After the Makeover

These are some current pictures of the kitchen!

Enjoy!

During the Makeover...

So, Dave (my now husband) moved in and we decided to get married, and instead of paying for a wedding, used the money to buy a kitchen. We downloaded the IKEA planner Link HERE, and traveled to IKEA to figure out what cabinets we liked. We were planning on gutting our kitchen and getting married over a two week break I had last October. IKEA had this great sale on kitchens so we got a great deal on three out of the four appliances. We did order a fridge too, but it wouldn't fit through the back gate so it had to go back. We ended up getting our fridge from Home Depot with free delivery.
We chose the Nexus Yellow/Brown, and decided all of our bottom cabinets would be pull out drawers (really great for small spaces). IKEA was easy to work with, however, you have to be willing to travel to IKEA more often than you think during the renovation. In two months, I was there at least 8-9 times. Every Saturday for sure. After we ordered the cabinets and appliances, we took out all our old cabinets and flooring. This was the most fun! We did it ourselves (with the help of a friend with a van) and it was all done by the end of one day. The tile is ceramic tile at Home Depot, and the floor and leveling of the walls were done by our handyman Ruben. He did a wonderful job. To accent the gray tiles, we decided on dark gray grout. When the floors were finished (took about 3-4 days total), and the walls were level, we primed and painted the walls. Then we got married.

The cabinets and appliances came in boxes (0ver 100) and the men from the company the IKEA hires put everything in/up in ONE day! It was fast and they were really efficient. They did have to come back because a few pieces were missing, but overall the install went well. There was a problem with the sink we had ordered from IKEA because it was very deep, and the drain in the wall wasn't low enough, so we went with a seamless sink/countertop from Corian, which I think turned out beautiful. I was nervous about white, but it stays so clean! Corian is really durable and easy to clean, and took almost no time to install.

We are thrilled with the result, and are glad we don't NEED to hit IKEA up anytime soon, but were happy with the price of the project, around $10,000.

Before the makeover!

I bought this 2 BR, 1 Bath Hyde Park vintage in march 2008. It's amazing. When I moved in, I was so excited to paint every wall, and this is the only room my now-husband didn't love. The cabinets were metal and all of the drawers were broken and sticky. Everything was old and cracked. The floor was even worse. Something had to be done.

Apartment Therapy Post

So, there have been lots of questions as to the step-by-step process of our new kitchen. I thought I would add more pictures and answer questions. Here is the link to the apartment therapy post from today.