One Last Look: Kitchen

Before I start posting about our new little house in the city, I'm taking a last look at our old place. Today I want to show you the results of our kitchen renovation, which I don't think I ever shared on the blog(!).

The kitchen in our apartment was small, but big enough to cook meals of any size. I am super-proud of how the it turned out. It's no wonder the remodeled kitchen was an hard-working little space: I lived in the apartment for almost five years before I renovated, so I had lots of time to figure out the best design!

The savior of this budget renovation was IKEA, the lovely lady at the Red Hook store who helped us figure it out, and in particular, a corner base cabinet that just fit in our space, allowing us to make the most of every inch. We opted for the Ståt Applåd white doors and butcher block counters. We used oil on the counters, but even being vigilant about not getting water on the wood, we saw some water staining over time. If I ever do butcher block counters again (which I might, since it's such an affordable fix), I'll do what this blogger did to seal them. 

The new stove was a 20-inch gas range from Summit (since discontinued), which I ordered online through AJ Madison. The floor tiles are a dark grey 12-inch tile that looks sort of stone-like. We got them at Marino Tile in Brooklyn, which was recommended by our contractor. (If you're looking for tile, it's a basic-as-can be tile and stone distributor in Brooklyn with a huge inventory of product in stock, but be warned that much of it may not be to your tastes.)

I'm particularly proud of our upper cabinet design. It was like playing a game of Tetris to figure out which cabinets would fit the space. We had to cut a little bit off the vent to make the last cabinet fit. Opting for the taller 39-inch high cabinets really gave us a ton of storage space. I'd recommend this to anyone remodeling a small kitchen.

The backsplash was tiled in the same basic white subway tile and dark charcoal gray grout that we used in our bathroom remodel. The sink is the Bredskar single-bowl inset sink from IKEA. We opted for the smaller model of the Bredskar and I always wished we'd gone for the larger one. The faucet was one of the only things leftover from the old kitchen. The kitchen hardware is from Martha Stewart's line at Home Depot.

Here's a shot of the corner cabinet in action. A pot lid rack on the interior of the cabinet door, is another simple thing we did to maximize our storage. I also love the handy-dandy, over-the-door towel bar you can see in this shot.

Another space-saver was a wall-mounted rail (Rationell from IKEA), which we used to hang small pans and cooking utensils. Two magnetic hooks at the ends hold bits and bobs like the funnel seen above. The slim space leftover between the stove and the wall stored our step stool (key when you have cabinets that stretch to the ceiling) and a large cutting board.

Here's just a quick shot of what the kitchen looked like when I bought the place--yikes, right?

And here's a shot of the bandaid makeover I'd lived with for years. White paint really is a cure-all for ugly cabinets, but please, if you go this route, do the proper prep work! Our new apartment's kitchen cabinets were painted white by the landlord before we moved in. The painter clearly didn't prep (or possibly even prime) the cabinets before painting, and they're already starting to chip. My paint job on these faux-wood beauties, on the other hand, held up for five years.