Kitchen Conundrum: Hot New Year's Eve

Yes.

Kitchen Conundrum: More Floor

I got a lot more of the old ceramic floor tile taken up today:



The only tiles left are those under the stove and refrigerator. Moving those ought to be fun.

Here's some other stuff we've procured:

A super beautiful faucet


A salvaged cast iron sink, barely used, from Craig's List (only $25!)

Kitchen Conundrum: Cabinets & Layout

Yesterday, this happened:



Our cabinets arrived (and our contractor and his crew are starting Monday!). But how did we get to this point? I'll back up to earlier in the fall...

I already posted photos from some recent open houses in our neighborhood that gave us some ideas about where to add storage to our kitchen: in the narrow area by the doorway to the front of the house, and behind the back door. But, both of these spots would require shallower-than-standard-depth base cabinets. Is this possible without going the custom route?

The answer is yes. Most special-order cabinet lines can be made this way, and Ikea also carries shallow-depth bases. We heard really positive things about Ikea kitchen cabinets, so we started there.

The great thing about Ikea is its transparency. You can use the online room planning tool from your home computer (for examples see the images below) to place the products where you want them. The program keeps track of exactly what you've selected and how much each layout would cost you. When you've got a layout you like, you can access your saved design at the store and a customer service rep will draw up your order. There's no mystery, no need to make an appointment, no cost-per-linear-foot prices that don't translate to the real world. You can window shop from home all you like.





So what's not to love? Like most Ikea products, these cabinets come flat packed. You, or someone you hire, has to assemble them before they are installed. I've put together a lot of Ikea furniture, so I knew I was capable. But the thought of all those boxes piled up in my living room made me tired. So, just to make an educated decision, we looked at other cabinet vendors, including the Despot, Lowes, and an online wholesaler (these require making an appointment and having someone else walk you through the layout process you may have already done at Ikea...a little slow and frustrating if you already know what you want, but them's the breaks of kitchen remodeling).

We discovered that mass market cabinets are mostly made by a handful of companies (despite being branded differently) that have a constantly rotating set of deals and incentives going to help move their products (free sink base with order! free finish upgrade with order! free sink with countertop order!). Ikea, on the other hand, relies on your labor to keep costs low.

Ultimately, because of a combination of manufacturer and store discounts, we placed an order for American Woodmark cabinets from Home Depot. The price was good, and the kitchen designer we worked with (as opposed to some of the others we encountered) actually listened to our ideas instead of telling us why they wouldn't work. Also, he did not try to upsell or rush us. Our order was only about $400 more than our Ikea design, and I thought $400 was a good trade for not having a mountain of boxes staring me down with only an allen wrench to scale it with.

What we ordered: American Woodmark cabinets with Reading doors (these are wood, Shaker-style), Maple Linen finish (a white painted finish, one of those freebie add-ons that ordinarily would have cost $600 or more) with brown-black knobs and drawer pulls (another freebie). Yes, the boxes of these cabinets are MDF. But so are Ikea cabinets, and so are the 20+-year-old cabinets we're in the process of deinstalling. I'm not too worried.

Edited to add: Originally, we were interested in using salvaged cabinets. Doing so can be more eco friendly and wallet friendly than new stuff. But, we quickly realized that because of our small space, exacting dimensions, and lack of expert carpentry skills, this probably wasn't the best choice for this project. I think if you have a more open or flexible plan, salvaged cabinets can be a great way to go (if you can wait patiently for the right set to come along).

Happy Christmas from The Ear

Our homespun Demolition Derby is on vacation for a few days. Until next time, Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night.

Kitchen Conundrum: From the Ground Up

We've been hacking away at the green ceramic tile on the floor: an hour here, an afternoon there. Slowly and steadily we are getting it pulled up.



I also decided to try to get up a bit of the plywood underlayment to take a peek underneath (there was a small square section next to the dining room, so I thought that would be an easy place to start.

I pulled out a variety of very long nails and screws (really wish they hadn't used screws. this would be so much easier!).



Then I worked around the perimeter with my two pry bars.



And low and behold.....




What the...? Wood floor! Hmm, now what? Our plan was to do a colorful checkboard pattern with vinyl composition tile. May have to rethink that...

And no, the comedy gold is not lost on me that dark green faux-marble-pattern vinyl stick-on tiles were covered with dark green faux-marble-pattern ceramic tiles. Brilliant work all 'round.

