When we bought our house- there were two doors right kitty corner to each other. One was padlocked, one was a regular lock.
The padlocked door opened into the kitchen.
The room was dark, grooved knotty pine walls, dull flooring, little natural light.
but I instantly loved the tall original cabinets that stretched to the ceiling and could envision a french cottage kitchen.
Worn, crusty linoleum covered the floor- in marbled brown with green trim details.
A stove, with an upper oven and around a strange jut out
corner, was a small fridge next to the hallway that led to the bedrooms.
There was a hole in the wall next to the stove where an old pipe used to run out and up through the attic and a weird couple of wires dangled from the middle of the wall.
There were red lucite hexagon knobs on the cupboards which were really charming.
The ceiling was unfinished... again...!
All the ceilings in this house were unfinished or missing as it seems the owners were replacing them.
In process, the crown moulding was removed, leaving the wall boards stopping near the ceiling and about an inch short of it.
Then there was this incredibly lovely fan.
I am not a 'fan' of fans in general but definitely am not liking them in the kitchen-
especially when they look like this!
Hanging from the pull string on the fan was a not so charming plastic beer bottle.
(Now...had it been a wine bottle, it might have been acceptable! :-) jk!)
But... I could see past all the yuck.
I saw the original painted cabinets and charming details including
a shelf above the sink that curved graciously and matched the sides of the cabinets.
I saw a large space, room for an island and plenty of cupboards for storing everything.
Tall ceilings and great old wood walls that would be gorgeous covered in a creamy paint.
(concept)
So the work began.
The linoleum floor became hardwood once again and is now finished in a rich java color.
The 70's tile counters were out and my husband put new granite countertops in their place-
Both windows were replaced, enlarged width wise as well as height wise and bumped out to make them into garden windows with extra deep sills for placing potted plants and what not on.
Right now, I have lavender and rosemary by the sink.
The knotty pine walls were coated in shabby paint and I made a wainscot for the bottom third out of door skims and trim.
The fridge moved, the hall was closed and a wine rack and set of cupboards went in it's place.
The stove moved to where the old hallway was and my husband built an arched hood out of plywood for me. I stuccoed it and then we put a 'mantle' shelf on it.
Four large drawers on one side of the sink were taken out and made into shelves with baskets.
I store garlic, onions, potatoes and squash in them.
They were trimmed in fluted trims and rosettes.
Four drawers on the other side of the sink were removed for a dishwasher to go in.
We put beaded board panels up on the ceilings- most everywhere in the house.
The first round of ceilings we held the panels up with our heads (OUCH!) while pounding the nails by hand...
then my dad brought up a nail gun when he came to visit ...
Wow!! What a difference that makes!! We haven't been without one since!
We discovered we gained another inch by pressing the ceiling up to secure it to the frame and added crown moulding to the room as well as the top of the cabinets.
The ooh so lovely fan was replaced with a beautiful chandelier found at a consignment store
and the second matching chandelier was put in recently!
We found the second chandelier at a different thrift store probably 2 years after finding the first. They are both the same vintage 1960's chandelier-one was missing some of the crystals, though.
I am loving the two chandeliers up together!
They light up the space beautifully and the dimmer is fantastic!
The kids love that we can make it look like the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland just by moving the switch.
An upper cabinet on each end of the original cupboards got a new look by removing their doors, exposing the shelving and adding arched detailing at the tops.
(before)
(after)
They work perfectly for displaying my red and white transfer ware.
I added in some flea market find silver- and pieces of the Gainsborough china collection.
The creamy color of the Gainsborough really works well with the red and the new shades of white paint in the kitchen.
Where the old hallway was that led to the bedrooms and another bathroom, there are cupboards and stove area.
The sign reads
'Set another place at the table'.
My Husband is Italian- so gotta have some Italy love in the house!
The old original banks of cupboards- tall, stately and simply detailed.
The ends have little curves, there is a built in shelf above the sink
The base cupboards are old original as well.
The drawers drive me crazy- no slides and no room to add them in
and
the counters are not standard depth to fit todays appliances.
I found a few stair balusters that we are going to cut in half to frame around the stove to help it to 'fit' better.
Such are old cupboards in a modern world.
~
Originally the hall was a laundry/what not area on the way to that oh so lovely bathroom
I showed in a previous post.
You can see it here if you missed it.
There were doors leading to the laundry area as well as the living room.
The doors were removed and the doorways became openings.
They built the box for the top, cut the arch, and then added the new faux side to hide the two sections.
(Ryan hard at work)
It came out beautifully!
It's not near finished yet...we have a few things that are on the list...
remove the light fixture above the sink, fix the old vent in front of the sink, etc.
The kitchen transformation has been coming and going for awhile-
every now and then I get another idea, or another thought
that should come into play and drive my husband crazy.
(seriously!)
Hey, nothing is ever really 'done' in a decorators house, right?
:)
linking to
Metamorphosis Monday @ BNOTP