In January of 2018, our family was presented with an opportunity to purchase a property that we knew could become our dream home, if we were willing to undertake some renovation projects. We decided that we were up for the challenge and we closed on the property in March of 2018. We lived in the existing space for a few months as we worked up our list of things that we wanted to change about the kitchen - ultimately, it was almost everything although we loved the amount of natural light that the space provided with lots of windows that opened to the North and South. We also loved the Carpenter Gothic style of the home's original woodwork.
Before
As we considered what we might do differently if we had a clean slate to work with, our goal became centered on a few major issues. First, we didn't like the design of the peninsula - once you got back there, it offered a small working space (difficult for two of us to work together) and also you quickly felt trapped as it was hard to get out of the space with only a single entry point. Second, this kitchen offered very limited permanent storage - so little that I was forced to temporarily bring in an old step back cupboard to store our dishes.
Those couple goals led us to determine that we needed to change the layout of the space.
We decided that we needed to run upper and lower cabinets on the South wall and a portion of the West wall, however with two existing windows original to our 1898 built farmhouse on the South wall, we ran into our first obstacle as they were only about 18 inches off the floor and much too low to run a cabinet in front of. This created a need to frame in the windows, giving us the opportunity to plan for a bay window centered over what would become our new kitchen sink. The next challenge we ran into was that we wanted the cabinetry to turn in the SW corner and cover a portion of the West wall. The problem here was that the refrigerator sat where we desired to have cabinetry and it was also recessed so there wasn't a good place to put cabinets. We ultimately decided to take the wall out and rebuild it as flat surface, pushing it some into the laundry room to further open up the kitchen space. Moving the wall exposed subfloor in what had previously been the laundry room that did not match the hardwood in the kitchen. We'd be toying with the idea of putting in a new floor with the project and ultimately, this was the decision maker for us (along with the fact that lots of the existing hardwood in the kitchen was damaged and repairing it would be costly and time consuming).
 | ||||||
Looking at the South wall of the old kitchen. In this photo, if you look at the top of the bar counter, its easy to visualize why we had to frame in these windows to install new cabinetry.
|
 |
| Looking into the SW corner of the old kitchen. |
 |
| Looking at the West wall of the old kitchen. |
 |
| Looking at the NW corner of the old kitchen. |
As you followed the Kitchen's West wall to it's NW corner, you'd have found this original water pump. It was definitely an interesting conversation piece, but decades of sloppy use had allowed water to splash and slosh, resulting in lots of dry rot to the sink base and window sill (enough that when the sink base was removed, it nearly disintegrated in our contractor's hands!). Speaking of the window sill, it also was too low to the ground for us to put a cabinet in front of and after living there for a few months with extremely limited cabinet storage, I was desperate for a place to stow my kitchen wares. Additionally, the home doesn't yet have central air so having the ability to open windows which weren't painted shut was imperative! With that said, we pulled this corner out, framed in the old window and had a new window cut to be centered off what would become new lower cabinet base. We also moved the door frame that allowed entry to the laundry room as the wall portion wasn't deep enough to handle a full size cabinet here without doing so.
 |
| Original hand pump and enamel sink. |
It's somewhat difficult to see in the photo below, but above the red sign in between the two door frames, the plaster was bubbling from water damage related to a prior leak in the roof. This photo (and some of the others) also display damage to the original plaster ceiling. Moving the refrigerator wall, framing in old windows and cutting in new as well as the need for us to repair this section of damaged plaster led to this room being gutted down it's wall studs and new drywall being hung in it's place. We were able to just go over the plaster ceiling with drywall instead of taking down the old ceiling. When the walls came out, not surprisingly, we discovered that this room had no insulation aside from the various wasp nests which had been formed inside the walls over the years - one of which was active!! so we took care of insulating this room before the drywall was installed.
 |
| North wall of old kitchen. |
 | ||
| Looking at the East wall of the old kitchen.
|
After
Our kitchen has been finished for about a month and we are so incredibly pleased with how it turned out! I still find myself giddy over the fact that I now have a functional and beautiful space in which to work and spend time as a family!
 |
| Custom hood vent. An original piece of window trim that was removed when a few windows were framed in was repurposed as a shelf on the hood. I was so excited to find a way to keep a piece of the home's original design in this corner! The door knob hardware is by Top Knobs and is called their Mercer Quilted Square Knob in Honey Bronze. We also installed a pot filler faucet. This particular one is made by Delta and is finished in Champagne Bronze (which is a perfect match to the Top Knobs Honey Bronze finish). |
 |
| This where the hand sink used to reside; it's now home to new cabinetry which stores my stand up mixer, large food storage containers and extra odds and ends. The hardware on this piece is by Top Knobs and called the Barrington Channing Center Bar Pull (we used a 3" pull) in Honey Bronze. |
 |
| We love this custom island which was built by a local Amish carpenter and based off of a few photos that I took him the first time that we met. The color is Benjamin Moore West Cost and the hardware is by Top Knobs and called the Lynwood Hollin Recessed Pull in Honey Bronze. We mixed the drawer pulls with the Lynwood Hillmont Mushroom Knobs. |
 |
| We love the glam that these chandeliers bring to the space, they're the perfect piece to soften the formality of the Victorian woodwork while also transitioning into the modern farmhouse feel of our new space. They're simply termed the Five Light Mini-Chandelier and are made by Crystorama as part of their Solaris line and are shown here in their Olde Silver finish. |
 |
| This photo shows more of the lighting features we included with the space. Lots of recessed lighting (on dimmers), under cabinet lighting (one of my favorite things we did with the update!) and also a lovely Moravian Star pendant above the sink, manufactured by Sterling Industries, included in their Moravian line and finished in Antique Mercury. |
 |
| Pulled back view of our new floor, it's Adura Max Luxury Vinyl in 24" x 12"tiles in Stucco by Mannington and grouted with a pewter grout. |
Now that our project is finished, I can say with certainty that we achieved our main goals, create an open, functional space that helped this house become our dream home!
Stay tuned for more updates as we reveal the recently remodeled first and second floor bathrooms and laundry room!
Comments
Post a Comment