How I Remodeled My Kitchen - The Fun Part!

Yesterday, I explained the beginning of our kitchen remodel. You can see that here.  It was a lot of work tearing every ugly thing out.  We wanted a clean slate so we just went for it.  By the way, this was the first time we had ever done a complete kitchen makeover (in our last house, we did many cosmetic changes to update it.  I'll show you how we did that one on a much smaller budget soon).  So, after the dust settled (seriously, there was a ton of dust), we were left with this -

I decided to paint the whole room at this point because it was way easier with nothing in it.  The ceiling and trim got a couple of coats of white and the walls were painted in Valspar Cincinnatian Hotel Hannaford.  I've used that color in a couple of other rooms now - and I love it.  It's going in the foyer next.  Anyway, after all of the painting was done, our custom cabinets went in.  I know what you're thinking - custom cabinets?  I know that sounds kinda fancy schmancy but they were actually cheaper than cabinets at the kitchen stores we checked out.  Uh huh.  Sometimes you just have to shop around.  You may be surprised (we were).  We went with maple cabinets and a cherry stain.  We also picked hardwood floors, appliances, and hardware.  It was beginning to look like a kitchen -

I want to share a little secret about this phase of the remodel.  When the cabinets were installed (professionally), I almost cried.  That night, before the appliances or floor were in, I dragged a chair from the family room in here, and just sat and stared.  I had never thought, nor could I have imagined, that I would have a kitchen like this.  There I was, sitting on a sub floor, looking at a very unfinished kitchen, and just speechless.  All of the hard work, planning, late night painting, and cereal-for-dinner nights, were paying off.  But there was still more work to be done.  And a long wait.  It took us a month to get the granite (we just happened to be at this stage when the granite store does a two week shut down.  Oops.).

Fast forward to what we have now.  Granite counters, tumbled travertine backsplash, appliances, chandelier, furniture, and artwork.  The pretty pictures-

And my favorite part - the before and after's -

What a huge difference!  There are a few more details that I would love to share about this remodel - so I think one more post is necessary.  I'll share some tips, things I learned, and a few more pictures.  But I sure enjoyed looking back at the whole process.  I had forgotten how much we put in to this project!

I've linked this post here -

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