Final kitchen island plans

Hey there! I’m back with an update for the plan in the kitchen and I am SO EXCITED because I think I finally have the island figured out. It takes me awhile to get the look of certain things nailed down, and I don’t move on them till I have it all figured out. When I do I move forward fast. :)

Right now our island is four by three feet, a standard builder size. I’ve spruced it up over the years, including adding a butcher block top from IKEA. It actually came in a larger size and I had it cut down and a pretty edge added to it:

When we had the floors patched during our reno last year, I went ahead and had the area under the island patched as well. When we got new floors years ago we had them installed around the island, which I knew right away was a mistake. Trust your gut people!

I had them patch underneath so we could move the island out into the room just a bit. Unfortunately, they had to take all of the pretty trim off in the process. It was a sad day, and our island has looked like an art project gone wrong since. :)

It’s not a big deal – since I knew I wanted to extend it anyway. We’ve hosted friends and parties over the past four months with it looking goofy and it’s not made me twitch too much. But I’m hosting two baby showers in the next month so I really want to get this thing looking good again!

So…the original plan was to double the size from four feet long to eight feet. I also wanted to make it a bit wider too, so the overhang would go over the chairs a little more. The plan included adding a base cabinet for more storage and then building on a bookcase at the end to house a microwave:

(source)

The microwave part is still happening. But I realized two things after doing some more research – one, we’d have to order the cabinet since it would need to match the current ones in our kitchen. We upgraded a little bit when we built, not a lot, but they’re still not cheap. And we’d have to wait weeks to get it in.

The other biggie was the countertop – I was planning to do stone on the island and wood countertops everywhere else originally. But after doing some research I decided I didn’t want to worry about the wood counters around our sink and over the dishwasher. I read some reviews from folks who loved the wood but all (that I read) said they would not do wood again, just because of the stress factor.

And the huge slab of stone for the island was going to cost close to what it will just cost to do the countertops – so now…we’re going stone around the room and sticking with wood on the island. I’m used to the wood there and love it.

Problem is – the only island butcher block I can find is six feet long. I found one that is eight feet but is more expensive. We considered adding a wine fridge to add the length (instead of ordering a cabinet), but then when we thought about it and realized we really only drink red wine. I think you can still put those in there but we just wouldn’t use it.

SO…you with me here? I’m trying to think about how we’ll really use this thing and save some money. So the new plan is to do a six foot countertop. No new cabinet, no wine fridge, just a built in at the end.

I also had to adjust how I want it to look a bit. I got these stools last year and then months later found a third one and grabbed it up:

My first plan was to build out the sides with skinny bookcases. So out from the current island on each side of the three stools:

But as you can see with the six foot island there’s not enough room. (Edited to add that yes, the stools are bar height. I’ll be cutting them down like I did our last set, I just didn’t want to do it until I was positive we were using them.)

I still want that custom look so I am going with even skinnier sides like Jen’s island I’ve shown you before:

It still gives the island a more substantial feel and we’ll have additional storage at the end.

These are little adjustments that I honestly think will look better in the end – simpler and more streamlined. And I think it’s a good thing that the larger island top was going to be too expensive because when I taped things off I realized eight feet was going to be REALLY big:

The tape on the floor next to the island (sorry it’s hard to see) is measured at six feet out. The window seat tape shows where that will go. Funny how I thought having that open space where the table used to sit would be too open – now we love it! Many of you mentioned living with it for awhile and it’s so true. We got used to it pretty fast.

So, it’s not the original plan but it will still be super functional, wayyyy cheaper and really beautiful when it’s done!

Now…our final decision is the countertop. I can go with a basic maple, in a similar tone to what we have now. It’s at a local lumber store and the prices is OK, but more than I spent at IKEA for sure. I also found a few options at Lumber Liquidators. When I called they said they had a basic maple for a GREAT price -- $200! But when I got there to check it out this is the maple:

It’s considered their basic version and it includes the knots which I don’t like. (This is the look with oil on it.)

They also have walnut that’s beautiful but my husband didn’t like it as much:

Of course the one we both love, an acacia wood, is the most expensive:

But I don’t mind paying a bit more for this considering we’re “saving” by not doing so many of the updates we originally planned.

