The light on the refrigerator door blinked incessantly, and only one of the double ovens heated up. The metal window frames didn't exactly scream character, either. I won't even mention the chipped tile counter tops with the crumbling grout.....

The cabinets had originally been dark brown, and white paint couldn't disguise the outdated style. Every drawer stuck. Nothing helped improve the lack of storage.

I wish I had a picture of the Spanish style gold, brown, and green tile that covered the floor. It was horrible, but solid. It had been installed to last! On one long wall, there was a door to our outside deck, and nothing else:

Well, I always said I wanted to have a fixer-upper, now I had one and it was time to fix-'er up!! I forged ahead and planned a kitchen that contained every one of my "dream" elements: eat-in area, plenty of storage, baking center, warming drawer, big fridge, country sink, marble counter tops, recycling center, and large wooden windows that took advantage of our view and let in lots of natural light.

I didn't want a lot of doodads, and chose simple, functional, traditional design elements that didn't fight with the ranch style of this house.
It took four men with sledge hammers and crow bars one hour to demolish the old kitchen.

It took as many men six months to remodel this space, the guest bath, master bedroom (see it here), closet, master bath (seen here), and the dining and living room ceilings.

While all the construction was going on we lived mostly in our family room, which thankfully has a wet bar with a tiny working sink. (No doing dishes in the bathtub!) I moved the fridge, trash compactor, microwave, toaster and coffee maker in. I bought a two burner cook top at the drug store, and we used paper plates and kept meals very simple. It really wasn't too bad for awhile. But near the end of the project that room started to feel very small.....

When the dust finally settled this is what we ended up with:

Heart and Home's New Kitchen~

The island is 3 1/2' X 9' and is the work horse of the kitchen. It contains the cook top, disappearing down draft vent, warming drawer, storage drawers and cabinets,recycling center, display shelves, and a second oven on the baking center side of the kitchen, which is here:

Just beyond the baking center there is a new French door that leads to the covered deck. On what had previously been a long, blank wall there is a lovely, large window that looks out on to the deck. Now, from my kitchen I have a beautiful view of the hills, redwood trees, and our neighbor's orchard.

Since my daughters and I love to bake the baking center is in almost daily use. It has it's own sink, lowered marble counters (I'm not tall - it's great when rolling dough), and two pull-out "elevator" shelves: one for my heavy mixer, and one near the door to the deck for the blender - essential for mixing margaritas when we have a party!

The cabinets have wide, pull-out rolling drawers that hold all my baking pans and equipment, and the big, deep, copper fronted drawers on the bottom right contain baking staples like sugar and flour. They are located right next to a pantry (with pull-out drawers) that holds tons of canned and dry goods. I've never had so much storage space in a kitchen, and I use every inch of it!

I know I chose an very unconventional color for the walls! Believe me, many people tried to persuade me to change my mind. But I had a vision of the finished room, and I thought a bold color would work well with all the white everywhere. Now, just about everyone admires the color - the orange brings so much warmth and sunshine to this room. Also, by happy coincidence, it complements my paper mache' tray collection. It's very unique and I really like it. Besides, it's only paint!

The crystal chandelier is from England. I found it in my favorite little junk shop and it sat in a box for about three years until Mr. H&H could finally hang it over the table in our eating area. I love it! I made the valance by patching together pieces from old tablecloths from the 40's with various fabric which I had been collecting.

We have a nifty raised and sloped ceiling in here that looks really great at night. Lots of mysterious shadows!

I love the great big country sink, and the curved-neck fixtures from Italy that give me plenty of space for big pots and pans during clean up.

I re-used the hutch from the dining room in the tiny little house we had before. I bought it 26 years ago. It replaces traditional wall-hung storage cabinets: the top half holds all my casual plates and dishes, and the bottom half holds linens and baskets and extras. Now I need to find one I like for the dining room - my "good" china, and a lot of really great things are still packed away since the remodel. I have no place to put them. Someday I will find the perfect piece.....




In order to accommodate all of the new features, we had to build a "pop-out" area. The space is only 8' x 5' but feels much larger. It's like a big bay window, and provides a lovely view to the winter creek that runs below us, and the beautiful redwood trees that surround our property. (The pop-out is downstairs, too -see my great big tub here.) We usually have our casual meals here during the week,especially when it gets too chilly to sit outside on the deck. (See a fall tablescape here)

Someday I may have benches with storage beneath them built-in for this area, but for now our metal table and chairs with the rush seats work fine in the space. I leave the windows wide open almost every day. I love it when the ocean breezes flow through.

I know I'm fortunate to live in this house and have this spacious new kitchen, and I don't take it for granted. I'm very happy with the way it turned out - I love how it looks! I have just the right amount of space, the style suits me, and everything works the way it's supposed to. Eventually the rest of the wood trim around the windows and doors will get painted white. That's a project I just can't seem to get started! Someday I'd like to add a subway tile back splash, and possibly a nice pot rack that doesn't detract from our wonderful view to hang over the island, if I ever find one I like.

But what I'd love most to add is something automatic that cleans up after me when I cook -without complaining -- then this room would be perfect!!

Posted for Metamorphosis Monday, and the lovely Susan at BNOTP. Thanks so much, Susan!

Thank you, everyone for coming to visit today. Stop by again, soon!

Until next time

XO
Heidi