I
am currently working, as time and money permit, on a kitchen remodel for my
wife. As you can see from the "before" pictures, the cabinets that were in
the kitchen were pretty plain, and not adequate for her needs.
There were no soffets, and the cabinets went all the way up to the ceiling, which meant that every time she needed something from a top shelf, I got called into the kitchen or she had to drag a chair over to reach what she needed.
The bottom corner cabinets had very narrow openings and were rather deep, which made it difficult to put anything in them or to get anything out. When I am done, this will no longer be a problem. There is no dishwasher in the original set-up so that was my first project.
Where
the old countertop ended there was a small divider wall between the kitchen
and dining area. I removed it and the old end cabinet and installed the new
dishwasher, I also added 41 inches of additional counter and cabinet space.
The drawers you see next to the dishwasher are actually a false front for a slide out that holds the kitchen garbage can. Behind the garbage can I installed a bag dispenser for the garbage bags.
I made sliding shelves for the lower cabinets for ease of access. My wife wanted a country kitchen look, so the new cabinets are being made from knotty pine. The top you see is temporary until we are ready to install the new countertop.
My
next project was to install a soffet and build some new cabinets above the
new counter space. My wife wanted a "book nook" for her cookbooks and
asked me to incorporate it into the new upper cabinets.
The
next project was to install the soffet over the kitchen stove and to start
making the cabinets for that section. I replaced the old black metal vent
hood with a custom made pine vent hood trimmed with oak (the cabinets will all be
trimmed with oak as well.)
Here's what the vent hood and cabinets look like after
getting the doors on and some of the trim up. The cabinets on the left
still need to be trimmed out, and eventually I'll tile the wall under the
cabinets.
I replaced the old kitchen window with a garden window, which I trimmed out in oak fluted trim with rosettes in the corners. I also added canister lights above the sink. Compared to the "before" photo above, this doesn't even look like the same kitchen!
The next step was to install a honeycomb pattern of ceramic tile inside the ledge of the garden window. Not cabinet work I know, but still part of the kitchen remodel. Here it is with some of my wife's plants and "pretties" set up
For more storage, I
built a large pantry that has
slide out shelves as well as a couple of fixed shelves. The
pantry doors contain shelves as well for added storage and easy
access. To the side of the pantry is a broom closet that my wife can
keep her cleaning supplies in.
I've replaced the awful linoleum floor with some nice ceramic tile, and will also be doing ceramic tile on the wall area between the countertop and the bottoms of the cabinets.
The new counter top and the new kitchen sink have been installed and look terrific! Am in the process now of installing the ceramic tile between the countertop and wall cabinets. Looking good!
In the dinette area I added a pine corner cabinet, and took the window that was previously over the kitchen sink and installed it in the dining area to give it more light. Totally changed the look and feel of the dinette and gave it a lot more light.
To see what I did with a couple of the old kitchen cabinets, click here.
Dick
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This page was last updated on
January 02, 2012