Need ideas for kitchen facelift

13 years ago

Four years after buying my home I'm finally ready to give my awful blue kitchen a desperately needed facelift. I spend a lot of time in this room so I'm dreaming of a functional, efficient and stylish space. I want to replace the floor, countertops & cabinet faces, and possibly take down half a wall to connect the space to the dining room. Ideally I'd be able to move the range and the sink to other walls, but that's not in the budget right now. The house is a 1950's crafstman, which I've stayed true to with much of my interior decorating, but for this room I'm envisioning something more contemporary...a cooks kitchen with clean lines & more light. These are the original pics from before I moved in. I now have a new faucet, stainless fridge and gas range, but everything else is the same as it was...ugly and outdated.

Looking forward to what I'm sure will be some great ideas - Thanks in advance!

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PRO

Kathryn Peltier Design

13 years ago

last modified: 13 years ago

Hi Gretchen. Your kitchen reminds me quite a lot of a project I did on a very similar 1920s Craftsman kitchen which I'm quite sure is smaller than yours. What primarily makes me think it might pertain to you is that we opened a wall between the kitchen and dining room. I have before and after photos here. I can scan the plan view if that would help. Go to the project link to see all the photos.
http://www.houzz.com/projects/14669/Bungalow-Kitchen

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Comments (13)

apple_pie_order
13 years ago
Sounds like a great project. The biggest expense may be the removal and rebuilding of the wall.

Is the wall load bearing? Have you obtained a quote from a contractor or will you be doing the wall work yourself?

The addition of a vented range hood would be tops on my priority list. Is that in your budget plan?

If you upload a floor plan with measurements, you will probably get some suggestions. The kitchen pros on Houzz often like to see current photos showing each of the four walls completely.
Gretchen B.
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for your great questions/suggestions. I'll upload a floor plan and recent photos shortly. I have a contractor coming this week so I'll have a better idea of the cost for the wall then. A new range hood, paint, counters, cabinet fronts, lighting, and a floor are all 'givens' for this project.
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Geneviève
13 years ago
consider moving the stove more to the centre to obtain this look and more storage

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Interior Analysis by Allan Skriloff
13 years ago
Look at Ikea kitchen they are well built, designed and very reasonable. If you go to my site houzz.com/pro/interioranalysis you will see 3 kitchens I have don with Ikea one is all white the other is black with red accent overhead cabinets and the third I raped the doors in bronze
Gretchen B.
Original Author
13 years ago
I.A. - I really like the sleek style of the dark cabinets for my kitchen - I've got some Ikea cabinets on a wish list that are very similar to these. The bronzed doors are amazing! I've got some more recent photos attached now to give a better idea of the layout. Genevieve - I like the idea of centering the stove, however, I would need to move the dishwasher. You'll see in one of my pics that I have a temporary shelf between the stove and the end wall. I was thinking about a more permanent floor cabinet with slide out drawers for some of my cookware to replace the existing setup.
Gretchen B.
Original Author
13 years ago
Here is the photo of the temporary corner shelf next to the stove.
PRO
Kathryn Peltier Design
13 years ago
Let me add that there were two different schemes that my clients were looking at: the one you see here, with the earthy, Arts & Crafts colors and the quartersawn cabinets, and one you may be leaning towards which was painted cabinets and linoleum floors.
PRO
Kathryn Peltier Design
13 years ago
If you are able to open the wall, it looks like you could use the wall cabinets mounted as base cabinets to form a small pass through area. If you need the storage space, consider adding double glass doors mounted to the ceiling above.
Interior Analysis by Allan Skriloff
13 years ago
Hi I would recommend not using wall cabinets but put on the side wall opposite the fridge. Putting in floor to ceiling cabinets with slide out shelves will give you three times more storage an more accessible.
PRO
Kathryn Peltier Design
13 years ago
I think that's the wall she wants to take out.
Gretchen B.
Original Author
13 years ago
The wall I'm thinking of partially removing is the wall opposite of the fridge. I'd like to open the kitchen to the dining room. I really like the idea of floor to ceiling cabinets between the utility room door and the fridge. Here is a simple floor plan to clarify the layout. Thanks again!
PRO
Kathryn Peltier Design
13 years ago
last modified: 13 years ago
Gretchen, can you supply the width of the window and where it falls on that wall? Here is what I am wondering: could you make a galley-style kitchen by swinging the refrigerator onto the outside wall and putting cabinets in beneath the window? They could either be dropped to 30" or so (beneath the sill) at that point or you could install base cabinets as a window seat used with a small table. Then that wall would continue with more floor-to-ceiling cabinets on the wall across from the range. You could still make that bottom wall a half wall with a small countertop on it, similar to what we did in the kitchen I posted, if you want a small stool area.