Home Refresh

The kitchen and office updates are (just about) done. There always seems to be this dragging 2% that takes forever - in this case, switch plate covers. But here are Before and After pictures!

Notice not just the drab counters but also the clutter!
The big flowers were from Ikea -
my girl and I brightened up a winter day long ago.

View from the other end- food stored on the counters.

I had started to store a lot of stuff out on the counters. After I cleared it out, I liked the uncluttered look and tried to keep it.

 I kept the cabinets, appliances, and floor. I changed the cabinet pulls, the countertop, the backsplash, and the wall color. I also had to do the sink, the faucet, and the disposal. Overall, it completely transforms the space!

The backsplash was where I put my energy, though the quartz countertop was the most money. I went to several places before finding the tiles I wanted. I had started with only vague ideas of what I was looking for, fueled by HGTV. I sharpened my focus on the internet, and found what appealed to me on pinterest.

This is as de-cluttered as it gets. A new fridge is in my future.
I also will get new dish towels.

At the tile shops, I found the ceramic tiles dull, and I knew I didn't want a busy pattern. Glass tiles added depth, and they change dramatically with the light. I finally found, on the internet, a local tile shop that seemed very promising. An opportunistic trip (it was a block from my dermatologist) led to the answer. I had brought a drawer front and a counter sample along, and agreed with the design rep on a predominate glass tile color salted with a complementary color in a random pattern. I drew out the pattern to scale on the computer one night, and I'm thrilled with the result.

My fresh veggies and cutting board will stay out.
The lower open shelves hold recycling staging and kitchen towels.

 The cabinet pulls are from Home Depot - I swear I looked at all 657 choices on-line. I informed my choices by looking at and touching the in-store stock, but on-line had a wider spectrum of choices. I ended up special order, but it was still just a couple of days.

My sink is really deep - I bought a sink with an added inch of depth, and then the mounting under the countertop adds more than another inch (which then required some jiggering to fit the disposal in). A small dog could go swimming in there. I can store my dish soap and sponges inside the sink to keep the countertop clear. The big, arched, faucet is all the style, but I find it splashes more than my old one.

As things went back in the kitchen, I scrubbed all the cabinet doors and insides. I got rid of a few things, but mostly I re-arranged. Items seldom used went to the basement (which may be staging for eventual disposal) and I moved things around so the most used item became more accessible. I treated myself to a visit to the Container Store and got some back-of-cabinet door racks to increase the amount of area easily accessible. And the huge Instant Pot, which I use pretty often, lives out of sight!

Just for fun, I moved the countertop appliances around. The microwave is where the toaster oven was, the toaster oven sits where the coffee pot was, and the coffee pot is by the kitchen door where I used to keep fresh veggies. My huge stash of dog treats and dog accessories has been either put away or put into nice canisters. Right now, I'm motivated to keep the place bare. I stroke the countertops and touch the backsplash, finger the substantial drawer pulls, and love being in there. We'll see how it evolves as I start really inhabiting it, cooking and just living there.

Before

The other project was the office. There, I had a formica countertop that wrapped around, and I wanted to get rid of the part that was designed to be a desk. I never use it, (now that I have laptop and don't spend hours working on documents or photos) and it just took up space.

During

I bought a standard-sized countertop from Ikea, which was (frustratingly) ONE inch too small to fit the existing layout of the lower cabinets. I knew this when I bought it - the contractors said "oh, it's easy to just slide the cabinet base over a couple of inches". Thus, the dominoes start to fall:  baseboards, flooring, what else is affected? We managed to contain the effort, and I love the additional space and light from the fresh color on the walls.

After. Still clutter to clear from the countertop

This room has a high shelf that wraps around - to pull in and make whole the space over the basement stairs. I had a small collection of birds picked up on my travels over the years. This was a tendency adopted from my mother, who had a large collection of birds. After the construction was done, I integrated the two collections and put them up on that shelf.

Like the kitchen, I also emptied out the cabinets and thought through what I needed to keep or toss, and how to organize it to make it accessible. (I spent a couple of hours in front of the TV trying all the ballpoint pens that were in a big box.) I've got the paper and file folders all squared away, but I have a lot of electronic bits, cords, and gadgets still to deal with. Many of them are in two other closets (and even the basement) and I'll need a long day or two to consolidate and sort out.

I also had the living room ceiling painted - it had been damaged years ago by a leak - I got a new roof, eventually new drywall, but the paint waited until now. So to close, pictures of the disruption during the work.