Help me redo my kitchen

[mae0111]

Our house is what we call “80’s fabulous” lots of flowers and mauve and mirrors when we moved in. After focusing on a lot of bigger things - roof, heating system, a/c - it’s finally time to attack the awful kitchen. I’m so excited to pull out the cheap cabinets and rip out the white Formica counters... but I’m not settled on all of the finishes.

- what would you do for counters, cabinets?
- any sinks you have your eye on?
- I hate the floors. We have hardwood throughout, but it’s light oak. The house is open concept, so whatever we do in the kitchen, we need to do everywhere. I don’t think we can rip it all up - too $$$ - but maybe refinish? What color?
- the walls are pretty neutral now - linen white - but I’d paint another color. Just not too dark as the room doesn’t get a ton of light.

If you’ve done this - what did you love?? What did you regret?

Thank you!!

[rere]

I want to redo some of my kitchen so bad and we have done some updates. So here is my dream.
1. I put in the hardwood tile in my kitchen and I LOVE it. It is darker with a little texture and some light streaks. Easy, no water worries and it looks great.
2. I have oak, builder grade cabinets, I would love custom cabinets. Not white, but a rich wood color, to bring out the lighter streaks on my floors. Maybe walnut. With soft close doors. That will be our project hopefully in a couple of years.
3. Maybe a quartz counter.
4. My kitchen is butter yellow now and I love it, but I have separation from the living room. If together maybe a light slate type gray.
5. All new appliances. Not stainless, but the new finishes in like a charcoal.
6. I really, really want a farmhouse sink. I was farmhouse chic long before Fixer Upper came along. My great grandmother had a big beautiful, white farmhouse sink.

[covergirl82]

Personally, if I could redo my kitchen, I would avoid fads and try to stay neutral, only because I don't have money or time to redo it every 5 years. I'd stick to quartz or granite for counters and white cabinets. I might consider painting the bottom cabinets and/or island a gray or color to add some color. (Even though that's trendy right now, it could be painted over in the future.)

For a sink, I have to have two sections. While the size of a farmhouse sink is nice, it's not practical to me. I need separate sinks for washing and rinsing.

[sandandsea]

I would do darker wood cabinets with lighter tile floor, quartz countertop, and a neutral gray paint. I’d pick a backsplash tile I loved to give it some pop and character. I would also have a lot of drawers. Our kitchen has one column of drawers and it’s not enough.

Also search on Pinterest to find inspiration pictures.

[k3am]

I'd pick cabinets you like. I've determined you're either a white cabinet person or you're not. I am not. Our last kitchen was cherry cabinets and I loved them. I'm a big fan of wood in kitchens - not too light, not too dark.

For counters, I'd actually go quartz since there's no sealing or maintenance required. But we did have granite in our old house that I loved.

I would agree with avoiding fads, but I'm a big fan of avoiding neutral. Today's "timeless" and "neutral" choices are going to be tomorrows "blahs," so find something you like. Just watch a couple seasons of Flip or Flop - for a while the neutral was brown cabinets and brown/tan tile, then white and a ton of white subway tile, and now a bunch of gray.

We're in the middle of a bathroom renovation and our choices for cabinets and deco tile are definitely not neutral, but they're not current popular fads. We tied them in with more neutral choices, and I think (hope) it will come out lovely.

[mae0111]

Thoughts on having a different floor in the kitchen than in the rest of the room?

The kitchen and family room are one. When we moved in, the kitchen was awful tile and the family room was awful shag carpet, so I don’t know if the choice of flooring made it look bad, or the different flooring.

I love the wood tile (DH put it in his basement office), but this room is coooold. The heat was undersized for the space. We couldn’t do tile well without radiant heat. We were looking into adding more baseboard heaters, but with our design changes, we are actually pulling some out.

[k3am]

Things I loved in my old kitchen (that we designed vs the one we're stuck with now)

1. Semi-custom cabinets. Every inch of our kitchen was utilized, from lazy Susans in corners, to slots for vertical storage over the fridge. Our current smaller kitchen? They used all stock cabinets. There are a ton of filler pieces that have 4-9" of space that could have been utilized. There are cupboards that are impossible to get to and tons of wasted space. They also have decorative slots for wine bottle storage.. which is wasted space. I'd rather have that area be part of the pantry.

2. I love a large sink sink. I rarely ever hand wash dishes, so I don't need a separate side for washing/rinsing. We do have a washing up pan that gets used occasionally, mostly on holidays. Usually it's jused used for storage under the sink.

3. Built in drawer dividers for larger drawers. Helps keep everything organized.

4. Slide out shelves.

I'm also unfortunately stuck in your boat for floors. We have hardwoods running through the kitchen, dining room, family room, and living room. There should not be hardwoods in the kitchen, but unless we're willing to replace it all, we're stuck with it.

