Kitchen Reno

We’ve lived in our house for 10 years now and actually, it’s the only house we’ve lived in.  Secretly I hope it’s the only house we ever live in.  I can seriously imagine filling it with grandkids for sleepovers and shoving grown kids and their spouses in every little open space.  It could happen.

Our kitchen hasn’t been touched since we moved in other than painting the cabinets.  The cabinets were particle board and apparently the countertops had never been sealed so after our tribe put some heavy wear and tear on it over the years the cabinets started breaking and the countertops started growing some moldy goodness.  I had moved our silverware into jars on the countertops because they weighed down the broken drawers and one time Amon almost died when he pulled a drawer out and it collapsed 🙂  I kid.  He didn’t almost die.  It was for dramatics sake, but you get the picture.

So it was time to really overhaul our kitchen, but on a budget…hello family of 7 on basically one income. Our house was built in the 40s so it’s quite wonky in so many ways including the floors and walls.  Josh Kelley and I don’t mind doing some work, but we also knew we needed to be logical due to it being our kitchen, time and actually physically being able to pull it off in a reasonable time frame so we decided to hire someone to do the major parts…enter Song and Story Millworks.  Josh and I chose to do all the demo to save in that department and we also got a good deal on cabinets and picked up other big items at IKEA.  Something super interesting we discovered…IKEA items are actually a bit cheaper in store VS online.  Who knew?!?!  I did lots of looking online for good deals as well.  And we kept all our old appliances and our flooring.

I painted our laundry room door and after Josh got everything out of the kitchen Aubrey of Song and Story Millworks set to work.  I laid out what I envisioned for our kitchen and he made it happen.  So flippin pleased with the outcome.  Turns out kitchen cabinets are crazy expensive so we ditched all uppers on one side of the kitchen and went with open shelving which saved us soooooooo much money.  We do not have a pantry so we kept one side of uppers because the one big upper cabinet is where we store food.

I totally love the open shelving.  It works really well for our crew and everyone loves the easy access to everything.  The kids have all said it makes unloading the dishwasher easier as well. (that’s one of their chores.)  I also love being able to display things we use and love that we’re Mom’s.

Our walls are wonky so I wanted shiplap…not the real stuff because it’s mucho money, but fake because it’s way cheaper…and simple subway tile to cover the walls.  I went with the same white paint we’ve used in the rest of the house.  I love all the white mixed with the natural wood of the open shelving and butcher block countertops.  Aubrey nailed the open shelving and made my wall dreams come true.  We’re still figuring out the butcher block countertops…they’ve had 4 coats of sealer stuff put on them so far, but apparently you have to do that pretty regularly for about the first year, from there it’s easier sailing.

A few things which have blown our minds about the new kitchen:

1.  The silverware drawer.  My life is made.  I laughed so hard because the kids were so confused about where the spoons and forks were.  I was all “Gather round children.  THIS is what people call a silverware drawer.”  I then opened the drawer, a beam of light shone down upon it and angels sang and the Kelley kids’ minds were blown.

2.  The countertops are at a normal height.  Our old countertops were higher than your typical countertops so only Harper could reach the faucet easily and other weird things.  It’s so funny how just a countertop height difference can make things more functional.

3.  My spice drawer.  I’m 5’2 so always have had issues with reaching things high up including all the spices in our tiny weird and hard to figure out spice cabinet.  Well problemo solved.  Enter the spice drawer.  It is amazing.  I love it.  I want to make out with it.

Our old kitchen had this small open corner at the end by the laundry room door.  We’re really not sure why they didnt take the countertops all the way to the wall, but they didn’t.  We made that change as well which meant we got more lower cabinet space.  Once we loaded everything back into the kitchen I had a completely empty drawer.  It was so weird.  So I did what any normal person does and put 3 trivets, 2 oven mitts, a few napkins and a stack of paper plates in it.  Drawer be empty no more.

So here’s the real breakdown.  I love my kitchen.  Call me worldy all you want, but I love this kitchen.  I love cooking in it.  I love how functional it is for our family.  I love how easy everything feels.  I love how awesome Song and Story Millworks are.  I love that we pulled it off on a major budget.  Let me just sit and look at my kitchen for a while.  And make cookies.  Oh, I almost forgot…I now leave my mixer out on the counter and it’s uh-mazing as well.  I know, I know, I know…so many bigger fish to fry in this world.  I agree, but I’ll just lay it all out there…I freakin love this kitchen 🙂

Here’s our list of supplies and links.  If there’s something I missed you want to know about just ask and I’ll point you in the best direction.

 Countertops IKEA

Sink IKEA

Faucet IKEA

Hardware Lowes

Lights Lowes (Here & here)

Mug rack World Market

Rifle Paper Co. Recipe Box Amazon

Mason Spice Jars Amazon

Flour & Sugar Jars Target

Canisters, oil can, rug, pitchers, painted plate, fruit bowl we’re Mom’s

Scale, tea can, number, letter and lemon/apple canister all previously thrifted

Paint colors: Clean & Crisp by Porter (we just get it color matched wherever)  Mint Parfait by Behr

Large wooden bowl from Ethiopia

Collage wall all thanks to Swaziland, Hudson & Solomon, a gift and the flea market

 *amazon affiliate links