10/4/08

VeganMofo 1: Kitchen Makeover

Wow, look at that. It's October. And I haven't posted since May. I didn't even post my review of Chicago Diner, and here it is VeganMofo again and I'm feeling like a jerk. A lot has happened. I have a house and a roommate and a pretty boyfriend and life is generally of very high quality. Buying a house is a crazy process, so to kick things off I'll post some before and after pictures of my kitchen. This is where the magic happens.

As you can see, there was no magic happening in this kitchen before. The walls were some kind of putrid sunshine urine color, and the rest was stark white except for the oddly ecru dishwasher. Also, note the tragic laminate backsplash.

In order to remedy a lot of what was wrong here, I removed the doors from the three biggest cabinets, removed the backsplash, replaced the counters, painted the cabinets, painted the walls, installed new hardware, painted the hinges, and got rid of that weird shelf thing above the sink. When I put it that way, it sounds like a lot, but here it is in all its glory. Although the dishwasher is the same, the butter yellow on the cabinets makes it look a little less ridiculous, even though the stove is white and the refrigerator (not pictured) is stainless steel.

The other major problem was how claustrophobic the kitchen is. I like cooking and I like having people over, but whenever you have to disappear into a kitchen, it feels like abandoning your guests. This kitchen isn't small, but it's not big enough for a kitchen table. You can see the tragedy here, as you peek around that door frame into your living room, where the forlorn guests await your return as they stare awkwardly at one another. Not a good party.

The obvious solution here was to cut and frame out a big pass through area. I had it wired for the hanging glass lights so it wouldn't just look like a big blank maw into the dining room. It's pretty big, at four by six feet, and the ledge is wide enough to set drinks or plates on without them teetering over.

I also extended the countertop about six inches out from the edge of the counter on this side so that there wouldn't be that wasted space between the edge of the stove and the door frame. It created a little area that might be big enough for one of those rolling storage units, but I haven't had the time or funds to check that out yet.

You can also see that the counter is now flush with the stove, which was the result of removing the door and cutting park of the actual cabinet off. I need to go back and touch up with paint because of little changes like that, but it doesn't look bad enough that I'm desperate to fix it.

At any rate, this is where the vegan cooking takes place. I'm going to try to write twenty entries this month in honor of VeganMofo, and you can check out an explanation and the blogroll here.

1 comment:

Tami said...

I love how you opened that up above the stove! All the changes look great...you really made that kitchen yours! Happy cooking!