Kitchen Conundrum: It's Coming Down

We had a limited amount of time for actual demolition work today (we had to focus on kitchen-related things, like shifting furniture, clearing out spaces, and finding a way to throw out all the heavy, heavy tile we've been chipping off our walls and floor). So, we decided to tackle something that would make a big impact: cabinet removal!

Here's where we started:


Removing the microwave was pretty easy. It was bolted to the upper cabinet in two places, and bracketed to the wall in the back. No biggie.


The cabinets themselves were another story. The electrical outlet powering the microwave is in a sorry state and had been attached to the upper cabinet itself rather than the wall. So, we had to cut out part of the cabinet backing around it with a utility knife.


We also discovered that the cabinets were bolted together, then veneered together (!), then glued as well as screwed to the wall. Our pry bars came in handy here, as did our puzzle-solving skills as we shifted ladders, appliances, tools, and human bodies around to accommodate our work. Here's one cabinet down and ready to go outside:


And at the end of 2.5 hours, we were left with this:


Hurrah!

Kitchen Conundrum: Au revoir!

While I've been rehashing our re-imagining and design process from the past few months, a lot of actual action has been happening in the kitchen. Here's a last look at our old kitchen situation. I made this little video sometime before Thanksgiving, 2011.

Kitchen Conundrum: The State We're In

As of today, halfway through December, 2011, the kitchen looks like this:







The wallpaper has been stripped (did this around Thanksgiving), the tile backsplash is gone (done over the past few days, new tools required!), shelves have come off the walls, and even the floor is slowly being chipped away. We're getting there!

Kitchen Conundrum: More Inspiration, Neighborhood Edition

Along with the Internet, open houses in our neighborhood have been another source of ideas for our future kitchen. Many houses near us have very similar floor plans to ours, and they have been reworked in a variety of ways. Here are two recently-for-sale kitchens within a couple of blocks of us:

This kitchen is very pretty. I love a lot about it: the two-tone cabinets, school house light, and wood countertops are great. It manages to have a light and airy feeling in a small footprint and an individuality that isn't common in a lot of the remodeled kitchens I've seen around here.



I'm not sure very many of these solutions are practical for us (we'll be leaving the doors on our cabinets and keeping our walls where they are; it's safer that way when you have avian flock, er, family members). However, notice what these folks did with their cabinets/countertop behind the door, where their microwave sits:

A narrow continuation of the counter to provide more space yet still let the door open! We've got a space just like that; it currently houses a kitchen cart, but this makes me think we could do an actual cabinet there.

Another nearby kitchen:

This one is not quite as lovely or well lit. However, it has another clever use of a difficult space that we can translate for our kitchen. See the shallow cabinets and countertop on the right wall, beyond the microwave and range? We've got a space just like that. It currently houses an antique pie safe, but I am thinking we could add lots of cabinetry, and a bit of work space, there as well.

Kitchen Conundrum: More Inspiration

In my last post, I included some aspirational images of white kitchens. Here are some more attainable examples, mostly pulled from Apartment Therapy, mostly created and lived in by real people.










(This last one is especially informative. It's the NYC apartment kitchen of Judith Jones, a senior editor at Knopf and Julia Child's editor for Mastering the Art of French Cooking.)

Kitchen Conundrum: Tyranny of the Big White

Ever since we bought our new, bright white refrigerator last spring, we've been thinking of how to rework our kitchen. Over and over again, the answer seems to be: white!

I've read that the vogue for big white kitchens may have been sparked by the 2003 movie Something's Gotta Give. Behold its starring kitchen:



I've also read that cabinet maker and kitchen designer Christopher Peacock is responsible for the white kitchen craze. Here he is in his "scullery kitchen." I never knew sculleries could look so good! This one is clearly for the upstairs crowd...wonder what the downstairs scullery is like?



But is a white kitchen a matter of fashion or lasting style? In June I visited the John F. Kennedy Historic Site in Brookline, MA. And what did I find there in the circa-1917 home? Rose Kennedy had a white kitchen!



I think white must go beyond style into function. White is easy to keep clean (because you can see the dirt); it goes with everything; it reflects light, making small spaces seem larger; and white appliances don't cost extra (unlike stainless steel). Even most of my modest apartment kitchens have been mostly white. It's kind of a default choice for a reason; kitchens are meant to work hard and last a long time, so it makes sense to choose something that looked as good in 1917 as it did in 2003 (and hopefully as it will in 2017).


(This is the kitchen from the tiny little 1920's bungalow we lived in in LA. Kind of a mess here, but it worked incredibly well despite non-fancy appliances and modest materials.)