Giving a Fresh Modern Update to an Outdated Kitchen

I am so excited to finally be revealing my Kitchen Renovation project that we completed this summer! This was such a fun project to be apart of, and it turned out so much better than I thought it would be! I shared all the “before” pictures and my kitchen inspiration board in this post, so please head over there to see how our kitchen has transformed to this beautiful modern white kitchen! I also shared some of the challenges we faced in the previous kitchen. Now I’m sharing how we overcame those challenges. I will do a separate post on our budgeting and how we completed this kitchen renovation in a cost-effective process. All kitchen resources are posted at the end of the post! Hope you stay with me; this is a long post! Or you can stroll down to the end.

“Before” Pictures:

Here’s some quick “before” pictures of our kitchen. Click the link to see additional before pictures! The kitchen was in pretty good space but it just need a little fresh modern update! The cabinets were custom made so we really wanted to keep them since they were in good shape. But they needed to be painted. The black countertops made the kitchen dark and sucked any natural light! The location of the microwave made it so I had no cabinet for bowls or plates (the side by cabinet is where I stored glasses and mugs).

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The Kitchen Island:

The kitchen island was the main reason why we wanted to renovate the kitchen. The original design of the kitchen island was outdated and not functional for a family of six. The original L-shape narrow island had a raised bar, which cut into the lower counter working space. It also hindered the visual view from the kitchen out to the family room and vice versus. It made the kitchen look visually smaller by blocking the entryway to the kitchen. We knew we needed to rebuild the kitchen island. Also, the black countertops from the original island made the kitchen look dark and gloomy and showed many water stains and marks. Something to consider if you want dark countertops!

Initially we were planning to just rebuild the island and call it good! As you can see the island had two pillars built right on the island that I was determine to get rid of because I thought they were a visual hinderance. We had an engineer and architect come in and give us a quote to removing the pillars because we found out that they were supporting pillars to the entire house. The cost to remove them was astounding and was just not economically possible. We were bummed, but I knew if we just redesigned and flatten out the island, the pillars would be visually appealing instead of a hinderance. Looking back I am so glad we kept the pillars and actually love how they square off the kitchen area from the family room area. I had our cabinet maker maximize every space in the island. There are storage cabinets under the bar area. We also moved our microwave from the kitchen perimeter to the island. I love my farmhouse apron sink and the classic faucets. We also put in a reverse osmosis water system, which might be my favorite feature. Best decision!

The Stove Range:

The stove and oven are located on the perimeter area of the kitchen. To keep our budget down, we decided to keep the original cabinetry and the design of the kitchen perimeter. To freshen up the cabinetry, we refinished the outdated, drabby creamy yellow color to a bright white paint color (resources listed below). I could do a whole post about refinishing old cabinets! I love the look and finish of how they came out! So beautiful. When we were doing the initial kitchen designs, I worked with my cabinet maker to design the kitchen to make room for another oven. In my last house, I had two ovens and used them quite often. But when it came down to it and to stay within our budget, I had to choose between more pantry space or a second oven. I knew that pantry space was more important to me and in the long run a better resale value. Some of the elements I love about our stove area are the pull-out spice cabinets, the top cabinets, our pot filler and the furniture-like range hood.

The Pantry Area:

In addition to the island being a major issue, storage came second. Meaning I had no cabinet to put my dishes or bowls in and the pantry cabinet was incredible too small. After having a large walk-in pantry in our Georgia house, this house had just a small cabinet for food storage and a closet that wasn’t maximizing it’s available storage space. We decided that the most cost-efficient plan of action was to rip out the closet and put built-in pantry cabinets that extend from the bottom to the top. Then do additional built-in cabinets on the other side of the wall with a small countertop. This space has been very beneficial to our family! I use the top cabinets as a secretary station that hides all the mail, envelopes and daily calendar. The drawer is actually a charging station for my children’s devices and the bottom cabinet has a number of plugs and shelves for laptops and iPads! The cabinets near the refrigerator are original to the kitchen except that we moved the microwave to the island so I could convert that space to normal cabinet space to hold all my dishes and plates. Its the simple things like that that make it life changing!

Mud Room:

Our mud room is small but so necessary to a home especially if you live somewhere with four seasons! This is attached it our kitchen. I wish it was much larger, but it still does the trick. There is also a closet on the opposite side that holds kitchen cleaning products, vacuum, broom and even has a space for winter coats. This mudroom used to be that creamy yellow white color but we painted it with Benjamin Moore’s Boothbay Gray.

Eat-In Kitchen:

Besides painting this room white (it used to be blue), we added the chandelier over the table along with the two pendant lights over the kitchen island. Lighting makes such a big impact in creating visual elements in a room! We also took down all the dark blue draperies to bring in the natural light from the sliding glass doors.

All images taken by Julia Dags Photography

Hope you enjoy my kitchen renovation reveal! Here is the resource and shopping list:

• Custom Cabinet Builder: First Class Woodworking
• Cabinet and trim Paint Color: Chantilly Lace
• Wall Paint Color: White Dove
• Backsplash: Bedrosian Cloe in White
• Countertop: Quartz Aurea Stone Paragon
• Stove Range: Viking
• Refrigerator: Subzero
• Microwave: Sharp built in