Our house is 100 years old. When we bought the house, the kitchen was decent, but certainly not awesome! I went from having a very small dishwasher in Boston, to no dishwasher in D.C. Since I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and we know that at some point we will want to sell our house, we thought a kitchen remodel was in order. Here’s the transformation…
BEFORE

White appliances, white cabinets (that I painted), laminate counter tops (which I really didn’t like), no backsplash, and very little counter top.

The “old” layout had the sink underneath the back window, leaving no room for a dishwasher to just be easily added to the kitchen. As you can see the countertop space is rather crowded.

Our former refrigerator was small and the freezer was on top, pretty standard.

The bar area between the living room and kitchen was WAY too high for me to really use.
In the Midst of Renovation

This is after everything was torn out of the kitchen. I sold our whole kitchen to one lady on Craigslist! It was really cool. She came in one Friday and took everything out. This is what was left.

Another view. When the former kitchen came out, there were remnants of city living present. Unfortunately a rat, who had succumb to the power of poison, was found decomposing behind the sink cabinet. Awesome!
AFTER: My Urban Cottage Kitchen

Most of our kitchen came from Ikea. The cabinets, the butcher block countertop, and the farmhouse sink are all from Ikea. The appliances, cabinet handles, backsplash, and under cabinet lighting were from other stores. You can see in this picture that the sink is no longer underneath the back window…

Here’s the new bar with farmhouse sink and DISHWASHER!!! There are still a few little touch ups needed, mostly with paint, but everything is pretty much in order. You can see the paint color I chose is much lighter than the dark red that was in the former kitchen. I really like the fresh look.

Our new refrigerator has french doors up on top with the freezer on the bottom. Our range is still electric, which I don’t love, but the oven has a regular and confection option, which is nice for baking. The Cup Pulls on the drawers give a classic look, which I really like. The Cup Pulls are one of my favorite accents.

Having the microwave above the range, creates more countertop space, which is vital in a small city kitchen. Another favorite feature of mine is the white subway tile backsplash. Again, the white subway tile is great for a classic look.

Moving the sink to the bar area gives me SO MUCH more countertop space. AND I can watch Elijah playing while I’m working at the sink. It really is a better layout. You can see that looking out the back window was not so lovely…ahh, city living! So, I’m glad that the sink now gives a more pleasant view.
What do you think?






































