Kitchen Updating / White Tile=BAD

Our Kitchen was not in terrible shape by any means, but we did think it needed some freshening up. White Tile counters, white tile backsplash, white, microwave, white cabinets, and old white dishwasher. You get the picture, too much white! This was a fun project, we found ways to save some money, and also ended up with a new and comfortable kitchen. We like to think that in our house we will be spending a lot of time in the kitchen, so we want it to feel good. Here are some before pictures:

I hope my description of the white out makes sense when you see these pictures; no character in the kitchen, and nothing unique. This picture to the left shows where I have begun to tear off the countertop tile. This was a great way to save some money. Most people charged around $300 to tear off the old countertops before replacing them, so $300 saved in my book. The blacksplash tiles were a bit more difficult and we ended up having to cut the drywall out and replace it with cement board. Those tiles on the back were stubborn. It ended up being easier to cut the drywall out instead of trying to pick off each individual tile. More $$ saved.

Here on the right the countertops are off, bar is off, and the kitchen is a mess. Progress!

Old sink = not very attractive. This thing was a mess all the time. We decided to get a new under-mounted sink to replace this one. With it mounted under the counters it is a lot easy to clean around the sink. And it just looks better. I will show a picture of the new sink below.

A guy come out to make a template out of thin cedar planks in order to get all the right measurements for the new granite. I did not know this is how they measured things out, but it was neat to see the guy tacking all these planks together and hauling them back to the shop. The picture below on the right is at the granite yard. Kim could not come with me that day, so I was praying that I picked out the right slabs. It was awesome to be able to go pick out a huge slab of rock thinking that it was going to be turned into our kitchen counters. We selected a granite called yellow river that has some natural gray streakiness to it.

So now its time for some after pictures. Granite installed, new Island delivered, some furniture added, new stainless steel microwave and dishwasher, and things are looking up. We stripped the kitchen down, okay I stripped the kitchen down; I think Kim pulled 2 tiles off total, but she did really well with those two tiles, and we built the kitchen back up. In fact, I was able to get a photo of Kim in action: (thanks for the help Kimmy)

We also got a new light fixture above the island which we thought was cool. Kim admiring her new purchase:

Awesome antique French cupboard that we had to have. The red color is beautiful and the inside is a smokey gray color we love.

We added a tumble stone backsplash and pulls and knobs to all the drawers and cabinets. The stone on the back makes a great contrast against the new stainless steel appliances.

Pink Hydrangeas that popped up on the side of the house. nice surprise.

We feel very satisfied with the work we did on our kitchen now its time to enjoy. If anyone wants to come have dinner, or breakfast or lunch for that matter, you are more than welcome. We added some things we wanted: granite, new light fixture, knobs, new sink, new stainless dishwasher and microwave, a big island, and stone backsplash. And, we were able to save on somethings too. Our biggest savings came on the cabinets. We were getting estimates for cabinet glazing ranging from $1300 to $2400. I thought to myself, no way! So I was able to get two bottles of charcoal/black antique glaze for $14 and over a saturday and sunday glazed all of our kitchen cabinets. Lets see $2400 or $14? Easy decision there! Below are two good before and after pictures that kind of sum up the whole process, and you can see the cabinet glazing too:

Cluttered and White!

Same corner, updated cabinets and clean:

Thanks for Reading,

NICK