Warm & Classic Kitchen | One Room Challenge: Week 1
It feels like just a few weeks ago that I finished the half-bath for my second ever One Room Challenge! Now I’m back, completely making over a space from floor to ceiling in just 8 weeks. I’m really excited for what is not only my biggest One Room Challenge, but also the most ambitious project I’ve taken on to date - the kitchen. If you’ve been around for a while you might remember that I did a small renter-friendly facelift on the kitchen last summer to get us through another 8 months of pandemic cooking before we’d be able to tackle this renovation. I’m so glad I did that and it really did help a lot, but I’d be lying if I said we hadn’t been counting down the days until this project began!
I love this little house more than anything but this kitchen simply doesn’t work. There’s not enough counter-space and what space there is is blocked by appliances. It feels dark, lacks storage, has no functional workspace next to the stove, and no exhaust vent. The kitchen is a medium size at more than 100 square feet, but most of that space is unusable because of the door placement. When I tell you this it’s changing in every possible way over the next 8 weeks, I’m not exaggerating. The door is moving and changing to a pocket door, a window is moving, walls are coming down to studs, the floor is coming down to the subfloor, I’m moving the fridge and stove, designing an entirely new cabinet layout, installing two new built-in appliances (a dishwasher and range hood), two new light sources, more than 10 new electrical outlets, and running new water lines, a gas line, and heating/cooling ductwork.
As with every project, I am on a budget, even if this is my biggest one to date. I’ll be having the window replaced (and adjusted slightly) by a company, but everything else is being done by me, with some help from my dad and uncle (The Level-Headed Guys). I’m using IKEA cabinets and counters but I’ve got a really fun hack coming to convert the two pantry cabinets into custom appliance garages. I’ve gone budget on some things but I’ve splurged in a couple areas, such as the speciality pocket door and appliance garage hinges, the backsplash tile, the cabinet hardware, and the fact that I’m using all new appliances. I’m hoping to come in around $20,000 Canadian for everything but the window. Since the window is being replaced along with 9 others as a part of another project I’m not counting it in this budget though I will cover it in a future blog post.
Since this isn’t our forever home, I’ve strived to choose finishings that are simple and classic, but still have some personality. I want them to appeal to a future buyer, but I also want them to be things that I genuinely love and that suit the rest of the house. With it’s small rooms, many doors, and dark wood trim, the house is cozy and feels old! I don’t want a stark, modern kitchen that looks like it belongs in a different house.
I’m really excited to turn this kitchen into a space we can enjoy cooking in, and that functions well for us, and I’m so excited to show you what I’ve got up my sleeve! I’ll share more about the finishings I’ve chosen (and am still choosing) as we go on but the cabinet colour is an easy starting point - I knew white cabinets would be one of the most timeless options I could choose - neutral, classic, and appeals to most people. But I want to be conscious of keeping the kitchen feeling warm toned and in-line with the rest of the house, so I’m pairing off-white cabinets with warm wood counters. Neutral coloured tile will also hopefully help this kitchen be something of a blank slate. I want to set things up so that a future owner could update the whole kitchen just by changing the wall colour, cabinet hardware, and faucet without feeling they need to gut the whole room again.
Sources: Backsplash / Handle / Open Shelf / Fruit Bowl / Tile / Drawer Front / Bin Pull / Counter / Sink / Faucet
First up is demo - this weekend we’re tearing out the existing kitchen getting everything down to zero before we can start building it back up again. Things always change but my general plan for the next two months is as follows:
Demo
Frame out the new pocket door
New electrical, venting the range hood
Replace drywall as needed & paint
Replace or reinforce subfloor (depending on what we find)
New floor tile & grout
Install cabinets
Run new heating/cooling vent for kitchen, gas for the gas range, electrical for dishwasher, and water for fridge and dishwasher
Install counters
Install backsplash
Install appliances
Finishing touches
You can follow along with progress over on my Instagram, and I’ll be back next week with my next update! In the meantime, make sure to check out all the other projects over on the One Room Challenge blog!
Mel
