KITCHEN REMODEL

I loved one thing about this kitchen previously. It had a ton of cabinet space, especially for a trailer.

I HATED tons of things about this kitchen before:

• the color of the cabinets
• the oak grain
• the NASTY gold handles and hinges
• the fake panels slapped on thin boards with particle board construction
• the sloppy manner in which broken things were fixed
• that some broken parts remained broken
• the nasty ugly countertops with the scars and gold geometric pattern
• the hideous blue ceramic tile backsplash
• the bad patch job on the wall seams
• the ugly oak laminate on the floor
• the grotesque choice of glass in the glass doors
• the round porcupine lights and ugly fan

I could go on...

But I won't.

Instead, I'll show you what I did to make it bearable to work in this kitchen. You see, I've been spoiled. Since Hyrum worked with cabinets, for the past 5 years I've had excellent kitchen cabinets, so it's hard to go back to crap.


Here's what we did with our first kitchen.
Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Our second kitchen (in the small apartment we lived in just recently).
Before:

After (I realize it's a mess, but I was rearranging the house):

And now our Rexburg kitchen:

I couldn't afford new cabinets or countertops, so the only way I could think of to make the old countertops look halfway decent was to paint the cabinets really dark in order to make the dingy gold-white countertops look clean white (from a distance anyway).
Cost: $20 for a gallon of paint.

I had to redo the backsplash since our stove was a slide in rather than the traditional style that was there previously. I just asked the gal at Lowe's to pull out her calculator and help me figure out the cheapest tile solution.
Cost: $100 (including tools I had to purchase).

I painted the hood and hinges silver.
Cost: $5 for spray paint.

I replaced the hideous handles and knobs (worst I've seen in a long time...not even paint worthy).
Cost: $75 for knobs and handles (cheapest ones I could find, choosing the bulk options)

I replaced the porcupine lights with new (boob) lights since they're cheap, and a pendant light over the sink.
Cost: $30 for the 3 lights

I put pegboard and pegs behind my baking area so that I could have easy access to all my baking tools (Julia Child style).
Cost: about $20

Total transformation cost: roughly $250, not including the flooring. (I replaced the flooring throughout the house, so I'm not sure how much the kitchen portion totalled up to.) A huge improvement for a small price, I'd say.

Before:

During:

After:

Before:

During (ignore the storage on top of the cabinets, it's my only option):

After (note my raised dishwasher, which I highly recommend):

Hyrum caught me in the act of tiling. It was my first attempt, and was so much easier than I expected.

Now, keep in mind, this isn't my dream kitchen. I would have done a lot of things differently if I'd had an unlimited budget, but since it is just a single-wide trailer and I'm on a strapped budget, this is the best I could think to do.

What I love now:

• The dark brown hides all the flaws of the cabinets!
• I have pegboard for my baking area tools (though I still need more pegs so I can organize my stuff)!
• The tiles aren't the ugly blue!!
• The countertops look white rather than gold-white!
• The handles aren't hideous!
• I have something on the wall behind the stove!
• The floor is a much more appealing laminate (dark cherry rather than oak)

What I'm not sure about:

• I love the turquoise accents, but I'm not sure about the picture frames being turquoise. I might paint them the dark brown also.

On my wish list:

• new faucet
• new sink, maybe (it's just so shallow!)
• garbage disposal, maybe (sometimes they're more trouble than they're worth)
• Hyrum would like a stainless fridge so it will match, but I'm not ready for the cleaning upkeep yet.
• something to replace the ugly glass that I removed in the glass doors.
• new curtains for the kitchen and dining room