Kitchen Makeover: In the beginning

When we found our house three years ago, the MLS listing had no pictures of the kitchen. Probably because it didn't really fit with the rest of the house. It was functional, but outdated, with yellow walls and formica countertops and blah laminate flooring. The fluorescent tube lighting wasn't doing it any favors, either.   

There was space on the left side for a small kitchen table. Now, I like the idea of an eat-in kitchen, but in reality the space was awkward and we rarely used it. Junk seemed to accumulate in the dead space. 

On the bright side, the kitchen has lots of cupboard and counter space. The old wood cabinets still had the original pull out bins. I'm told they were for flour and potatoes, but they also work well for recycling. 

As you can see above, there's a door at the far end that leads to the living room, then a pantry and off to the left (just out of sight) is the door to the dining room. So, that's the kitchen as it looked when we moved in.

The husband loves cooking and I enjoy hosting parties, so together we immediately started dreaming up a full kitchen renovation that would reconfigure the entire layout and add space from the adjacent sunroom. But kitchens cost money. Lots of money, it turns out. Especially when your house has an old knob and tube electrical system that would need to be completely replaced. So, the kitchen remodel will have to wait at least a few more years while we save up our pennies.

And while a shiny new kitchen right now would be pretty sweet, I'm okay with the wait. Holding off on the renovation is kinda' a good thing, because it gives us a chance to live in the space and learn the flow and be thoughtful about what works and what changes we really need. So we're taking it slow, making notes and pinning plenty of inspiration photos. We also decided to start with a mini-makeover, a 'phase 1' improvement plan to update the look of the kitchen without getting into a full renovation. The goal was to spend a little money and a lot of sweat equity to make some cosmetic improvements (first up: get rid of the yellow walls and counters). We don't want to spend a lot of cash on updates for a kitchen that will likely be gutted in 3-5 years, so this will be a Do-It-Together project, using cheap materials and doing all the labor ourselves. Sounds fun, right? Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted on the progress.