Kitchen Remodel - Part 1

So we have decided to dive in and completely gut our kitchen.  Great timing, right?  New baby, check.  Needy dog, check.  Starting to get cold outstide?  Check.  Let’s demo the most used room in our house.  We are crazy people.

Before we could demo, I had to find some inspiration.  I have always loved a bright, white kitchen, so I knew we would be going with white cabinets, but the style has been a little bit of a struggle.  My husband is pretty conservative and traditional in his taste, and I would be happy with super high gloss modern cabs.  But since our house is more traditional in style, I think we are leaning with a good in-between, the Shaker.  We also knew from the beginning that we would probably be going with Ikea for the cabinets.  The price is incredible and the reviews are pretty awesome.  For where we are in our lives, they fit the bill.  The only issue is the design process – I’ve been playing on their online design program for weeks, and while it is frustrating, I think we’ve got it all figured out…hopefully.

Anways, time to get inspired and hopefully see this horrible 1965 original kitchen turn into something great.

Here is our current kitchen.  Notice the lack of knobs (and please ignore all the stuff, trying to clean out currently) - they are all plastic and fall off constantly, and if I don’t grab them quickly enough they usually are snatched by the dog.  Also, the drawers, or lack of.  I think we have 5 total with nails and bottoms falling off.  The oven is original and actually worked when we first moved in, but now heats up to whatever it feels like and so baking is pretty much impossible.   

Oh and did I mention how crazy dark it is??  And there's an off-center ceiling fan!  Ooooh Ahh.

And now for some less depressing more inspiring photos.  Shaker style cabinets with bright hardware, I think we will most likely go with a chrome finish.  And how wonderful is that bar bench??

photo from Caitlin Creer Interiors

I love the herringbone pattern made with the subway tiles….I wonder how hard that would be to install...

photo from Apartment Therapy

One thing I am definitely incorporating in the new kitchen is framed recipes.  I am lucky enough to have all of my Grandmother’s handwritten books and box of recipe cards and cannot wait to showcase them in my kitchen.

photo from Vintage Pretties

All that is left is to finish designing our new layout and we will be off!  Wish us luck :)