The Kitchen

If you read the previous post, you could see that the kitchen wasn’t in terrible shape. The tile floors were new, but the rest of it needed some serious elbow grease, cleaning, and updating.

Before:

There was a lot of yellow in this kitchen! The walls and the cupboards were the same yellow which made it all blend together. The yellow did camouflage all the kitchen grease that was on the cupboards though. 😉

There were spots that were missing trim as well. The existing trim, bead board, and chair rail that was there needed some love to say the least.

It is true that kitchens and baths resell homes, but we didn’t stick much into this one. We could have listed the house for more had we stuck more money in the kitchen, but with it being an old farm house more in the country, we choose to save time and go with the ‘spruce up’ route.

After:

So what did go into this kitchen refresh?

Ceiling: Painted the ceiling a bright white for a crisp, clean look

Walls: Minor wall repair and two coats of paint (a very light gray to keep the open and airy feel)

Cupboards: Took all the drawers and cupboard doors off. We took them home and cleaned and painted them late at night after the kids went to bed. We also added new hardware, but not crazy modern since this was a farmhouse kitchen.

Trim: Added the missing base trim and gave the chair rail and bead board a fresh coat of paint.

Sink/Faucet: We did replace these as well since the sink was stained from the water. Found an old cast iron double sink at the Restore that was in great shape and was the perfect size!! We bought the faucet in the same finish as the handles.

Floor: The tile floor in the kitchen was basically brand new from the previous owner. Although it pained me that I could see the original wood floors underneath (when coming up from the basement), we left the tile floors intact and simply gave them a good cleaning.

And just like that……here is the finished kitchen!!

 

Would you lean toward sprucing up your kitchen for a fraction of the cost? Or do you prefer the ‘magazine perfect’, tens of thousands of dollars remodel?