Tackling a kitchen remodel is not for the faint of heart... it takes alot of planning and preparation. If you're married or in a relationship it certainly puts the test to your level of tolerance of each other. Your vocabulary may also expand along with your knowledge and skills. (((SMILE)))

Athough functionality was my main concern when sitting down to create a design, I also wanted to incorporate some type of unique aesthetics. Once I had the final design completed, the cabinetry was ordered.

THIS is when the real work begins.

Anyone who has tackled a kitchen renovation project knows, the most tedious part is in the removal process. In my case it was the old cabinetry, wallpaper, and the god awful vinyl flooring which was a pain in the posterior to do. Once that was completed, wall repairs made, it was time to paint. I chose a suede technique which required a special paint. Next up... the border.

For the moldings, a buttercreme wash was done to allow the beauty of the grain to show. Since I am not a huge fan of coved moldings, a 4 inch baseboard was used on the ceiling, shoe mold on the walls below it and finally a screen bead molding under the bottom edge of the border, all with the same buttercreme wash.

When rebuilding the soffits, I chose to cover them with burlap and applied a rope molding in the same buttercreme wash. The lower half of the dining room walls are done in bead board in an opaque buttercreme finish.

In the "BEFORE" pictures, the space was poorly used and the kitchen was lacking in cabinetry and storage. Going from so much wasted space to optimizing it was a bit challenging because of the sizes and placement options in styling and features but I think you would agree that it's hard to believe that it's the same space.

I chose a honey maple finish on hickory since I really like the variation of color in the hickory. The cooktop base cabinet as well as the sink base are both bumped out a few inches to add character to the overall appearance. I chose pull out storage drawers below the cooktop for pots and pans, a bread drawer with bread box (top drawer to R of cooktop) and then to the right appears a "filler" in between but actually contains a pull out three shelf spice rack...again on the right the cabinet door opens up to expose a divided vertical cookie sheet storage. Both base corner cabinets, left and right of the cooktop, are lazy suzans with hinged doors that open up for better accessibility. The oven/microwave cabinet has a full length bottom drawer which pulls out that can be used for storing I use for storing aluminum foil, wax paper, sandwich bags and misc. To the right of the side by side refrigerator is a three shelf roll out pantry with a two shelf cabinet above.

Left of the sink is an open faced cabinet which has two wicker pull out baskets for storing fruits and vegetables. The cabinetry below the island/bar stool seating area was modified with doors which open and are