Kitchen Reno Part 1

When we moved into our house, it was my plan to renovate the kitchen as quickly as possible. It needed some help! Involving the floors, the lighting, the back splash, the counters, the sink, the faucet, the cabinetry hardware and the wall colour, it was a full scale renovation in my mind. Two years later, while there hasn't been any major demolition or complete overhaul, we've made a few changes that I'm really happy with. The lighting, wall colour, and flooring have all changed, but the highlight came a few days ago when our highly anticipated counters arrived along with a new sink and faucet.

We opted to go with something a bit different for the counters....concrete. Let me tell you, it is the most beautiful counter surface I've seen in ages. When it came to natural stone, there wasn't much that really excited us, and some of the man-made surfaces, while lovely, were just too far out of our budget. Concrete is expensive to make, but the materials are pretty affordable and you can adapt it anyway you like. Luckily, my super-handy step dad Saul volunteered to make them, and what a fantastic job he did. He'd never done them before and they were a great deal of work, so we were all happy and relieved when they arrived scratch-free and looking fabulous.

The beauty of concrete is that you can make it any colour you want (they have tints in every shade from the Benjamin Moore fan deck - is 500,000+ choices enough?), you can make it high gloss with lots of exposed aggregate, or create a low-luster, satin finish.  It's a greener choice, durable and can withstand hot, cold or whatever else you throw at it. It's amazing.

If anyone is interested in learning more about concrete counters, check out the Buddy Rhodes website  for a gallery and some inspiration (a great site for DIY concrete counters). In the meantime, here are a few snaps of the evolution of my kitchen.

The two snaps above are of the kitchen before we moved in. I took these when we were at the house to measure before our move-in date.

This was our kitchen a week ago before the new counters and sink/faucet combo arrived.

And these are our new babies! We're so excited and thrilled with how they turned out.

Now that the counters are in, the wheels are turning! I think I want to paint the cabinetry, at least the lower cabinets, maybe a green-grey like this:

House Beautiful

And definitely a change in cabinet hardware is in order. I never liked what was there, but given we need 32 pieces for all the drawers and cupboards, it always seemed like money I shouldn't spend. Now they have to go. They are way too shiny!

We also have a new back splash ready for installation. Pictures of that to follow. 

Of course if we paint the cabinets, the wall colour will have to change. And maybe the art. And on and on it goes....

Top image via Pinterest