Before and After: Completed Kitchen Renovation!

Well here we are everyone! A little over 3 months since kitchen demo day and our kitchen is finally complete! This has been my first major renovation and even on the scale of things, this wasn't that major. We were fully functional in the new space after just 2 weeks because we did not change any walls or plumbing; keeping the footprint of the original kitchen definitely helped in terms of budget and timeline.

So as not to repeat myself, here is the post where I outline why we did this project to begin with. The kitchen wasn't our taste and we were going to be dealing with an appliance issue right quick. Also, one of the major aesthetic things I was looking for was to have the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling. Turns out, our floors and our ceiling are nearly 2" off from corner to corner (read: VERY uneven) so our contractor had an insane time trying to get everything level (it's not 100% perfect, but totally fine). The fact that he finished it in 2 weeks is, frankly, unheard of.

Why, then, did this post take so long? Well, the backsplash tile had an 8-10 week lead time (of course it did! I have a knack for picking the most inconvenient things). When it finally came, the installer told us we actually needed an additional 5 square feet before he would start. We rushed the order, but that was another 3-4 weeks! It finally went in last weekend. Also, there was a lot of additional custom trim work that needed to be done (if anyone lands here because they search the internet for Home Depot/Martha Stewart purestyle cabinets, contact me before using them! I have many-o-pieces of advice on this product).

Overall, it's done and I LOVE IT! It's clean, fresh and (I hope) classic. The gray/white scheme is very in right now.  Let's get to the before and afters, shall we? :)

Before 

After

Before

After 

Before- side desk area

After- toy storage!

Before- island

After

Before

After

Before

After

The whole room

 (Notice the ridiculous contraption on the bottom of the stool - it's called a KaBoost and it's because a certain 2 year old, I won't name names, refuses to sit in a clip-on high chair or any sort of booster- chair only!)

And lastly just a few of my beloved backsplash tile that was so worth the wait!

The pictures don't even do it justice. The flowers are raised so the relief on the tile reflects the light ever so slightly, and the glossy blue is just soooo bee-yoooooo-tee-ful!

This tile is easily my favorite part of this whole thing. Second is the countertops and third is my pendant lights.

We went with Jenn-Air for appliances, the combo oven/convection-microwave oven is awesome. Two weeks ago, I had made a chicken/broccoli/pasta thing for the boys. Everything in it was cooked, so I took it out of the fridge around 4:30 pm and slid it in the oven. I said, "Hey Oven, in about an hour at 5:45 pm, start up. First preheat to 375, then cook for 30 minutes, and then just keep it warm at 200 until we get back." We left the house, went swimming at WTB, came home at 6:30 pm and dinner was READY! Boy did I feel like I had life under control in that moment. (My biggest challenge is finding time to make dinner - I have limited time after work and it's a struggle to balance it between playing/scootering/going to the beach/etc with Ashton and Alex but then having time left over to cook a real dinner for them that takes at least 30 minutes). It's been a little funny getting used to our induction cooktop as well but I love how easily it wipes clean and how fast it boils water! We don't have a gas line on our street so it was basically electric or induction.

I think I mentioned at some point our cabinets were Martha Stewart- Ox Hill style in Picket Fence. Oh and I chose this line of cabinet hardware, blue counter stools from Target...overall there was a lot to pick! Anyone that has been through a renovation will tell you it is very stressful, for a whole lot of reasons. Looking at the after pictures, it was so worth all of it!

Now, what's next...?