[k3am]

mae0111, I think you could do a different floor in the kitchen depending on your layout. I would pick something with contrast that is complementary to the kitchen.

[waverly]

I think it depends on your style and the way it matches the rest of your house. Our kitchen has cherry cabinets, with a cream corian countertop and gray glass back splash. It was already in when we bought the house except the back splash. The floor is Mexican tile.

Our kitchen in our previous rental had white cabinets, with black granite countertops with a bit of other colors in there discreetly, and gray/green light sage walls throughout. The floor was wood in a medium color, not super dark not super light.

We have different flooring in the kitchen, but we have a historic house so it is not open concept. Wood is warmer than tile. I liked them both in both our kitchens.

I don't think I am a big fan of super dark cabinets or maple cabinets. I love my garbage in a drawer. If I had to re-do my kitchen it would be bigger obviously, but I would also have a drawer pull out for my recycle as well. I get used to the sink, so I am not a big have to have 1 farmhouse or 2 stainless steel. I have a farmhouse now in the cream corian, and it does stain though. Although some people have issues with water spots and stuff like that in their stainless steel sinks.

[mommyatty]

I would not do black counters. We have a black counter in our downstairs bathroom and OMG the water spots.

[186momx]

I just got a new kitchen sink my requirement was it needed to be deep enough as I have some big ass pots. So many sinks are very shallow now. I literally was sticking my hand/wrist into every sink on display. Also I love my handsfree faucet. It is my favorite thing in the world.

I have painted white cabinets. Can't afford to tear down and replace so repainted them white a couple summers ago and I feel like I need to paint them again. They show everyone of DH's greasy fingerprints from work even after he washes his hands. I would love a medium wood finish cabinet doors.

[sdlaura]

When we moved in, our kitchen was really outdated - I despise tile countertops. We had it redone and put in white cabinets, white subway tile backsplash, gray granite, stainless steel range hood and huge stainless sink. I prefer classic and then add more modern touches that can be changed. We also made the island bigger.

One thing I highly recommend is lots of big drawers on the bottom half of the kitchen - so much better than cabinets.

I love the current look of like navy on the bottom of the kitchen cabinets and white on top. But I don’t know how well the look will age.

[mae0111]

Thank you for all the advice! I have a lot to think about. I was very set on white cabinets, but now I’m leaning more toward something darker, which is really surprising. DH and I have very different taste when it comes to this stuff, so I don’t think it will be easy. He likes light oak country style and I’m like 🤮so things should get interesting.

I’m so excited to get rid of my mirrored back splash. You read that correctly. MIRRORED BACK SPLASH.

[k3am]

mae0111, are you planning to do the project yourselves? Hire it out?

We work with a contractor that provides a designer at no cost. DH and I have very different styles, and she has been amazing at helping find a compromise on just about every single decision. On most things, we both have loved the choices. In a couple instances, neither of us got something we love, but we both are okay with it (the hallmark of true compromise?)

I've found that the choices are overwhelming, so having someone with laser focus to help us make decisions has been so worth it.

Even if you're leaning on doing it yourself, I might still get some bids from contractors who might (a) not be as expensive as you think or (b) can give you some good design ideas you might not have thought on your own.

[mae0111]

k3am - we are working with a contractor who has done a ton of work for us over the past several years. He’s been waiting and biding his time, knowing the kitchen was coming. He’s very good and very timely, which is good.

He isn’t a designer, but he has a good eye. He is recommending a few designers for us to work with - pay $500, they come and measure, chat with us, and then lay out 3-4 designs for us. Then we can either order cabinets and other materials through the designer’s shop, or go elsewhere, but we own the plans.

My neighbor recently did a huge addition and kitchen renovation, and loved her designer. Her contractor, however, was awful, and they ended up several months behind because he just wouldn’t show up for weeks at a time. I’m terrified about that happening with a kitchen, but I do trust this contractor, so hopefully it will be a smooth process.

[k3am]

If you have a contractor you know and like, I think that's half the battle. Would you consider working with your neighbor's designer? Not sure what the price point is for using one separately.

With the projects at our old house, I feel like there were days no one really showed up, but we wouldn't know it until the end of the day. At the new house, we have cameras.. there was a day that no one showed up by 8:30/9, and I texted asking if they were planning to work, and someone was there within an hour. We haven't had any significant issues with it since. It could be other factors, but it's nice to know that they know we are on top it.

We did have a couple days where they let us know in advance they would be starting later due to "needing to let something dry" or along those lines, but those happened to be days I was home sick and I was happy with the fact.