Let’s do this right

I would have loved to expand my kitchen. However, that would mean giving up my driveway, tearing out the only stairs to the second floor, or demolishing my garage – no thanks. Two micro expansions, the oil shelf next to the range and the spice rack opposite, were all I could eek out of the space. I solved the majority of the issues by rearranging the elements in my kitchen to have a more logical circulation with the rest of the house and be less chopped up in the kitchen itself.

The countertops are highlighted on the before and after floor plans above. While I only gained 8” of linear counter space, the way that it’s laid out works far better than before.

Another key element to making my kitchen (and any space, really) better was the lighting. As you can see from the previous blog, my old kitchen had florescent under cabinet lights and a large blobby ceiling fixture smack dab in the middle of the room. In my new kitchen, I selected high efficiency LEDs for the under cabinet lighting, four movable ceiling fixtures, and a quirky compari light to hang as a jewel over the window. Not only is the space brighter, the lighting functions better – no more shadows on the counter from the old blob in the middle of the room.

The final design decision I’ll touch on in this post was crucial to this project: as with any remodel, I make a point of respecting the age of the house without trying to inauthentically replicate a bygone era. There’s a sweet spot between 1920 chinse wallpaper and 2025 magenta LEDs on chrome countertops – a sweet spot, I’m happy to say, my kitchen resides in comfortably.

To see photos of my finished kitchen, click over to the project’s portfolio page.

Why a new kitchen?

Vintage is definitely in right now. What has never been in are poor-functioning spaces. Kitchens in particular have moved on with the times. Many people remodel with resale value at the forefront of their minds, which is of course a good thing, but I’d also add that there’s intrinsic value in living in and working in spaces that suite your needs – and do so beautifully.

So, the dirty little secrets of a 1960s kitchen:

Okay, the closet isn’t technically in the kitchen, it’s across the hall. However, you can see that closet from the kitchen, so it was a good idea to address that space in the scope of the project.

Was this a good idea?

The business owner in me will tell you yes because I hope you decide to remodel your kitchen too. The homeowner in me will say yes too, though. The day they loaded what used to be my kitchen in the dumpster, I felt liberated. While it was an endeavor to design and build the new kitchen (living at home the through demolition and construction), I delighted with the end result.

To see photos of the new space, head over to the project in our portfolio section.

What took so long?

Here’s the first confession of many about designing my own kitchen: it’s easier to make choices for others. When you’re working on your own house, you lose your objectivity about decisions – it’s so easy to fixate on whether you can live with a grout that’s a smidgen darker than your ideal vision versus thinking about how all the elements integrate to affect the atmosphere of the room.

Obviously, any remodel costs money. I know that. You know that. I’m sure we’d both like to pretend that isn’t the case. Two things tipped the scale for me: one, I realized my kitchen was the last remaining vintage kitchen in the neighborhood, and two, that vintage wasn’t working for me anymore. The functionality of my space deteriorated over the years, and it was time to do something about it.

The third (of many, many more) reasons it was difficult to dig into my own kitchen came from a place outside my bank account. My dear friend Beth Dooley, cookbook author extraordinaire, said “I like your kitchen – why change it?” I certainly liked my kitchen too – I’d been using it for twenty five years before I finally decided to remodel. The emotional attachment I had with my kitchen was a tough thing to come to terms with, but I’m so very glad I did.

Stay tuned for further blogs about my remodel process in the weeks to come. If you just can’t wait to see photos of the finished product, check out the project’s portfolio page.