Here’s the deal though – all this time I thought IKEA didn’t carry the island sizes of their butcher anymore, but they do? Readers have told me for years that they don’t have the one we bought years ago but I looked online and you can get it, but you have to order it online. Odd. It says they can ship to our house, and maybe even the store? (Two hours away.) The thing is, I have used this butcher many times and am really happy with it. The price online is less than $200, crazy good!

Has anyone used the island-sized butcher block from IKEA? I’m going to call them to try to get it figured out because if I can get it there I will – the price can’t be beat! AND the island size comes 40 inches wide – exactly the width I’ve been hoping for. After all this research and driving around the place I wanted to get it at from the start may have exactly what I want! :)

I hope my train of thought in this process makes sense – I know it can hard to keep up with sometimes. (Ask my husband.) But I’m thrilled with the plan and am so excited to get started on this first kitchen reno project!!

First kitchen project!

Hello and happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day my friends! First of all, I have to say WHOA – I did not expect that response to Friday’s post! I loved reading all of your thoughts! I read every single one and if you left a link to your blog, I will be by…it just may take me awhile. ;)

I think it’s lovely that so many of you are invested in blogs and feel a connection because I do as well. I think I can speak for most bloggers when I say that it’s very important to us. I don’t ever want you to feel obligated to comment here – I know it takes time. But if you want to I love it! :) I feel like that’s how I get to know you.

Anyway, today’s project is a quick one – oh how I wish it was quick to complete! Actually it isn’t done just yet but I’m so happy with the progess I had to share. I think it goes to show what a difference simple changes can make!

I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue the board and batten that we have in the family room into the rest of the kitchen:

We don’t really have much wall space in there anyway so I wasn’t sure it would be needed. But then I realized it looked a little odd just having a few tiny walls without it…so this project was started.

The bay window and the pantry wall is what I’m talking about today:

(To see more about that glass pantry door, go here. To see how I made the glass more private for cheap, go here.)

Sorry for the bad iPhone pics – I didn’t realize how bad they looked till I got them on here. There were a few things I wanted to do in this area – the old baseboards had stain all over them (that would normally be covered by quarter round) but I’ve been redoing the base in here anyway. That wall was still the old wall color – a Ralph Lauren color called Sisal that I had mixed at Home Depot nearly 11 year ago.

And finally, I wanted to redo the door trim to match the craftsman look on the rest of the main floor – this was the last door to tackle, whoot!! I still have most of the doors upstairs but I call that progress!

So the first step was to remove the baseboards around the door – which I’ve told you is a total pain in the butt. One, because our base was installed incredibly well and it’s hard to remove anyway, but two, because we were lazy (see one) and didn’t take the base off before we had the hardwoods installed years ago. It’s hard to get down under there to get it out. But I got it done, then took the old trim off:

I explained that process and how I do the craftsman trim in more detail in this post.

Next up, I measured how high the board and batten would go and then painted the semi gloss white up to that point. Three coats later and it was ready to go!:

If you remember this is a no spend month for me – the door trim was sitting in the garage. I got it a couple months back to do the trim around our bedroom window, but I realized after the fact that it wouldn’t be worth it on there. With the roman shades hung high and the drapes on the sides, you wouldn’t see it anyway. SO…some of that trim got used here.

I started the upper part of the board and batten look with some scrap I had leftover from the family room. So far I’m THRILLED with how it looks:

So much prettier, right? Gah, I will never tire of the power of white trim.

So here’s the thing – you don’t even have to do the whole board and batten look to get a big impact like this. Just the white walls and the trim along the top makes a big statement, right?

I still have a lot to do that I hope to get done this week. The baseboards still need to go in – but I will probably stop at the bay window since eventually there will be a window seat there. Maybe I will just continue it so it looks nice for the time being. I did start painting the trim on the bay windows:

Only one coat on one window though – only eight more coats left (on all the windows). And the lower part of the walls need two more coats of white in the bay window as well.

It will take forever but I can already tell it’s going to look so good!:

In a couple weeks I’ll get a bit more trim to add the board and batten look to these walls too. I don’t think I’ll do many vertical pieces though -- at least not as many as the rest of the room. The walls are too small and I don’t want it to get too busy.

And of course, I need to hang my fork and spoon back up! I get asked about those a lot – I found them at a thrift store years and years ago. They were black and I sprayed them a silver color.

Because I love before and afters (they show me how far it’s come) here’s what we had yesterday morning:   

And here’s what we have this morning!:

Lots left to do but I’m so excited to get this whole area finished up after months of in between!

