Phase 1 Kitchen Makeover
I did a quick makeover on our kitchen to add some personality and clean it up before ultimately renovating. This page focuses on the phase 1 kitchen makeover, but click here to see the new dream kitchen.
It’s the reveal of my kitchen’s cheap stop-gap makeover! When we got the keys to the house, I didn’t feel comfortable touching anything let alone eating anything in there. So, I did cosmetic improvements, a few functional upgrades, and lots of cleaning! We didn’t want to put too much money into it because we knew we’d be remodeling soon, so I made over the space with $600 and some elbow grease.
It’s almost time to start demo on my kitchen to make way for the new space, so this is my last chance to share whatever can be shared about the current iteration of the kitchen!
As you probably recall, the kitchen was just a phase 1 makeover to hold us over until our full remodel. I thought it would only be like this for 6 months, but it’s been over 4 years. Oops. Because I didn’t want to dump a bunch of money or time into the makeover, I did some quick cosmetic fixes. They weren’t designed to hold up for a long time, but some of them have. Here’s a full report.
I love looking at how people store things - especially in their kitchens. I like learning other people’s reasoning for things, I like snooping, and I always like to improve on my own spaces. So, I filmed one of my own kitchen! However, mine isn’t perfect. This whole kitchen was a stopgap solution until we could renovate the space (coming soon!) so there’s no fancy pull out drawers, no custom spice racks, no perfectly sized shelves, and certainly no perfect layout.
The kitchen has seen a wild transformation! So far, I've shared the plans, the concrete counter DIY, and three tutorials for adding more work space - check out those posts here. But the floors! The new flooring made the kitchen into a wonderfully different space - a big improvement from the sad termite-filled fir. I couldn't have been more excited to get started on the quick/cheap/transformative project of giving my kitchen floors a fresh buffalo check pattern. This DIY kitchen transformation using vinyl floor tiles is among my favorites yet - and it costs about as much as it does to paint a room!
I’ve been asked a lot about our vintage O’Keefe & Merritt range. I get it, she’s a cutie! For some people, an old stove is a foreign idea so there are a lot of curiosities about how we’ve used, cared for, and enjoyed our old range. So I’m here to share all that now.