Under a Kitchen

The kitchen is currently in the dining room, as well as in other parts of the house. The kitchen itself is completely gutted and undergoing a face lift. 

We did as much demo as we could ourselves. Tearing down the drop ceiling in the kitchen exposed an interesting ceiling situation, which the contractors quickly covered up with drywall. Praise be to drywall. Praise be to removing fluorescent lighting.

We had every intention of tearing out the corner cabinet, my sworn enemy, but the contractor needed it out a little quicker than our timeline budget for, so they got to yank that sucker out and discard of it forever. I'm guessing they were able to crack the cold ones we intended to crack when we finished destroying this piece. Praise be to no corner cabinets.

When we set out to renovate the kitchen, we intended to do about 50% of it ourselves. Now, seeing how quickly the pros move, we're rethinking that percentage and letting them take the wheel on the bulk of the install. My mom, who is up for Under a House MVP this year, helped me build the cabinet frames last night, but the contractors are going to do the mounting. 

Honestly, I'm bummed that we can't leave our DIY stamp on this renovation save for a few elements, but knowing when to let things go is a big part of this renovation life. Getting everything done right and done quickly is the top priority and the contractors give me homework, like building cabinets and cleaning the subfloor, to make me feel a little less useless. 

Rugs in the Kitchen

When we stayed in Stockholm this summer, our Airbnb host had the coolest of everything, including a worn down in the most perfect way Persian rug in her kitchen. My mom was all about it and so was I. 

My cursory research showed such rugs were quite expensive, even at auction. I put a pin in it and kept my eyes open for ways to acheive looks like these:

Image via hemtrevligt.se

Image via honestlywtf.com

I'm lucky to have a mom who remembers little nuggets of information when it comes to things I like. Last week, she was at an estate sale in DC and came across a dusty old rug for only $30! She swooped it up for me because she's a pretty great mom. Check it out:

It certainly meets the "lived in" criteria, but the colors are on point and the size is just right.

I don't know much about rugs, but this one looks ok to me.

Now that we have the rug in place, we just have to build that dang kitchen. Baby steps.

Taking Stock

With our Ikea kitchen flat packed and hanging out in the living room and the contractors not quite ready to get started on their end of things, we're in a kitchen limbo. I'm using it as an opportunity to inventory and cleanse, following the KonMari method as much as my impatient heart will allow.

Kitchen drawers are a real wasteland for unused/unnecessary gadgets. If you have a cast iron skillet, a good chef's knife, and some solid mixing bowls, your kitchen is complete. The rest is gravy and that gravy needs a home. 

This is a picture of only 1/3 of our kitchen cabinet space emptied. Getting it all out so I can only put the good stuff back in (re: KonMari).

The dining room is about to become the kitchen for a few weeks while we tear some things apart and build something new. The less we have to deal with inventory-wise, the better life will be when we come out of this (hopefully) alive. I posted a few things I'm getting rid of over on Instagram if you're interested.

I know it to be true that prep work pays off, but I also know it to be true that I forget to finish my prep work 9/10.

Ikea Kitchens - Here We Go

After soliciting advice from the Internet and friends and strangers, we decided to get a quote from Ikea for the kitchen. The process can go a couple of different ways depending on your confidence levels. We opted to have Ikea's team come out and measure the space for us. We have a ton of bump outs and weird protrusions in the kitchen, so I feel confident that those have been accurately captured. Glad we went with the pros on that one.

The result was a 3-D model of the kitchen, which can then be modified in Ikea's online design platform. I played around with some thoughts before we went to an in-store appointment with an Ikea rep, who was supposed to help us design our space. He did give us some ideas, but only after we asked a lot of questions. He never asked what our budget was, what style we liked, etc., but rather looked at what I had done in the design tool and made a few tweaks. At this point, we're in $89, so it's not a total loss. Do I recommend the measure and design appointment? Meh. I feel confident in our measurements but less than confident in marching ahead with the big purchase.

Image via www.remodelista.com

Image via caitlinwilsondesign

The goal now is to finalize all of the fun design elements. The layout is pretty sound, but I'm still waiting for a vision to come to me on the overall look of the space. The more I go on Pinterest, the more paralyzed I become.

Things that are settled: black quartz counters, counter and shelf configuration.

Things that are not settled: fronts and fixtures. Has anyone had success with Semihandmade? They sell fronts to Ikea cabinets that are way more customizable, paintable, etc. The first image below is from their site. The second is an Ikea option for cabinet fronts.

Image via Semihandmade

Image via Ikea.com

We have an imposed deadline of a few weeks from now to make our final decision since our 15% discount from the Ikea kitchen event has a time limit. This is probably a good thing because I could mull over these options for eternity.