"Before," Meet our Pre-Reno Kitchen

My husband and I have added a few people to our circle in the last few months. We recently had some of them over, and all commented on how nice our kitchen is. And while those unsolicited compliments are like music to our ears, one thing about them bothered by husband: "They don't know nice it really IS because they don't know how bad it WAS." If he had his way, we'd keep the before pictures displayed over the sink.

Luckily, I continue the 39" cabinets over the sink, so this cannot actually happen. But, I know what he means. Seeing where we started is key to understanding how much changed, and how much work we did. This one's for you, honey!

At a glance, you might be taken in by the granite counters, nice tile and stainless steel appliances, as we were. However, it only took one meal for us to realize just how dysfunctional this space was. Everything was squeezed into half of a 16' x 11' foot kitchen, reducing prep and cooking space to about a 6' x 6' space. For no good reason.

No cabinet on the left (if you are facing the sink), upper or lower, was accessible when the dishwasher was open. Shortly after unpacking the kitchen, I had to turn around and rearrange all the cabinets so that nothing we used regularly went in those cabinets. If you opened the stove when somebody was at the sink, that person was trapped. If you opened the stove and dishwasher at the same time, the doors touched. When the fridge door opened, the entry to the dining room was blocked. And that door to the garage, behind the pennisula that cut the kitchen in half, meant that you couldn't pull stools up and make good use of that space either.

The photos with the yellow are the "before, before," from when the house was listed for sale. While I forced myself to live with the layout for almost two years, the  harvest yellow walls and flourescent light were non-starters. I painted before I even got all the boxes unpacked. Also, when we moved in, the fridge had been moved into the nook where you see the white bookcase. So truly everything cooking-related was squished into that back half of the room. And while the white paint on the cabinets may have prettied them up a bit, it did nothing to overcome the cavernous, unuseable space at the back of the corner base cabinets. 

This last picture is more to show the scope of work. And how messy my foyer can get. Though that doesn't seem to phase River and Buddha. The couch in the upper right of the pic is on a wall that no longer exists. Then, where you see the entry to the kitchen would become a recessed nook for the fridge in the remodel, as well as creating a bench area. Which is oddly one of my favorite outcomes of this whole project--having a place to sit and take off shoes when you come in the door. Sometimes it truly is the little things.