Doesn’t the white paint and trim look so fresh? Love it! The painting takes forever but it’s a cheap job for sure – and it makes such a difference! Now I cannot wait to get that window seat started! :)

The kitchen redo plan

Hey hey and happy Friday!! This week was weird (in a good way) with school delays and cancellations so I will be back to posting a little earlier in the day next week. I still haven’t gotten back in the groove just yet!

I’m back today to share the initial plans for a project I’ve been waiting YEARS to start. I waited because I wasn’t 100 percent sure what I wanted to do in this room till last year and I have to know my direction before I start. I’ve seriously been planning to redo our kitchen for the longest time and I’m determined to get going this year.

I want to do most of it myself…there are a few things that I may need help with, but for the most part I think I can handle it. We shall see. :) I’m sharing photos of our kitchen as is to share the plans – but it’s been in a bit of a half-way point for awhile so ignore the stuff like missing baseboard and the wonky island:

The island looks like that because it was torn apart to remove it during our renovation. I had it pulled up so we could patch the floor underneath (we had the hardwoods installed around it years back) – this allowed us to move it a little further away from the fridge and quite a bit back from the sink and stove.

I want to extend the island so I wanted to make sure we’d have plenty of room to move around the stove with the door open. I shared the plans for the island before, but the basic idea is to make it quite a bit longer and build out the front just a bit:

It won’t be THAT big, but it will probably be nearly double the current length and a bit wider too. I plan to do a stone countertop on there and I think I’ve found what I want – but I haven’t looked that much yet so that could change. It will be a light stone for sure.

I also plan to remove the upper microwave and install it in the island:

(source)

I don’t know if I’ll do it like that (one that you just slide in) or a built in one – the built ins are SO expensive, so I’m guessing it will be the former.

This view has changed a bit recently:

You can see I still have to paint the ceiling patches. So much to do!

This is where the back door used to be. The trim still needs to be painted, I’ll do my craftsman trim around the pantry door and built a window seat in the bay window:

(source)

I talked about my excitement for that project here. :) I think it will be lovely!

This is the view that will undergo a dramatic change:

The upper cabinets and microwave will go and will be replaced with a hood and shelving.

I know some consider the shelves to be trendy but I think they are timeless – and more efficient honestly. I cannot wait! I love the look of thick wood shelves:

(source)

The backsplash will change too. The beadboard backsplash has held up incredibly well – I’ve actually been quite impressed with it. But I’ll be doing something different because it stops where the cabinets are installed and I just want a different look. It will be tile but I’m not sure about what yet.

I’m most anxious about the backsplash. I can tile just fine, it’s removing the beadboard that will be an complete and utter disaster. It’s installed on top of the old backsplash tile because that tile was impossible to remove – so there will be a lot of drywall repairs I’m sure. :)

These cabinets will stay:

BUT they will get major updates too. Yes, I’ll be painting them. I know, I know, some of you hate that but they are nearly 11 years old and showing their age. The stain is worn off on spots on all of the base cabinets – not so much on the uppers. The little stain marker they gave us when we moved in doesn’t cut it to fix them. ;) I’m quite sure the paint on these will be the biggest difference in this room – I think they will be beautiful!

But the bigger reason for painting them is my plan to extend them to the ceiling like so:

(source)

Ours will go all the way to the ceiling and will be open like those above. I would love to put some kind of lighting in them too. Our uppers are the standard size and I used to kick myself for not doing the taller ones, but then I realize my friends with taller ones need a step stool to use the extra shelf, so it doesn’t bother me as much anymore.

I still have to figure out measurements but the new section will probably be about 14-16 inches tall and then I’ll add a header with crown to fill in the rest. Those will just hold decorative items. Another BIG job but it will make a huge difference!

I also plan to build in our fridge with a new upper cabinet and wood on the left side:

(source)

And instead of our corner appliance cabinet I’d like to build in something like this next to the fridge:

(source)

That’s definitely something I’d need help with though.

The plan right now is to do butcher block countertops everywhere here to save money. Like I mentioned before I still haven’t decided on the stone I want to use on the island so if it’s not crazy expensive I may flip that and do the stone on the counters and wood on the island again. Not sure yet.

That’s the plan as it is right now and I’m so VERY excited! There’s one more possible project I’d like to tackle but I’ll hold that for later – if we decide to do it. It would just offer more storage in the kitchen overall.

