Hi Friends,

The year was 2024 when we decided to take a sledgehammer (among other things) to our kitchen, dining and entryway.

This was the view from our front door the day that we moved in. This little 8 foot tall wall separated our entry from our kitchen and dining room. Well, it was technically a formal living room (hello 90’s house), but we used it as our dining room.

Our adorable kitchen the day we moved in. If you’re thinking that’s a lot of oak – I was thinking the same thing.

I ended up painting a lot of our existing kitchen a few months later just to improve the aesthetics but the truth is, it was falling apart. Our cabinets were old particle board ones that hadn’t been taken care of so the bottoms were falling out. Our floors had water damage and were separating in spots. Our appliances were 30 years old and not in the greatest shape. Not to mention the layout with this giant eat-in area we weren’t using left a lot of wasted space and a lot to be desired.

So we took it all out. A couple walls, the cabinets, countertops, appliances, floors. Everything must go. I designed a new kitchen layout and we got to work making it happen.

Where there was a slider in the existing eat-in kitchen area, we added a window instead so we could extend the kitchen all the way down to take up the whole existing footprint. We removed the 90’s railing that separated the kitchen from our living room and built a half wall to extend the cabinets down. We have so much countertop space now and I love it!

The 90’s railing.

I have a lot of other favorite things about our kitchen too. For the back wall I added sconces for some secondary mood lighting and then built these little red oak floating shelves to make the whole wall a feature.

We have two whole upper cabinets in this corner which some people may think is too little storage but we have a lot of lowers to make up for it.

The sink stayed in it’s same spot and that’s about the only thing that didn’t move. The existing window above the sink had a cantilever behind it which adds an extra foot of counter space. I loved it so much that when we added the second kitchen window I had that one cantilevered out as well. I trimmed out the back of the boxes in dark walnut stained red oak to add some warmth and match the shelves.

Since I work in plumbing I was super picky about our plumbing fixtures. I ended up choosing a Brizo Odin kitchen faucet with a wood handle and matching beverage faucet. I also picked a cast iron workstation sink from Kohler that I only can say good things about. As someone who has only had double bowl sinks I wasn’t sure if I would like a single bowl but I really do.

I never met a gas range I didn’t like and this one is no exception. I picked out this Viking range in this pretty blue color. I love that the burners actually work unlike our old kitchen cooktop and that there’s a built-in griddle perfect for making burgers or tortillas. I built this range hood above it that I drywalled and coated in Portola roman clay in Figueroa. I was originally planning a wood hood but hit some stain snags and lucky I did because I think this looks even better!

Our old kitchen had no built-in microwave so ours lived on the counter. This drawer microwave is the best upgrade.

Can we also talk about that circle? The “hole” in this wall is one of my favorite ideas that I added to the kitchen. It lets in light from our back kitchen area, acts as a pass through, and adds the prettiest views from that side of the kitchen. I framed it out and then we hired out drywall to finish it along with the rest of the walls and ceiling because if there’s one thing I don’t like to DIY it’s that.

For our island, we had a drawer set built by our cabinet fabricator and then sandwiched it between two dishwashers. As someone who cooks a lot and creates a lot of dishes in the process, I have never regretted two dishwashers for even a second. Also one of my pet peeves is things in the island taking up counter space – like a sink or a cooktop. So for our kitchen I planned a giant countertop only and that’s what I got.

Our pantry cabinet and panel-ready fridge live on this side of the kitchen. I wanted a little extra something for the pantry so instead of the polished nickel pulls and knobs I chose for the rest of the kitchen, I used these rosso levanto marble ones instead. They almost match the color of the island (SW Polished Mahogany) perfectly.

I’ve never installed panels on a fridge before and these were a bear. Exhibit A:

You can see by my face I was not loving this particular renovation task. Safe to say I’m not quitting my day job to install appliances any time soon.

The fridge drawers on the other side of the island were a much easier install. We added these to house all our beverages. So nice to not have them taking up room in our main fridge and they get used every day. They’re cool too because we can also convert them into extra freezer space if we ever needed it.

Our dining room also got an upgrade. It now has overhead lighting which it didn’t before. These pendants are a vintage facebook marketplace find. It also got the same floors as the kitchen. We installed these walnut engineered hardwoods and it’s so nice having one continuous floor in our whole space.

We weren’t planning on replacing our dining room window but in the demo process we discovered it was leaking so it became necessary. It’s never fun adding an unexpected large expense to an already large project but it did turn out so pretty and it’s great not having water in your walls when it rains.

The entry and closet doors got new trim – same paint color as before (SW Portsmouth). I also found another vintage light for this space – Ebay this time to coordinate with the dining room ones. I had to add adapters to all three of these to make them compatible with our sloped ceilings. I found adapters on Amazon in the right size and then just installed them on the tops of the down rods to make them work!

It may have taken a year and a half to get this project (mostly that last 10 percent) done – but so worth it! I love how our space turned out and can’t wait to enjoy it for years to come.

Thanks for reading,