I don’t know if we’ll be able to do all of this this year but that’s my goal. I’d love love love to have a pretty new kitchen by the holidays. Have you tackled a kitchen renovation? Feel free to share anything worthwhile you learned along the way! 

Have a great weekend!!

Christmas home tour, part 1!

Hello my friends! It’s that time of year again – I’m joining 19 other bloggers for another series of beautiful holiday home tours:

My friend Just a Girl is our host and if you’re visiting from Decor Chick’s Christmas kitchen, welcome!

So here’s the thing…I had every intention of this being a whole house tour. Then I realized there was NO WAY I was getting everything decorated…and clean enough for pictures. And then I ran out daylight and couldn’t get any more good shots so this whole house tour is now a two room tour. But there will be more! Consider this part one of three…or five?

And I took 130 photos of just these rooms so I think you’ll be happy I’m breaking this up a bit. ;)

I was SO excited to decorate our “new” kitchen and family room for Christmas this year. The actual kitchen hasn’t gotten it’s makeover yet, but the layout is totally different and WE LOVE IT! Goodness, it’s wonderful.

I’m going to try to not talk much here and just let the photos do it for me:

I shared the kitchen shelves decked out for the holidays here but I had to share them again because I FINALLY finished the trim up by the crown:

Again, this area (where the table is) is where our sectional used to sit – that gives you an idea of how much space we gained when we took down a wall.

The to do list is just starting in the kitchen – painting the trim in the bay window is first up:After that…well, you’ll just have to stay tuned for the plan. :)

I didn’t do a lot of Christmas decorating in the kitchen this year – overall I’ve cut down on the Christmas decor I use. I much prefer to change up the items I already have out and make them look a little more festive.

I did add a little rosemary tree (I use rosemary for our Christmas prime rib):

And those curtains? A set of $5 towels from HomeGoods:

The kitchen table has a red, green and white runner and my DIY wood trough that normally sits on the fireplace: 

You can take just about anything, stuff it with greenery and pinecones…and it will look fantastic this time of year. Use what you have!

I have so many favorite parts of this room now – one of those being the new doors:

They completely, 100 percent, change the look and feel of the entire space. And they function so much better too – they were meant to be here from the start.

The family room got a few touches of Christmas, but I’m most excited about the fireplace and built ins:

 

I’ve been looking for skinny sconces for months and I found them yesterday:

 

They aren’t really sconces at all, but candleholders from Hobby Lobby. I got the idea from what Lindsay did over her fireplace. I took the handles off, hung them each with a nail and there. you. go. They are so pretty and exactly what I was looking for:

They are half off this week for $12! Love them!

Anymore I use real greenery for most areas inside – I just love the look of it and there’s no storing it year to year! It’s my splurge every Christmas, but this 20 foot piece I used on the mantle was only $15 at Lowe’s:

I let it cascade down onto the built ins and wrapped a couple strands of lights around it. On the top of the fireplace I just filled it with brown ornaments and pine cones:

I filled in some areas with cuttings from our real tree to fluff it up a bit. I absolutely LOVE it!

I found some beautiful (free!) printables that Kellie created last year and put them in our frames that lean on the built ins:

There are four total and they are so pretty! Love it!! I hope to use more around the house.

The metal candlesticks are all Goodwill finds from years back and I always seem to find a place for them at Christmas. They are so elegant and pretty!

I LOVE how this whole area turned out. The new “sconces” really make all the difference I think:

I have them centered on the TV but I may move them up just a bit…we’ll see. I’m just so excited I found what I was looking for. :)

I said I wasn’t going to talk, didn’t I? Oops. OK…I’ll shut up -- enjoy the rest of the pics!:

For the tutorial on that Pottery Barn knock off art, go here.

Just including this one because I loved how it focused in on the wreath in the reflection. :) At first glance I thought the whole shot was out of focus:

This reminds me…Elf needs to find a new spot for the day. :)

Whew! See, aren’t you glad I couldn’t take more pics?? I’ll be back with more of the house soon. For now I’m enjoying a couple spaces that don’t have pine needles all over the floor.

Next up on the tour is Emily from Eleven Gables! Her home is stunning! I’ll update the list of blogs as we go through the week but here’s the list so far:

Just a Girl
The Inspired Room
Kevin and Amanda
Home Stories A to Z
Decor Chick

Tuesday

Eleven Gables
Hi Sugarplum
TidyMom
Beneath My Heart

Thanks for visiting! :)